YOUR AD HERE »

Avon to revisit recall regulations in town with new ordinance

Following previous years' legal debates over recall procedures, the town is seeking to more clearly define regulations, procedures in its code

The Avon Town Council discussed the recall on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, debating whether or not to appeal the District Court's ruling. Now, a year later, the town seeks clarity in its own code.
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily archive

Following the town of Avon’s recall saga that spanned much of 2020 and 2021, the Town Council is taking another look at recall procedures at this week’s meeting. The town will look to better clarify the procedures that led to confusion, complications and ultimately a legal dispute during those two years.

Taking another look at how the town defines its recall process was identified as a top priority for the town earlier this year.

The new recall ordinance was first brought before council at its June 14 meeting, at which point it passed on second reading. From that meeting, the direction given was that council members would work with Town Attorney Karl Hanlon on specific language before its public hearing and second reading, which is set for Tuesday, July 26.



At the June meeting, Council members Tamra Underwood and Mayor Sarah Smith Hymes — both of whom were subject to last year’s recalls — expressed interest in working with Hanlon on the matter.

“I’ve obviously thought a lot about it,” Smith Hymes said at the June 14 meeting.

Support Local Journalism




Currently, the Avon Municipal Code simply establishes the right to recall an elected official or officer of the town, with procedures defined “in the manner provided for in Article XXI of the State Constitution.”

It further holds that the council may “provide by ordinance for further recall procedures,” which is what it aims to do with the new ordinance.

As currently drafted, the new ordinance establishes that the council and town “finds that a well defined procedure for the recall of Council members will benefit the public confidence and participation the constitutional rights of recall.”

The ordinance establishes a number of things including the power and authority of citizens to recall as well as the outline of procedures, petitions, elections, ballots and more.

“These recall procedures will reconcile any ambiguities between the state process and municipal process for recall,” reads a report in the July 28 Town Council packet.

Among these procedures, as drafted, it establishes a requirement for the petition representatives to sign an affidavit, “affirming that they each have not tampered with or completed any information on the petition for any signers other than signing their own name on the petition as a registered elector in the Town of Avon.”

However, one of the main things that the ordinance will seek to address is the threshold of signatures required to trigger recall, which was the crux of the argument that went before the district court in late 2020.

In that disagreement, the Avon Recall Committee and the town of Avon had different interpretations of the Colorado Constitution and Colorado Revised Statutes and its established threshold for signatures.

In the town’s complaint to the district court, it held that the committee’s interpretation violated voters’ First and 14th amendment rights in failing to count undervotes — or votes not cast. While the district judge ruled in favor of the Avon Recall Committee — thus holding that the undervotes did not count toward the calculation of signatures required — the new ordinance seeks to more explicitly define required signatures within the town for any future recalls.

The July 28 report gives two options for council to consider when it comes to the required number of signatures.

The first would include undervotes in the total calculation, following the town of Avon’s initial interpretation of the state statute.

“The District Court’s ruling is limited to the recall petition submitted in 2019 and is not binding on the Council’s adoption of recall procedures. This legal issue was not appealed; therefore, there is potential for legal challenge in the future on this definition of the required number of signatures,” reads the report on this option.

The second option would be to not include undervotes, thus upholding and putting in town code the district court’s interpretation of the matter. 

The town of Avon will host the public hearing and second reading of the new ordinance establishing recall procedures at its July 26 meeting. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7:45 p.m. The Town Council meeting will be hosted both in person at Avon Town Hall (101 Mikaela Way) or online via Zoom (register at Avon.org).


Support Local Journalism