Longmont Election Important for Kanemoto Conservation Easement Issue; Minimum Wage Issue Coming to a Head

The Conservation Easement Preservation Society (CEPS) Published a Voter Guide with the Longmont City Council Candidates' Positions on the Kanemoto Issue, Conservation Easements, and Longmont's Growth/Housing/Conservation Balance.

• We have covered the issue of the Kanemoto Conservation Easement during several past newsletters, so we thought it timely to inform you of this voter guide. Voters residing in the City of Longmont will be able to vote on these City Council candidates in the upcoming November 4th election.

  
  

• The Voter Guide may be viewed here.  Please forward this information to friends and family members living in the City of Longmont who you think might be interested. It is a short read, consisting of 3 questions that were answered by the candidates who responded by the deadline.

• CEPS advises the following: "The Conservation Easement Preservation Society (CEPS) is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit (EIN 99-2333509). CEPS fiscally sponsors KARES, a Longmont neighborhood group advocating for the Kanemoto Estates Conservation Easement. As a nonpartisan organization, we cannot endorse candidates. We may inform voters and members about candidates’ perspectives in a nonpartisan manner and encourage consideration of each candidate’s overall qualifications, experience, and record—not solely their responses here. Candidates are listed in the order provided by the City of Longmont’s official municipal candidate list found online."

  
  

The October 14 Commissioners' Hearing on the Minimum Wage Issue Fills the Courthouse!  

• The Courthouse was packed for the Commissioners' hearing on the afternoon of October 14.

  
  

• Here is some press coverage that preceded the hearing:  Denver 7

  
  

• The County staff presented several options for changing the schedule of minimum wage increases, all more moderated than the current wage schedule that the Commissioners approved in 2023, which would ramp to $25/hr by 2030 but only in unincorporated areas of the County.

• In the public comment portion of the hearing, about 25 people spoke either in person or virtually.  They included farmers, small business owners, community members, and representatives of workers groups and unions.

  
  

• The meeting went until 5 pm with no time left for the Commissioners to discuss the issue. The public comment input on the issue is now closed.

  
  

• The Commissioners will discuss the issue at a business meeting at 9:30 am on October 21.  This is a public meeting but no further public comments will be taken. Several in the farming and small business community are planning to attend, and your attendance at this hearing would be supportive and much appreciated.

  
  

• If the Commissioners decide to change the current wage schedule, a tight timeline would be followed in order to have the new wage schedule take effect by Jan 1, 2026. They would aim for a first reading of the proposed ordinance on November 20th.

  
  

• A HUGE number of written public comments were received by the Commissioners. About 1,200 of them were opposed to the current wage schedule, far outweighing the 29 supportive comments.  Many thanks to those who wrote in about the issue!

  
  

• The issue received a great deal of press after the hearing. Here are a few links:   Boulder Reporting Lab   CBS News  Left Hand Valley Courier  Daily Camera (paywall)  Longmont Times-Call (paywall)

  
  

• The video of the hearing, including staff presentations and public comments, can be viewed on the County's website. Here is the link to the video (Minimum wage issue starts at 2:05 in the video, after a 2-hour budget discussion).

  
  

Background info on the minimum wage issue (described in our previous newsletters)

• A 2023 ruling by the Commissioners to increase the minimum wage in unincorporated Boulder County is drawing the opposition of Boulder County farmers and businesses in the areas affected.  The increase began taking effect in January 2025.

  
  

• At issue:  The wage increase is not County-wide, and none of the incorporated municipalities (Boulder, Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Lyons...) have opted to sign onto the Commissioners' plan. 

  
  

• The result is that all of Boulder County's farmers, as well as businesses in ~20 unincorporated towns such as Niwot, Hygiene, Gold Hill, and Allenspark, are being forced to pay a higher minimum wage than exists for the County's larger municipalities.

  
  

• The farmers and business owners have communicated about the fairness issues created by the uneven implementation of the accelerated minimum wage scale.

  
  

• As of January 2025, the minimum wage now stands at $16.57/hour in unincorporated Boulder County but is $14.92/hr in the State of Colorado and most Boulder County municipalities. The County minimum wage is $1  higher than the City of Boulder's minimum wage. 

  
  

• The Commissioners' decision ramps up the minimum wage to $25/hr by 2030, and the current ~11% disparity will increase to a ~40% difference in 2030:

• Farmers have stressed that the increases would put Boulder County farmers out of business, ending the availability of local agricultural produce at farm stands, farmers markets, and stores in the County.

The Pro-RURAL Alliance is concerned about this issue because of its potential to devastate farming in Boulder County.  We are also concerned about small business owners in the County's unincorporated historic townships.

The potential "Distal-Tull" land swap deal to develop a composting facility for Boulder County was unanimously voted down by the Longmont City Council on October 7.

• The City and Boulder County will continue to work together to identify an appropriate site for a composting facility.

• Read news coverage of the issue here:  Longmont Times-Call (paywall)  Daily Camera (paywall) The City of Longmont's website on the project is linked here.

• You can read more about this issue in the past issues of our newsletter, which are linked on the bottom of our home page and on the News tab of our website.

As always, thanks for reading!