Brief by Central Staff
Water Politics – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Rep. Paul Weissmann of Louisville kept his campaign promise to introduce a bill for regular elections in water conservancy districts. But that’s about as far as it got.
His proposed legislation, HB-1195, would have put water conservancy districts on the same basis as most other special districts, like hospital and fire-protection. People would petition to be on the ballot. If there was only one candidate, no election would be held, and if there were no candidates, the remaining directors could name someone.
Currently, conservancy district directors are appointed by district judges, although it is possible to petition for a one-time election. That happened a couple of years ago in the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, when Jeff Olinger got elected to one of the Buena Vista area seats.
It has happened several times in the Upper Gunnison Water Conservancy District, and it’s going on again there as petitions circulate for an election to the seat now held by Steve Glazer of Crested Butte. He was elected to the post before, and there are fears that if there is no election, the judge will appoint someone else.
As for Weissmann’s bill, in early March it was “tabled indefinitely” on a party-line vote (Republicans against the bill, Democrats for) in the state House of Representatives. Several people testified in favor of it; the only committee comment was from Rep. Shawn Mitchell, a Broomfield Republican. He wondered whether people would bother to vote, since so few vote in most other special-district elections.