Loveland trio seeks to recall Krenning from City Council

LOVELAND — A former Loveland City Council member and two other Ward 1 residents intend to launch a petition drive in an attempt to recall City Council member Troy Krenning.

City Clerk Delynn Coldiron told BizWest on Friday that she received a notice of intent on Thursday from a committee made up of Dave Clark, Earl Sethre and Dr. Marvin Childers. Clark served on the City Council and is a party to an ongoing lawsuit against Krenning and four other current council members, Sethre retired after decades at the helm of Jorgensen Laboratories, and Childers is an otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) specialist.

Coldiron said she has three business days to get back to the trio about the potential cost of placing the recall issue on the November ballot.

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“They have a statement they’ll put in the petition about why they’re doing the recall. Then we will also work with Councilor Krenning to see if he wants to provide a statement on why he should get to stay,” said Coldiron, whose last day as city clerk is June 23 before assuming the same role in Fort Collins. “We’ll then check to see that everything about the petition is in order, and then it can go out for circulation.”

Coldiron said putting the recall issue on the November ballot would require 1,615 valid signatures of registered voters in Ward 1, or 25% of all votes that were cast in the Ward 1 election last Nov. 7, in which Krenning defeated Dan Anderson, Russell Sinnett and Leonard Larkin. The petitions must be returned no later than Aug. 7.

Sinnett is the attorney who earlier this month refiled two cases against the City Council in Larimer County District Court. The cases involve alleged violations of the Loveland city charter, along with alleged constitutional-law violations.

In one, which Sinnett originally filed in Loveland Municipal Court in January, eight plaintiffs including Clark and former City Council members Richard Ball, John Fogle, Don Overcash and Chauncey Taylor, sued the current council. They alleged that Krenning and four other current City Council members violated the charter last Nov. 21 by not calling for a public vote on its rescission of urban-renewal and financial agreements with McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. approved in April and May 2023 over its proposed Centerra South development. The City Council in February reversed its decision and reinstated the agreements after McWhinney sued.

The lawsuit said the public vote should have been called because Loveland voters in the same Nov. 7 election that propelled Krenning and other council members less amenable to McWhinney’s plans into office had also approved the citizen-initiated Ballot Issue 301, which gave voters the final say on urban-renewal plans.

In the other case, which Sinnett filed in Loveland Municipal Court in February, Ward 1 resident Peter Gazlay claimed unequal treatment under the law because the city failed to conduct a background investigation of Krenning, and then after he was elected, applied a background test that was different from all other candidates prior to seating him.

Krenning, the only attorney on the current council, has drawn continued fire from development and other business interests in Loveland since taking office. Two weeks after he was elected, Krenning led the drive to rescind the Centerra South agreements, a decision that subsequently was reversed after McWhinney sued the council alleging breach of contract. Krenning also led a push to investigate the four-member council minority over alleged open-meetings violations before the agreements were originally approved by the previous council.