A decision by Cripple Creek City Councilmen Mark Green and Charles Solomone to allow retail sales at the Cripple Creek Heritage Center angered citizens enough to attempt a recall.

Council set the date for a special recall election at the Nov. 2 regular meeting.

On July 6, Green, Solomone and Mayor Pro Tem Tom Litherland voted to allow retail sales at the center over the objections of Mayor Milford Ashworth, Councilwoman Missy Trenary and most of the speakers during public comment on the request.

At the time, Steve Zoellner and Karen Zoellner were two of the most outspoken residents in opposition. They started the process to recall Green and Solomone. They didn’t attempt to recall Litherland.

State law sets the minimum number of signatures to be gathered on a recall petition at 25% of the number of votes each official received in the last election. For Green, who ran unopposed, that number was about 20. For Solomone, it was about 30.

“We didn’t have any trouble gathering enough signatures,” Karen Zoellner said.

Ashworth and Trenary signed both petitions, which caused problems later. They each had to file a conflict-of-interest statement with the Colorado Secretary of State, affirming that they can make an impartial decision.

Before taking the final vote, City Attorney Erin Smith asked Ashworth and Trenary to affirm for the record that they thought signing the petitions was their constitutional right under the First Amendment, that they didn’t think signing was a conflict of interest and that they disclosed their reasons to the Secretary of State.

Meeting the letter of the law, Ashworth and Trenary approved setting Jan. 24 as the date for the mail-in-ballot special recall election.

Litherland recused himself, saying he couldn’t be impartial. A recusal is a no vote in these situations. Green and Solomone were not allowed to vote because of their obvious conflicts of interest.

Several speakers said a recall was a ridiculous waste of money and cited the cost of a special election at $30,000.

Teller County Clerk and Recorder Krystal Brown said that cost was significantly inflated.

“We’ve never charged more than $5,000 for an election in Cripple Creek,” she said. “It’s only about $19,000 for the entire county.”

When someone pointed out that the retail area was about the size of a bookshelf, John Freeman said the request didn’t specify a size for the retail space. “We sat here and said no, and you still voted for it,” he said.

“We don’t have a choice,” Ashworth said at the end of the discussion and vote. “We can’t prevent a recall.”

In other business, Council approved, on second reading, an ordinance waiving water and sewer tap fees in the amount of $52,000 to help Cripple Creek-Victor Junior/Senior High School construct its building-trades mini-factory on school grounds.

Council also approved a request by David Kittinger and Carmen Kittinger for a $6,000 water/sewer-tap-fee refund. During construction, they found that the property already has commercial taps so the single-family taps they paid for were unnecessary.

Finally, council canceled its Dec. 21 regular meeting. The date will stay open just in case something comes up that requires a special meeting.

Cripple Creek City Hall is pictured in this July 2019 photo.

Michelle Karas, Pikes Peak Courier file