The following is the opinion of the author only.

On April 5, 2022, the people of Nederland chose three candidates from a slate of five to serve four year terms on their Board of Trustees (BOT). These candidates were installed in formal ceremony on April 12. Due to what some may call deficiencies in the Colorado Revised Statutes, this leaves one Trustee seat vacant. Due to unforeseen events, the seat of Mayor will also be vacated on June 1, 2022. Both of these seats will need to be filled.

The Colorado Statutes allow a Town to fill a vacant seat through a special election or an appointment by the BOT. To fill a single Trustee seat by appointment is common, and different Nederland BOTs have used different procedures (some more effective than others). Filling the seat of Mayor has special importance since the Mayor controls the agenda. This BOT has wisely indicated its preference to fill those seats through a special election, allowing the people to choose from a slate of candidates.

Recently, the two candidates who did not win seats on the BOT have written the BOT asking to be appointed to the vacant Trustee position. A well- known Nederland area gadfly has also demanded that the seat be filled by one of those candidates. At this point we must clearly state an important principle in U.S. election protocol: Elections provide conclusions. At the end of an election, the people have chosen. They have selected candidates and rejected candidates. They have selected ballot issues and rejected ballot issues. The people vote in order to deliver a message which must be respected.

An argument has been offered for selecting the missing Trustee from the prior slate of candidates without requiring an election or an appointment, based upon a combination of pedantic word-play and fanciful wishing. It claims that the seats to be filled may be anticipated. One seat was almost certain to be vacated (when a Trustee became Mayor), so we should assume that it will be vacated and include that anticipated vacancy in the election. This argument goes to great lengths to try to prove that Section 2-4 (titled Four-year term for Trustees) outlines an entire process for filling vacant seats throughout eight months of an election year by promoting failed candidates to Trustee in a specified order. The process would preserve all candidates who were not selected by the people in some sort of Trustee storage facility to be unwrapped as needed and placed into upcoming Trustee seats. Section 2-4, by the way, is one sentence long and explains Trustee term lengths.

We will surely lose Trustees for various reasons over the next five years. Why don’t we elect their replacements now and drop them into each seat as it is vacated? It is because the law requires that the seat be actually (and not probably) vacated before action to fill the seat may be taken. A strict reading of section 2-4 of Town Code requires a strict reading of the overarching 31-4- 301 through 303 of the Colorado Statutes which explain how to fill a “vacancy.” The term “anticipated vacancy” is nowhere to be found. The seat must be actually vacated before the process may begin to fill it. I am doubtful that this tortured new interpretation of Section 2-4 would survive judicial review. The law describes what is, and not what is wished for.

A beauty contest yields runners up. An election yields also-rans. It is inappropriate for the BOT to promote an also-ran to a Trustee after the people have spoken. Imagine if Joe Biden were to die in office. Should Congress install Donald Trump in his place since, after all, he is the runner up? Of course not. There is a procedure for succession to the U.S. Presidency. There is also a procedure for filling a seat on the BOT. If by appointment, the people submit applications for those seats, and from that slate, the BOT would choose. If an electoral also-ran really was a runner up, how long would that last? The proposed eight months? Until the next election? In perpetuity, meaning we may not need a next election? In other words, if every candidate (winners and losers) will eventually gain office, the election process seems pretty pointless.

If we’re filling the Mayor’s seat through a special election, we can fill the Trustee seat in that same election. There are probably even better procedures for filling such positions, but we would need to write those into law. I strongly encourage our Nederland citizens to run for these seats so that their neighbors may choose from a strong slate of diverse candidates.

It is always the best, first option, to have the people choose their government.