GREELEY–A group of residents are gathering signatures to force a public vote on a more than $100 million debt financing package recently passed by the Greeley City Council.
While the money is intended to pay for infrastructure on a large development to be owned by the northern Colorado city of roughly 115,000 residents, opponents are calling foul over the use of Certificates of Participation (COPs), which have become an all-too-common way for Colorado governments to bypass voter consent over new debt as mandated by the state Constitution.
“The Catalyst Project” is Greeley’s proposed $1.1 billion, 300-acre entertainment district project. It includes a 12-slide water park, and an 8,600-seat hockey rink that will be home to the Colorado Eagles minor league hockey team, with an additional 1,500 seat rink for youth hockey. The project includes over 11,000 housing units, a transportation hub with plans to construct a bridge over highway U.S. 34, and a luxury hotel.
Bypassing voters
To jump start “pre-development” of the project, Greeley will issue COPs, a form of a lease-purchase agreement often used to finance construction of government buildings and other infrastructure.
Under the COPs model, the government leases the building from a third-party company that has issued private bonds to construct the facility and then holds the deed until the city pays it back over time.
Since Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment mandates voter approval for long-term debt, Colorado governments have developed a workaround by using year-long leases, and then “renewing” them annually until paid back, thus claiming the debt as a short-term obligation.
For example, a city government might renew the lease on a new courthouse built with COPs every year for 30 years before taking actual ownership of it.
In this case, Greeley officials claim the COPs would be paid back in just 15-18 months, when the construction bonds are issued.
Citizens push back
However, a strange bedfellow’s assortment of Greeley residents, including Republicans, Democrats and at least one Libertarian have launched a petition effort to put a measure revoking the ordinance authorizing the COPs on the ballot in November.
Brandon Wark, who runs the Free State Colorado website and You Tube channel, and who is running for city council as a Libertarian this fall says the citizens of Greeley are paying for a project they never wanted:
“Our underserved community of people living under the poverty line are going to be forced to be on the hook to pay for this fancy new project out in West Greeley that most of them will never go to,” Wark told Complete Colorado.
The Greeley City Council in May voted 5-2 to use COPs to get the project rolling, with the $115 million of COPs debt going to pay for architects, construction equipment, design, and other pre-development services. The plan includes 46 city-owned buildings being put up as collateral, including the city’s lone police station, three fire stations, the Ice Haus, the Family FunPlex, the Guadalupe Shelter, and City Center North, to name some of the more prominent pieces of real estate.
Martin Lind, CEO of Water Valley Company and developer of the project for the city, says Greeley’s use of COPs is appropriate.
“A COP is an SOP (standard operating procedure),” Lind told Complete Colorado. “The use of a COP was never even a question on whether it was a legit SOP on how you seed a project like this.”
Greeley Councilman Tommy Butler, a Democrat, and one of only two council members to vote no on the ordinance, says he remains opposed the council’s decision.
“We already have to make $12 million dollars a year in economic development payments for the first three years, there’s some talk about using COPs to level that out after we actually get the bonds for the project and pay off the COPs that we’re currently paying for,” Butler told Complete Colorado, “We’d be paying off a COP with bonds and potentially paying part of that bond back with some more COPs.”
Where others show concern, Lind remains confident as the developer, saying “this project pays for itself. This project is an economic engine that is well vetted.”
Not all Republicans on board
While all five “yes” votes came from Republican city council members, others in the party don’t agree with the council and Lind’s perspective. Christina Lara, a registered Republican, is among those circulating the petition to give voters final say over the ordinance.
“I think that it was a move without consent of the community, and it was a move on the part of the government to purchase entertainment, and I do not believe that providing entertainment is a proper role of government,” Lara told Complete Colorado.
Proponents have until August 6 to collect 4,586 valid signatures of registered Greeley voters to get the issue on the November ballot.
Butler says if the plan falls through, Greeley could be in big trouble.
“Ultimately, I think if we end up going this route of doing this, I hope it’s successful, but if it’s not it will ultimately really, really hurt our city.”
Complete Colorado will continue to follow developments should the petition drive be successful.
