This project is generously supported by:

1. This project is generously supported by:

2. Welcome! Thanks for Coming Today! Building a Better Colorado through Civic Engagement Greeley

3. Engage civic leaders in an interactive dialogue to: Assess the level of support for changing the way that Colorado’s constitution is amended Evaluate various options for such change and attempt to develop a consensus recommendation Assess the collective will for implementing such change Today’s Goals & Objectives

4. Principles of Civic Engagement Colorado’s Future Process Principles: • We are open to any and all solutions that are developed in the community forums as long as those forums operate in accordance with the Colorado’s Future model. • We operate without any hidden agenda.  Our sole purpose is to host transparent deliberative forums to develop good, sustainable, public policy for the people of Colorado. • We will attempt in good faith to present all sides of the issue. • We will attempt in good faith to ensure participants are representative of the communities in which they live.

5. As Individuals: Principles of Civic Engagement (2) • We will engage in honest and open dialogue. • We will each do our best to represent our own individual values and perspectives. • We will each aspire to listen more than we talk, and seek first to understand the views of our colleagues rather than trying to convince them why our own opinion is “right.” • We commit ourselves to working collaboratively, in a nonpartisan way. • We will work for solutions which serve the interests of the statewide community for this and future generations, not for solutions which serve our own immediate desires.

6. As a Group: Principles of Civic Engagement (3) • This is a community-based process. We will solicit input from civic leaders in order to define both the problem and the solution. • We recognize that the value in this community-based forum is that the issue, discussion and outcomes are all built from the ground up – no individual or group has control over the process. We will resist efforts by any special interest to take such control. • We will work for longer-term, sustainable solutions, rather than politically expedient solutions. • Through thoughtful discussion, we will seek to achieve consensus on all recommendations. • We will address statewide issues and seek statewide solutions which do not benefit one region of the state at the expense of another.

7. Welcome & Overview Principles of Engagement Introductions Keypad Polling Overview How We Got Here The Issue: Ballot Reform & the Constitution Review of Options Implementation Strategy Wrap-up Reception AGENDA

8. Self-Introductions • Your Name • Your Day Job (or former profession, if retired) • When did you (or your family before you) move to the community and from where?

9. Using your keypad is easy… but don’t push any buttons yet!

10. The Basics • Keypad will turn on when you push a button • and then the screen will go blank after a few seconds • If you are having trouble, first thing to do is let the screen go blank, and then try again to enter your answer • If you still think something is not working, raise your hand and someone will come by to help

11. Answer 2/B Let’s say you press 2/B on your keypad: Your answer will be displayed on the keypad. The check mark indicates the answer was received properly.

12. Changing Your Answer Polling Open CH#41 1 Your Answer: As long as Polling is Open, you can change your answer by pressing any other key. ✓ 1/A

13. How Long Have You Lived In Weld County? Less than 5 years 6-10 years 11-20 years More than 20 years All my life

14. Are You A …. Native to this area Native Coloradan Transplant from another state Transplant from another country

15. What is your age range? 21-35 (Young Whipper Snapper) 36-50 (Prime Time) 50-65 (AARP) 65 + (Seasoned)

16. What is your Political Affiliation? Republican Democratic Other party Unaffiliated

17. What is your Primary Organizational Affiliation? Agricultural Business Healthcare K-12/High Education Government Non-Profit Other

18. Competing funding priorities …And our ability to fix these policy challenges is becoming increasingly difficult. Why Are We Here? Colorado is facing some very difficult public policy challenges…. • Conflicting constitutional fiscal constraints • Erosion of representative democracy • Inequitable tax structure

19. And it’s becoming more difficult to effectively deal with these public policy challenges through the traditional mechanisms of the Legislature or the Citizen Initiative Process.

20. The public policy dialogue takes place in silos.

21. As a result the conversation is more narrow and targeted

22. Society becomes increasingly more mobile, people choose to live in communities of like-minded people; this results in the “red” communities getting “redder” and the “blue” communities getting “bluer”

23. Both political parties emphasize their differences, NOT seek common ground on which to build consensus solutions. The MAJORITY party’s focus is to take advantage of their time in power to implement their agenda The MINORITY party’s focus is to regain power by denying the majority any victories. The Political Arena is Inherently Conflicted…

24. Term Limits

25. Trust in State Government

26. States that Allow Initiatives & Referendums

27. Number of Initiatives to Date by State 1 (Shaded areas of each bar denotes number of measures approved.) Colorado 4 2 3 Source: Initiative & Referendum Institute

28. State Initiative Trends NOTE: These are NOT cumulative values.

29. Ballot Process 101 There are two ways to amend the Colorado Constitution: legislative referral and citizen initiative. Citizen Initiative Legislative Referral Constitutional Initiative Statutory Initiative • Requires 2/3rds approval of both Senate & House. • Then requires simple majority approval by citizens. • Both Constitutional and Statutory initiatives require a simple majority approval by citizens. • Constitutional initiatives which are adopted may only be changed by another vote of the people. • Statutory initiatives which are adopted may be changed by the state legislature.

30. Initiative language reviewed by Legislative Council Staff in public meeting Staff identifies potential conflicts and makes suggestions to improve clarity Ballot title is approved by Title Board Ensures adherence to Single Subject Rule 76,000 signatures from anywhere in the state (representing 5% of people who voted in last election for Secretary of State) Signatures are gathered Secretary of State certifies ballot eligibility Ensures that signatures are registered voters Campaign People vote on the proposed ballot measure Overview of Citizen Initiative Process

31. WHAT DO PROPONENTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM SAY? The initiative process is over-used and contributes to long, cluttered ballots. The result is the adoption of uninformed and short-sighted public policies with unintended consequences. Constitution should provide a general framework for governance and should not contain excessive detail. Out-of-state special interests take advantage of the fact that Colorado has one of the most easily-amended constitutions (low signature threshold, simple majority).

32. WHAT DO OPPONENTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM SAY? The citizen initiative gives citizens a way to circumvent the legislature which isn’t always responsive to the will of the people. Citizen initiatives are the voice of the people, and an important part of the state’s history. Making it more difficult to pursue citizen initiatives to amend the constitution only will impede Colorado’s grassroots citizens, and will not stop well-funded special interests or millionaires from using the ballot to achieve their own policy goals. Coloradans can already choose to simply use the existing ballot process to remove or amend those policies that are obsolete or dated Surveys demonstrate that Coloradans strongly support the citizen initiative process even if it results in long ballots.

33. So, if it is difficult to achieve the public policy solutions that we need through the traditional mechanisms of the legislature or the initiative process,then WHERE do we find the answer?

34. THE OPPORTUNITY: • The public WANTS to do the right thing. • The solutions which we seek are not partisan. • Civic leaders are mutually interested in improving our statewide community. QUESTION #1: Is it possible for community leaders to build consensus public policy recommendations that are motivated by a shared desire to build a better state rather than by partisan politics or organizational agendas?

35. Organized interest groups are inherently limited in their ability to deal with these public policy challenges. • Organizations view public policy matters through the lens of their own agenda and those agendas are inherently juxtaposed to one another. • Organizations only connect with those who join, and many voters don’t join.

36. Engage Civic Leaders in collaborative dialogue to build consensus solutions. • Convene 200 civic leaders within communities around the state. • Participants are SELECTED based on their demonstrated commitment to the community • Collectively, this group should generally represent the diversity within the broader community. • Use facilitated group discussion & interactive keypad polling to get consensus on both the nature of specific public policy challenges and appropriate solutions to those challenges. • Provides a forum for envisioning a great state, motivated by shared community values and a collective desire to build a better state, rather than by partisan politics and organizational agendas.

37. The issue before us today:BALLOT REFORM & CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW

38. Initiative language reviewed by Legislative Council Staff in public meeting Options concerning review of proposed initiative language. Ballot title is approved by Title Board Options concerning clarity of ballot language. Options concerning the number and geographic requirements of signatures. Signatures are gathered Secretary of State certifies ballot eligibility Options concerning information that’s provided about ballot measures. Campaign People vote on the proposed ballot measure Options concerning the number of votes required to pass a ballot measure. We’ll Consider Several Options at Various Stages of the Ballot Process

39. We’re going to give YOU the steering wheel and ask you to tell us what YOU think. As we drill down and ask for more detail about your opinions, for the sake of efficiency and out of respect for the majority opinion of the group, we will operate by consensus and only ask additional questions about those options which are most supported by the group. NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!

40. Yes No Uncertain Is there a problem with the current ballot process?

41. RETAIN the citizen initiative process but amend it. ELIMINATE the citizen initiative process. Do you think we should retain or eliminate the citizen initiative process in Colorado?

42. Options for Ballot Reform

43. Should we extend the initiative timeframe to allow time for the legislature to host public hearings on proposed initiatives so that the public and the initiative proponents could hear arguments both FOR and AGAINST the proposed initiatives? • Strongly Agree • Agree • Neutral • Disagree • Strongly Disagree

44. TABLE DISCUSSION Options Regarding Signature Gathering for Citizen Initiative

45. This is an appropriate number of signatures to collect. The number of signatures required should be INCREASED. The number of signatures required should be DECREASED. What do you think about the current initiative signature requirement of 76,000?

46. In order to encourage initiative proponents to pursue STATUTORY rather than CONSTITUTIONAL amendments, some have suggested that we require MORE signatures for constitutional initiatives than for statutory initiatives. Number of Signatures:Distinguishing Between Constitutional and Statutory Initiatives

47. If we INCREASE the current signature requirement for initiatives, which approach would you prefer? 1. Increase the number of signatures required for BOTH constitutional and statutory amendments by the same amount. 2. Increase the number of signatures, but require more signatures for constitutional amendments than for statutory amendments

48. If we DECREASE the current signature requirement for initiatives, which approach would you prefer? 1. Decrease the number of signatures required for BOTH constitutional and statutory amendments by the same amount. 2. Decrease the number of signatures but require more signatures for constitutional amendments than for statutory amendments.

49. Do you think we should require petitioners to collect signatures from various locations around the state? No, the present approach is fine whereby we allow petitioners the freedom to collect signatures from anywhere in the state. Yes, there should be a requirement that some signatures be collected from different parts of the state.

50. In order to achieve geographic distribution of signatures, do you think we should REQUIRE that some signatures be gathered from different locations, or should we LIMIT how many can come from one area, or both? REQUIRE that some signatures be gathered from different locations. LIMIT how many signatures can come from one area. Do BOTH; require that some signatures come from different areas AND limit how many can come from any one area.