Board of Adjustment discusses adopting new rules, pledge and logistics; asks for printed materials

Members of Commerce City’s Board of Adjustment spent part of Tuesday’s meeting discussing administrative and procedural changes, including possible amendments to the board’s rules of procedure, whether to add the Pledge of Allegiance to meeting openings, and requests for printed copies of procedural materials.

The board’s attorney told members the current rules of procedure reference Robert’s Rules of Order and that city council recommended adopting an alternate set (“Bob’s rules”); the attorney offered to draft redlines for the board to consider. “It would be my recommendation to adopt those as well as the rules of procedure,” the attorney said, and offered to prepare draft amendments for a future meeting.

Council member Christy Douglas suggested formalizing the pledge at the start of meetings and asked for a clearer system to recognize speakers, saying a visible queue or the meeting platform’s “request to speak” function would reduce confusion. Several members asked that materials such as the rules of procedure and “cheat-sheet” agenda aids be distributed in hard copy; one member noted a recent delay in payroll and asked staff to follow up.

The board proposed holding a planning/study session to consider rule changes, with a possible schedule of a study session in July followed by adoption at a later meeting after edits. Members also discussed whether to move meeting start times from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to reduce travel conflicts. Staff provided an update on the Land Development Code rewrite (public open houses held in May; public comments accepted through June; anticipated planning commission and council adoption in fall). The regular meeting adjourned at 6:09 p.m.