From the Daily Camera (Boulder): Boulder City Ballot Question No. 2B presents this question: Shall the City Council be authorized until Dec. 31, 2017 to meet in executive session exclusively for the purpose of obtaining and discussing legal advice, including negotiation strategy, with respect to Boulder’s electric utility, with no final action being taken in any executive session and all such executive sessions recorded in their entirety?

Whether you favor, oppose or are undecided about municipalization, voting yes on Ballot Question 2B will improve the quality of decisions by the council on this issue. Of the two authors of this guest opinion, one supports creating a municipal electric utility the other is opposed to it. But both support a yes vote on Ballot Question 2B.

In 2011, Boulder voters approved the city’s exploring the creation of a muni, and authorized the formation of such a muni under certain conditions. The voters also approved taxing themselves in order to pay for the consultants and lawyers that would be required to explore the feasibility of a municipal electric utility.

Twenty-eight cities in Colorado currently have their own electric utilities including Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs. Boulder has a constitutional and statutory right to buy the distribution system from Xcel and form its own utility. But there are legal obstacles that must be overcome, and these legal obstacles are the subject of three different lawsuits between Xcel and the city.

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