Cripple Creek’s Proposed Home Rule Charter

Question 2A asks, in full: "Shall the proposed home rule charter for the City of Cripple Creek be adopted?" In November 2025, city voters approved forming a home rule charter commission. The commission submitted its proposed charter to the City Council on April 22, 2026, and on May 6 the council unanimously adopted Resolution 2026-15, sending the charter to the November 3 ballot.

If voters approve, the charter takes effect when it is filed and recorded with the Colorado Secretary of State. The charter gives the city "all the power of local self-government and home rule and all power possible for the City under the State Constitution" (Section 2-4). City ordinances consistent with it stay in force and inconsistent provisions are repealed; current employees keep their jobs, and the mayor and council members serve out their terms.

The charter calls its form a council-manager government. The council has four members, two elected from each of two wards, and a mayor elected at large, who votes as a member and presides. Full terms run four years, and council terms are staggered within each ward. The mayor and council members are limited to two successive four-year terms; a partial term resulting from appointment or election does not count toward that limit. Regular elections fall in November of odd-numbered years.

The city administrator's title becomes city manager. The council appoints the manager by a two-thirds vote of the entire council, and the manager serves at the council's pleasure, but removal also takes two-thirds of the entire council.

Initiative and referendum petitions each need signatures from at least 5% of the city's electors registered to vote on the date the city clerk approves that petition's form. Initiative signatures must be dated on or after form approval and no more than 90 days later. Section 7-2 excludes ordinances on budgets, capital programs, appropriations, tax levies, special elections, officers' and employees' pay and terms, and emergency ordinances from referendum. Section 14-1(b), however, preserves a timely referendum on an ordinance granting, renewing or amending a franchise even if it declares an emergency. An initiated ordinance adopted by the city's voters cannot be substantively amended or repealed by the council for six months after the election. During the next six months, substantive amendment or repeal requires two-thirds of the entire council. An initial recall petition must be signed by eligible registered electors numbering at least 25% of the votes cast for all candidates for that office at the election at which the officer was elected. For a council member, signers must be electors of that member's ward; for the mayor, they must be city electors. After one recall petition and election, another petition against that officer during the same term requires at least 50% of that vote total. A petition cannot be accepted if the office will be filled at a regular city election within 90 days after submission.

Section 12-2 lets the council adopt taxes by ordinance, subject to the state constitution's limits, including its voter-approval requirements. Section 12-1 lets the city borrow by ordinance "in any form and in any manner determined by the Council to be advantageous to the City," subject to the constitution's limits. The commission's synopsis lists "limitations on and disclosure concerning the incurring of debt" among the charter's protections; Article 12 sets no borrowing limits beyond the constitution's. Section 13-2 requires utility rates to cover, along with costs, a sum the council judges equivalent to what a franchise fee or utility occupation tax on the utility would raise. This requirement remains subject to the city's utility revenue-bond covenants. The charter also requires a yearly public hearing on the budget and a five-year capital program.