City Council Minutes 2018 05 01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes May 1, 2018 Page 12 of 13 Councilmember Loo stated she feels this is a draconian precautionary approach. This proposal negates the 5th Amendment (Due Process) by taking away people's right to their mineral rights. If someone wants to support this, they should not use any energy. She does not support signing on. Mayor Muckle stated the question before the court is whether safety has to be considered when making a decision on drilling. It is believed by many that the balance towards safety has not been considered by the COGCC. He stated he is interested in the COGCC being required to at least consider health and safety in its decision making. Councilmember Stolzmann supports signing on to the brief because it is about the rule making authority of the COGCC and we do want them to absolutely consider health and safety when setting their rules. We don't have local control on this issue so we want them to do this. Councilmember Leh stated the difficulty is the courts have made gas decisions a matter of state wide concern so we have no local decision making authority. If we can add our voice to indicate that the COGCC should take into consideration health and safety it is worth signing on to. Mayor Pro Tem Lipton stated this isn't setting a foundation to ban gas drilling; it is protecting safety within the urban core and the ability to set rules that make sure health and safety are protected as people extract their mineral rights. What if someone wanted to reopen a coal mine here; would we want the ability to regulate safety in doing that. He stated local control is important; protection of private property rights is also important. but it shouldn't supersede health and safety. As practical matter, local control is important to us. Councilmember Maloney stated that as an elected official public safety is the number one priority. We have to respect property rights and mineral rights as well. There needs to be a balance. Councilmember Keany stated he is a strong supporter of private property rights, but we do have safety rules we all abide by and that is the concern. He is cautiously supportive of this. Mayor Muckle stated there is no doubt the COGCC will protect people's right to get to their mineral rights; we need to make sure safety is taken into consideration. Councilmember Loo stated is seems we are making the assumption the COGCC has been being unsafe in the past and that is not true. Councilmember Maloney stated they aren't being dangerous but they should have to balance the issues.