Woodland Park, Monument mayors re-elected; tax fails
Woodland Park voters on Tuesday told Mayor Steve Randolph that he will retain the post he almost didn’t seek again in protest over a sales tax-increase proposal that voters overwhelmingly opposed.
Randolph, 65, defeated Jon DeVaux 712 votes to 462 votes and will serve his second term in the town that will also keep its 3 percent sales tax. A proposed hike in the sales tax rate to 4 percent failed 1,695 votes to 423 votes. It would have funded a $14 million pool and recreation center, a project the mayor vehemently opposed.
Eric Smith, David Turley and Terry R. Harrison were voted into the three open seats on the Woodland Park City Council. Charles Olson and Scott Davis both lost their bids for one of the open council seats.
In mid-March, Randolph, a retired technology sales executive, withdrew his candidacy in protest of the controversial sales tax-increase proposal. When the project’s main proponent, restaurant owner Neil Levy, reversed his position on the proposal in the face of increasing public criticism, Randolph threw his name back in as a write-in candidate.
In Monument, Mayor Travis Easton also retained the seat to which he was appointed after Bryon Glenn quit in July after five years in office. Easton was a trustee before his appointment as mayor. Easton, 37, beat out Gail Drumm, 58, 493 to 202 in the mail-in ballot election.
Trustees Stan Gingrich, Jeffrey Kaiser and Rick Squires also retained their seats. Jeffrey Bornstein lost his bid to sit on the town council.
Monument voters approved a ballot measure giving the city permission to publish abbreviated legal notices of new ordinances in the local newspaper. Before Tuesday, the town was required to publish the entire ordinance, which can run dozens of costly pages long.
The election also brought a marked increase in voter turnout, said Scott Meszaros, town clerk. Nearly 23 percent of voters cast a ballot in this election; the town's average voter turnout in the past four elections was 3 percent.
