Let’s say NYC Mayor Eric Adams moves to Boulder and wants to run for office. Under today’s laws, he could run for Mayor of Boulder or City Council in 2023, but not both. If he won a Council seat in 2023, he could then run for Mayor in 2025 and lose without needing to resign from Council, and Ballot Issue 2D would clarify language in the City Charter regarding Council members who might be interested in stepping up to the Mayor’s position.
Ballot Question 2D, at its simplest, would amend Sections 5 and 9 of the City Charter, as discussed below, to clarify issues around Boulder City Council members running in a separate race for Mayor of Boulder. This ballot issue would win with a simple majority.
The measure might be seen as necessary because there are now separate elections in Boulder for City Council seats and the Mayor’s position, scheduled to begin in 2023. Under the voter-approved ballot measure from 2020 establishing a direct Mayoral election, candidates would already not be allowed to actively run campaigns for both races, but this year’s 2D would expressly say sitting Council members whose term is not ending in the year of the election could run for Mayor, and that they would stay on Council if they don’t win the Mayor’s race. 2D would also make a minor change to the starting date of an elected Council member’s term, from late November to early December.
But hopefully readers have time to look at the actual ballot measure language. I didn’t include all of it below, just a few paragraphs of what I thought was most relevant. New language is bold-faced, and language to be deleted is in parentheses and italicized. If you want to read the entire ballot measure text, visit this link: https://documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink
“A person may be a candidate for only one office at any election. A council member whose term is not ending the November of the election may run for mayor without resigning their council seat. Such council member shall not be required to resign as a council member unless they win the election to the office of mayor. If a council member whose term is not ending the November of the election wins election to the office of mayor, then the council candidate receiving the fifth highest number of votes in that same election shall complete that council member’s term.
If there shall be vacancies to be filled at a general municipal election, other than those
occurring due to the expiration of a regular term, the vacancy term shall be for the duration of the vacated term (two years), and additional council members or a mayor shall be elected until there shall be a council of eight council members and a mayor.The terms of all council members and the mayor shall begin at (10:00 a.m. on the third
Tuesday in November) 5:00 p.m. on the day of the first business meeting of the council in December following their respective elections.”
I’d call special attention to the last sentence in the bold-faced paragraph above, about the fifth-place finisher in a Council race getting a seat if a sitting Council member wins the Mayor’s race. In essence, having a separately elected Mayor keeps City Council at nine members, but it would be one Mayor and eight other members. That probably means in most elections, there would be four open Council seats since that’s half of eight, and probably means that voters would be directed to choose only up to four candidates – even though five could potentially win a seat if a sitting Council member wins the Mayor’s race.
Pro:
- 2D would create clarity in the City Charter regarding situations when sitting Council members are interested in running for Mayor.
Con:
- Requiring candidates to run for only Mayor or Council could reduce choice for voters, for example voters who might want to consider if a candidate is better off as a Council member or as Mayor.
- If a sitting Council member wins the Mayor’s race, 2D would make the fifth-place finisher in the Council race a Council member, despite voters probably not getting to make five candidate choices on their ballot.
Richard’s Take
I’ll vote yes on 2D, but not without one comment.
Current City Charter language includes something I’m not aware Boulder has actually done before, in making the person who finished one place out of winning a seat a Council member if a sitting Council member becomes Mayor. This was adopted in the 2020 direct Mayor’s election ballot measure, and 2D does not substantially change this provision, but Boulder won’t have its first Mayoral race until 2023.
Having the fifth-place finisher become a Council member might be better than leaving a Council seat vacant for a year or having a special election to fill the fifth seat, but it also means voters could only make four choices on their ballots while the fifth-place finisher could potentially win a seat. To me, that’s a minor negative point because voters won’t have an active voice in selecting all five Council members in certain races. A sitting Council member winning a Mayor’s race might not happen often, but it’s very clearly within the realm of possibility since it’s logical that a politically-active Council member might be interested in and qualified for the Mayor’s position.
Personally, I’d prefer giving voters five choices on four open seats to giving them four choices in a race that might put the fifth-place finisher in office.
