Rio Blanco County Ballot Question 1A would end the county assessor's two-term limit

Rio Blanco County's assessor may now serve no more than two consecutive four-year terms. Voters set that limit in 2020, when the county commissioners put separate term-limit questions for individual county offices on the ballot. Voters restored the two-term limit for the assessor, the clerk and recorder, the treasurer and the commissioners.

That vote reversed, office by office, a 1999 vote that had removed term limits for every elected county official. Before the 2020 vote, the Herald Times reported that the new limits would not be retroactive.

The commissioners' 2020 question applied their limit to "terms of office beginning on or after January 1, 2021." The Colorado Constitution has county officers elected every four years at the same election as the legislature and seated the following January. If the assessor's limit counts from the same date, the first counted term began in January 2023, the term decided this November would be the second. The limit could not bar anyone before the 2030 election. This November's ballot prints no assessor candidate, only a write-in line.

The two-term default comes from Article XVIII, Section 11 of the Colorado Constitution, which bars an elected county official from serving "more than two consecutive terms in office". Terms count as consecutive "unless they are at least four years apart." The same section lets a county's voters "lengthen, shorten or eliminate" the limit.

The certified ballot asks: "Shall the Assessor for Rio Blanco County be allowed, if elected by the registered electors of Rio Blanco County, to serve an unlimited number of consecutive terms?"

A yes vote removes the cap on consecutive terms; the assessor would still stand for election every four years. A no vote keeps the two-term limit.

The question sets no tax, no spending and no end date. The change would stand until voters approved a later county question on the assessor's terms. In 2020 the Herald Times reported that state law did not allow citizens to petition a county-level question onto the ballot, leaving the choice to the commissioners.

Companion questions on the same ballot ask the same for the treasurer (1B), the clerk and recorder (1C) and the county commissioners (1D). Each is decided separately, and the result on 1A reaches only the assessor.

Under state law, a county assessor discovers, lists, classifies and values all taxable real and personal property in the county, except property the state Division of Property Taxation values, such as the property and plant of state-assessed companies. The assessor mails notices of value to property owners each year and on August 25 certifies total values to the state Department of Education and the taxing entities in the county, which use them to calculate their mill levies. Colorado law requires county real property appraisal staff to be licensed or certified appraisers; staff have two years from the date of hire to qualify. The requirement does not apply to the elected assessor.

The Division of Property Taxation's 2025 figures put Rio Blanco County's total assessed value at $722,138,230, with a county general levy of 9.05 mills. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the county's 2025 population at 6,683.

At a hearing in Rangely, several residents argued that limits discourage qualified candidates in a small county. "You’re not going to get the best and brightest people … knowing that in eight years they’re going to be out looking for another job," said Rangely resident Sam Tolley, who added that voters can remove officials at any election. Rangely business owner Rodger Polley disagreed, particularly for commissioner seats: "Term limits create regular opportunities for new leadership and ideas."

At the May 5 hearing in Meeker, longtime election judge and former county employee Christine Hicken argued that term limits can undermine continuity and expertise in offices with complex statutory duties, particularly elections. One commissioner said term limits "don’t serve the people" in Rio Blanco County and called the ballot question a chance to "go back to the public and just ask which way they would like to go."