Sheriff considers move to undo term limits

By Dan MacArthur
Correspondent

A fledgling effort is expected to take wing this month to ask voters to exempt the sheriff from term limitations.

"Nothing official has been done yet," said Sheriff Jim Alderden, who could not seek re-election in 2006 unless the measure is approved.

Alderden said proponents have met informally once and will meet again soon. The group will decide by mid-month whether to proceed, he said.

"I think it's going to happen," said Paul Marrick. A Fort Collins security consultant and former Desert Springs, Calif., police officer, he expects to serve as the registered agent for the effort.

Marrick said the group wants to have the proposal formalized by Jan. 14 so it can be submitted to the county for review and supporters can begin collecting petition signatures.

Chief deputy clerk and recorder Jan Kuhnen said her office has five days following submission to approve the form of the proposal. Proponents then would have until July 15 to collect enough signatures to place it on the November ballot, although she said the state might move up that deadline this year.

Kuhnen said signatures of 5 percent of the county's nearly 202,000 registered voters--or some 10,100 valid signatures--would be required to get on the ballot.

The county commissioners instead could agree to refer the issue to voters, but Alderden considered that possibility unlikely. "In case you haven't noticed, I haven't had the best relationship with the commissioners in the last year or two," he wisecracked.

Colorado voters in 1990 approved term limits applying to all state officials and in 1994 expanded those limits to county officials. Elected officials were limited to two consecutive terms not exceeding eight years in duration. Officials serving terms of two years or less were limited to three consecutive terms.

Voters can, however, elect to exempt local government officials from term limits. A 2001 ballot issue to do so in Larimer County was rejected by a 66- to 34-percent margin. It would have lifted term limits for all county elected officials other than the coroner, who had already been exempted in a 1999 vote. Alderden said he believes it failed so overwhelmingly largely because there was "too much baggage" by including all offices in the proposal.

"There's a better chance of it passing if it's just related to the sheriff," said Alderden.

Since term limits were imposed, he said 43 of 62 counties eliminated term limits for sheriffs and two extended them from two to three terms. The other two Colorado counties, Denver and Broomfield, are combined city and county forms of government without elected sheriffs.

"Obviously, I'm not trying to disguise the fact that I'm involved in it," Alderden said, while adding, "It's going to have to be citizen-driven."

The 53-year-old Alderden said other career options are available if he is unable to run again. But he said he enjoys being sheriff and "it would be real tough to leave this position and take a step backward."

"I think the sheriff has done a very good job of being sheriff," said Marrick, who said he's known Alderden for three years since moving here in the early '90s.

In addition to his admiration for Alderden, Marrick said he also strongly opposes term limits because they restrict voters' right to choose.

"It's my belief term limits are a bad thing," he said. "Term limits occur at the ballot box."