Plans to ask Fort Collins voters if the city may provide high-speed internet service through a municipal utility have hit a legal snag.

Community activist Eric Sutherland filed a petition in Larimer County District Court to contest the ballot language for the broadband proposal approved by City Council. The question is supposed to be on the Nov. 7 ballot.

In a petition filed Aug. 21, Sutherland claimed the city “failed to consider the public confusion that might be caused by misleading language” in the ballot question as it relates to several areas, including the issuance of bonds to pay for building a fiber-optic network.

Allegations in Sutherland’s complaint include that the ballot language does not adhere to requirements in the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, or TABOR amendment to the state constitution.

In a response to the petition filed Aug. 24, attorneys representing the city denied Sutherland’s allegations in general and specifically rejected his TABOR claims.

The ballot measure, which asks if the City Charter should be amended to allow a utility that would provide telecommunication services, is not covered by TABOR, according to the city’s response. If approved, the measure would not require the City Council to establish the utility. It also would allow the city to partner with a third party to provide services.

The city requested an expedited hearing on the case to resolve it as quickly as possible. The deadline for certifying the city’s Nov. 7 ballot with the Larimer County clerk is Sept. 8.

The city also asked that both sides be allowed to submit written legal briefs explaining their positions prior to a hearing.

Sutherland has been a plaintiff in eight cases filed in District Court since 2014. He has challenged the city, Larimer County, Poudre School District, and Thompson School District on various election-related issues.

Sutherland has represented himself; he has yet to prevail.

His case against Poudre School District concerning a 2016 voter-approved bond issue to build schools has been appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Kevin Duggan is a Coloradoan senior reporter covering local government. Follow him on Twitter, @coloradoan_dugg, and on Facebook at Coloradoan Kevin Duggan.

Broadband question

Charter Amendment No. 1 proposed by the city of Fort Collins for the Nov. 7 ballot:

“Shall Article XII of the City of Fort Collins Charter be amended to allow, but not require, City Council to authorize, by ordinance and without a vote of the electors, the City's electric utility or a separate telecommunications utility to provide telecommunication facilities and services, including the transmission of voice, data, graphics and video using broadband Internet facilities, to customers within and outside Fort Collins, whether directly or in whole or part through one or more third-party providers, and in exercising this authority, to: (1) issue securities and other debt, but in a total amount not to exceed $150,000,000; (2) set the customer charges for these facilities and services subject to the limitations in the Charter required for setting the customer charges of other City utilities; (3) go into executive session to consider matters pertaining to issues of competition in providing these facilities and services; (4) establish and delegate to a Council-appointed board or commission some or all of the Council's governing authority and powers granted in this Charter amendment, but not the power to issue securities and other debt; and (5) delegate to the City Manager some or all of Council's authority to set customer charges for telecommunication facilities and services?”