Thread by @shayshinecastle

I forgot a topic tonight! What local ballot issues will the council endorse?

And the state ones, too. Apparently. You can find the local ones here. boulderbeat.news/boulder-ballot…

Maybe they're just doing state...? Idk. Stay tuned.

OK they're going over the state ones. Lemme find those real quick.

First one: Repeal the Gallagher amendment

Crap I think they supported but it happened so fast!

I'll only tweet the ones they are going to take a position on. Amendment 76: Making it so that only citizens can participate in ANY election? (they can vote in some school board and municipal elections; Boulder considering that latter as well.)

Council opposes.

Proposition EE, raising taxes on nicotine products. Council supporting.

Proposition 113, committing Colorado's electors to vote for whomever wins the national vote in the presidential election. 5 members want to support, so they're going to discuss.

Wait, why is Weaver talking about nicotine when we were moved onto the National Popular Vote?

Oopsie.

"The Electoral College is a remnant of bargains made around the time of the American Revolution" between slave-holding/agrarian states and population centers, Weaver says. "There's no reason to use this archaic, outdated system. We want one person, one vote."

Seems to be reading a statement, which is interesting. He doesn't usually do that. Maybe he's just stiff tonight.

Brockett: This creates deep, deep inequities.

Weaver, Friend, Brockett, Nagle and Swetlik were the 5 in favor of this, apparently. Interesting.

LOLOL Friend says "who would like to support democracy?" which seems like not a good thing to say

Young on why she doesn't support. "We would lose our say as a state. We're not voting to change the Constitution. This is a workaround."

Found out where she gets her news: Boulder Weekly.

And obviously the Camera, which she references often.

Wallach disagreeing with Weaver's proposal that an official statement of support or opposition should be a super-majority (6 members) not just a majority (5 members)

He's voting against the National Popular Vote.

Weaver: I didn't want it to be a split vote.

Brockett agrees with Wallach and Friend about a simple majority being enough for an endorsement.

Question before council: Do we need a majority or super-majority to endorse ballot measures?
Joseph, Swetlik, Friend, Brockett, Wallach, Nagle, Weaver are OK with allowing 5 people to dictate that.

So council will endorse the National Popular Vote as well.

Next: Gray wolf reintroduction

Which is Proposition 114. Council supports.

Proposition 115, a ban on late-term abortions (after 22 weeks). Council opposes.

Proposition 116, reducing the state income tax rate. Oh, crap, I missed it. I'm sorry!

Proposition 117, which is related to TABOR. Council going to discuss.

Council opposes this.

Last one, paid family and medical leave. Proposition 118. Council supports.

Now... local issues! 5 of these, but maybe council is only going to vote on the ones they unanimously referred to the ballot. Which would be NEWR and Arts Commission... ?

Again, see those here: boulderbeat.news/boulder-ballot…

Yates: "I find it a little bit odd that we're applying the (unanimity) rule on our own ballot measures" but not the state ones.

He will vote against the resolution as a whole for the state ballot measure endorsements.

Some discussion over that.

Yates: "I find it a little bit weird endorsing state ballot measures." We don't pick the president among ourselves. And we've already spoken to the local ballot issues. I'm not sure what a second resolution does.

Yates: "All we're doing is holding up our own personal ballots and saying this is how we voted. I don't think that's appropriate."

I don't really care what #Boulder city council thinks about any of these issues, tbh.

If you do, might I suggest you widen your circle of influencers?

Although, to be fair, they are kinda plugged into some of these state things so....

Tomato, tomatoe.

Weaver defending council taking positions on state issues. Part of my bully pulpit is to do that. The community wants us to speak for them, as elected officials.

Wallach: I see more value and point in weighing in on state issues than local ones. We already approved those things at the city level. "There's a certain redundancy."

But we're not endorsing things that we didn't approve unanimously, he says. I don't get it. "Is a special resolution to say we really mean it? I thought we meant it when we passed them."

The man does make me laugh sometimes.

I think we're still at 1 on the Wallach sigh-o-meter tonight. He must be in a good mood.

Carr: "It's traditional that council does" endorsement of local ballot initiatives. It does allow the city to say certain things, under election laws.

So... council will not be making any endorsement of local ballot initiatives. Reversing course on that one.

Maybe I'll do a reminder of how they voted on putting those on ballots.
2B NEWR: Unanimous
2C Xcel franchise/settlement: 7-2 (Joseph, Swetlik opposed)
2D UOT extension — I actually don't remember but not unanimous, I know that.

2E Direct election of mayor: 5-4 (Wallach, Young, Weaver, Nagle opposed)
2F Adding members to Arts Commission: Unanimous

Anyway, that's all for this one and the night. @threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!