Dear Editor,

The Colorado Municipal League is aware of at least 14 cities and towns with regular or special elections occurring over the months of April, May, and June.

Questions on whether or not to allow various medical marijuana facilities are up in Castle Rock, Grand Junction, Gunnison, Larkspur, and Poncha Springs.

Gunnison also has on the ballot a 5 percent medical marijuana product sales tax.

Georgetown has a publication by title only question on the ballot.

In Colorado Springs, voters will be asked to increase the number of at-large councilmembers elected, as well as altering some of the powers of the mayor in terms of attendance of certain council meetings. This is a result of a voter-approved initiative last fall to abolish the council-manager system and to substitute that system with a strong mayor system. Voters in Fort Collins will consider rank voting as well as altering the configuration of council districts. Voters in that city will also have before them an initiated ordinance dealing with alterations to a city library in a city park. In Grand Junction, franchises for XCEL and Grand Valley Rural Power are before the voters. The city’s DDA also has a $65 million downtown improvements debt question on the ballot. There will be spring candidate elections for mayor and/or council in Aspen (May), Castle Rock (April), Colorado Springs (April, with a May runoff if needed), Craig (April), Denver (May, with a June runoff if needed), Durango (April), Fort Collins (April), Georgetown (April), Glenwood Springs (April), Grand Junction (April), Gunnison (May), and Mountain Village (June). The state’s two largest cities, Denver and Colorado Springs, have a number of candidates running. In Colorado Springs, 8 people are running for mayor, and 22 others are running for various council seats. In Denver, there are ten candidates for mayor, and 31 people running for 11 council districts and two at-large seats. There are also elections for auditor, clerk, and recorder in Denver. Denver’s election is the costliest at over $1.2 million. Colorado Springs is next at nearly $500,000, followed by Fort Collins at $180,000. Other election costs include : Aspen ($25,000); Castle Rock ($30,000); Craig ($7,500); Durango ($15,000); Georgetown ($1,500); Glenwood Springs ($5,000); Grand Junction ($65,000); Gunnison ($8,500); Mountain Village ($9,000); Poncha Springs ($1,000). All except Aspen and Georgetown will be conducting their municipal elections by mail. The League wants to recognize several municipal leaders who are not running again who have been most active with CML and/or NLC over the years: Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera, Colorado Springs Vice Mayor Larry Small, Colorado Springs Councilmember Randy Purvis, Denver Mayor Bill Vidal, Denver Councilmember and current CML Board Member Paula Sandoval, Fort Collins Mayor Doug Hutchinson, Grand Junction Councilmember Bruce Hill, and Gunnison Councilmember Rick Miller. CML is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1923 and represents the interests of 265 cities and towns.