We couldn’t help but cover the political ramifications of the special election to fill the vacancy of the Loveland Ward 1 council seat created by Councilman Gutierrez’s ascension to Loveland Mayor. read the story.
Even though the unexpired Ward 1 term has only two-years left on it, the person who fills that position will likely find themselves a tie breaker in a council evenly divided on many issues with 4 to 4 votes. Serving in the capacity for just under two-years will also give the candidate the advantage of incumbency for the next time they are up for re-election.
Council meetings also promise to be more interesting when council members’s comments are not carefully planned in advance nor their votes negotiated in private. Loveland City Manager Don Williams will need to brush-up on the opens meeting laws by the State of Colorado which intended to prevent him from choreographing the public meeting in advance by negotiating issues and votes with council members off stage and out of public view.
Loveland Commercial and McWhinney are no doubt aware of the enormous impact the outcome of the Ward 1 special election will have on their private influences over city hall and the council. Expect to see some significant money flowing into that race and maybe more competitive candidates. Just as David Clark demonstrated in his run for mayor, candidates backed by the Chamber of Commerce may try to win the seat by ignoring the City of Loveland campaign finance laws now embedded in the city charter by not reporting all their expenditures. Be careful – a new sheriff is in town and the city might just decide to enforce the city’s campaign finance laws.
Any comments?
Walter, Steve and others – please try and limit the size of your postings so others can get quickly to next comments. We may revisit a new word limit if people continue posting extra long messages. Thanks
Ok guys, I was asked to research this and thought everyone should share in this info.
According to our city charter, the City Manager serves at the pleasure of the council. However, it requires a 2/3 majority (6 votes) of the council to remove the City Manager or appoint a qualified one. That means even with only 8 councilors you need 5.33 votes which is same as 6.
Now that means whoever wins Ward 1 will be the decision maker because that will be your 6th vote.
See ya!
I hope Loveland Commercial and McWhinney try and get involved in Ward 1 to influence the outcome.
Loveland Commercial trying to launder contributions to David Clark through multiple LLCs and a corporation (in violation of the the campaign finance laws) certainly cost him votes. Kudos to the Daily Reperter-Herald for reporting that information as well as this website.
Loveland residents are much smarter than you think.
On Don Williams, he is scared of smart women. It would be a mistake to try and hasten his retirement from the city as this could cause an HR issue where he can litigate against the city to add even more feathers to his comfortable (health insurance included) retirement booty.
Let him perform the job the way it is supposed to be done. In his defense, he has no practice at it so this will be his chance to show he can report to a council of diverse opinions where the outcome hasn’t been preordained. He may surprise everyone and do a good job or just run in fear by resigning.
He is clearly afraid of having to report to Cat McEwen or Joan Shaffer especially because Cat is an attorney who knows when people are trying to present a case using smoke and mirrors.
Mr. Administrator, is this short enough?
You are very bias. I don’t care who twisted Rich’s arm to run for council he is a great candidate. This other guy doesn’t even sound like a citizen and has no business running for council. Immigrants should be here at least one generation before they get into politics. That is how it was in my day. If you move here from California or Texas and now Berlin you should also wait at least 10 or 20 years before running to any political position.
Thank You for letting me comment here.
Looks like Marostica talked Donna MCrea to join the race. It is in the RH this morning. She is definately in the Marostica/McWhinney camp. Look out.