City Council Wrap-Up- Austin

By Austin Briggs

One of the shortest city council meetings in recent memory saw citizens telling the board they felt cut out of the stadium proposal process.

Citizens who spoke to the board expressed frustration at what they perceived as a lack of transparency with subcommittee meetings on the plan to build a new football stadium near CSU.

“The meetings have been closed to the public,” said Doug Brobst. “Citizens of Fort Collins deserve to be heard; we feel that’s not happening.”

Anne Colwell said she wanted an “open and honest” process in regards to the stadium proposal. As a CSU alumnus she said she felt “embarrassed” at the behavior of CSU administration. Colwell said she felt the administration was trying to shut out public opinion on the proposal.

Deputy City Manager Diane Jones said the stadium board meetings are open to the public. She pointed out the next stadium proposal meeting is Mar. 29 and will be open to the public.

Councilman Gerry Horak said he had doubts as to whether the subcommittee on the stadium proposal was acting in an ethical manner.

“I doubt this passes a legal confidentiality test,” said Horak in regards to the meetings being shut off from the public.

City council also voted to accept the recommendation of the city’s Ethics Review Board that Planning and Zoning board member Gino Campana, a local developer, did not violate city conflict of interest rules by participating in zoning board meetings that could have affected land he planned on developing.

The review board said it was initially not clear if Campana could have benefited from his position on the Planning and Zoning board.

Councilman Ben Manvel said the Ethics Review Board spent over five and half hours in a meeting that looked at all aspects of the complaint against Campana. He said the details of the initial complaint justified taking a closer look at the allegations which is resulted in the five and half hour meeting.

“Appearances are important,” said Manvel. “It’s better to err on the side of caution when things look bad.”

Board members recommended that zoning board members receive additional training on what constitutes conflict of interest and to establish standards of impartiality.