Election season gets under way in Mt. Crested Butte

Council seats available

Election season is approaching in Mt. Crested Butte, as the town prepares to bid farewell to two longstanding Town Council members and fill three seats.

In April, Town Council members Danny D’Aquila and Chris Morgan will reach the end of their term limits and two new faces will fill their council chairs. Morgan has served as the town’s mayor since 2004. Council member Tom Steuer will also reach the end of his term, but will be eligible for re-election.
Steuer says he’s considering running for re-election, but hasn’t fully decided. “There’s still time yet,” Steuer says.
For Mt. Crested Butte citizens interested in serving on the Town Council, petitions for election will be available at the Town Hall on Monday, February 11. Signed petitions are due back by 5 p.m. on Friday, February 29.
Mt. Crested Butte Town Council members are elected to serve a four-year term, with a limit of two consecutive terms. There are seven council seats in all.
Eligible candidates need the signatures of at least 10 other Mt. Crested Butte citizens who are registered voters in the town.
The Mt. Crested Butte mayor’s seat is an appointed position. Upon being sworn in, one of the first tasks facing the newly elected and remaining council members is to appoint a mayor among themselves.
Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick, who was a council member and the town’s mayor once himself, says service on the Town Council is a great way to give back to the community.
“It’s very important to running the community for people to be involved,” Fitzpatrick says. He says it’s also a good way to become involved in other organizations important to the community such as the Gunnison Valley Rural Transportation Authority and Association of Colorado Ski Towns.
Morgan, who first moved to Mt. Crested Butte in 1991 and joined the Planning Commission in 1998, agrees. “I believe it’s one of the most fulfilling things a person can do to make their community a better place,” Morgan says of serving on the Town Council.
Morgan says there are 21 elected seats to fill between the Town Council, Planning Commission and Downtown Development Authority, and only about 300 registered voters in town. “That’s basically asking seven to eight percent of the town’s population to serve in some way. There is to some degree a responsibility for qualified people to step up and help improve where they live by serving their town,” Morgan says.
Morgan says he’s proud of many of the accomplishments of the Town Council during his time on the board, including long range planning for re-development of the resort, work on the town’s affordable housing ordinance, completion of the recreation path between Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, and completion of the town’s avalanche fence.