By
Chris Lindsey
From debating
about Colorado State University’s new stadium to a listening to a bitter
citizen who lost an election, the Fort Collins City Council meeting was far
from arid.
The Colorado State
University stadium proposal was one topic addressed by citizen input. The proposal is to build a new stadium
on campus. One Fort Collins
resident, Deb James, commented on how there are petitions going for both sides;
determining whether people are for or against the new stadium.
Two citizens informed
the council that stadium Advisory Committee is open to the public, however the meetings
of the subcommittees are private.
Deputy
City Manager Diane Jones said the stadium’s advisory committee is open to the
public and has online surveys and suggestion boxes. There will be a meeting about the stadium on the 29th
of March to discuss the stadium and the subcommittee will attend. Council Member Gerry Horak asked Jones
how else to contact the subcommittees.
She informed him that the subcommittees do not communicate with the
advisory committee or the public except for meetings it is scheduled to. Horak said if the subcommittees remains
private and isn’t discussed then the Colorado State system might be
broken. He determined that on the
meeting of the 29th the private subcommittee meetings need to be
discussed and should be open to the public.
The
other main topic of the meeting had to do with a code of ethics violation. On January 13, 2012, David Bell filed a
complaint against Gino Campana.
Campana is a member of the Planning and Zoning Board and the complaint
was about a Land Use Code referring to buffer zones along rivers. Bell said Campana should have recused
himself so he wouldn’t seem biased because he is a land developer negotiating
the purchase of land along the Poudre River. A citizen came to address this issue, Eric Sutherland. Sutherland ran for Mayor in 2011
against Karen Weitkunat (who was present and the meeting) and lost; according
to the press, he is still bitter towards the council. When he started to speak he immediately threw a red herring,
a fallacy of changing the topic.
He brought up the issue of how ethical the board is, making accusations
of the City Manager Darin Atteberry’s breaking the law in August 2011. Mayor Weitkunat had to try very hard to
keep him on topic, but he didn’t listen very well. He ended by proclaiming he had his own ethics complaint of
the board. Sutherland’s speech and
claims appeared to not faze the board as he stormed out of the building.
Council
Member Ben Manvel said how the board had taken several meetings and hours in
determining the resolution’s outcome.
After reviewing rules and ethics they determined it was not a breach of
ethics, although Campana still should have recused himself because of his
position. Manvel expressed how he
felt it was unnecessary to put all the time into this case and that the board
should have some sort of training for the Planning and Zoning Board to avoid a
situation like this in the future.
Sources-
City of Fort Collins Board
Deb James
Diane Jones
Eric Sutherland
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