Loveland sets March 4 for Krenning recall election

LOVELAND — With council member Troy Krenning recusing himself from its deliberation on Tuesday night, eight members of the Loveland City Council unanimously approved scheduling a special election on March 4 on whether to recall Krenning but rejected accepting his conditional resignation on a 4-4 tie vote.

Since Krenning on Dec. 4 dropped his appeal of the successful recall petition, city attorney Vince Junglas told council members that the city is required by state statute to schedule the recall election within 90 days, which his office has projected could cost the city up to $250,000.

Krenning said last week he intended to resign effective next May, deliberately selecting a date less than six months before the city’s regular Nov. 4, 2025 election, ostensibly to save Loveland taxpayers the cost of a special election by having the City Council appoint a temporary replacement for the Ward 1 seat but also attempting to force the petitioners to drop their recall effort.

Junglas said Krenning informed him, Mayor Jacki Marsh and acting City Clerk Angie Sprang in writing on Tuesday, Dec. 17, that he would resign effective at 12:01 a.m. May 8, and that the vacancy for his seat should be filled according to the Loveland City Charter’s municipal election code. Should the recall effort proceed, Krenning wrote, “my resignation shall be withdrawn and I will challenge the recall.”

Therefore, Junglas said, “his resignation would be contingent upon the recall committee not moving forward. So the recall committee’s in the driver’s seat here.

“The only way a recall election does not occur is if there is an ‘act of God’ or if the recall committee decides to withdraw their petition,” Junglas said, “in which case they would have up until 30 days prior to the election, or Feb. 3.

“Until the council formally accepts whatever his resignation is, whether it’s conditional or not,” Junglas said, “it really doesn’t become effective because what we have currently is nothing more than a plan to resign. That’s all we have from Councilor Krenning at this juncture.”

Former Loveland City Council member Dave Clark and two other Ward 1 residents last June launched a successful petition drive in an attempt to recall Krenning. 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.

However, on Dec. 4, Krenning withdrew his appeal of the recall petition and announced that he would resign his Ward 1 council seat in May.

During the public comment period, Clark noted the 2,100 signatures his group had gathered, and told the council that “the only way we could accept his resignation is that he’s out the door. We will not stop the recall process until that happens. If he is not here, then we will stop this recall.”

Junglas said getting one’s name on the recall election ballot only requires the signatures of 25 registered Ward 1 voters, but those petitions would have to be turned in to the City Clerk’s office by Jan. 6 so ballots can be printed and mailed to Loveland voters living abroad in time for their ballots to be returned and counted.

If Krenning were to withdraw his resignation, Junglas said, a court might find him liable under the legal doctrine of “estoppel,” which prevents a person from going back on his or her word.

One council member, Steve Olson, described Krenning’s tactics as “the three Ds: delay, denial and deflect,” although another, Laura Light-Kovacs, noted that “there were some councilors putting up a pretty big fuss about $250,000 in the last item.”

In a previous action Tuesday night, the council voted 5-4, with Krenning present, to give final approval to paying accountant Ernst and Young $249,000 to conduct an audit of the 20-year-old plan that financed the original Centerra development.

Clark also was 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 Marsh, Mayor Pro Tem Jon Mallo and council members Krenning, Light-Kovacs and Erin Black, 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 Inc.’s 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.

Loveland resident Gail Randall made reference to those lawsuits during the public comment period Tuesday night, noting that “we’ve already paid $144,000 for all your lawsuits that have gotten kicked out of court.

“This is a grudge match,” she said. “You won. He’s leaving office, and I’m not sure what the public gets for $250,000 just to force him out.

“Every time someone gets a whim, we pay,” Randall said. “We’re just blowing money out the wazoo for dumb stuff.”

However, noting that Junglas had itemized about $60,000 its office has spent as a result of Krenning’s appeals of the recall petition, council member Andrea Samson said Krenning “already has cost the city 60 grand when he could have resigned 60 grand ago.”

What if Krenning were to withdraw his resignation and then survive the recall election? Would the recall committee regret costing the city up to a quarter-million dollars on a recall election that didn’t go its way?

In a text message received by BizWest late Tuesday night, Overcash said, “No.”

“That is the risk of democracy,” he wrote, “but at least citizens will have had the opportunity to participate.”

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