The Boulder City Council on Feb. 20 moved to hire a city administrator, a new position that will take on responsibility for the daily operation of city government, under the direction of the mayor and City Council.
The new role fills what the Council sees as a need for more consistent management of city functions. It also addresses the city’s code enforcement, which officials and some residents see as a growing challenge.
The city created a part-time enforcement position in April, 2022, to encourage compliance with beautification and nuisance ordinances the Council had approved in 2020 — addressing problems such as barking dogs and abandoned vehicles on properties.
Chris Mosher, who was hired into the role in November, 2022, said at the time that he viewed the position as focused on educating residents on code requirements and encouraging, rather than forcing, compliance. “This position, in my eyes, is all about engagement,” he said.
But Mosher left the job in the summer of 2023, and the position has been vacant since.
A rise in citizen complaints regarding animal control of the city’s beautification ordinance have heightened concerns over municipal code enforcement.
But the city faces an administrative bind: Citations for code violations can only be written by officials with law enforcement training, according to Councilman Bear Taylor. That places the citation burden on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which is contracted to handle law enforcement for the city.
“I understand there’s a lot of frustration around new ordinances not being enforced, but JCSO is only required to act on public safety,” Taylor said. “[JCSO] will enforce municipal code if they receive an investigation.”
The new administrator, the city says, will be charged with investigating municipal code violations, then engaging the Sheriff’s Office to issue formal citations. Two formal complaints from two separate residents will trigger an investigation from the Administrator.
If a violation is confirmed, the administrator will pass that information to JCSO, which can then ticket the offender, according to the city. Residents can bypass this process by reporting violations directly to the Sheriff’s Office — but so long as there is no immediate public safety risk, it is unlikely JCSO will act without direction from the city. The JCSO was unavailable for comment.
County Sheriff Tom Grimsrud confirmed the essence of that enforcement process. “Our view is mostly public safety issues, but [we] are open to ongoing problems that occur within the city that would be covered under an ordinance,” he wrote via email.
More generally, “the administrator can direct city offices, and delegate staff, to investigate complaints,” said City Council President Drew Dawson. The role’s other responsibilities include overseeing and deploying received grant funding, and drafting language for new ordinances and proposals.
The administrator’s salary, which is being posted at between $63,000 and $83,000, including benefits, will be funded from the budget currently allocated to the city clerk and beautification officer positions, which are presently vacant. Megan McCauley left the city clerk position Feb. 1.
Dawson said the Council and Mayor’s Office intends to set aside funding in the next fiscal year for the clerk’s salary, and to update city code to remove redundancies between the administrator and clerk positions.
