Brian Vogt
In letters and e-mails to the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, readers have asked us if we remember as many people working for the City and County of Denver that are totally devoid of ethics and competency as there are under Mayor Hancock. We admit that individuals like Lauri Dannemiller, the Manager of Parks and Recreation; Scott Martinez, City Attorney; and Brad Buchanan, Executive Director of Community Planning and Development, are sadly lacking in the skills and morals that any decent administration would seek along with many of the Mayor’s disgraceful appointments at the Sheriff’s Department. But that does not mean there are not tremendous people who work for the City and County of Denver.
One of the greatest of the public servants in Denver is Brian Vogt, the CEO of Denver Botanic Gardens. Appointed in 2007 to his post during the Hickenlooper administration he hit the ground running at the Botanic Gardens and hasn’t let up. In addition to being a highly adept businessman and administrator his warm outgoing personality has won the Botanic Gardens myriads of friends in the areas around the facility which has not always had the best of neighborhood relations. Given the enormous growth involving construction at the Botanic Gardens during his tenure the good neighborhood relations is no small feat.
Vogt came to his position as the ninth CEO of the Botanic Gardens with extraordinary curriculum vitae. He went to the University of Colorado at Boulder and spent a year in England studying Greek Stoic Epicurean philosophy. He served for 14 years as the president of the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, growing that organization into a regional powerhouse. He occupied three cabinet positions in Governor Bill Owens’ administration including the director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development where he supervised the Colorado Tourism Office and the Colorado Council on the Arts. After leaving the employ of government when Bill Ritter came to the governor’s office he had his own consulting company, ProCounsel Co. LLC. where he was able to understand the challenges of running a small business up close and personal.
He needed all of his skills developed over a lifetime when he began his hegemony over the organization. Attendance was down with a perennial lack of funds for projects and poor morale among the employees. He first addressed staff concerns by providing opportunities for employees to use their own initiative for projects which paid enormous dividends for the Gardens. He then hit the street looking for additional funding, a task that is an ongoing critical part of this job. He discovered he was good, very good, at raising funds for the Botanic Gardens.
As a result of the fundraising efforts, there began an $80 Million Master Plan Development Plan which included a badly needed three story parking garage, a visitor’s center, a greenhouse and a Children’s Garden that has been a spectacular hit. The building and renewing has never stopped and this last year a Japanese Garden and a Bonsai Pavilion and Tea Garden opened up.
Making the Gardens a fresh new and abundant experience is all part of the challenge. Having overseen the Colorado Council on the Arts he recognized how the visual arts could greater further the Botanic Gardens mission of bringing plants and people together. He brought in the sculptures of Henry Moore to the Gardens in 2010 to rave reviews. In 2014 came the incredible art of Dale Chihuly to the Gardens which to Vogt’s delight the exhibit was controversial to some greatly increasing attendance. The exhibit was such a success that Chihuly himself came last month to the Gardens and generous donors paid for one of the sculptures to be permanently installed.
The difference between Brian Vogt and Brad Buchanan, Scott Martinez and Laura Danamiller is that the former is trying to make something great for the people of the City and County of Denver and Colorado as a whole while the latter are individuals hoping to line their own pockets or at least are so desperate for a government sinecure they will do anything to retain their jobs.
We all would like to think that the majority of the employees of the city are closer to an admirable Brian Vogt than a widely reviled Brad Buchanan. Yes the appointees of Mayor Michael Hancock are by and large a disappointment to all honorable citizens of the city but they are only a fraction of the whole. Hancock and his real estate developer overlords hold sway today but even they will pass on and hopefully there will be enough Brian Vogt types who will remain for a great city to build anew from all the damage that the greed and avarice of the Michael Hancock era has brought.
— Editorial Board