Monument voters last week overwhelmingly approved the town’s new home rule charter, according to unofficial voting returns, despite a late opposition push backed by out-of-town money that came just ahead of the election.

A ballot question asking residents to approve the charter, drafted and proposed by an elected nine-member committee after residents last year voted to change the town’s form of government from statutory rule to home rule, was passing 67.6% to 32.4% just after 6 p.m. Friday, the latest unofficial results from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office show.

The charter details the structure and powers of the local government under home rule.

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“Obviously the voters saw through the attack campaign that was directed at us,” Steve King, chairman of the commission that drafted the proposed charter, said Friday. Voters last week also elected King to the Monument Board of Trustees. “Home rule is really good for Monument, and it has a lot of benefits for Monument.”

The push against adopting the charter came little more than two weeks before the Nov. 8 election and included large monetary contributions from out-of-town entities, as well as donations from two sitting trustees.

Campaign finance reports filed with the town show the No on 2A issue committee submitted registration forms on Oct. 20.

Kelly Elliott, Monument’s mayor pro tem, is listed as the committee’s registered agent. Financial reports show Elliott donated $100 to the No on 2A campaign on Oct. 21 and Trustee Jim Romanello donated $200 that same day.

A report on contributions and expenditures filed for the period of Oct. 14-30 shows the committee had $16,800 on hand Oct. 14 and had spent $8,941.59 as of Oct. 30 on consulting, creating a website and printing campaign materials like door hangers, signs and banners.

The largest contributions were made by two out-of-town entities. The committee received $11,000 on Oct. 25 from the Better Jobs Coalition, a Littleton-based independent expenditure committee that financially supports political candidates “who support job creation through economic development policies based on low taxes and limited government,” according to campaign finance filings available on the secretary of state’s website.

The Lane West Group, a real estate agency based out of Cañon City, donated $5,000 on Oct. 26 and an additional $5,000 on Nov. 1, campaign finance reports show.

The Freedom and Opportunity political committee, whose name appeared alongside the No on 2A committee in some of its campaign literature, also submitted registration paperwork Oct. 20. It had $664.11 on hand as of Oct. 30, and made no expenditures during the period of Oct. 14 to 30, the latest finance reports from Monument show.

The opposition came as a surprise to proponents, who didn’t raise campaign funds “because (the charter) was pretty widely accepted,” King said. “Every single thing they said was wrong with the charter is a lie.”

Text messages sent to Monument residents from the No on 2A campaign and obtained by The Gazette labeled King and his fellow Home Rule Charter Commissioner Sana Abbott as “left wing” candidates who “want to grow the size of government, duplicate services and raise fees and taxes by as much as 1,000%.” 

Last week Abbott also won her bid to join the Monument Board of Trustees, unofficial voting results show.

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During the Monument Board of Trustees’ regular meeting Nov. 7, residents criticized Elliott’s involvement with the opposition campaign, claiming she spread disinformation about the ballot issue. 

Elliott did not return several requests from The Gazette for comment. During the meeting Nov. 7, Elliott said her only involvement with the opposition campaign was to receive its financing information and submit it to the town.

“My role was to receive the financing information – not checks, not money. I did not talk to any of the people who contributed to the campaign. I did not talk to any builders or developers,” she said. “… I did not contribute to the flyers. I did not design the flyers. I did not put (out) texts or emails to say would should be on the flyers. I did not know what was going out on the flyers.”

The No on 2A’s campaign website also claims the charter would “steal” residents’ vote by “gerrymandering” the town “to give progressive candidates an advantage.”

King said Friday those claims were false. “That’s just a red herring. There’s no way that the districts can be gerrymandered. We run nonpartisan elections, so there can’t be any gerrymandering.”

Once election results are final, Monument would become a home rule municipality starting Jan. 1. It would be divided into two residential districts and largely split between the east and west sides of town, Abbott said.

The charter requires the Town Council to include one mayor and six council members. The mayor and two council members would be elected at-large, while two council members will be elected from each of the town’s residential districts.

The districts are not like state house or senate districts, where only residents within a certain district can elect their representatives. Under new home rule governance, Monument residents can still vote for any council candidate regardless of where they live in town, Abbott said.

“We just want both sides of Monument represented equally,” she said. 

Abbott and King said the charter was formed after months of work that included community input and does not raise taxes or establish fees. Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights requires lawmakers to first receive voter approval before implementing a new tax or increasing an existing tax rate, they said.

The charter also will not grow the local government, King said. Instead, home rule governance will benefit residents because the charter makes it more difficult for the town to seize property through eminent domain; allows the town to directly collect sales taxes and, after voter approval, to collect lodging taxes; and “made it easier to get rid of bad trustees.”

“Monument’s ready to be its own government, its own municipality,” Abbott said. “… We’re ready to stand up and own what we can.”