City of Creede

Creede's Choice on Printing New Ordinances in Full

Government structureOrdinance publication

Asks Creede voters whether the Board of Trustees may publish new or proposed ordinances by title only, with the full text kept for inspection at the city clerk's office.

City of Creede

Kim's Recommendation

Vote No on City of Creede Referendum 2A

Referendum 2A reaches the ordinances that carry a fine, penalty or forfeiture, the rules a Creede resident can be charged under. With a yes vote, the Board of Trustees may print only the title of such a rule, and its text waits at the City Clerk's office during normal business hours. Under the draft ordinance in the July 21 packet, the thirty days before such a rule takes effect begin when its title is printed, so that wait can pass without the rule's terms appearing in the newspaper.

The board wrote online access into Referendum 2B for bill payments and contract statements. For the text of new ordinances, Referendum 2A names the clerk's office during business hours and nothing more. I hold that residents should be able to read a law that binds them without leaving work to visit the clerk's office.

I recommend a no vote on City of Creede Referendum 2A.

Kim Monson

Host, The Kim Monson Show · President, Colorado Union of Taxpayers · Colorado Voter's Guide 2026

Certified ballot question

Shall the Board of Trustees of the City of Creede be permitted to publish the text of new or proposed ordinances by title only, rather than by publishing the ordinance in full, in meeting the requirements for publication of City Ordinances as set forth in C.R.S. § 31-16-105, so long as the full text of the ordinance is available for inspection and copying at the office of the City Clerk during normal business hours?

A yes vote means

Creede could meet the state's ordinance publication requirement by publishing ordinances by title only, with the full text available for inspection and copying at the city clerk's office during business hours.

A no vote means

Creede would keep publishing its ordinances in full.

Newspaper Publication Under State Law01

Creede, a town that carries the name City of Creede, publishes its laws under C.R.S. 31-16-105. The statute requires the town to publish every ordinance of a general or permanent nature, and every ordinance imposing a fine, penalty or forfeiture, after adoption in a newspaper published in the town or, if there is none, in one of general circulation there. Apart from special-election ordinances and emergency ordinances that meet the statute's conditions, such an ordinance takes effect no sooner than thirty days after that publication. The same statute lets any municipality decide at a regular or special election to meet the requirement by publishing ordinances by title only. Referendum 2A puts that decision to Creede's voters.

The Clerk's Office Condition02

The question attaches one condition to title-only publication of "new or proposed ordinances": the full text must be available for inspection and copying at the office of the City Clerk during normal business hours. A yes vote permits the Board of Trustees to publish those ordinances by title. A no vote leaves the statute's full-text newspaper requirement in place for the ordinances it covers.

The Trustees' Referral03

The board referred the question to the November 3 ballot by Resolution 2026-26, adopted 4 to 0 on August 4, 2026. The resolution states that the cost of publishing all of the city's ordinances in full "is significant" and that publishing by title only "would substantially reduce costs to the City."

The July 21 packet also carried an unadopted draft ordinance for passage after a yes vote. It would amend Section 2-2-120 of the Creede Municipal Code so that ordinances the statute covers "shall be published by title only, rather than by publishing them in full, in a newspaper," and it repeats the statute's thirty-day wait before they take effect, counted from that publication.

Creede's Companion Question on Bill Payments04

The board adopted Resolution 2026-27 the same night, also 4 to 0, referring Referendum 2B. That question covers a different publication: proceedings relating to payment of bills and statements of contracts, which the resolution ties to C.R.S. 31-20-202(1.5). A yes vote on 2B lets the city stop printing them in a newspaper of general circulation so long as the information is available online or by other electronic means and by physical inspection at the City Clerk's office.

Sources05

Official documents