Voter approval requirementCharter amendment requiring review and comment on initiatives
Requires anyone proposing a Louisville initiative to first submit the text to the City Manager for review and comment at a public meeting. Staff may not change the text or add requirements.
City of Louisville
Kim's Recommendation
NO
Vote No on City of Louisville ballot question 2G
The first official to read a resident's proposed ordinance or charter amendment under 2G is the City Manager, who serves at the pleasure of the council. The manager or designated staff comment on each proposal at a public meeting within ten business days. The petition form reaches the City Clerk only after the text has gone to the manager, and the clerk's review of the form still follows.
The Colorado Constitution reserves the initiative to Louisville's registered electors, and state statutes give them a petition route to amend the charter. I oppose making the council's appointee a required first stop on both routes, where city staff comment in public on the substance of a proposal before any voter has signed it.
I recommend a no vote on City of Louisville ballot question 2G.
Kim Monson
Host, The Kim Monson Show · President, Colorado Union of Taxpayers · Colorado Voter's Guide 2026
Certified ballot question
Charter Amendment to Allow for Review and Comment
Shall the City of Louisville Home Rule Charter be amended to require proponents of an initiated ordinance or Charter amendment to first submit the text of the initiated measure to the City Manager for review and comment at a public meeting, subject to the limitation that City staff shall not have the authority to require any amendment, modification, or other alteration to the text of the proposed measure, or to impose additional procedural requirements on the proponent?
A yes vote means
Approves the required pre-submission review, with the stated limits that staff cannot require amendments or impose additional procedural requirements.
A no vote means
Rejects adding this mandatory review and comment step to the charter.
A Meeting Before the Petition01
Under Question 2G, the proponents of an initiated ordinance or charter amendment must submit its text to the City Manager for review and comment before they file their form of petition with the City Clerk. The requirement enters the charter as a new Section 7-10. Within ten business days, unless the proponents withdraw the draft, the City Manager, a designee or other staff the manager names give their comments to the proponents at a meeting open to the public. Where appropriate, the comments may suggest editorial changes to the draft's format or substance. City staff may not require any change to the text or impose further procedural requirements on the proponents.
The amendment also adds a proviso to Section 2-5(a): a petition to amend the charter still follows state statutes, and its proponents must first complete the Section 7-10 review.
Review Before the Clerk's Approval02
Ordinance No. 1933, Series 2026, refers the question. The council's July 21, 2026 agenda listed its second reading and public hearing. Under Section 8-1, a majority of the entire council appoints the City Manager, who serves at the council's pleasure.
City staff recommended the new step. In the council packet, staff wrote that petitioners would attend a session with the manager and staff before submitting to the clerk, and that they may revise their text in response but are not required to. Staff said the review would help the city understand the petitioners' position and reduce some of the edits petitions need before the clerk's final approval, and pointed to Denver's review-and-comment process.
The review does not replace the clerk's decision. The clerk still approves or rejects each initiative petition's form for circulation, and Section 7-1(b) already directs the clerk to reject the form when the proposed ordinance contains more than one subject. Circulation for signatures follows that approval.
Initiatives Only, Not Referendums03
The step covers initiated ordinances, which Section 7-1 grounds in the initiative power the State Constitution reserves to registered electors, and petitions to amend the charter under Section 2-5(a). Referendum petitions, which send an adopted ordinance to a vote, and recall petitions fall outside it. Section 7-10 carries no tax or spending and has no end date.
Question 2E, on the same ballot, amends Section 7-1(c) to raise the share of registered electors who must sign an initiative petition. The two questions amend different sections. If both pass, proponents of an initiated ordinance meet the review requirement first and the higher signature count after the clerk approves the form.
The supplied source is the July 21, 2026 Louisville City Council meeting packet, and it contains Ordinance No. 1933, Series 2026, the proposed charter amendment requiring a review and comment period for initiated ordinances and charter amendments.
