Denver Gazette: Douglas County voters to decide on ballot measures in November
All Douglas County voters will consider a ballot measure to expand the Board of County Commissioners from three members to five.
Ballot Question 200 is backed by organizers of 3-to-5 DougCo, a citizen-led bipartisan campaign that gathered more than 20,000 signatures to place the question before voters.
The ballot measure faced public scrutiny after Douglas County commissioners placed additional language on the ballot title. The additional language contains the county’s estimate of the annual expense of adding two commissioners at between $760,000 and $1.3 million and notes that the expense would come from the general fund, which supports many county services including public safety and transportation.
These figures are an estimate based on a future board’s discretionary spending and may include additional staffing, equipment, infrastructure and administrative support that would not automatically be required if the measure passed.
According to county estimates, the direct cost of adding two commissioners would be about $481,708 annually and approval of the ballot measure would not automatically trigger expenditures beyond that amount.
The measure contains no tax increase and would not directly affect other county services.
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