Boulder Smart Energy Coalition has retained Rocky Mountain
Voter Outreach, a Denver-based lobbying organization, to campaign door to door against
the two municipalization measures on Boulder’s November ballot.
Rocky Mountain Voter Outreach (RMVO) is currently running
ads on Craigslist, looking for people to hire to go door to door in Boulder,
“speaking with voters about ballot questions 2B and 2C. We will be discussing
how they are a risky and costly path to advance Boulder’s energy future.”
“We did retain them,” says David Miller, a spokesman for Boulder Smart Energy Coalition. “We are trying to reach
voters doing direct mail, doing adds and, obviously, reaching out door to door to
the best of our ability.”
Ballot questions 2B and 2C were controversial before they
were approved by City Council for the ballot. Together, 2B and 2C authorize the
city to set up a municipal utility and create the money needed to defray the
costs associated with starting the project, such as legal fees and planning.
Boulder Smart Energy Coalition describes itself as a group
that supports the city’s Climate Action Plan but has concerns about the city
government municipalizing utilities. Among its members are David Miller and Dan
Cohen, who are partners with Deputy Mayor Ken Wilson in the renewable energy
consulting firm New Energy Development, LLC, which some say stands to benefit
financially if municipalization fails and the city’s relationship with Xcel
continues for another 20 years.
Proponents of municipalization reacted strongly to the news that their opponents on this issue had retained a lobbying firm.
“It’s not only pathetic, it’s also very damaging to our
local democracy,” said Steven Pomerance, a former city councilman and member of
Citizens for Boulder’s Clean Energy Future. “It means that no one who opposes
2B and 2C can be trusted — you’ll never know if they’re just being paid to say
what they’re saying or actually expressing their own opinion.”
Citizens for Boulder’s Clean Energy Future has its roots in
the Boulder Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency working group, founded in
2002. The group led last year’s efforts to pass city Ballot Issue 2B, which
approved a tax to replace the money Xcel formerly paid to the city under its
franchise agreement. The issue passed by an overwhelming majority.
