This Time Regarding Park Hill Golf Course

by Glen Richardson

Lawsuit - Players on Park Hill GC 7-16 Notwithstanding the fact that Denver District Court judges appear to many to view themselves as little more than employees of Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration, former Colorado Attorney General J.D. McFarlane has filed suit to attempt to prevent the Hancock administration from turning a significant portion of Park Hill Golf Club into a stormwater detention facility. McFarlane is represented by attorney Aaron Goldhamer of the law firm of Jones & Keller P.C. Goldhamer is a candidate for the position of representative for State House District 8. He is a Yale undergraduate and obtained his law degree from Georgetown University.

The lawsuit is brought against the city, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, Parks Executive Director “Happy Haynes” and Jose Cornejo, the manager of Public Works. The lawsuit charges that the city engaged in a corrupt scheme to place an industrial-level stormwater detention facility on the Park Hill golf course in furtherance of the I-70 expansion which violates the Denver City Charter and common law governing municipal use of the public parkland.

The 14-page “Complaint” lays out in plain and stark language a fraudulent scheme by the City of Denver and its offi-

cers and officials to aid private developers and landowners adjoining the proposed I-70 expansion and undergrounding at the expense of Denver neighborhoods and Park Hill Golf Club.

The Complaint exposes that the City lied to the public and the neighborhoods in its assertion that it was attempting to protect the Cole and Montclair neighborhoods from potential stormwater and drainage harm due to severe flooding. The complaint notes that it suddenly changed from the normal five-year protection to 100-year protection which only applies to federal highway projects and which is cost prohibitive and unneeded for cities like Denver which are located in a semi-arid environment.

The Complaint reveals the city attempted to fool the public by showing pictures of Katrina-type flooding in areas unrelated to the drainage. Denver further failed to make clear that significant flooding in northeast Denver will still occur according to the Complaint even after tens of millions are spent.Lawsuit - JD McFarland 7-16

The Complaint also asserts that the funding for the project also appears to violate Article X Sec. 20 of the Colorado Constitution (the Tabor Amendment) and while no claims regarding the same were asserted in the Complaint, McFarlane “reserves the right to amend this Complaint to assert such a claim.”

The Complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief preventing the partial destruction of City Park Golf Course.

The Denver District Court Judge hearing the case is Michael J. Vallejos, a University of Colorado graduate for both his undergraduate and legal degrees, who before coming to the bench, served as a Deputy State Public Defender. His qualifications to some seem in part to mirror those of Denver District Court Judge Shelley I. Gilman, known as the so-called “Pro Corruption Judge,” whose alleged disgraceful behavior at the hearing on April 22 caused many attendees to give up all hope that a Denver District Court judge could be a fair and impartial arbiter of any dispute regarding the Hancock Administration which appears to some to wholly control what is supposed to be an independent judiciary within the City and County of Denver.

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