Audit: Denver City Planning Running Amok

Audit: Denver City Planning Running Amok

by | Aug 30, 2017 | Main Articles

The Department Directed By Brad Buchanan Is A fiasco And Failure Auditor’s Report States

Hancock Attacks City Auditor Tim O’Brien Claiming He ‘Misrepresented Audit Findings’

by Glen Richardson

City Auditor Timothy O’Brien hit a massive nerve in the Hancock Administration when he elected to do a routine audit of the Community Planning and Development’s Building Permit process. It was the 17th audit of Denver city operations by the City Auditor this year alone but the backlash from the Mayor’s office was extraordinary.

In his press release the City Auditor stated, “Long wait times and disorganized filing systems are delaying the issuance of building permits as intensive development continues in Denver.”

The Mayor’s office then sent a scathing letter attacking O’Brien declaring “your office issued a press release that politicized, dramatized and in some cases misrepresented the audit findings.”

The Mayor then declared, “The result of pushing out this promotion with no recognition of the improvements and innovations implemented and underway is that the employees are needlessly undermined.”

Reason For Mayor’s Reaction

The extreme reaction of a usually somnolent Denver Mayor Michael Hancock can only be understood say insiders by understanding that the Planning Department is run by the highly controversial Executive Director Brad Buchanan. He is accused by neighborhood leaders of selling out the citizens and neighborhoods of Denver in favor of high density developers and having a history of alleged ethical improprieties.

They cite the deliberate refusal to consider the impact of parking and

traffic concerns in the approval process in order to create greater profitability for developers. Buchanan’s quixotic interpretation of a minor change in the City’s planning code regarding small lots set off a micro unit development explosion. In a highly unusual slap at Buchanan, the City Council earlier this year rejected his proposed pro developer compromise and adopted one proposed by community groups.

Buchanan’s Incompetence

The City Auditor’s claim that Buchanan is simply incompetent in undertaking the mundane tasks of his Planning Department set Buchanan “off the deep end” according to sources within the Planning Department. Tensions are rising with the scale of new developments as cranky contractors and irritated do-it-yourselfers wait in line for hours to get permit approval to hammer, hang drywall, do masonry, carpentry and installation.

Brad Buchanan lives on a 1,500 acre ranch on Kiowa Creek an hour fro

m Denver and his purported lack of a strong work ethic and long commutes are said to hinder the Planning Department’s ability to keep pace with needed improvements.

The audit found lines to file construction permits with the department began hours before the office opens, and people have had to spend hours waiting to get help. Long wait times and disorganized filing systems are delaying the issuance of building permits as intensive development continues throughout the city. “A booming population means booming construction, and with that, a high demand for construction permits,” CPA O’Brien concludes.

Six-Month Backlog

Auditors found no defined organizational system and increased time wasted by staff searching for needed documents. Approved plans for archiving are backlogged by at least six months. Moreover, they found that although customer feedbac

k is provided and tracked, there is little or no management process for addressing the issues from customers. Furthermore, “Best practices, standardized by federal executive orders, have not been implemented.”

An audit of Planning’s Development Services division revealed inefficiencies in the permit intake process resulted in an average wait time of more than 1.5 hours for submission of a commercial or residential building permit. When compared to reported wait times in Aurora, Colorado Springs and San Diego, the division exceeds the average of 30 to 45 minutes.

The development services division also lacks a defined periodic review process of building permit fees, which are intended to partially or fully cover operational costs. Additionally, the division staff reported the City typically charges less for permits than surrounding municipalities. “This may shift some cost to the taxpayers,” the audit warns.

Rejects Technical Help

How has the City Planning Department staff responded so far to the issues identified by the City Auditor’s Office to resolve key issues?

The Department responsible for implementing visionary city planning and ensuring safe, responsible and sustainable building throughout Denver has gone into its customary slowdown syndrome. It has agreed to address the long lines by training staff, but not until the end of next year (2018).

The department also says it will begin putting together a system to update its paper filing system through organization and the use of digital storage. The department also says it will try to develop a management process to act in response to the issues being reported from customer feedback. Officials also suggest they will review the fee process the audit indicates is possibly shifting department expenditures to Denver taxpayers.

Ironically Buchanan and the Planning Department refused to work collaboratively with Technology Services, the central information technology department for the City and County of Denver. That was the final recommendation made by the City Auditor. The recommendation would have ensured that former division employee access to the internal system Accela had been revoked. Although there apparently is a secondary internal failsafe to prevent former employees from logging into the system, it is still the agency’s responsibility to notify TS of terminated employees to revoke permissions.

Mayor’s Quandary

Critics indicate that Mayor Hancock has little understanding of how Denver’s various departments actually function. The normal reaction of a Mayor in Denver to an adverse audit report from the City Auditor would be to sit down with the head of a particular department and see how improvements could be made to address the concerns raised in the audit.

But Michael Hancock is not an ordinary Mayor. He was elected primarily due to the support of Pat Hamill and other developers who have funded and run his campaigns. They put Brad Buchanan into his position of Executive Director and depend upon him and his Planning Department for most, if not all, of the real estate schemes that they want implemented.

Thus any criticism of Buchanan and his Department, no matter how mundane, from a trusted source such as the City Auditor’s office must be meet with fierce and absolute resistance. Mayor Hancock certainly signed the letter to O’Brien but few in the city government believe he wrote it or even understood much of its content. According to some the Mayor’s letter has been a public relations disaster as it has brought unwanted attention to Buchanan and his Planning Department at a time when they want to avoid public scrutiny to the greatest extent possible.

Seventh Annual Girls Rugby Camp A Big Hit

Seventh Annual Girls Rugby Camp A Big Hit

by | Aug 30, 2017 | Glendale City News

by Kurt Woock
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale

On July 17, dozens of young rugby players arrived at Infinity Park. They came from as far as California, Iowa, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Idaho. They came to play, learn, and grow in the seventh annual Girls High School Rugby Camp. “This camp gives these girls the opportunity to play more rugby with different levels of players and to get coaching from really strong women and coaches,” said Jenna Anderson, youth rugby programs manager at Infinity Park.

Great coaching is the cornerstone for all youth programming at Infinity Park. Luckily, there’s a deep pool of talent from which to draw. Glendale Rugby coaches, Raptors players, and players from the USA national team were on hand to share what they know with players whom they just might call teammates in a few years. “I think that my favorite part of this camp is the variety of coaches we bring in,” Anderson said. Young players, who might have only ever learned from one or two coaches are suddenly learning from more than a dozen coaches, each of whom has different coaching methods, skills, and experiences. This was a big deal, Anderson said, for young rugby fans, some of whom had seen or read about these top rugby players before coming to camp. “A lot of times, the girls are starstruck,” she said.

The effect of camp reverberates beyond the four days the girls were there, and the camp in some ways reaches an audience larger than those who participated. Young players bring back home with them the various skills and approach to playing they were exposed to. While growing quickly, the rugby resources available in any given area in the country probably can’t match the coaching and experience levels found in more established sports. Even a very good coach can  only offer a single perspective. Learning from many coaches, as the campers were able to do, is beneficial in itself. Camps like these can have a pollinating effect; a visitor can take her experiences back home, and those with whom she plays then have the opportunity to learn something new, raising the rugby IQ of the entire group. Anderson said that the involvement of women who are currently playing the game at the highest level makes this phenomenon that much stronger.

In addition to spending time working on specific rugby skills on Infinity Park’s main field, campers learn a holistic approach to developing a healthy lifestyle, including time spent learning about nutrition and exercise. Anderson said that coaches introduce girls to a new kind of workout every year. One year this meant working with kettlebells. Another year campers headed out to Red Rocks to battle the stairs. This year, the girls took part in a yoga class. That was in line with this year’s focus on the mental aspect of rugby.

“It’s important to understand that rugby isn’t just a physical sport; you need to take care of your body and your mind,” Anderson said. “We talked all week about how to be your best athlete, and that does not necessarily mean you want to make Team USA.” She said the coaches and players frequently talked about the importance of simply having and sticking to a plan, whether that was a plan for a practice or game, or a plan to get into college. Mealtimes at camp became a time during which coaches coached players on topics that were larger than a single on-field skill. “Each day at lunch, we talked about how to go into the field with confidence. We talked about coachability, and what coaches are looking for: Are you positive? Do you better your teammates? Do you push yourself? We talked about figuring out what your highest level is.”

During the week, campers experienced Infinity Park as if it were their home turf. For many, it was their first time playing in a stadium that big. That, plus the chance to work with some of the nation’s best coaches and players, isn’t something you’ll find at most summer sports camps. “We have all these cool things in Glendale,” Anderson said. “We want to share them.”

The eighth annual camp will take place in July 2018. Anderson always hopes to welcome new girls to camp, but she also expects to see plenty of returning campers. She said she recently heard the highest compliment about the camp from a young camper: “We had one girl who is really talented who comes back every year. And she wants to come back next year. She asked, ‘How do you guys do it? How do you have camp every year and not teach the same thing?’” That was good news for Anderson, who sets out to do just that each year. “We’re always expanding, bringing in different drills. When you do come back year after year, you’re getting a new experience. The only thing that’s the same are the facilities.”