Local News

South Jeffco resident Kendara Peoples didn’t win the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant last month in Grand Rapids, Mich. — but she also didn’t walk away empty-handed.

Taking note of the 24-year-old’s resilient personality, the national competition’s judges invoked an honor sparingly given, the Spirit Award.

By Emile Hallez and Doug Bell

Staff Writers

The Jeffco library board is playing fast and loose with the state’s Open Meetings Law, possibly committing several violations in two recent executive sessions.

Several provisions of the law, which restricts closed-door discussions by public bodies to specific topics named in advance, appear to have been breached:

• The board appeared to offer the library system’s executive director position to a candidate on the phone without ever taking a public vote to make the job offer.

The Jeffco Sheriff’s Office has for years been losing newly trained recruits and deputies to other metro-area police agencies, which employees attribute to a longstanding hiatus of the department’s step-and-grade pay system.

Though the Sheriff’s Office said it could not provide a specific number of employees who left for greener pastures, other local law enforcement agencies have been luring away deputies since 2007 with offers of better pay, Sheriff Ted Mink said.

Voters in Littleton will decide in November whether the city may tax marijuana sales and hotel stays.

The City Council voted June 11 to put the two sales-tax proposals on the Nov. 5 ballot. It is considering asking voters to set the rates at 3 percent, but it will study the issues further to determine the final proposed tax rates. 

While the marijuana sales tax was put on the ballot by a unanimous vote, the proposed lodging tax was approved 4-3.