Steve Pomerance

Seth Brigham’s recent journey through the legal system points out some of the essential conflicts in how confrontations are dealt with in our society. To briefly and incompletely summarize Brigham’s situation, he was tossed out of a Boulder City Council meeting a couple of years ago for appearing in his underwear and raising issues about council members’ behavior. He sued over his treatment; the city settled and paid $10,000. This year, some council members apparently felt that Brigham was a threat because of some other incidents, so the city attorney asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order against him. On Aug. 6, Brigham had his court date about whether the restraining order was to be made permanent. Per the statute (CRS 13-14-102) and as practiced, a temporary restraining order can be issued “ex parte,” meaning that only one side is present to provide information. The real debate is at the permanent order hearing; in this case the judge delayed his decision so th

The Boulder City Council is in the process of imposing a fee on single use paper and plastic bags, the kind stores now give away to customers. Local governments have the power to impose such “special fees” on many activities. But because of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR – Article X, Sec. 20 in the Colorado Constitution) it’s important to know what the constraints are, so that the city can maximize protection of the environment while avoiding a lawsuit claiming that this fee is a tax and requires a TABOR vote. The council would do well to learn something about the field and not simply rely on consultants. I have seen experts make mistakes, or miss alternative approaches because they didn’t think broadly enough. There are a number of cases, both national and local, that interpret the 5th Amendment’s protection of private property. Local governments have been granted a lot of flexibility in setting fees, perhaps sometimes more than warranted, but this flexibility is not unlimi