Administration
{212B6878-CC05-4DEC-9A46-1F5E533C1B32}_WEBThe Town of Carbondale is a Home Rule Town and operates under a Trustee/Manager form of government. The Town Manager is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Town's operations, while the Town Trustees are the policy making body.

The Carbondale Home Rule Charter Commission was created on November 5, 2002, by the vote of the people of Carbondale, reflecting the belief that government closest to the people is the most likely to govern the best and be the most responsive to its citizens. Therefore, the Commission has drafted this Charter with the intent to establish for the Town of Carbondale the greatest scope of home rule power and freedom from state mandates allowable under the Constitution.

The Charter is intended to safeguard the well-being of all inhabitants of the Town, to maintain a community that sustains livability and places the highest value on the good of the entire community, and to set forth a framework for the future growth and development of the Town while protecting both its fun-damental identity and its future economic vitality.

The Commission has provided for a seven (7) member Board of Trustees to assume the powers of the Town with the belief that the representative form of government is the most likely to be able to efficiently and effectively govern the Town in the coming years. As a result, the Charter has vested broad powers in the Board of Trustees, but insures accountability to the people of the Town by providing proce-dures for initiative, referendum, and recall of elected officials.

The Charter provides for the Board of Trustees-Manager form of Town government. The policy-making and legislative powers are vested in a Board of Trustees composed of seven (7) members, in-cluding the Mayor. The Board members and Mayor shall be elected from the Town at large every four (4) years, and the terms shall be staggered so as to permit a continuity of government. The Town Manager shall be the chief administrative official of the Town and shall be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, the Board of Trustees.

The regular municipal election will remain in April of even-numbered years, as it has been previously. The Charter provides that all elections are to be nonpartisan and conducted in accordance with Colorado Municipal Election Law.

The Commission has tried to avoid imposing needless restrictions and “red tape” and has provided for maximum flexibility in the administration and government of the Town to allow for as efficient an operation as reasonably possible. The Commission has not mandated wholesale changes in existing ordinances in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

The Commission is aware of the pressures for growth and development which currently exist in this area and has chosen to give the Board of Trustees broad flexibility and power to properly deal with issues related to growth and development. The Charter requires the adoption and updating of a Master Plan to insure that growth and development issues are given careful consideration.

The Commission hopes that the Charter will meet the needs of the Town, now and well into the future. The Commission believes that this Charter guarantees and vests the ultimate power of the Town in the people of the Town of Carbondale, Colorado.

The Charter as proposed by the Carbondale Home Rule Charter Commission, is included below.

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CHARTER for the TOWN OF CARBONDALE, COLORADO