Boulder Business Lawyers

Municipal power is cheap in Longmont, but not Boulder

Come November, Boulder voters will be asked whether they want to throw the city’s franchise with Xcel Energy under the bus and set up a municipal electric utility in its place. Voters will also be asked to double the city’s carbon tax (to 0.99 cent from 0.49 cent), mostly to pay the lawyers who will be handling the Boulder-Xcel divorce.

(Yeah, I know the “throwing under the bus” metaphor has been over-used to the point of nausea, but in this case it seems apt. That’s because until RTD took over bus service in the mid-1970s, Xcel’s predecessor company, Public Service Co. of Colorado, operated Boulder’s local buses. But we digress.)

Municipal power, huh? Well I’ve been living in Longmont for the past five years where we have it, and I can’t say enough good things about it.

Longmont has had municipal power for 99 years, and we pay a lot less for our electricity than people in Boulder do. A 2010 survey conducted by the Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities found that Longmont had the lowest rates in Colorado for residential, large commercial and industrial electric service, and the second-lowest rates for small commercial service. Longmont’s residential rate is about 30 percent less than what Boulder residents pay to Xcel. Power to the people, I say.

Of course, municipal power in Boulder won’t be anything like that. Boulder’s rates would be a lot higher than Longmont’s.

The reason Longmont’s rates are so low is not just because Longmont Power & Communications is a nonprofit corporation. It is because Longmont Power & Communications is a nonprofit corporation that gets 73 percent of the electricity it sells from coal-fired power plants. And most of the coal that goes into those plants — the big one is the Rawhide Energy Station, with 280 megawatts of coal-fired capacity — comes from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, the cheapest coal in North America. As of July 11, Powder River Basin coal was selling for $14.60 a ton on the spot market. For comparison, West Virginia coal was selling for more than $78 a ton at the time.

Boulder Co Small Business Lawyer Recovering Leased Equipment

Bars and restaurants are notorious for struggling and going belly-up.

This fact sometimes results in losses for vendors that lease ice machines and other personal property to beleaguered businesses. A struggling restaurant owner may stiff a vendor/lessor on several months worth of rent and fail to cooperate in allowing the lessor to enter the building and retrieve valuable equipment.

In Colorado, such a lessor may recover damages for past rent and obtain an order for possession of the personal property by filing a “Replevin” action in a civil court. Under Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure (C.R.C.P.) 104, a plaintiff must establish, among other things, that he owns the property or is entitled to possession of the property.

If the plaintiff meets Colorado law’s requirements, a judge will set the matter for a hearing, granting the defendant/lessee an opportunity to “show cause why the property should not be taken from the defendant and delivered to the plaintiff.” (See C.R.C.P. 104(c)).

Following this “show cause hearing”, a judge “shall consider the showing made by the parties appearing, and shall make a preliminary determination of which party, with reasonable probability, is entitled to possession, use, and disposition of the property pending final adjudication of the claims of the parties.” (See C.R.C.P. 104(g)).

Again, the judge is only making a preliminary determination in the show cause hearing — i.e. the case is not over and the Court has a duty to hold a trial unless the plaintiff and defendant reach an agreement. In fact, failure of the defendant to make an appearance at the show cause hearing “does not constitute a default in the main action.” (See C.R.C.P. 104(g)). In other words, the show must go on.

Following the show cause hearing, the judge has discretion to issue an order of possession, directing the sheriff to seize the property and retain it in his custody until the case is ultimately decided.

A defendant actually can get the property back from the sheriff, at least temporarily, under certain conditions, before the Court holds a full-fledged trial.

The good news for plaintiffs? Struggling defendants/lessees aren’t likely to vigorously defend a Replevin action, particularly if the plaintiff clearly owns the equipment and the defendant has failed to honor a written lease agreement by neglecting to pay rent or otherwise breaching the contract.

The American lawyer

Colorado lawyer

Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory

Lawyers' reports annotated

BoogarLists, Directory of Business Law Firms