Five Durango residents, including two incumbents, have been approved to run in the April 1 City Council election.
Deputy City Clerk Ben Florine said Charles “Chris” Elias, Kip Koso, Shirley Gonzales, Jessika Buell and Olivier Bosmans became official City Council candidates on Tuesday after returning at least 25 signatures of registered electors in Durango to the City Clerk’s office by the 3 p.m. deadline.
One other prospective candidate, Tor Stetson-Lee, had signed a candidate affidavit and received his petition, but did not meet the deadline for signature gathering.
Buell, the current mayor of Durango, and Bosmans, a current councilor, have their first terms on City Council ending in April and are seeking reelection. Councilor Melissa Youssef’s second and final term ends in April after eight years on council. That makes for three council seats up for election.
City Clerk Faye Harmer said Stetson-Lee had expressed interest in running for local office, however, he was uncertain he would meet candidacy requirements because he had been traveling during the petition process.
Thursday morning, student council members from Florida Mesa Elementary School took a field trip to Durango City Hall where they and a Durango Chamber Commerce employee and La Plata County resident drew candidates’ names out of a hat to determine the order candidates’ names will appear on the election ballot.
Harmer said the drawing was conducted by students and a county resident ineligible to vote in Durango’s elections to ensure no favoritism or political bias influenced how candidates will be ordered on the ballot.
“There are candidates that believe that being first on the ballot or last on the ballot or whatever has an advantage or disadvantage,” she said. “So in order to make sure that there’s no impropriety or no, you know, favoritism or anything like that, we basically put all their names into a hat.”
The order of candidates will appear as follows:
- Gonzales
- Bosmans
- Koso
- Elias
- Buell
The city has also begun collecting pro and con statements for its sales tax ballot issue, which will ask residents whether to extend a 2005 half-cent sales tax for 30 years into 2056 to pay for the construction of a new joint city hall and police station at the historic former high school building at 201 East 12th St. and the former Big Picture High School building next door.
2005 sales tax revenues, if extended, would be split between funding for capital projects, including in large part the joint city hall and police station, and parks, open space and trails acquisition, improvements and maintenance.
Residents’ input will be condensed into 500 or fewer words by an outside bond council to summarize arguments for and against the sales tax, and the resulting summaries will appear in the Colorado Ballot Information Booklet (Blue Book), Harmer said.
Residents have until Feb. 14 to submit their comments at ballot.durango@durangoco.gov.
On Feb. 15, mail ballots will be sent to voters in the military stationed overseas, Harmer said. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters in Durango on March 10.
City Council candidates are required to document and report campaign finances, including monetary donations, in-kind donations and expenses on the campaign trail. Those reports must be filed by specific deadlines in the lead up to the election.
Harmer said candidates must report any contributions to their campaign valued $20 or higher, although she recommends reporting every single contribution because it’s easier to keep track of finances that way.
When reporting, candidates must list who they received contributions from in addition to the amount received. She said that includes in-kind contributions, such as a bookkeeper performing work for one’s campaign, even if there was no exchange of money.
And, Harmer said, candidates are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations – contributions must be from private individuals.
Campaign expenses include marketing and advertising efforts like social media ad campaigns, candidate websites and campaign signs.
Harmer said reporting contributions ensures candidates aren’t receiving donations from anyone who is trying to influence their votes once they’ve taken office.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A previous version of this story erred in saying ballots will be mailed to registered voters on March 17. Ballots will be mailed to voters on March 10, according to the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder.
