New Mail Box

Good News! CVELG has an official mailing address now:

Colorado Voters for Ethical Local Government (or just CVELG)
PMB 102
9975 Wadsworth Pkwy. #K2
Westminster, CO 80021-6805

Whooooo Hooooooooo !

By WW

Thanks WW

Girl, you made my day!! Yes, I have tried to be on top of things and yes sometimes I get a "tad" emotional, guess it runs in my family. :) Some of Westy CC has been "open" and upfront with me concerning BF issues and for that I am grateful. I'm "trying" to keep an open mind about all of this but personally I do not like being lied to or taken advantage of, not in my nature. And when I see things going "wrong" I tend to act on them with "facts" not just sitting around hoping someone else will do it. :) I will do all I can to get BF's county status taken away, maybe then, our local governments will start doing what they are elected to do.

By Cheryl

To Br Anonymous

The democratic process was not omitted, as you said in your
October 10 post to me. Representative democracy in the
form of elected officials acting in the best interests of
their constituency was at work when the mayor and other city
council members went to the state legislature looking for
support for Broomfield to become a county. Although acting
as citizens, it is obvious that the mayor, council and city
management were acting in what they -- based on their
studies, experience, and previous vote-- believed to be in
the best interests of Broomfield. A representative
democracy, which is the model under which we function in
this country, recognizes that we elect persons to office
whom we trust to learn the issues and use their best
judgment on our collective behalf. If they do not, we vote
them out of office.

Direct democracy, on the other hand, is when citizens act
individually, often looking out only for their own
centralized interests because, for example, they don''t like
where a jail is going. In a direct democracy type of
action, a group of citizens like yourselves can circulate
petitions and if enough are collected the issue will be put
to a vote. (Petitions are only required when state
legislators will not sponsor your effort because they do not
feel it is in the best interest of their constituents.)
Direct democracy is more dangerous and inefficient than a
representative democracy. If you don''t like what the
leaders of Broomfield did, you can vote them out of office
-- but no one can get rid of people like you who proselytize
fear and paranoia, "ethics" and "morals", and put an issue
based on emotional concerns and distrust of elected leaders
to a state-wide vote. Scary. Douglas Bruce comes to mind
. . .

You are upset because while the citizens of Broomfield voted
2-1 to approve the study, they did not get a second vote to
see if they meant what they said the first time. Doesn''t
that seem rather unnecessary? If the citizens of Broomfield
did not want to become a county, wouldn''t they have voted
against looking into it? Wouldn''t they have said, "We''re
not interested" like Aurora citizens did several years ago?
Conversely, if citizens vote by a 2/3 majority to look into
it, it doesn''t take a brain surgeon to deduce that to mean
they approve of the idea of becoming a county. You are
splitting hairs. You seem to have wanted Broomfield to come
back to its citizens after the feasibility study (which I am
assuming said it was in fact feasible) to ask, "Are you
sure?" Why would they need to do that with a previous yes
vote?

Don''t answer back. That was a rhetorical question. I''ve
heard you before. I just don''t think you''re being entirely
forthcoming in your real reasons for wanting to initiate a
repeal. Didn''t someone else post that he was ready to hear
your reasons? Me, too. I''m ready to hear just one good
reason that doesn''t have the word "jail" in it or contain
whining about being uninformed.






By Margaret

My 2 Cents

BrAnon and a lot of other Broomfield residents believed that the vote in November of 96 meant 'shall we do a feasability study'. To say yes to that is not the same as saying yes to 'shall we put it on the ballot for the state to vote on'.

It doesn't make sense to say they did not need to vote again after the feasability study (2nd FS). They SHOULD have voted again after the 2nd FS so that Broomfield citizens could voice their opinions BASED on that (or both) feasability studies. Otherwise, why do a feasability study at all? And I mean JUST the Broomfield citizens should have voted on it (after the FS) before the city council put time, energy, and money into promoting the issue for the state vote in Nov 98.

The state constitution says that these citizens have a right to make this decision - not that that decision should be delegated to their elected officials.


Most Broomfield citizens don't even know the feasability studies exist(either one of them), let alone have read them. I currently believe that is because it they (or an accurate summary of them) were not made widely available.

By WW