Parks Head Dannemiller Dum
ped By Hancock
Kevin Flynn
by Charles C. Bonniwell
Neighborhood activist Wayne New will be sworn in as a Denver City Councilman on July 20, 2015, after a battle royale runoff against Mayor Michael Hancock’s handpicked candidate Anna Jones, a former member of the Denver Planning Commission, in a close vote 52% to 48%. The mayor and his real estate developer and lobbyist backers pulled out all stops to defeat New even going as far as bringing in the State Democratic Party to weigh in on the election. The party faithful canvassed neighborhoods to assert that New had at one time been a Republican and had given U.S. Senator Cory Gardner $250 in his election race.
The tactic may have backfired as some local Democrats resented the mayor trying to turn a nonpartisan municipal race into a partisan one. Numerous leading Democrats across the city began endorsing New. The fact that Jones was the mayor’s pick and had been a member of the ethically challenged Denver Planning Commission hurt her with some voters. The Denver Planning Commission all of whose members are appointed by the mayor, has in re
cent years been seen as little more than a rubber stamp for real estate developers’ plans to massively increase density throughout the city. Jones, in turn, attacked New claiming he did not give enough attention to developing more affordable housing in the 10th District which covers Cherry Creek North, the Golden Triangle and Congress Park.
Money For Jones, Volunteers For New
While Mayor Hancock and his allies such as Steve Farber of Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, LLC and Maria Garcia Berry of CRL Associates were raising unprecedented amounts of money for Jones (in excess of $135,000 according to The Denver Post election Campaign Finance Report) nei
ghborhood groups throughout the city were mobilizing on behalf of New. Rafael Espinoza the winner in the general election over incumbent Susan Shepherd in District 1 not only endorsed New but sent scores of his volunteer army to the 10th District to knock on doors and get out the vote for New. Backers of former Washington Park Profile publisher Paul Kashmann who defeated the mayor’s candidate, Liz Adams, in District 6 in the May 5 General Election also volunteered for New as well as back-
ers of upset victor Tim O’Brien who will be the new City Auditor. One of the key Kashmann and O’Brien supporters who worked the Golden Triangle neighborhood for New was popular former Denver Councilwomen Kathleen McKenzie.
Despite the victory of New, as well as other neighborhood oriented candidates, it is not clear whether things will change at City Hall. Trish Abbott declared, “We now have three people who will fight for our neighborhoods — New, Espinoza and Kashmann — and they will fight the sleaze and corruption at City Hall.” Abbott cautioned however, “In the same election the so-called ‘dirty d
uo’ of Stacie Gilmore and Kendra Black also won seats and they will do as instructed by Farber and Garcia and of course real estate developer Pat Hamill.”
It is also unclear which side the former Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin Flynn, who won in the 2nd District, is on. Both he and his opponent John Kidd were support-
ed by the real estate developers and lobbyists. Nobody knows for sure whether he will join the three recently elected pro neighborhood councilmen or fall under the sway of the mayor. Espinoza indicated that th
e pro neighborhood group of councilmembers is also looking for allies among re-elected members and they have hopes for Councilwoman-at-Large Debbie Ortega and re-elected Councilman Paul Lopez.
Dannemiller Dumped
In a separate but perhaps related move, Mayor Hancock refused to reappoint Lauri Dannemiller as the head of Parks and Recreation. The controversial Dannemiller had destroyed her reputation with some by refusing to follow her Parks and Recreation Advisory Board vote not to sell off Hentzell Park land for a development supported by Mayor Hancock. She also helped the mayor throw independent pro-park members off the Parks Advisory Board who voted against the mayor and helped put on the Board real estate lobbyists like Marcus Pachner.
Some neighborhood activists were surprised. “Lauri Dannemiller became a loathed individual in many circles in Denver for giving away the Hentzell Park land and destroying the independence of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board,” stated Abbott. “She did the mayor’s bidding and then he unceremoniously dumped her. She has become badly damaged goods, thanks to the mayor and now she is unemployed and perhaps unemployable.”
Other observers, however, see a greater long-term plan by the mayor. Larry Stevenson, the best man at Mayor Hancock’s wedding and the asserted godfather to Hancock’s son, held a key job at the city’s Excise and Licensing Department, but was at the end of April indicted for two counts of bribery by the Denver District Attorney. The indictment states businessmen were introduced to Stevenson as Hancock’s “right hand man” and someone Mayor Hancock would go to when “he needed something done.”
The mayor’s office has denied a recent close relationship between Mayor Hancock and Stevenson, but most observers confirm that Scott Gilmore and the mayor are close friends and has become according to some circles one of the men the mayor goes to when “he needs something done.”
Gilmore was the second in charge of Parks and Recreation behind Lauri Dannemiller. More than a few eyebrows were raised when the Mayor urged Scott Gilmore’s wife, Stacie, to run for the District 11 City Council seat in northeast Denver that Hancock once held and still remains a strong influence. Gilmore and her husband have previously been the recipient of city favoritism in the form of city contracts for over $500,000 to the corporation Environmental Learning for Kids, established by the couple in 1999.
The dismissal of Dannemiller places Gilmore as the head of Parks and Recreation at least for the interim. Whether Hancock would be brazen enough to place his personal friend Gilmore as the permanent head of the floundering Parks and Recreation Department while Gilmore’s wife sits on the City Council is unknown, but would at least provide a viable rationale for the Dannemiller dismissal.