The new Trustees who were elected to the Board on April 2, 2024, were officially sworn in on Thursday, April 11. Mayor Billy Giblin was reelected as Mayor of Nederland with 311 votes; Luke Miller and Nichole Sterling were reelected to the Board with 290 and 333 votes respectively; and Kristopher Larsen and Aaron Tye were elected to the Board with 289 and 273 votes respectively.

After being sworn in, Mayor Giblin then installed all of the new Trustees to the Board. During public comment, Eric Coombs-Esmail, whose term on the Board had officially ended with the swearing in of the new Trustees, spoke eloquently about how he hopes the new Board will not be focused on projects, but on maintenance.

“I don’t envy your positions, I think more and more it has to be articulated that the role that you all are performing is not one of power but one of service,” Coombs-Esmail began.

“I was raised in Islam; in my sect we have seven pillars and the last pillar is jihad, and I grew up with that as a part of my life. What it means is ‘struggle.’ It doesn’t mean ‘war,’ and that struggle starts internally but also extends to your communities, and it’s a recognition that all of this is an ongoing struggle.

“The idea that we’re going to somehow get to the promised land is probably a fool’s errand when it comes to local government, but we can struggle to get there together.

“Democracy is not a goal, it’s not an end point; it’s a trajectory, it’s a direction, it’s something that we have to build, and it means rule by the people, it doesn’t mean rule for the people. So the people do have to step up and you are the ones who have stepped up to try to forge a democratic community in local government together.

“I’m slightly disappointed in the time that I’ve spent on the BOT, I’m disappointed in our community, I’m disappointed at the level of discourse and that the people who are willing to work, and work very hard, are often working to tear things down rather than to try and build something up.

“I really hope that this Board can approach the task for what it is; it is a maintenance job. We’re trying to keep the town running, keep the community going, and put the things in place that we need to have a future.

“It’s not about this or that project, building this or that dog park or pump track and it is certainly not about the level of discourse that is on Facebook, because it is low, it is poor, and it’s done in bad spirit and ridden with meanness and I think it is insufficient.

“Opinions: everybody’s got one…it’s about what people do. So I really urge you to take people’s opinions with a pinch of salt, especially when they’re uninformed or made with a bad spirit. Focus on what people actually do. I think that the best leaders are probably the best followers; follow the people who take action in the community and I’m sure that it’ll pay dividends.

“I really hope this doesn’t become a project-based Board; I hope it becomes a maintenance Board that will do what’s right by the Town. I don’t envy your next task, it’s going to be tough, and the agenda we put together last year may not come to fruition because of the changes that are happening in Town, but that’s okay, as long as we continue to struggle,” Coombs-Esmail said.

Giblin presented the next action item on the April 11 agenda to the new Board, which was to appoint the Mayor Pro Tem, who serves in the Mayoral role in the absence of the Mayor. Giblin recommended Sterling as Mayor Pro Tem due to her organizational and managing skills and for receiving the most votes from the electorate.

A motion was made to appoint Sterling as the Mayor Pro Tem, which was seconded. The BOT voted unanimously to appoint Sterling.

Trustees were tasked with appointing liaisons to the Town of Nederland’s various boards and commissions.

Trustee Tania Corvalan will continue as the liaison to the Nederland Downtown Development Authority and the Nederland Eco Pass Public Improvement District Advisory Committee. Giblin will serve on the Boulder County Transportation Subregional Forum and part-time on the Peak to Peak Housing and Human Services board, with Sterling filling in the other half of the time.

Sterling will also serve as liaison to the Denver Regional Council of Governments and to the Planning Commission. Miller will serve as liaison to the Colorado Communities for Climate Action Board and the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board. Tye will serve as liaison on the Youth Advisory Board and the Sustainability Advisory Board.

Former Mayor Pro Tem Tom Mahowald resigned as Trustee on April 5, 2024. As Mahowald’s vacancy was created by his resignation the automatic appointment process outlined in Ordinance 840 will not be enacted.

Ordinance 840 dictates that when a vacancy on the Board is created by a Trustee being elected to Mayor the next runner up candidate would be automatically appointed.

The Board was tasked with choosing whether to fill the vacancy by appointment or by special election. Town Administrator Miranda Fisher specified that the BOT could allow time for interested parties to apply for appointment, or could honor Ordinance 840 and directly appoint Jesse Seavers, who was the candidate with the next highest of votes with 246, if Seavers were interested.

Seavers expressed that he was open to filling the vacancy on the Board.

Some Trustees were in agreement to choose the most expedient option to fill the seat, which would be to appoint Seavers, though Larsen and Seavers both expressed that they would prefer to allow others who are interested to apply for the potential appointment.

The Board gave a nod of four approving to open up the appointment process to receiving applications from the public.

At the end of their April 11 meeting the BOT held an Executive Session which was closed to the public. The purpose of the session was to “discuss personnel matters related to the Town Administrator position,” and to “receive legal advice regarding Colorado law on Open Records Act, Open Meetings Law, Ethics Laws, Quasi-judicial Hearings, and legal matters pertaining to serving as a member of the Board of Trustees.”