Many Weld County residents met last night to discuss the extension or elimination of the State mandated two year term limits on some Weld County officials.

Paul Branham, former Greeley Police Chief, said he is opposed to term limits.

“They’re elected by the people,” Branham said. “If they’re not doing a good job, they should be voted out.”

Branham added that he doesn’t think there’s political support for a removal of term limits so he proposed that the limits be raised to three terms instead of two.

Anyone who knows anything about politics know it doesn’t work that way. Elected officials don’t get voted out just because they aren’t doing a good job. If that was the case people like Marilyn Musgrave, Ted Kennedy and Ted Stevens would be looking for work. Politically, one of the great things about the state of Colorado are it’s term limits. A change of elected officials every four years is a great idea and doesn’t hurt the system at all. Many things can be improved in Weld County, but this is not one of them.

The committee examining term limit extensions will meet for the final time at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6 in the Weld County Attorney’s office to decide on a recommendation to present to the Board of Weld County Commissioners.

Greeley City Council Member is in hot water with her fellow members of the Weld Technical Advisory Committee for talking too much.

After a few meetings, it became apparent to some committee members that Shaddock was speaking with the media about many topics, something the group had tried to stop after appointing Stan Everitt the de facto chair and spokesman of the group. Shaddock also submitted a short opinion article to the Tribune about the committee’s work, which was published July 15.

While Shaddock and I are not on the same page politically, I have to give her some respect for her stance on this. Her opinion article published July 15th does little more than encourage public involvment. Does the Technical Advisory Committee not want the public to know about their scheduled forums? What can they possibly be discussing that is not fit for public consumption?

Tuesday night, the Greeley City Council decided to have no further discussion on the Regional Transit Authority.

While it was not an ‘official vote’, so there doesn’t appear to be a record of which members supported it. Mayor Tom Selders did say he was for it, and Pam Shaddock was against the RTA.

“My belief is that we’re out of time and the RTA is not ready,” said Councilwoman Pam Shaddock.

The Council was stuck on two major issues. The lack of an ‘opt-out’ option and the fear that Greeley dollars would be used to improve the roads around Centerra near I-25.

This first issue seems legitimate, but the second is not. Highway 34 from I-25 is THE main artery into Greeley. Travel between Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins has already become problematic. Without a significant investment at Centerra, the problem will continue to grow. If the US 34 Corridor is not kept open Greeley will become even more isolated from it’s Northern Colorado neighbors.

The bottom line is that now Loveland is the sole remaining large city involved with the RTA project. Will Loveland be enough to keep the dream alive? Will the Loveland voters approve a project where they stand alone? If the RTA does come into existence, will Loveland reap the rewards and become the Northern Colorado transportation hub?

It will be interesting to see.

Regional Transporation Authority supporters have created a new brand, FastForwardNorth.

This new brand and website is focused on informing potential voters on the proposed Regional Transportation Authority, they even have a survey designed to get public feedback on local transportation needs.