Mountain View Council-Manager Charter Amendment

Mountain View has run under a strong mayor since it adopted its home rule charter in 1972. Today the charter directs the mayor to oversee the town's administrative functions, and it places the town's departments, except as the charter otherwise provides, "under the supervision and control of the Mayor." Denverite reported in May that Mountain View is one of four Colorado municipalities with a strong mayor-council structure.

Question 2B makes Mountain View a council-manager town. The proposed charter attached at the June 15 first reading also changes the starting election for the mayor's limit of three four-year terms from November 5, 2019, to November 7, 2023. The amended charter attached to the referring ordinance at its June 15 first reading strikes the sections that give the mayor administrative powers and adds a section declaring a "Council/Manager form of government." Voters still elect the mayor. The mayor presides over Town Council, votes only to break a tie, keeps the power to veto ordinances, and remains the head of town government "for all ceremonial and legal purposes."

The manager becomes the town's chief administrative officer and serves at the pleasure of Town Council, which appoints and removes the manager by majority vote. The manager reports directly to the council. The manager's duties include seeing that the town's laws and ordinances are carried out, hiring and firing department heads other than appointed officials, supervising every department, advising the council on the town's finances, and preparing an annual budget with a pay plan for town employees and a plan for capital expenses. The council approves that budget. The council cannot consider a current or former town elected official for manager until four years after that person leaves office.

The ballot sets no salary for the manager. The packet for the council's July 27 budget retreat lists the Town Manager position at $0, "Currently unbudgeted."

Mountain View voters turned down the same question in November 2024, 173 to 128, according to the town's summary of its January 12, 2026, council meeting. At that meeting the council voted unanimously to bring the question back. In two 5-to-1 votes, it also appointed the town's clerk-treasurer as town administrator and directed the town attorney to prepare proposed code amendments so that the administrator reports directly to the council and carries out the town's administrative duties "to the maximum extent permissible by the Charter."

The council referred Question 2B in Ordinance No. 2026-06-15-C, which passed second reading unanimously on July 6, according to draft minutes. Draft minutes show that on July 20 the council passed Resolution No. 2026-07-20 B urging a yes vote on both of the town's charter questions. The same ordinance refers Question 2C, which repeals the charter's article on boards and commissions. The June 15 charter keeps that article and renumbers it Article VII.