Wheat Ridge City Council members met with a representative of the Colorado Municipal League and Sen. Jessie Danielson to discuss several initiatives under consideration at the Capitol, including some that officials feared might limit the city's self-governance.

Affordable housing, elder care and other issues came up during the March 6 study session, but concern about home rule issues dominated much of the discussion.

 Councilmember Leah Dozeman raised questions about House Bill 23-1065, which would give the state Independent Ethics Commission jurisdiction over complaints about local officials and employees. Colorado Municipal League Legislative Advocacy Manager Heather Stauffer said the league opposes the effort.

“We feel pretty confident that the ethics commission does not have jurisdiction over home rule municipalities, especially if they have rules around ethics that substantially address what the ethics commission addresses,” Stauffer said.

Wheat Ridge, a member of the league, is a home rule city.  Home rule cities and towns in Colorado are able to establish their own regulations regarding goods and services that are taxed locally. They also may claim more control over local matters of significance. The league, which represents hundreds of municipalities around Colorado, stated opposition to several bills, in their current forms, because it believes they infringe upon home rule localities.

Another  concern arose over Gov. Jared Polis’ push for more affordable housing through public-private partnerships. Stauffer said the league believes the efforts might impose zoning changes on municipalities as well as changes to land-use policies. 

“We all agree that affordable housing is important to our communities and it is a huge challenge that local governments are facing,” Stauffer said. “I think where we land on it is that we don't think that taking local governments out of the equation, that we’re going to be able to provide more affordable housing.”

The league also opposes Senate Bill 23-166, which would create a wildfire resiliency board tasked with creating building codes for urban areas near wildlife areas.

“Obviously, building codes are under the purview of local governments," Stauffer said. "We do think it’s appropriate for local governments to have some say in what those building codes are... We think creating a statewide code to address wildfire may not be appropriate for every community.”

Other efforts opposed by the league included an update to 2019’s Equal Pay For Equal Work law, and a proposed law, the Job Application Fairness Act.

Danielson, a Democrat who represents District 22, which covers Wheat Ridge, is supporting such efforts. Danielson said the job application bill would help prevent age discrimination. It aims to prohibit prospective employers from requiring age-related information. She said  identifiers, such as graduation dates, can be used to discriminate against applicants based on their age.

Danielson also touched on efforts to address equal pay and home health care.

Other bills that the League supported or opposed can be found in the March 6 study session’s agenda.