Clarisa Osborn, Dennis Spruell and Carly Wolf emerged as the top vote-getters in Cortez’s municipal election Tuesday night, leading a field of 11 candidates as voters filled five City Council seats and approved three out of four proposed changes to the City Charter.
The city sent out nearly 6,000 ballots and received 1,780. Turnout exceeded the roughly 1,400 ballots returned in the 2024 municipal election.
Osborn, Spruell and Wolf will serve four-year terms, while Kathleen Swope and Claire West, who finished fourth and fifth, will serve two-year terms. All five council members will take office April 28.
The four ballot questions proposed various changes to the City Charter, including grammar corrections, clarifications to City Council meeting attendance rules and changes to the process for setting council member compensation.
The city posted the first unofficial results on the doors of City Hall, 123 E. Roger Smith Ave., at 8:40 p.m. Official results will be released April 16, giving voters eight days to correct any ballot mistakes flagged by election judges.
At a long mahogany table in a quiet conference room at City Hall, several candidates and their family members bowed their heads or scrolled on their phones as they awaited preliminary results.
As the silence stretched on, conversation and laughter broke out among the candidates and their supporters.
At 8:40 p.m., City Clerk Danielle Wells brought out the board with the vote counts, prompting congratulations from family members as some disappointed candidates quietly left.
Osborn led the field with 1,028 votes, followed by Spruell with 997 and Wolf with 905.
Osborn focused her campaign on city maintenance, citing the need for water line repairs and parks and recreation refurbishing projects as top priorities. During the candidate forum, she pointed to Durango’s small business accelerator program as a potential model for Cortez’s economic development efforts.
Spruell ran for re-election, emphasizing the experience he brings to a council that will largely consist of new members. He highlighted progress made during his tenure in uncovering fraud and tax overcollection and said he intends to continue the precedents set by the current council.
Wolf, whose lavender campaign signs featuring her namesake animal lined Montezuma Avenue, ran as a local business owner advocating for sustainable city revenue, affordable housing and child care. She is a co-owner of Doobie Sisters and stressed the importance of supporting small businesses to strengthen the local economy.
Swope earned 857 votes, while West received 826.
Swope described herself as an avid watcher of City Council meetings who wanted a deeper understanding of the city from inside local government. A retired teacher, she said she admires the level of citizen engagement shown through local protests and wants to see more activities for retired residents.
West emphasized her experience managing opioid settlement funds in Colorado as relevant to City Council budget decisions. She expressed support for expanding tourism and Cortez’s lodgers tax to bolster the local economy.
Question 1, which corrected grammar, replaced masculine pronouns with gender-neutral language and clarified several charter processes, passed by a margin of 471 votes.
Question 2, which allows City Council to set compensation for future council members, clarifies that council members may receive compensation for remote attendance and reinforces the required waiting period before a former council member can be hired by the city, passed by 263 votes.
Question 3, which clarifies permissible locations for City Council meetings and affirms the validity of electronic participation by council members, passed by 385 votes.
Question 4, which clarified when municipal elections are held and would have authorized the city to exercise home rule authority over City Council term limits, failed by 181 votes.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
