[BoulderCouncilHotline] Comments on State and Federal Legislative Agenda for 2021

[Young, Mary]

Hi Carl,

I have the following requests for Council consideration for the State and Federal Legislative Agenda:

  1.  Add a COVID Recovery section such as: Support for federal and state legislation/orders that promote COVID Economic Recovery that centers the needs of those most affected by governmental efforts to address the public health emergency created by the pandemic.
  2.  To policy #24 add: Support for the repeal of federal policies that were designed to diminish the rights of immigrants, People of Color and those without proper documentation.
  3.  While there is mention of race in some policy items, there is no overarching item to reflect the city’s Racial Equity efforts outlined in Resolution 1275. I would like to suggest some language:  Support for policies that address and begin to dismantle institutional and systemic racism that include but are not limited to health equity, housing and wealth access, environmental pollution. Policy #30 might be used as a foundation.
  4.  Finally, with respect to the ballot initiative that passed for election of Mayor, you suggested:
Authorize and provide the support and guidance necessary to allow Colorado counties to use ranked choice voting in their elections
In November 2020, Boulder voters approved a measure to amend the city’s charter to require ranked choice voting in elections of the mayor beginning in 2023. The city relies on Boulder County to administer its elections and has been informed by the County Clerk and Recorder that the county does not have cost-effective access to the necessary software nor the authority or guidance to administer such an election. While the city apparently has the authority to run such an election independently from the county, it would be far from ideal to do so. Consequently, the city supports changes to state policy that would assist Colorado counties in securing favorable rates for the necessary software for RCV, that would expressly allow but not require its use by counties, and that would provide all requirements, specifications and guidance necessary to ensure the uniform use of RCV in all county elections.

I agree that the city should advocate for remedies for allowing the city to carry out the will of the voters without undue financial and logistical burdens to the city, especially in these hard economic times.

However, I think that the legislative agenda item should be broader and allow for the possibility of other methods that improve diversity and proportional representation (e.g. approval voting which could be accomplished now without any new software or additional cost).

My suggestion is as follows:
Support for alternative voting methods that are more expressive, eliminate spoiler effects and promote positive campaigning, improve diversity and proportional representation, easy and inexpensive to implement, elects the candidate(s) preferred by the most voters and more accurately reports majority support.

Thank you.


We're all in this together...six feet apart.

In solidarity,

Mary Dolores Young
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

[cid:84fd6ffb-0f0b-4ba4-85e6-ae6c3a3f666c]

"All ethics ... rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts..." - Aldo Leopold

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