Delinquent stormwater fees a political hot potato in clerk's race

The city’s quandary about how to collect overdue stormwater fees from thousands of property owners could turn into a political hot potato for El Paso County Treasurer Sandra Damron in her campaign for another county post.

The Colorado Springs City Council has yet to decide how to collect nearly $1.8 million in outstanding stormwater fees after the passage earlier this month of ballot Issue 300, which puts an end to the much-maligned Stormwater Enterprise.

But Damron may get stuck in the middle of the highly contentious debate at the same time she’s running for county clerk in the November 2010 election.

The city is considering going after delinquent property owners by attaching liens to their property. Under that scenario, the city would ask the Treasurer’s Office to place the overdue fees on a property owner’s 2010 property tax bill, a move that county Commissioner Wayne Williams, who is running against Damron for county clerk, vehemently opposes.

Damron said she’s waiting for the city to make a decision and then she’ll consult with her attorney. But she acknowledged that the political repercussions of placing delinquent stormwater fees on property tax bills have crossed her mind.

Well, you know, I would not be human if that weren’t something that I was thinking about,” Damron said Tuesday. “But the truth is, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, and that’s what I intend to do.”

Williams said it’s too soon to say if putting the overdue stormwater fees on property tax bills would be a campaign issue because no decision has been made.

But Williams reiterated his earlier position that collecting outstanding stormwater fees from a city-owned enterprise through a property tax bill is wrong because it’s supposed to operate like a business.

“If I were to go down to the Valley Hi golf club and my check were to bounce that I had bought a drink with or a meal with or a golf round with, putting that on my property tax bill isn’t appropriate,” he said.

City Councilman Darryl Glenn, who is spearheading an effort to create a regional stormwater authority with voter approval, shares a similar sentiment.

“Under no circumstance am I going to support liens,” he said. “This whole thing was marketed as a fee, not a tax.”

(To read more about the uncertainty surrounding the Stormwater Enterprise, visit the City Desk blog at http://citydesk.freedomblogging.com/2009/11/13/councilman-dump-stormwater-enterprise-right-now-or-else/721/)

Out of fairness to the majority of property owners who have paid their stormwater bills, Glenn said the city should collect the money, but it has other options besides liens.

“We run the risk, if we don’t collect this, of opening up the city to liability issues of equal protection by people saying, ‘Hey, I paid my stormwater fee. Now I want a refund since you aren’t going to enforce this,’” Glenn said.

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