Unsuccessful Denver City Council candidate Tony Robinson and members of a local carpenters union have filed documents with the Denver Election Committee to put the planned hotel to a vote this fall. It needs 2,458 votes to get it on the ballot. Mayor Wellington Webb already had reached a settlement with the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council to prevent such a vote.

A nonprofit authority created by the city is preparing to issue $355 million in bonds for the hotel, to be built across from the expansion of the Colorado Convention Center. Robinson says that the city should negotiate a better deal to assure that workers on the hotel get better benefits for things such as health care. He said Los Angeles, which is only investing $100 million in the new hotel near the Staples center, did a much better job than the city in getting benefits for construction workers. (Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz is one of the chief investors in the Staples center and surrounding developments.)

Jim Gleason, president of the Mountain West Council of Carpenters, says the city needs "smart growth, not just growth." He says the rights of working people must be protected. But Robinson's and the carpenter's demands angered not only Webb, but is opposed but mayoral candidates John Hickenlooper and Don Mares.

Webb calls the move "extortion…If they were really concerned with the conditions of working people, they wouldn't be trying to sink working people's jobs."

Mares, the city auditor and a big union supporter, says that he told the carpenters that their actions were inappropriate and he would publicly oppose them."First of all, Mayor Webb deserves kudos for reaching what seems to be a fair and reasonable compromise," Mares tells GlobeSt.com. "This hotel must move forward."

Hickenlooper says he spent 40 minutes trying to talk Robinson out of the petition drive. Hickenlooper notes that the hotel project will not cost taxpayers any money, will be paid for by visitors, and will lower the tax burden for everyone.

He tells GlobeSt.com that if they succeed in killing the project, it will be a "sad day" for working people in Denver, who would be deprived of many high-paying job.