A candidate for Nederland’s board of trustees is suing a Boulder County mountain town for what he believes is a “pattern of political dissent.”
In a complaint filed Friday in Boulder District Court, David Sites alleges that Nederland’s board of trustees is violating municipal code by not appointing him to a vacant trustee position. The lawsuit asks a judge to order the Netherlands to set the sites on the board.
In April, trustee Julian Taylor was seated. Elected MayorCreating an empty space on the board. Sites, who finished fourth in the election for three open trustee seats, says that means he must be appointed to the vacancy, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, the town opted to schedule a special election to fill the vacancy.
“The board refused to set the sites and instead ordered another election as part of political opposition to the sites by board members,” said their attorney, former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Geisler. wrote in the complaint.
The town board previously rejected the sites when it applied to the Nederland Downtown Development Authority — even though the organization recommended its appointment to the board, according to the lawsuit.
In addition, the Netherlands’ decision to hold a August 23 special election The complaint states that there is a “departure from our past actions in filling the vacancies”, noting that the previous vacancies were filled without a separate election.
A vacancy on the board of trustees was created after Taylor was elected mayor in the April election. But upon his election victory, Taylor announced that he would. Served as mayor for only a few months. Because he’s heading to the East Coast, according to Boulder’s Daily Camera newspaper.
Voters in the Netherlands will be asked to elect a new mayor and trustees in a special election in August.
Geisler and Sites could not be reached Monday. A city representative declined to comment on the lawsuit.
After finishing fourth in the April election, Sites told the Daily Camera he was unsure if he would run for office again.
