It's funny what the signatures of 1,200 irate citizens will do to a man's inner life. Back in May, 1999, Golden Mayor Jan Schenck felt that the City Charter was an inviolate document that needed to be watched over with the same seriousness as a daughter's virtue or one's golf shoes in the presence of a tom cat gone bad.

Mayor Schenck's probity led him even to deny a citizens' group an open discussion of an amendment to the Golden City Charter that would have required that subsidies to developers go to a vote of the people. Well, that spunky little citizens' group gathered more than twice the number of signatures needed to put the question to a vote of the people. Now, will Golden's sturdy mayor stand his ground?

Well, maybe not. "Maybe that pale young lad in the Marlyn Manson T-shirt can be talked round, and isn't that really a nice kitty cat. Gee, I bet I can amend the City Charter too, and people will like my nice Charter amendment better than that nasty other one."

We at GOLDENCO.ORG are happy to report that the Golden City Clerk found the signatures on the Citizens' Charter Amendment petition to be valid. We leave it to our readers to decide on the validity of Mayor Schenck's abrupt conversion to developer self-sufficiency.

 

Golden City Council Regular Meeting: 5/27/99 (Source: audio tape of meeting) "As far as this Charter amendment issue, I have real strong feelings about our Charter. It's worked very well for many years; that's not to say it couldn't change, but I think the--I call them the founding fathers--that helped to write that Charter--and some of those people are still alive, some of those people are still in our community--did an excellent job--a lot better than some cities. And personally, as many times as I've looked at things in the charter, like dates of elections and when you hold elections and changing things like that, I think the Charter serves us very well. I really have a problem in making a change. I even have a problem in worrying about discussing things like this issue, because this really is a Council issue on economic development. I would hope that at some point we would get to a point where we don't have to do anything and things will take care of themselves. But right now, without some of the development, we can't do a lot of the projects that we keep talking about. I wish people would understand that. The amount of money we're giving away over the long haul--and I do mean the long haul--I mean the total future of Golden past our time is minimal compared to what it can help our city do. Truthfully, I'm spending more money now in Golden because I shop at King Soopers. I have always shopped at King Soopers, and now I'm shopping in Golden at King Soopers. So there's a big difference. And I would hope to shop at a lumber yard when we have one. Enough said."

City of Golden MEMORANDUM TO: Fellow City Councilors FROM: Jan C. Schenck, Mayor DATE: 08/06/99 SUBJECT: Proposed Charter Amendment Ordinance  I have just read the proposed charter amendment submitted by the petitioners. The wording is substantially different than earlier versions that I have seen. I am very concerned that this proposed Charter Amendment strangles several important city priorities including: senior housing; affordable housing; open space and an economically healthy downtown. Because the proposed charter amendment petition was just submitted and determined to be valid and sufficient, council must act quickly to meet election deadlines [and place an alternative charter amendment on the ballot]. I am proposing that we pass the attached ordinance on first reading this Thursday, August 12 and final reading on August 26th. The alternative [Charter] amendment speaks for itself and makes it very clear that: 1. the City of Golden will be true to its word in agreements already made, thus preventing litigation and unnecessary expense to the citizens. 2. Submit significant incentives to a vote of the people at regular elections in accordance with the provisions of TABOR. 3. We could provide, if necessary, incentives for: Affordable housing Senior citizen housing Assisted living centers Downtown preservation Historic District viability Acquisition of significant open space Senior citizen sales tax rebates I look forward to a healthy debate at our meeting as we strive to do the right thing for our city.

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