Government & Politics  December 5, 2024

Krenning drops recall appeal, to resign May 7

Loveland City Council member Troy Krenning listens in May during a meeting of the Northern Colorado Regional Airport Commission, where he is one of the city’s representatives. Dallas Heltzell/BizWest
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LOVELAND — In a decision that could again tip the balance of power in Loveland city government, Troy Krenning has dropped his appeal of a recall petition that seeks to oust him from the City Council and has announced that he will resign his Ward 1 council seat, effective May 7.

“Late yesterday, I dismissed my appeal in this case,” Krenning wrote on Wednesday, Dec. 4, in an email to City Attorney Vince Junglas and City Council members. “After reflection of the past year and the monumental waste of time this council finds itself embroiled in, it became clear: What am I fighting for? The threat of a recall is of little concern to me. The prospect of a recall election and me prevailing is what terrifies me.

“My last day on the City Council will be May 7, 2025,” he wrote. “This will allow for an orderly process for Ward 1 residents to formulate a campaign, run and be elected without the additional cost of a special election.”

In an email to BizWest Thursday afternoon, Kim Overholt, the city’s manager of communications and engagement, wrote that “there’s no formal process for resignation, so until he vacates the position, he holds it.

“Will the recall election move forward? Yes,” she wrote. “As long as Councilor Krenning serves in his position, hasn’t vacated it, and the recall committee has not withdrawn their petition, the recall election will proceed as required, consistent with our statutory obligation.”

Former Loveland City Council member Dave Clark and two other Ward 1 residents in June launched a successful petition drive in an attempt to recall Krenning. Clark was also a plaintiff along with seven others including former City Council members Don Overcash, Richard Ball, John Fogle and Chauncey Taylor who sued the current City Council, seeking the ouster of Mayor Jacki Marsh, Mayor Pro Tem Jon Mallo and council members Krenning, Erin Black and Laura Light-Kovacs, alleging that they violated the city charter on Nov. 21, 2023, by not calling for a public vote before their vote to rescind the urban-renewal and financing agreements for McWhinney Real Estate Services’ proposed Centerra South development that the previous council had approved in April and May 2023.

In October, a Larimer District Court judge dismissed that lawsuit as well as another targeting the council majority, and Krenning has pushed the city attorney’s office to demand that the plaintiffs compensate the city for the money it has spent to defend itself.

Krenning has drawn continued fire from development and other business interests in Loveland since taking office. Two weeks after he was elected, he 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.

A majority of Loveland voters in November 2023 who looked less favorably on the city’s favorable treatment of McWhinney and Centerra South ousted Overcash, Ball and Fogle, elected Krenning, Black and Light-Kovacs, and also approved the citizen-initiated Ballot Issue 301, which gave voters the final say on urban-renewal plans.

In September, a hearing officer appointed by the City Council denied Krenning’s protest of the recall petition, but Krenning pursued the case in district court, and the city couldn’t place the recall question on the Nov. 5 ballot or schedule a special election until his appeals were exhausted.

“Last spring, I had told the mayor I intended to resign last August so the election could run its due course and someone could fill the Ward 1 seat,” Krenning told BizWest on Thursday, Dec. 5. “About a month later I learned that Don Overcash and Dave Clark were staging this recall, and I’m not one to walk away from a fight, so I let them proceed to spend $60,000 to go out, get their recall petitions signed and try to rush through a recall so they could get that seat filled by one of their supporters.

“I filed an appeal to try and get the election for the seat so it would be coordinated with another election that wouldn’t cost the city money,” Krenning said.

He described the current council as “a dysfunctional body that produces zero results in making Loveland a better place. And then after Tuesday night and this meltdown over this audit of Centerra, and this absolute sham of an investigation concerning Erin Black and our police chief, I decided that prolonging my exodus from City Council would benefit nobody, in particular me.”

After three hours of heated debate on Tuesday, the council majority voted to fund the Loveland Urban Renewal Authority’s proposed audit of the original Centerra urban renewal area and its 25-year financing plan that ends in 2029. The LURA board in October selected consultant Ernst and Young to conduct the audit, which city staff estimates will cost nearly $250,000. The council also is dealing with a harassment complaint filed against Black by Police Chief Tim Doran.

Overholt wrote Thursday that since Krenning had withdrawn his appeal of the recall, “the recall election will proceed. Two resolutions will be brought to City Council on Dec. 17 to address the ballot. One is to call for a special election and the other is to set the date of the recall election consistent with state law.”

However, Krenning declared that “there won’t be a recall election.

“My resignation is fluid,” he said. “I could resign today, I could resign the night before a recall election. So it really boils down to whether Dave Clark and Don Overcash want to force the city to spend upwards of $150,000 to hold a special election in Ward 1. 

“I happily will resign the seat sometime around May 7,” he said. “Then the city doesn’t have to stage a special election, and anybody interested in replacing that empty seat would have the appropriate amount of time to campaign, put together a campaign and be elected.”.

In the interim, he said, “the council can appoint whoever they want to have that seat. That’s exactly what we did when Hugh McKean stepped down [in 2017] and we appointed Steve Olson to that seat.”

Besides, Krenning said, “I’ve accomplished my objectives. When I ran two years ago, I made no secret about my objectives, which were to get a competent, professional, trustworthy leadership for Loveland in place, and we’ve done that. We got rid of an ineffective, incompetent city attorney,” he said, referring to Moses Garcia, with whom Krenning, the only attorney on the current council, tussled over the legality of the Centerra South agreements.

Referring to the departed Steve Adams, Krenning added, “We also got rid of an ineffective, incompetent city manager. We have a brand new fresh start coming on board.”

James Thompson, who has been city manager in Scottsdale, Arizona, will become Loveland city manager on Dec. 30, and Junglas has ascended to the top job in the city attorney’s office.

“The other reason I ran,” Krenning said, “was that I was sick and tired of watching the weekly beatdown of Jacki Marsh, and I’ve been able to stop that.

“Whether I’m on council for five more minutes or five more months, I’ll keep doing what I do, calling out the b—s— and holding people accountable,” Krenning said. “Being on City Council is not the high water in my life’s accomplishment. I consider it a very small payback for all that Loveland has given to me.

“But this town has been heavily influenced by special interests, and the pushback is by the same special interests who feel like they’re losing their grip and their control on City Hall,” he said.

“This financial audit that we have teed up is causing sheer panic for a number of people in Loveland, and it ought to,” he said. “If the audit discovers material breaches of the master financial agreement, the city won’t be paying for the audit. They’ll be reimbursed by the developer.”

In a decision that could again tip the balance of power in Loveland city government, Troy Krenning has dropped his appeal of a recall petition that seeks to oust him from the City Council and has announced that he will resign his Ward 1 council seat, effective May 7.

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With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
Categories: Government & Politics Loveland Sunday Weekly Today's News Centerra Centerra South Chauncey Taylor Dave Clark Don Overcash Erin Black Hugh McKean James Thompson John Fogle Kimberly Overholt Laura Light-Kovacs Loveland City Council McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. Moses Garcia Richard Ball Steve Adams Steve Olson Tim Doran Troy Krenning Vince Junglas
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