Black Hawk Mayor, Aldermen sworn into office

Lynn Volkens

05/01/2008 - Each year Black Hawk City Attorney Corey Hoffmann schools the City Aldermen on liability issues of public officials, and that’s how the City Council meeting on April 23^rd began. “These are guidelines for scope of authority,” Hoffmann told the Aldermen, instructing them that following the guidelines prevents their being individually sued.

Taking the Oath

  Judge Ron Miller administered the Oath of Office for Mayor David Spellman and Aldermen Tom Kerr, Greg Moates and Paul Bennett. All won their Council seats in the April 1 Municipal Election.

BHFD Award

  Fire Chief Bob Norris, with firefighters Sam Sitzman and Mark Schaller, were awarded Certificates of Appreciation for training the U.S. Army’s 911^th Engineers, in structure fires and rescue procedures. The 911^th Engineers serve the Capitol area in Washington D.C. Command Sergeant Major Lawrence Mione presented the awards.

BID Appointment

  Reginald Fullwood, Jr. was appointed to the Black Hawk Business Improvement District when the Council unanimously passed Council Bill 11 to fill a vacancy on that board.  BID Board members must be electors of the District. Mayor David Spellman opened a public hearing prior to the appointment. No one came forward to speak either for or against it.

Bus Service Agreement

  Council Bill 12, amending the agreement between the City and Black Hawk Transportation Authority (BHTA) for bus maintenance services, was also up for public hearing. There was no public input on CB 12 and the Council approved the ordinance unanimously. BHTA President Tom Isbester, presented the amendment, setting the sum of $146,520 as BHTA’s annual payment for use of the City’s shop, tools, personnel and inventory. For its part, Black Hawk furnishes all parts, labor, materials, equipment and maintenance necessary to service the Gilpin County Connector buses. The amended contract term is January 1-December 31, 2009.

CDOT Contract

  The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will be repaving a portion of State Highway 119 (SH119), including a section from mile Post 7.14 to Mile Post 7.70 within the city’s limits. CDOT will be laying new sections of curb, gutter and sidewalk plus new guardrails and making drainage improvements. Isbester explained the City wants to construct two waterline crossings and one storm sewer crossing in that section and has contracted with CDOT to do the work as part of their project. With the Council’s unanimous approval, Black Hawk will pay $42,657 for the work. CDOT will fund the remaining $843,930 of the expected $886,587 total cost of the project. This ordinance, Council Bill 13, was also up for public hearing, but received no public input.

Trailers on Bobtail

  Fitzgerald’s Casino has located three construction office trailers on the west side of Bobtail Road for management of the casino’s expansion project. Because the trailers are temporary structures, a Special Use Permit was granted to allow their placement in September 2006. That permit expired at the end of April 2008. Haselden, the contractor doing the work, requested an extension of the permit, through August 2008, or when construction is completed (whichever comes first). The Council approved.

Gregory Street Lease

  Gilpin County’s Clerk and Recorder is the new occupant of 436 Gregory Street, one of the Black Hawk-owned historic houses used for office space in Mountain City. Clerk and Recorder Jessica Lovingier agreed to lease the structure for at least one year (at the standard rate of $1 per month) to use in conducting Election business. The Clerk has committed to help several Colorado counties in programming their ballots and is testing election software that is to be used throughout the state. The extra duties require the extra work space.  One other party (PharmaStrategies, LLC) had expressed interest in renting the structure to provide pharmacy benefit management expertise to large employers like Coors and Ameristar Casino. Larry Krug, Jr., offered to pay $50 per month plus utilities.

Noise Ordinance Variance

  The Golden Casino Group (Golden Gulch, Golden Gates, Mardi Gras) asked the Aldermen to reassess the City’s noise ordinance prohibiting outdoor amplifiers. The ordinance originated to prevent a problem with “music wars” between casinos. However, with the smoking ban now in effect, the casinos would like to use amplifiers in the outdoor smoking areas so that patrons can hear announcements. Golden Casino Group asked for a variance allowing outdoor speakers with City-stipulated volume levels. At the suggestion of Attorney Hoffmann, the Aldermen directed staff to address the situation via a revised ordinance applying to all of the City’s casinos.

Logo Use

  Hoffmann informed the Aldermen that casinos have asked to be allowed use of the City’s “Motherlode/Strike it Rich” logo for promotional purposes. The Aldermen agreed, as long as the casinos work with Black Hawk staff to have the use reviewed first.

Too Many Drunks

  That’s the reason City Clerk Jeanie Magno gave for having difficulty choosing a beer vendor for the City’s end-of-summer “Motherlode” rodeo. Last year, the Peak-to-Peak Rotary Club operated the beer booth. The booth was understaffed, said Magno, and they over-served. “The Police had to take care of two drunks,” she told the Aldermen. Two other groups had requested information, she said, but had not followed through. The group must be a non-profit organization, she said.

Thanks, Alderman Cottrell

  Medill Barnes, speaking for Black Hawk’s casinos, used a few minutes of public comment time to thank Alderman Dick Cottrell for “supporting us and the whole town.” Cottrell lost his run for City Council to Moates. Mayor Spellman echoed Barnes’ words, “Black Hawk is a better community because of Dick’s service.” Cottrell was on the Council for eight years.

Adding to the Agenda

  The Colorado Supreme Court reversed a decision involving the town of Marble, that had disallowed last minute additions to a meeting agenda, Hoffmann told the Council. He said the reversal was an important decision and victory for local governments. It gives a city council the ability to act on items that need to be acted on quickly, he said. Alderman Tom Kerr said he didn’t want to see “a bunch of items just coming on to the agenda,” and was assured by the Mayor that any item could be held over.

Dismissed

  In the Case of (Plaintiffs) Terrence Ballowe, John Boyer, Pattie Boyer, Ken Hamko, Tom Tyslan and Judith Disch-Jasper vs. (Defendants) the City of Black Hawk, Richard Lessner, Cory Hoffmann, Tom Kerr, David Spellman, Linda Armbright, Kathy Doles, Paul Bennett, Richard Cottrell and Diane Cales – Gilpin County District Court Judge Frederic Rodgers found the statutes used by the Plaintiffs to support their challenge of the City’s Ordinance 2008-07 (setting procedure to challenge a mail-in election ballot) not applicable. The case was dismissed. Judge Rodgers did not grant the City’s request of attorney’s fees. In order to do so, the Plaintiffs’ claim would need to have been brought or maintained in bad faith to annoy or harass. Rodgers ruled “It isn’t possible to determine the Plaintiff’s requisite knowledge on briefs without an evidentiary hearing.” Hoffmann said the decision, while not awarding attorney’s fees, did benefit the City in being on record should the Plaintiffs file further complaints.

Reception/Executive Session

  Following the public meeting, a reception honoring Dick Cottrell’s service to the City was held. Immediately after that, the Council entered Executive Session to discuss matters of open records and a property dispute with Attorney Hoffmann. They took no further action. Black City Council meets next on May 14th at 3:00 p.m.