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Erie narrows 2026 ballot focus to ECC expansion and lodging tax; staff to seek polls and return with contracts
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Summary
After reviewing ECC options, Erie council directed staff to pursue polling with Polco and return with professional services agreements and refined cost estimates; council prioritized a 2026 ballot request for ECC expansion/renovation (capital) and a lodging tax, deferring other items to 2027+.
Following the Erie Community Center presentation, the council moved into Item 20‑26‑62 on ballot‑issue planning and timeline considerations. Melissa (technical account manager) and Gabby (communications) briefed the council on the standard steps for a tax or bond ballot question—feasibility study, two rounds of statistically valid polling (pre‑ and post‑education), TABOR‑compliant ballot language and a broad public education effort that typically takes at least 18 months for a complex revenue measure.
Staff presented a menu of potential ballot options: targeted facility bonds (ECC expansion/renovation and Leon World Service Center), a second community campus (25‑acre campus with indoor/outdoor amenities), long‑term revenue sources (indoor operations/maintenance tax or a more generic public facilities tax), transportation/infrastructure fees or taxes, and accommodation‑related taxes (short‑term rental tax, lodging tax and special event permits tied to Sundance). The presentation emphasized that more specific feasibility and scope work would be required to produce a reliable ballot amount for larger items such as a second community campus.
Council discussed vendor options for polling. The town has an ongoing relationship with Polco, which staff said could begin focused ballot polling as soon as February; a councilor raised concerns about previous vendor Magellan’s handling of AI and asked staff to confirm Polco’s AI safeguards. Staff indicated they had already questioned Polco on AI policy and would share the responses with council.
On substance, councilors debated whether to put a broad package (second campus + ECC + service center) to voters or to limit the 2026 ask to a narrower, more communicable item. After extended debate about timing, budget risk and voter appetite, council reached general direction: prioritize a 2026 ballot question focused on capital costs for the ECC expansion/renovation and add a lodging tax; defer short‑term rental taxes, transportation fees and the second community campus to later cycles (2027 or later) pending feasibility and outreach. Several councilors said they preferred the full ECC package—an expansion plus renovation in one ask, quoted in discussion as roughly a $27M total scope—while others favored staging (doing a gym/court expansion first and deferring extensive renovation).
Staff next steps: Polco will be engaged for initial polling (staff asked council to approve moving forward with Polco for the first surveys), and staff will return with a contract for design professional services (staff estimated a design PSA in the $920,000 to $1.7 million range depending on scope) and more refined financial models for the ballot language and revenue scenarios. Council emphasized that any financing will require a voter approval process and that outreach and precise ballot language will be critical.
What happens next: staff will provide Polco’s AI policy and a proposed polling cadence and will bring back professional services contracts and refined budget scenarios to enable a potential 2026 ballot ask. The council did not adopt final ballot language at the meeting.
