by Ashe in America | Aug 28, 2023 | Feature Story Bottom Left
ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
At the GOP State Central Committee meeting on August 5, the new Finance Committee read out their first Financial Report. While last month I speculated about the obstruction, the report’s findings paint a more corrupt and scandalous picture.
The election took place on March 11, and the (peaceful) transfer of power was expected to begin immediately. The Finance Committee got started on April 1, but they didn’t gain access to the financial accounts of the party until April 14 when four accounts were turned over by the prior administration, which withheld access for more than a month. But that’s not all.
In early May, as the new team was preparing to file their April FEC report, the new finance team discovered additional accounts that were not previously disclosed. I will refer to these three additional accounts as the “hidden accounts.” The new administration was added to these accounts on May 4, nearly two months after they assumed the leadership of the party.
If that doesn’t convince you the prior administration was obstructing the new leadership, consider that access to the party’s QuickBooks account was never turned over. It still hasn’t been. The new administration received an older version of QuickBooks from the accountant on May 12, but it is not the most up to date, and there is critical information missing.
What information? Well, as I reported last month, the prior administration paid themselves bonuses after suffering a horrifying defeat in the 2022 midterms. The December 2022 statement indicated a “payroll bonus” of $45,000.00, but the specifics of how this sum —comprising nearly half of the previously reported funds — was distributed.
Those specifics would need to be pulled from the payroll system. You can guess what happened next. The payroll administrator is refusing to turn over the access information, and the payroll company, iSolvedHCM, is refusing to grant access to the new administration.
My sources in the GOP will not name the administrator. They would only describe her —– they used female pronouns — as a “long time employee” of the party who represented “the institutional memory that served multiple administrations.”
As for the payroll company, it took the new party leadership significant digging to even determine who the vendor was, and they had to threaten them legally to get the W-2 and 941 tax forms required to file the party’s taxes. To date, they still refuse to send the ledger, so the specifics of outgoing funds remain a mystery. The administrator still refuses to share the username and password.
It’s clearly obstruction — but not just obstruction. There is evidence of corruption —waste, fraud, and abuse.
Waste: The party was paying nearly $800/mo for three storage units that were mostly empty. One of the storage units appears to be full of garbage from the images. That’s $9,600 per year in wasted funds!
Fraud: The day before the election, emails show that the statements for the health insurance were changed to go to the administrator’s home address, and the financial account was changed to one of the hidden accounts. The administrator prepaid a year of insurance premiums, at a time when there were no employees, and then hid the transactions and the statements. The premiums were also significantly larger.
Abuse: In the month of April, an undisclosed person charged hundreds of dollars to the party’s FedEx account. There was no activity from the new administration, no official party business that explains these charges. This person appeared to be using the account for personal reasons more than a month after the election. Was this a common practice during the prior administration?
My sources declined to comment on whether they will bring legal action against the prior administration. They are focused on restoring the party to the people and cleaning up the financial mess left by Kristi Burton Brown and her team.
But make no mistake that it’s a scandalous mess. The new administration had to explicitly make a new rule that, “No employee writes a check to her/himself again.” Hard to imagine a serious professional environment with such a practice. No wonder the Colorado GOP has failed Republican voters for years.
It remains to be seen if the new leadership can restore the public’s trust.
Ashe Epp is a writer and activist. You can find all her work at Linktree.com/asheinamerica
by Glendale Sports Center | Aug 28, 2023 | Glendale City News
Photo: Courtesy of the YMCA of Metro Denver
by Angelica Rodriguez Luna, Marketing Manager, YMCA of Metro Denver
Are you a parent of a teenager looking for a program that challenges your child, gives them a chance to grow as a leader, builds friendships, and makes an impact your community? Look no further than our YMCA Service Project program!
What does your teen gain from the program?
- Develop Leadership Skills: Through the Y Service Project, teens gain invaluable leadership skills that will benefit them in all aspects of life. Whether it’s project planning, effective communication, team collaboration, or problem-solving, the program provides a hands-on learning experience!
- Make Positive Change: By being actively involved in planning and executing a service project, kids can address issues that matter to them and witness the positive impact of their efforts firsthand.
- Build Lasting Friendships: The Y Service Project is not just about community service; it’s also about building a tight-knit community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for making a difference. Teens forge bonds with other teens (often from different schools and communities), share experiences, and create memories.
- Earn Community Service Hours: As if all the personal growth and rewarding experiences weren’t enough, the Y Service Project also allows teens to earn community service hours for school or other organizations.
“Be courageous, be respectful” is what one teen had to say about her involvement in the YMCA Service Project program.
What kind of projects will teens take part in?
Teens can do anything, from assisting with the YMCA’s Beyond Hunger Food Pantry Program, to volunteering at a shelter/kitchen, to supporting a community garden. So, consider empowering your teen to lead the way and join like-minded students in the YMCA’s program this fall. Also, learn more about the Youth in Government program offered by the YMCA. Get the details at https://denverymca.org/teen-programs.
by Peter Boyles | Aug 28, 2023 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
John Bandimere and Peter Boyles
We’ve seen the final Mile High National Drag Races at the legendary Bandimere Speedway. After all of these years and all of the racing that took place, John Bandimere, by the way one of the best guys I’ve ever known, announced that piece of American drag racing in Colorado is over.
There was a time in my life that I think I could have eaten grease. We knew cars. Chronicle publisher Chuck Bonniwell and I have many times talked about our love affair with cars and both of us remember car dealers making big deals about the new models that came out in the fall. The local Chevy dealer, A to Z Chevrolet on Allegheny Boulevard, would cover the windows with newspaper and say how many days before the new models were revealed. And it was a Saturday, and they would tear the paper down, and we’d be all lined up in the street to see. Car magazines like Car and Driver would come and we seriously studied the ’57 Chevys versus ’57 Fords.
Last Sunday I went to a car show, believe it or not, in Fairmount Cemetery. A perfect place. There were ’58, ’59 Cadillacs, Broughams, convertibles, and such wonderful automotive products like Larks, Gremlins, and the ever-popular Dodge Dart. Who bought those?
We were carheads and we talked about cars, and I’ve said this on the television show that I did with John Bandimere. One of the guys that I grew up with, we’ve reconnected. His name is Tom Holmes. His dad owned the Atlantic gas station and tragically passed away young. Tom was a tough kid and now we talk and one of the questions I’ve pondered is, who did we look up to? Who did we, in the early ’60s in Pittsburgh, look up to? The kid with the cooler car. And Tom and I have asked each other what was it that we wanted when we graduated from high school and we wanted a nice car, mind you, not a new car. A girlfriend and a little bit of money in our pockets. Not $10,000 in the bank, or a hundred dollars in your wallet.
We would have been more than happy. But it had to do with having that car.
I actually had a 1955 Chevrolet convertible. And I saw one at this car show and you instantly trip back to that time period.
And Detroit knew to put a beautiful woman in their car ads and she was known as “the promise.” “You buy this car you’ll get this woman.” And she always had on a prom dress or a one-piece bathing suit in high heels. Go figure.
And you wonder why all these guys that are my age are nuts today.
And now I think it’s coming to an end. The greens hate internal combustion, they intensely dislike automobile racing on any and all levels.
I had the ability at one time to tell you any car I saw on the road — what engine was in it, what year it was, and who made it. Today in parking lots they all seem, I hesitate to say this, they all look alike to me. We have a running gag how do you tell a Tesla driver? The answer is don’t worry he’ll tell you. I’m still driving a pickup truck and getting a new motorcycle and going out to get louder pipes for it, the legendary neighbor hater pipes.
It’s sad to see the end of an era. Both of my children drive sensible cars. One of the things I can say when Tom and I were kids, nobody had a sensible car. In the words of the legend Chuck Bonniwell, “I never had a sensible car till I was 50.”
So long John Bandimere, goodbye to a golden era.
— Peter Boyles
