Jeanne Price Exposed

Tapes Caught Her Allegedly Dissembling In Front Of City Council

by Mark Smiley

Denver resident Jeanne Price, who many allege to be a paid operative for Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi of M.A.K. Investment Group, LLC (M.A.K.), has been seen as a highly unpleasant fixture at Glendale City Council meetings ever since the dispute arose over M.A.K.’s desire to build a massive apartment complex on Colorado Boulevard. The City Council finally decided at the August 16, 2016, meeting to begin to expose Price for who they believe she really is.

The Chronicle reported on her activities in the February 2016 issue (“Persian Rug Merchants Have Denverite Jeanne Price Digging Hard for Dirt”).

What outraged many of the members of Glendale City Council was that fact that she approaches the podium to speak at most City Council meetings and makes what they believe at times outrageous and scurrilous allegations about City Council members and city employees during the “Public Comments” section of the meetings.

Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon stated, “The ‘Public Comment’ section of every meeting is supposed to allow for everyday citizens to be able to present their thoughts on the city and issues of concern to them. It is not for a paid operative from Denver to libel the city and everyone in it with outrageous allegations.”

Among the accusations by Price that the City Council believe to be false and libelous are, that (1) the City Council had met in “Executive Session” over half the time in the last four or five years; (2) the City Council had refused to state what matters the Executive Sessions concerned; (3) in violation of the Colorado Open Records Act, Price had been denied access to the minutes of the City Council over the last several years; and (4) the City Clerk had willfully misrepresented what she had said in prior Council meetings.

It is illegal under Colorado law for a city council to meet in executive session except for a very limited number of instances such as personnel matters or to receive legal advice concerning pending or ongoing litigation. It is also illegal not to state what subjects are to be discussed at an executive session. Finally, it is illegal under the Colorado Open Records Act to refuse to supply copies of records clearly in the public domain including minutes of public meetings.

At the August 16, 2016, meeting when Price approached the lectern to harangue the Council, the mayor indicated he wanted the City Clerk to read her exact accusation at a prior Council meeting concerning the Council convening in Executive Session over 50 percent of the time. Price quickly denied she had ever made such an allegation declaring, “I said I’d been here over the last seven or eight months and it seemed to me you spent a lot of time in Executive Session. I did not say in the last five years.”

The City Clerk then read from a transcript the recording of the meeting of what Price had, in fact, said which was, “More importantly, it’s just my observation having read four or five years of your minutes, that this Council spends more than half of its time in Executive Session, and that is a unique situation in my experience.”

Caught in what would appear to be a direct lie did not appear to phase Price. She declared, “I have a recording of what I said and what I said was ‘this Council’ with great emphasis meaning the people sitting up there last September were spending a lot of time in Executive Session, compared to other times. I have the recording. I am happy to share it with anybody.”

At the City Council meeting on September 6, 2016, the deputy city manager played the actual tape in which Price declared exactly what the City Clerk had read and not what was alleged by Price. She then told an incredulous audience that what was played was just 20 seconds of a three-minute statement. The mayor indicated the city would play the entire three minutes at the next city council meeting which would show that Price was lying once again but Price had no response.

As to the actual Executive Session allegation itself, the city clerk reported that in the last five years the City Council had met for a total of 9,660 minutes and only 395 minutes were in Executive Session or 4 percent of the time. The City stated that almost all such Executive Sessions regarded receiving legal advice concerning lawsuits filed against the city by Price’s alleged employer M.A.K. and Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi. Moreover, in contradiction of her allegation the City Council did, in fact, state what subjects were to be discussed in Executive Session each and every time.

Finally, as to Price’s allegation she was illegally denied access to copies of Council minutes, the City Clerk noted that all the minutes from 2013 forward were, in fact, up on the city website for anyone to look at and moreover pursuant to Price’s CORA request she was provided the minutes going back to 2002, as well as the actual recordings in many instances.

Mayor Mike Dunafon indicated that “it was important for the public to see who and what Jeanne Price really is, but even I did not expect to see her incredible sad pathologies so fully on display.”

“Jeanne Price’s wild accusations have become tiresome,” said Councilmember Scott Brock. “The public needs to know that these allegations are obvious lies. She has lost all credibility with this Council and she digs herself and M.A.K. a deeper hole every time she gets up to speak.”

When inquiries were made to Jeanne Price soliciting a response on her accusations and her conduct at the last several City Council meetings, she declared in an email to the Chronicle for attribution that “I love October.”