An initiative to impound the cars of illegal immigrants is the only measure that hasn’t hit a dead end while trying to get on the November 2009 ballot, though it must successfully detour through the court system before arriving on the ballot.
The Denver ballot initiatives to establish an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission and expand the arrest powers of Denver Sheriffs will not be on the upcoming ballot, the initiative sponsors said yesterday. But the sponsors added that they plan on getting their initiatives on one of the possible ballots being held next year.
Meanwhile, Daniel Hayes’ petition to have the Denver Police Department impound cars driven by people without a license — and require a $2,500 bond for them to get their car back — got the 4,000 signatures it needed to be placed on this November’s ballot. However, the proposed initiative must get through Monday’s protest hearing before being placed on the ballot.
Protest hearing
Monday’s protest committee hearing, which is similar to small claims court but for ballot initiatives, will challenge whether Hayes, his petitioners and petitioner committee validly collected the signatures. The petition protest charges that several of Hayes’ circulators listed false addresses, making the signatures they collected invalid.
For his part, Hayes says a circulator who provided an address for Denver West Inn really did reside there, but that the hotel doesn’t like tenants giving out their room number because of privacy concerns. He added that he is looking to replace the woman on the petitioners’ committee who listed an empty house as her address
“I think I can handle that,” he said. “I’m pretty optimistic about Denver.”
Extraterrestrial panel
Although the third time wasn’t the charm for getting Denverites to vote on his initiative, Jeff Peckman said his measure to create the Extraterrestrials Affairs Commission — which would create a seven-person panel to collect data and research that could prepare Denverites for potential alien encounters — will likely be on a ballot next year. His group has collected 6,000 signatures so far, but he said he wanted to have more time to raise public awareness about his measure.
“When I heard in early July that the illegal aliens’ (towing) initiative would be on the ballot, I didn’t want to be on the same ballot,” he said.
Peckman will get a chance to kick off his public awareness campaign while serving as the master of ceremonies during the Galactic Gathering: A Conference on Extraterrestrial Civilizations. The event is taking place at the Doubletree DTC later next month.
Not all ET aficionados are pulling for Peckman; the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society told Denver Daily News reporter Peter Marcus in April that Peckman is making a mockery of the topic.
“We tend to approach things with intelligence,” said Matthew Baxter, a paranormal investigator with the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. “They would like to get assistance from the government on something the government is covering up.”
Sheriff arrest powers
The Colorado Fraternal Order of Police (CFOP) — the Denver Sheriff’s Department’s union — must wait until the next February 2010 ballot before it can get its initiative on a ballot. The union was originally trying to collect 40,000 signatures in 90 days to get the initiative on the November 2009 ballot, but was informed that the proposed change to the city charter would have to be voted on during a special election.
CFOP president Frank Gale said his group is on track to collect the necessary signatures and get the initiative on the ballot.
“(The signature gathering is) more labor intensive than we originally thought because people don’t believe the sheriffs don’t already have this (arrest) power,” he said. “But it’s still going really well.”
Not everyone is hoping CFOP will come through. Several community leaders and the union for the Denver Police Department say increasing Denver sheriffs’ arrest powers is a bad idea.
“By doing what they’re doing, putting it on the ballot, they are essentially making themselves the same as every other sheriff’s department, and they’re not,” said Denver city councilman and safety committee chair Doug Linkhart last month. “It’s not the same kind of entity.
Gale blasted this argument, saying anyone who claims the sheriffs don’t have the training or experience to make arrests is “talking out of both sides of their mouth.” He said an arrest that a sheriff currently makes where they are stationed — city jails, courthouses, the Denver Health Medical Center — is no different from an arrest they would make in “the outside world.”
