Departments of Finance and Budget & Innovation and Offices of the City Clerk and City Attorney
Reference: Articles 2 and 3 Code Clean Up
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Catrina Asher, Director of Finance
Yasmina Gibbons, Deputy City Attorney
Date Prepared: July 15, 2026
PURPOSE
To propose updates to the Brighton Municipal Code (the “Code”) related to: (a) the deadline to cure defects in petitions of nomination and affidavits; (b) successive ordinances; (c) budget carryover for non-lapsing capital appropriations; (d) the advertisement procedure for the procurement of construction services (e) and the procurement solicitation protest procedure.
BACKGROUND
Proposed Amendments to Article 2-4 - City Council
• A proposed amendment to Section 2-4-10(c)(1) related to the deadline to cure defects in petitions of nomination and affidavits. Currently, the Code allows for defects to be cured no later than 18 days before the day of the election. In order to align the deadlines of Article 2-4 with the deadlines for coordinated elections set out in Title 1 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, staff recommends that this deadline be changed to 64 days before the election. This proposed change will create harmony between the Code and State statutes during a coordinated election.
• A proposed amendment to Section 2-4-10(c)(10) relating to the computation of time is intended to provide clarity as to which deadlines are applicable, depending on whether the subject election is a coordinated election or not.
• Finally, staff is proposing the addition of a new Section 2-4-90 related to successive ordinances. Specifically, this section would prohibit same or similar ordinances which have previously been denied from being brought before Council for consideration for one year from the date of denial. The proposed Code section creates a pathway for Council to direct a denied ordinance to be brought back for consideration before one year upon a majority vote of Council. Staff would like to solicit Council input as to whether this proposed section should be included in the ordinance and, alternatively, if Council would prefer that a different timeframe be included before the ordinance is brought back.
Proposed Amendments to Article 3-4 - Fiscal Year and Budgetary Procedure
• Section 3-4-100 discusses carryover of funds for multi-year capital projects. The proposed amendment clarifies the process that staff conducts to formally bring the continuing funds into the next fiscal year. As final amounts to be carried forward cannot be determined until after the original budget is adopted for that fiscal year, the amounts included at the time of budget adoption will only include new appropriation amounts for that year. In the case there is carried forward budget, this will be administratively added after close-out of the previous fiscal year in the first quarter of the year.
Proposed Amendments to 3-8 - Contracts and Purchases
• The proposed edit to Section 3-8-70 of Code modernizes the solicitation process by removing the redundant effort required to publish a paid advertisement in an area newspaper for the procurement of construction services.
As Staff seek continuous process improvement opportunities, we have identified an opportunity to reduce waste in the current process required by Code as it relates to the advertisement method for the procurement of construction services. The City currently utilizes a free e-procurement platform known as BidNet Direct to advertise its solicitations. In addition to this platform for advertisement, Code requires a second, paid advertisement to be published at least once in an area newspaper for construction services. The proposed amendment removes this requirement.
Although cost savings to the City will be nominal, the benefit of broad exposure cannot be overlooked. A recent advertisement for construction services published by the City on BidNet Direct notified nearly 1,000 suppliers about the solicitation opportunity. Staff believe this platform to be a more effective advertisement method for maximizing competition compared to the traditional newspaper format which often requires a paid subscription with limited readership. Further, Staff time is conserved by removing the requirement for duplication of the solicitation alongside coordination with the publisher of the newspaper.
• Staff proposes an amendment to the deadline for solicitation protests set forth in Section 3-8-140.
Currently, the Code does not practically allow suppliers to file a timely protest because the protest window is tied to the solicitation opening date, rather than the award date. Suppliers do not have access to adequate details at the time of bid opening or proposal due date to substantiate a grievance. Tying this deadline to the award date creates transparency. The award date is synonymous with the date upon which proposal details or evaluation results become available by request for public inspection.
It is infrequent that the City receives a solicitation protest; however, protests are a common occurrence industry-wide. Each agency can establish response timelines suitable for their operations. Staff have carefully considered timelines that would be appropriate for the City while also minimizing delays within the solicitation process.
It is the opinion of Staff that rewriting Section 3-8-140 to establish a different solicitation protest deadline and clarify the conditions for submitting a claim will improve transparency and process integrity. This revision also helps to align the City’s procedure with generally accepted industry standards.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Staff does not expect this change to the Code to have a financial impact.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommend approving the proposed changes as presented at a future Regular Meeting.
Attachments:
• Redlines
• Presentation