The Woodland Park City Council and members of School District RE-2 met for a special meeting Thursday night to discuss the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the two.

The meeting stems from a recent communication breakdown between the government bodies and a need to discuss the nature of the IGA, a 1.09% sales tax solely for the district to use for educational purposes.

The board, along with their attorney Brad Miller, were in attendance to discuss recent concerns raised by councilmembers regarding public disclosure and overall transparency of how the tax dollars were being utilized in recent years.

Some councilmembers and community members believe that the board members had been mum on the matter leading up to the meeting.

Since getting approved by voters in 2016, the district would present to the council their annual audit of how the funds were being used throughout the district. The last time this had occurred, however, was back in 2019.

“Technically, legally, we are in arrears of having this presentation,” Mayor Hilary Labarre said.

During the Feb. 15 regular meeting, after allegations of little-to-no communication from the board to discuss the matter, the City Council approved ordinance No. 1471, Series 2024, which proposes to eliminate the sales tax that goes to the school district. The decision followed a Feb. 7 meeting where the idea to lose the tax was discussed and promptly followed by a call from the district attorney.

Board members pointed to changing seats and additional challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic since that time as reasons why the practice was not continued in recent years and why the annual reports ceased.

After repeatedly expressed concerns from members of the public, councilmembers Carol Harvey and Robert Zuluaga each contacted the district’s clerk to view the current expenditures of the tax funds. Harvey explained that, while successful, the process was far from a simple ask and would benefit from regular presentations.

“And that’s what I think the voters want – to see it done again,” she said. “Present the good-news story of this is how the tax money is being spent.”

One particular item brought to the attention by members of the public was the lack of clarity on whether or not local charter schools qualified to receive the tax funding. After a brief discussion, it was clarified that state law does not allow for charter schools to be excluded from this type of funding.

“We can’t exclude them under this agreement,” Miller said. “We’re not able to.”        

Both parties agreed to resume the periodic reporting of how the tax proceeds have been spent. They also agreed to add language to the IGA that clarified the inclusion of charter school funding and to make other slight adjustments like updated administrative fees.  

The public hearing for the approval of the ordinance is still scheduled to take place during the March 7 City Council meeting where there will be a public hearing.

“There are a lot of things that we need to discuss, at a minimum, on an annual basis,” Harvey said.

EDITIR’S NOTE: The original version of this story had some errors that have since been corrected. The amount of the sales tax was reported as 1.9%. The correct number is 1.09%. Mayor Hillary LaBarre was quoted as saying the talks were in “in the rears” rather that “in arrears.” Finally, Robert Zuluaga’s name was misspelled as Zuluga.