"I Voted" stickers rest on a ballot box at a polling place, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Several city officials gathered at the Cortez Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday for a ballot question information session, explaining the questions before Cortez voters in the April 7 election.
City Manager Drew Sanders shared a slideshow presentation detailing the four ballot questions, which is what voters will see on their ballots once the city mails them out on March 16.
The ballot questions mainly clarify outdated language in the City Charter, but the full text for some runs dozens of pages as they correct grammatical errors and adjust language to contemporary practices.
“This is a good charter. We just need to tune it up for modern usage,” Sanders said.
Question 1 is what Sanders called an “omnibus” question. The full 54 pages of changes correct grammar, spelling and pronouns and clarify processes the city already follows. Sanders called ballot question one the biggest and hardest to understand because of the number of corrections it makes to the charter.
Question 1 changes to the City Charter
1. Amends spelling, typographical and grammatical mistakes.Example: Words will be added, corrected and deleted to correct simple errors.
2.
Creates gender neutral references.Example: Much of the charter uses “he” to refer to government officials; the new language replaces that with “they.”
3. Clarifies rules around ordinance publication.Example: The new language affirms that the city does not have to publish the full text of an ordinance in the newspaper.
4. Clarifies tax levy process.Example: The new language doesn’t change this process; it just makes the language clearer to read and interpret.
5. Clarifies responsibilities and requirements for the city manager and the city attorney.Example: Currently, candidates for city attorney must be licensed with the state of Colorado; new language allows people outside the state to apply and get licensed before they start the job.
6. Deletes references to two nonexistent city departments.Example: Cortez has never had a “public health” or “public utilities” department, according to Sanders. These references would be deleted.
Question 2 deals with City Council member compensation and other regulations. Some language in the charter, Sanders said, came from previous unique situations and now needs alteration.
“A lot of what these charters are, if you read through them you recognize that these are really lessons learned from past shenanigans, whether it happened here or somewhere else,” Sanders said.
Question 3 also provides clearer guidelines for City Council meetings and member regulations.
Council member April Randle, who attended the information session, asked why both ballot questions two and three addressed electronic participation by council members. Sanders clarified that the issues of compensation for electronic participation and the validity of electronic participation needed to be distinguished.
Question 2 changes to the City Charter
1. Reinforces the time requirement for hiring or appointing a former City Council member to the city.Example: Alterations to the charter text reinforce the requirement that former City Council members cannot be appointed or hired to the city until one year after the end of their City Council service.
2. Allows changes to City Council member compensation and clarifies the process for doing so.City Council members, who’s compensation has not been adjusted since – according to Sanders’ estimation – the turn of the century can create an ordinance to change the compensation for future councils.
3. Clarifies that City Council members can receive compensation for remote attendance.Example: Members already receive this compensation for remote attendance, Sanders explained, and this measure simply enshrines it in the City Charter.
Question 3 changes to the City Charter
1. Clarifies the permissible location for City Council meetings, under emergency and non emergency circumstances.Example: While City Hall is the traditional meeting place for City Council, the council would be explicitly authorized to change the meeting location on an emergency basis.
2. Clarifies the validity of electronic participation by council members.Example: The City Council already interprets remote attendance to their meetings as permissible; this would explicitly affirm that.
Question 4 changes to the City Charter
1. Clarifies when the municipal election is held.Example: The charter lists election dates from the 1990s; this ballot question would eliminate the references to those dates.
2. Authorizes the city to exercise its home rule authority on City Council term limits.Example: The proposed language clarifies that City Council members need to take a minimum two-year gap between consecutive eight-year terms of service.
Question 4 eliminates antiquated wording and reinforces the term‑limit separation requirements for City Council members. City Council members can serve up to eight consecutive years before needing to take a break.
“The language is really wordy. It’s outdated. We’re just trying to clarify: look, it’s eight years folks,” Sanders said.
The city will hold two other ballot question information sessions March 19 and March 26 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Cortez Public Library at 202 N. Park St. Also on the ballot in the April 7 election are 11 City Council candidates competing for five seats.
Cortez residents can register to vote or update their registration information by visiting GoVoteColorado.gov or visiting the Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder’s Office at 140 W. Main St.
This article was updated March 2 to correct the times listed for the next two ballot question information sessions. They will take place at the Cortez Public Library from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on March 19 and March 26.
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