City, Water Board Cannot Tap Taxpayers in Ballot Fight

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City, water board cannot tap taxpayers in ballot fight Page 1 of 2 The Pueblo Chieftain Online 2ct Select file then print to print this article. Publish Date: June 2002 City, water board cannot tap taxpayers in ballot fight By PETER ROPER The Pueblo Chieftain If City Council and the Pueblo Board of Water Works end up in an election fight over amending the city charter, they won't be able to reach far into the wallets of city taxpayers as they battle over who has final say over the sale of surplus city water. Council has scheduled a public hearing and will give final consideration to a proposed amendment on July 8. That would give it the final authority over the water board's contracts for selling surplus water to non -city customers. The water board has declared that to be an effort to overturn the city's long tradition of having an independent water board. If council approves the proposed ballot question, it will touch off what promises to be an intense campaign over managing the city's water supply. State law prohibits both council and the board from using tax dollars on campaign literature, advertisements and the other traditional tools used in wooing voter support. The most that either government body could do is craft an "explanation" of the dispute - listing the pros and cons of the issue but without making a recommendation. Each could also adopt a resolution declaring their own position on the matter. "The law prohibits either council or the water board from spending public money to tell voters how to vote on any issue," said City Attorney Tom Jagger. "What they can do is develop a summary of the dispute that would include both sides of an issue and disseminate that to the public. But that summary cannot reach any conclusion or make any recommendation." William Mattoon, attorney for the water board, agreed with that description of the legal restraints. "There is nothing prohibiting citizens or even board members from spending their own money on the campaign and that's typically what has occurred in the past," Mattoon said. "Committees form and they raise the money for any advertising that's done." The city has been down this road numerous times already. Council fought off a ballot proposal several years ago that was aimed at cutting city taxes and sharply restricting the city's ability to put tax questions on the ballot. A civic committee formed to oppose the initiative, claiming it would shrink the city's revenues and limit council's ability to fund local human service organizations. Council won that election. It didn't do as well in 1997 when it backed an unsuccessful effort to raise the city's sales tax by a quarter cent and later, in 1998, when it tried to persuade voters to let City Hall keep surplus tax revenues. Council lost those campaigns, but citizen committees never formed to support those campaigns. http: / /www. chieftain. cowl print /archive/2002/june /29 /ni4.htm 7/7/2002 • S' d 821809261L Ia'MSTW •3 Pio - eOfb =60 20 80 InL