Broomfield Taxpayer Matters

Thanks for attending Our "Make Your Voice Heard" Action Event: "Social Media, It's Not All Bad"

We had a great turn out for our latest "Make Your Voice Heard" even, we are happy that we are able to bring you these types of educational sessions.

We hope you enjoyed Sheryl Fernandez's presentation and information that she shared. If you would like electronic handouts of the materials, email us at broomfieldtaxpayermatters@gmail.com and we will be happy to share those with you.

Our next session in our Make Your Voice Heard Series will take place on Saturday, July 20, 2024 - "The Colorado Legislature and Town Halls". Please click here to RSVP.

Council to Propose an Increase in Their Term Limits.

On the aftermath of the City Council voting down the complex "repeal and replace" charter ballot measure, the City Council is planning to take another swing at MORE ballot measures.

The key ballot measure the council is considering would increase the number of terms from two 4-year terms to three 4-year terms.

Please email the city council at council@broomfieldcitycouncil.org, and plan to attend the July 9, 2024 City Council and make your voice heard not to push this ballot measure asking to increase their terms and power to an already overloaded November 2024 ballot.

Discussion on increasing Council Pay by 335% at June 19 Study Session

The Charter Review Committee discussed increasing council pay, but could not decide on an amount or a formula.

Ordinance 2165 passed in 2021 "requires the compensation for the Council and Mayor be reviewed by Council at least once in 2022, and then at least once every two years thereafter during even number years and this is the 2024 review." Council pay in 2017 was $800/month, Councilmember (CM) compensation was raised to $1200/month in 2021. The Mayor Pro-Tem's compensation was $900/month in 2017 and was increased to $1500/month, and the Mayor's compensation was $1100/month in 2017 and was raised to $1750 in 2021.

Remember the Council originally wanted to increase their pay to $1400/month for CMs, $1800/month for Mayor Pro-Tem, and $2000/month for the Mayor before you told them how selfish they were being with your money.

They discussed the compensation shown in the chart below and increasing it even further than that. They Mayor's compensation has already increased 11% due to the automatic pay raise, the Mayor Pro-Tem's compensation did not increase yet, Newly elected Councilmember Nguyen automatically received a 8% raise, even though he had never proven his competence as a Councilmember.

Well, now it seems as though they think that they deserve $62,697/year (half the cost of a commissioner) or $5224.75/month, a whopping 335% raise for CM at the $1200/month level.

• They all claim they work full-time on the council priorities, but do they? How do we know?
• Doesn't staff work full-time and just give them the bottom line?
• Does CM Nguyen deserve $62,000/year having never proven he can be a good CM?

They also claim that young people don't run because they can't afford to.

• Is that true?
• Have you seen young people write letters to city council or attend city council meetings?
• If young people want to be involved, then why aren't they? They have more energy at their age to do many things.

The people who have lived in Broomfield a long time that show up and are concerned about the direction this council has taken on items typically outside the purview of government which can be handled by individuals.

They said for the Charter amendments that they wanted to put them all on one ballot to save taxpayer's money by jamming it all into one ballot measure. But now they want to increase their pay by 335% which takes money from you.

2022-2024 Community Goals - Revisited

The taxpayer should be the focus of the Council. Their Community Goals should be around protecting your property rights and your safety. Let's take a quick look at the Community Goals.

1. Financial Sustainability and Resilience
2. Growing Greener
3. Mobility
4. Thriving, Diverse, Safe, and Welcoming Community
5. Organizational Health

Goal #1 is focused on Financial Sustainability for the City and County of Broomfield and was identified due to the 2023 Community Survey with 50% of the population saying this was important to them (pg. 60, Table 54, Question 23).

In that same survey, they asked the community "what doe you feel are the most important government services", here are the top community service priorities:

1. Police: 33%
2. Street maintenance and repair: 25%
3. Crime/Safety: 25%
4. Parks: 23%
5. Recreation/Community Centers: 16%
6. Fire: 15%
7. Water Management: 15%
8. Transportation: 11%
9. Library: 11%
10. Infrastructure: 11%

The Community Goals were set by the Council in 2022 and the survey respondents were asked which were the most important to them, they were not given a choice as to whether these were most important Community Goals. So upon reviewing these again based on what your Council is spending time on is important. Do the goals align with your most important government services?

It is important that our City and County Government be Fiscally responsible with your money, but should that be at your expense. Your council voted to retain the highest ever property tax revenue to meet their goal, but when members of the community spoke up to at least get some money returned, the Council ignore these community members.

We see Water and Infrastructure as important government services, for the community, and yet, they haven't discussed the water tanks in over 270 days in a community that is growing and at risk of low water pressure. The infrastructure is aging and needs replacement and yet they want to raise their pay and raise their time in office to not address your priorities. We don't think they are listening to you and your concerns, why should they vote future council members a raise?

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