By Alex Burness for Boulder News - Boulder is holding off, for now, on renewing a contract with JP Morgan Chase, the city's longtime banking provider and a funder of controversial oil pipelines. Meanwhile, environmental advocates are urging Boulder to ditch JP Morgan Chase and create a public bank — an idea that will at least be discussed in concept, according to the mayor. About a year ago, the City Council passed a resolution in support of the Standing Rock Sioux and allies who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline, and in doing so also asked city finance staff to explore possibly severing ties with JP Morgan Chase, Boulder's bank since 2004. After issuing a request for proposals from banks and doing several months of exploration, staff returned in October to report to the council, via a memo, that it did not appear there were any banks both capable of handling the city's significant banking needs and up to the city's ethical standards on fossil fuels and other matters. The recommendation from staff was that Boulder extend the city's relationship with JP Morgan Chase. But the memo containing that recommendation arrived at an awkward time, Mayor Suzanne Jones said, since an election was around the corner. "I imagined that few had had time to read (the memo) and respond," Jones said this week, in an email.