City to Ask Voters for Charter Change in November

The ballot question will ask that the charter be amended to allow publication of ordinances on the city's website, rather than in the local newspaper as the charter now requires. The charter can only be changed by a vote of the people.

The city would not normally participate in this year's election, because city council candidate elections are only held in odd-numbered years. But city officials decided they would need to seek a charter amendment as quickly as possible after the local newspaper made major changes to its operations and frequency of publication.

The Fort Morgan Times recently notified city staff that it was changing its name to the Morgan County Times and would print only one newspaper edition per week, on Thursdays, with digital editions on other days. But that one newsprint edition would be the only one in which classified ads and legal notices would appear, which is how the city publishes ordinances now.

The deadline for such ads and notices is now a week before the date of the printed paper, and that requirement will add at least an extra two weeks to the process of publishing an ordinance. Until now, the deadlines were much shorter and the papers more frequent so the city could meet the charter rules using the newspaper, but that will no longer be possible.

For example, if the city approves an ordinance on first reading on the first day of the month, it must publish notice of the second reading and public hearing at least 10 days before that hearing. Under the previous deadlines that notice would appear in the paper on the third or fourth day of the month, which would be at least 10 days before the next reading at the meeting on the 15^th of the month (city council meetings are held generally every two weeks on Tuesdays). The new structure would force the city to delay that second reading for an additional two weeks in order to get the ordinance in the paper with enough notice to satisfy the charter rules.

The charter also demands that the same ordinance be published in the newspaper again within five days of its final approval on second reading (city ordinances are read at two meetings - usually consecutive meetings - with one of those also having the public hearing). This requirement would be impossible to meet with the newspaper, as the legal notice of final approval could not appear in the paper until Thursday of the week following the Tuesday approval, or 10 days.

The simplest solution to this dilemma is to change the charter to allow the city to publish ordinances on its website. This could be done much more quickly - literally the next day - and at no cost to the city.

City officials encourage residents to approve this ballot measure, which will benefit efficiency and transparency of local government and eliminate unnecessary costs.

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