HOUSE 3rd Reading Unamended February 20, 2012 HOUSE Amended 2nd Reading February 17, 2012Second Regular Session Sixty-eighth General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO REENGROSSED This Version Includes All Amendments Adopted in the House of Introduction LLS NO. 12-0468.01 Gregg Fraser x4325 HOUSE BILL 12-1157 HOUSE SPONSORSHIP Vigil, SENATE SPONSORSHIP Guzman, House Committees Senate Committees Local Government A BILL FOR AN ACT Concerning the court hearing on a petition for the organization of a special district. Bill Summary (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at http://www.leg.state.co.us/billsummaries.) If a service plan for a proposed special district is approved by a board of county commissioners, current law requires any interested party who appeared and objected to the plan to be given notice and have the right to appear at a court hearing on the petition to organize the district. Section 1 of the bill would require the party to also be a taxpayer or eligible elector of the proposed district in order to be given notice and have the right to appear at the hearing. Section 2 requires the notice of court hearing to be sent by certified mail rather than registered mail. Current law allows the court, in the order authorizing the organizational election, to name an eligible elector as the designated election official. Section 3 allows the court, by any order of the court, to name a person experienced in conducting special district elections to serve as the designated election official. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. In Colorado Revised Statutes, 32-1-203, amend (3.5) (a) as follows: 32-1-203. Action on service plan - criteria. (3.5) (a) The board of county commissioners may exclude territory from a proposed special district prior to approval of the service plan submitted by the petitioners of a proposed special district. The petitioners shall have the burden of proving that the exclusion of the property is not in the best interests of the proposed special district. Any person owning property in the proposed special district who requests that his or her property be excluded from the special district prior to approval of the service plan shall submit the request to the board of county commissioners no later than ten days prior to the hearing held under section 32-1-204, but the board of county commissioners shall not be limited in its action with respect to exclusion of territory based upon the request. Any request for exclusion shall include a legal description of the property sought to be excluded and shall be acted upon before final action of the county commissioners under section 32-1-205. SECTION 2. In Colorado Revised Statutes, 32-1-206, amend (2) as follows: 32-1-206. Judicial review. (2) If the service plan is approved by the board of county commissioners, any interested party as defined in section 32-1-204 (1), if such party had appeared and presented its objections before the board of county commissioners who is either a taxpayer of the proposed special district or an eligible elector of the proposed special district shall be given notice and have the right to appear and be heard at the hearing on the court petition for the organization of the special district, and the court may dismiss the court petition upon a determination that the decision of the board of county commissioners was arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable. SECTION 3. In Colorado Revised Statutes, amend 32-1-304 as follows: 32-1-304. Notice of court hearing. Except as otherwise provided in section 32-1-304.5, immediately after the filing of a petition, the court wherein the petition is filed, by order, shall fix a place and time, not less than twenty days nor more than forty days after the petition is filed, for hearing thereon. Thereupon the clerk of the court shall cause notice by publication to be made of the pendency of the petition, the purposes and boundaries of the special district, and the time and place of hearing thereon. The clerk of the court shall also forthwith cause a copy of the notice to be mailed by United States registered certified mail to the board of county commissioners of each of the several counties and to each party entitled to notice pursuant to section 32-1-206 (2). The notice shall include a general description of the land contained within the boundaries of the proposed special district and information explaining methods and procedures for the filing of a petition for exclusion of territory pursuant to section 32-1-305 (3). SECTION 4. In Colorado Revised Statutes, 32-1-305, amend (3) as follows: 32-1-305. Court hearing - election - declaration of organization. (3) Except as otherwise provided in section 32-1-304.5, anytime after the filing of the petition for the organization of a special district but no later than ten days before the day fixed for the hearing thereon, the owner of any real property within the proposed special district may file a petition with the court stating reasons why said property should not be included therein and requesting that said real property be excluded therefrom. The petition shall be duly verified and shall describe include a legal description of the property sought to be excluded. The court shall hear the petition and all objections thereto at the time of the hearing on the petition for organization and shall determine whether, in the best public interest, the property should be excluded or included in the proposed special district. The court shall exclude property located in any home rule municipality in respect to which a petition for exclusion has been filed by the municipality. SECTION 5. In Colorado Revised Statutes, 32-1-305.5, amend (1) as follows: 32-1-305.5. Organizational election - new special district - first directors. (1) In the order authorizing the election By order, the court shall name either the clerk and recorder of the county in which the district is to be or another eligible elector person experienced in conducting special district elections as the designated election official responsible for the conducting of the election. SECTION 6. In Colorado Revised Statutes, amend 32-1-803.5 as follows: 32-1-803.5. Organizational election - new special district. At any election for the organization of a new special district, the court shall also order the submission of the proposition of issuing general obligation bonds or creating other general obligation indebtedness or any question or questions necessary to implement the provisions of section 20 of article X of the Colorado state constitution as applied to the new special district, if the petition filed pursuant to section 32-1-301 requests that such questions be submitted at the organizational election. The order of the court shall make the determinations required by section 32-1-1101 (2) and (3) (a) and require the clerk of the court designated election official, as determined in section 32-1-305.5 (1), to conduct the election in accordance with section 20 of article X of the Colorado state constitution. SECTION 7. Act subject to petition - effective date. This act takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on the day following the expiration of the ninety-day period after final adjournment of the general assembly (August 7, 2012, if adjournment sine die is on May 9, 2012); except that, if a referendum petition is filed pursuant to section 1 (3) of article V of the state constitution against this act or an item, section, or part of this act within such period, then the act, item, section, or part will not take effect unless approved by the people at the general election to be held in November 2012 and, in such case, will take effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by the governor.