by Mark Smiley | Jun 23, 2017 | Editorials
In Alexandre Dumas’ beloved historical novel The Three Musketeers, a young man named d’Artagnan travels to the capitol and joins the Three Musketeers of the Guard (Athos, Porthos and Aramis). Together they fight off the minions of Cardinal Richelieu, the evil minister to the weak King Louis XIII.
Today in Denver a modern parallel may be occurring. A young man, Jolon Clark, was elected to Denver City Council in 2015. Joining him on the Council were the Three Musketeers of the People — Wayne New, Paul Kashmann and Rafael Espinoza. The Three Musketeers were the only City Councilmembers elected without developer money and thus free to fight the good fight against the developers’ powerful corruption of Denver.
Slowly Clark began to learn of the perfidy of many of the other nine members and their lack of ethics or honesty. The “beefy, bloated and ethically challenged” director of the Orwellian named “Denver Community Planning Development Director” Brad Buchanan makes a perfect evil Cardinal Richelieu to the weak head of state, Mayor Michael Hancock.
The first real battle that Jolon Clark and the Three Musketeers have fought together was against the small lot exemption being used by Buchanan for his real estate developer friends to build micro-housing cells free from any parking requirements. This would have made finding on-street parking in some neighborhoods difficult, if not impossible, during certain times.
The residents fighting this proposal had gone to duplicitous Council President (and mayor-in-waiting) Albus Brooks who pretended to be their friend but intended to destroy their cause with a phony moratorium. In Dumas’ novel Albus Brooks would be the treacherous Richelieu spy Milady de Winter. Brooks had set up a crooked developer controlled “Task Force” whose basic purpose was to basically give developers everything they wanted and the neighborhoods nothing.
Our heroes led by Clark took up the citizens’ cause in the nick of time. Incredibly the city staff headed by Buchanan and the phony Task Force of Brooks called for no parking restrictions on the 3,000 plus small lots across the city. If the City had adopted the same, it would have made on-street parking in neighborhood after neighborhood throughout Denver a nightmare.
This is not by accident. Buchanan and his Planning Department literally want to make parking a nightmare so that all Denver residents, other than the very wealthy, are forced to walk, ride bikes or take public transportation in Denver with a rare Uber trip allowed. The old, the infirm, the crippled are to be sacrificed on the altar of the young and healthy millennials and of course the high density real estate developers who are the true enemy of Denver neighborhoods.
With rapiers drawn, Clark, New, Kashmann and Espinoza went to work. They convinced three other councilmembers to support a compromise whereby the parking requirement exemption would only apply for housing or offices in the first story, or the first two floors if within a quarter mile of a frequent bus line or within one-half mile of a light rail station. Apparently well-connected developers can still go to the City Council for full exemptions provided notice is given to the affected neighborhoods before a vote.
The vote was 7-6 in favor of the Musketeers and Denver neighborhood on-street parking was at least partially saved. With other amendments added, the final vote was 9-2, an abject humiliation for Albus Brooks, his Task Force and Planning Director Brad Buchanan. Only Brooks and developer owned Mary Beth Susman voted against the final version. If neighborhood groups are looking for a test recall case, Brooks and Susman would certainly be the names on the top of the list.
Of course, Denver and its neighborhoods are in continued danger. It can only be hoped that the alliance formed among d’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers continues strong to beat back the endless efforts of Buchanan, the weak Mayor, and the corrupt members of the Denver Council to destroy what makes Denver a great city, its neighborhoods.
As Dumas’s Musketeers would shout: “Un pour tous, tous pour un.!” — “All for one, and one for all!”
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | May 26, 2017 | Editorials
The lead story on the front page of this issue of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle discloses that the purported “investigative consultant” Charles Johnson who stalked and harassed the Glendale City Clerk and people who were quoted in the Chronicle critical of Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi was, in fact, a top super-secret undercover Special Agent for the FBI. Visit the Chronicle’s website at www.glendalecherrycreek.com and watch the entire Glendale Police Department’s interrogation of Mr. Johnson pretending to be an investigative consultant in violation of Colorado law. God help us if that is the best the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency has to offer.
Of course, it didn’t end there. Special Agent Kimberly Milka then went on to harass anyone who filed a complaint with the police departments of Lakewood or Glendale concerning Johnson’s stalking and harassment. Ms. Milka was clearly engaged in obstruction of justice and witness tampering, but who is going to stop the FBI when it violates citizens’ constitutional rights. The answer is no one.
We now know that Johnson’s and Milka’s criminal activities in Glendale are only the tip of the iceberg of FBI misconduct in this town of a little over 5,000 people. A former top Denver police officer who met several times with Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi believed that Kheirkhahi was trying to get him to solicit a bribe from Mike Dunafon, the mayor of Glendale. The former officer wanted to wear a wire to record Kheirkhahi’s statements and even interviewed with the FBI.
It appears that the FBI in response did nothing with regards to Kheirkhahi and instead instituted a campaign with the purported help of Kheirkhahi to get others to try to bribe Glendale officials including Dunafon.
It is assumed the FBI did so because it believed city officials were susceptible to taking bribes. Ever since Glendale incorporated in 1952, to the vast annoyance of officials in Denver and The Denver Post who after World War II became the official cheerleader of the City and County of Denver, it was rumored that Glendale officials were corrupt especially considering liquor licenses. It was perhaps a case of self-projection, as in Denver at various times to get a liquor license one had to hire the right politically connected lawyers and know the right City Council members while Glendale granted them to virtually anyone who wanted one.
The City and County of Denver did not seem to understand Glendale’s laissez faire and libertarian attitude toward municipal governance. Glendale saw itself as too poor to turn anyone away who wanted to do business in the town. There was, of course, zero reason to bribe anyone in a town that would already give you what you wanted in the first place.
As a result of Denver being closed down and very restrictive as to liquor licenses and Glendale freely issuing them, Glendale became a youth and nightclub Mecca in the 1970s and 1980s with dozens of bars, nightclubs and restaurants along Colorado Boulevard, East Virginia Avenue, Leetsdale Drive and South Cherry Street.
In the 1990s Denver was able to revitalize downtown with the building of Coors Field and now issued liquor licenses to essentially anyone who wanted one in LODO. Conversely Glendale mayors Steve Ward and Joe Rice killed its downtown by trying to close one liquor establishment after another while preventing new ones from being granted.
When Glendale recently decided to try to bring back an eating and entertainment district along Cherry Creek and East Virginia Avenue the old canard that Glendale city government was corrupt was res
urrected by the FBI. It would have been nice if the FBI had bothered to check that the Glendale mayor and his wife are independently wealthy and Glendale city officials are compensated and therefore highly unlikely to accept bribes.
The Glendale Police Department tried to constantly keep highly controversial Denver FBI Public Corruption Section head Jonny Grusing aware of everything it was doing with regards to Charles Johnson and everything else going on in the city. The Glendale Police Department believes that the FBI in turn continually lied to them especially regarding Charles Johnson.
Glendale now does not believe anything that Jonny Grusing has to say. Of course, if a member of the public lies to the FBI you go to jail, while the FBI states it may freely lie to anyone it wants without any repercussions which is what Special Agents Jonny Grusing and Charles Johnson have taken to new levels.
For many regular citizens in Glendale as well as Glendale public officials, the FBI is not in their minds the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency but at least at the local level is composed of people who lie, fabricate, harass, stalk and obstruct justice on a regular basis while seeking public corruption that does not appear to exist in Glendale. Grusing, in turn, has developed the reputation in some Denver metropolitan police departments as being a type of untrustworthy and “dirty cop.”
After the escapades of former FBI Director James Comey at a national level, the reputation of the Denver office feeds the narrative that something is seriously wrong with the FBI. Once that perception seeps in it will be difficult for the many honest and trustworthy local FBI agents to regain the public trust and respect they once had.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Apr 28, 2017 | Editorials
There has perhaps never been as contentious administrative law case as that brought by Matt Arnold’s Campaign Integrity Watchdog against Colorado Pioneer Action for campaign finance
violations. Pioneer Action is run by former Congressman Bob Beauprez best known by the sobriquet “Both Ways Bob” for always trying to appear to support both sides of any political argument.
Beauprez set up Pioneer Action as a 501(c)(4) social welfare nonprofit which raised almost $700,000 in money for political races in 2016. He gave the money to an independent expenditure committee he also set up called Colorado Right Now (CRN) which engaged in an incredibly dirty tricks operation largely against highly conservative Republicans in primaries for the State Legislature. Beauprez backs business friendly moderate Republicans as opposed to what he sees as nasty movement conservatives and Tea Party types.
Beauprez claimed that under Colorado campaign finance law he only needed to report that the Pioneer Action had given the $700,000 to the independent expenditure committee and not who had given Pioneer Action the money in the first place. He claimed it was a perfect “dark money” operation in which no one would ever know who funds him. But Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer found that Pioneer Action was itself a political committee and did have to disclose its donors. He fined Pioneer Action $17,000. Beauprez was lucky as Spencer could have levied the full $770,000 in fines.
But now comes the big question of will Beauprez finally have to disclose his true dark money sources? In a gubernatorial primary against Tom Tancredo in 2014 money was laundered for Beauprez for last-minute attack ads. First, the money was put through the Republicans Governors Association and then through the Republican Attorneys General Association to a Mitt Romney related political association in Colorado. Beauprez successfully avoided having to disclose who was behind that serpentine dark money scheme.
Beauprez has always been an empty suit and tool of more powerful people. Exactly who is pulling his strings has never been discovered, but perhaps now it will. Of course, this is just the beginning of the battle. Spencer’s ruling will be appealed all the way up the line. The $17,000 fine is just chump change for Beauprez’s backers. He has spent into six figures with his attorney Douglas Abbott of the highly expensive big blue-chip law firm Holland & Hart. Abbott and Holland & Hart undoubtedly came up with the dark money scheme in the first place.
In this litigation Matt Arnold has scored an incredible victory against overwhelming odds. It is truly a David versus Goliath matchup. Arnold is not an attorney yet he bested one of the best law firms in the state. Beauprez has millions at his disposal from people who will do anything to prevent from having to come out of the shadows.
There are two likely suspects for the dark money source behind Beauprez — Phil Anschutz or the Koch brothers. In January 2017, Reason Magazine released an out-of-the-blue attack piece against Matt Arnold by Nick Sibilla and John Kerr. Why would a national magazine come out against a highly parochial figure like Matt Arnold? Perhaps it is because Reason Magazine is funded by the Koch brothers. If they were the source behind Beauprez, they would have strong reason to dislike Arnold and want to stop his money inquiry.
At the same time Arnold came under attack from the Colorado Springs Gazette which reclusive Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz is pouring money into as an alternative to The Denver Post. Incredibly, Arnold discovered that the dirt digging for the Pioneer Action/CRN political smear pieces were performed by none other than Dede Laugesen, the wife of the Gazette’s editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen and the newly hired Gazette political blogger Dan Njegomir.
When the Gazette’s editorial page was lambasting Arnold on behalf of Beauprez, and Njegomir was attacking Arnold in the Gazette’s ColoradoPolitics.com they failed to mention they were or had been on the payroll of Beauprez and Pioneer Action. Reporter Megan Schrader in a story in The Denver Post on April 4 said that this lack of disclosure “looks really bad.”
So who owns Bob Beauprez and the Colorado Republican establishment? Is it the Koch Brothers or Phil Anschutz? Of course, it could always be both in tandem.
If there is anyone in Colorado who will find out who the dark money source is, it will be watchdog Matt Arnold. It is not easy to fight alone against some of the richest and most powerful people in the state. Incredibly he seems to not be deterred. We can’t wait to see what he discovers next.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Mar 24, 2017 | Editorials
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by Mark Smiley | Mar 1, 2017 | Editorials
Old Abe Lincoln had sage advice for people like Denver City Council President Albus Brooks to wit:
“You can fool all people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Brooks has aspirations to succeed the developer controlled Michael Hancock as mayor of Denver and he knows the best way to do so is to do the bidding of those exact same developers.
Of course, it is not smart to let your constituents know that you are bought and paid for so Brooks is always coming up with highly inventive ways of pretending to be a man of the people. Case in point is his incredibly duplicitous work on “Small Lot Parking Exemption” scam that former print company owner and now real estate developer Barry Hirschfield and others are unleashing on Denver’s neighborhoods. We highlighted this controversy in our lead story last October titled “Humboldt Neighbors And Allies Take On Barry Hirschfeld.”
Back in 2010 the Denver Zoning Code was revised to exempt lots of 6,250 square feet or less from parking requirements when redeveloped. As stated by Councilman Jolon Clark the exemption “was to catalyze business on small retail and commercial parcels along major arterials such as Colfax Avenue and Broadway, where there were empty store fronts and there was a real threat of a loss of neighborhood character by small lots being assembled.”
But the ever greedy Denver real estate developer community saw the exemption as another opportunity to stick it to the local neighborhoods. The exemption does not expressly limit itself to small retail and commercial uses and does not expressly prohibit assemblages for application of the exemption, but it would appear clear that such was the intent. Thus people like Hirschfeld came up with an idea of building coffin-like micro units on assembled lots and rent them to the ever ripped off millennials pouring into Denver, but with absolutely no parking provided. Of course, the majority of the millennials do in fact have at least modest cars. Thus in areas that these units are built, everyone in the neighborhood will find it difficult if not impossible to find any street parking at times.
The problem was that the developers’ incredibly strained interpretation of the exemption might not stand up in court even in Denver’s sad sack judicial system. The developers and their bought and paid for Denver Cit
y Councilmembers needed time to amend the Zoning Code to remedy the problem, but they didn’t want to slow down any existing projects. And of course the citizens in various neighborhoods such as Cherry Creek North, Curtis Park and Humboldt Street were also screaming bloody murder about was being done to them.
That is when the evil genius of Albus Brooks took hold. He told the citizens that he would demand that the Council impose a moratorium on all such projects until a Steering Committee could be formed charged with coming up with a consensus solution. All interested parties would have a seat at the negotiating table. The citizens were thrilled when the City Council passed the moratorium unanimously.
They did notice that all actually existing plans including all of Hirschfeld’s projects were exempted. Also when a Denver city councilman says he wants to bring everyone to the table what he really means is that he will form a committee that is stacked in favor of the developers and their allies and citizens will be in a distinct minority. As a result, citizen representatives agree either to be browbeaten into submission or they will be simply outvoted by the developers and their allies. This is, of course, exactly what happened with Brooks’ Steering Committee which was chaired by the distinguished City Council President himself as an “honest broker” between the two sides.
The citizens quickly discovered that Mr. Brooks was being led around on a relatively short lease by Mr. Hirschfeld who was of course prominently placed on the committee. Brooks after listening to all sides proposed an amendment to the Zoning Code which specifically made clear that the Small Lot Parking Exemption did in fact apply to micro apartment units and as well as to assemblages like Hirschfeld’s. If approved by the City Council, the amendment would solve the developers’ greatest danger of a legal challenge to the City’s interpretation of the existing exemption. The amendment also allowed the full exemption for small lots for the first two floors of an apartment building and three floors within walking distance of rail stations and frequent transit corridors (whatever that phrase means). Even more importantly the City Council could waive any and all restrictions at any time for their favorite developers without specific notice to the affected neighborhoods. It was a compromise in which the Hirschfeld side gave up nothing and the neighborhoods gave up everything as was intended by Councilman Brooks from the very beginning.
But “surprise, surprise, surprise” as Gomer Pyle would exclaim, the neighborhoods were not taken in. Abe Lincoln’s admonition cited above in fact came true. In the Steering Committee all four neighborhood representatives voted “no” along with one real estate business representative. Of course, the developers and their allies had locked in eight votes so the “consensus compromise” passed eight to five. The neighborhoods groups had now caught on to the stacked voting trick and they also demanded parity in the voting rights between developers and the neighborhoods in all future deliberations, if any, of the Steering Committee.
Brooks tried another fast one by having representatives of the Orwellian named “Denver Community Planning and Development Department” try to con the Inter Neighborhood Cooperative (the umbrella group of neighborhood associations and others in Denver) into voting in favor of the “consensus compromise” but even they were shot down by a unanimous 32 to 0 vote.
With his con job falling apart along with his reputation, Brooks was even struggling at the City Council level with the honest city councilmembers led by Jolon Clark raising questions. Brooks had to postpone City Council approval of the scam and request an extension of the building moratorium.
Next time the neighborhood groups meet with Council President Brooks on matters such as parity in voting on the Steering Committee they quietly, but visibly, should have with them a pulled Recall Petition pertaining to Mr. Brooks. It will help to clarify the issues and the stakes for everyone involved.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Editorials
A couple of well accepted axioms are that bureaucracies endlessly seek to grow and expand and that some of the least ethical of humans naturally gravitate to ethical boards and commissions if for no other reason than to help obscure their own highly unethical conduct in life. Both appeared to be at work in the most recent attempt of the Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) to control home rule cities and others throughout Colorado under Amendment 41 by attacking former Glendale City Councilman Jeff Allen on behalf of owners of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs store.
Amendment 41 was the brainchild of Jared Polis before he became a congressman and it was a ballot initiative to the State Constitution imposing draconian limits on gifts by lobbyists and others to elected officials and to restrict certain lobbying for two years. By its express terms it did not apply to home rule cities in Colorado such as Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and 67 other cities since the Amendment stated it “shall not apply to home rule counties or home rule municipalities that have adopted charters, ordinances or resolutions that address the matters that are covered by this article.”
That is how the IEC has apparently ruled ever since its inception in 2006. But that all changed just before Christmas when the five-member board unanimously claimed jurisdiction over every city in the state.
The new IEC position was almost unanimously condemned by all g
ood government groups in Colorado and even by strong Amendment 41 supporters such as Ethics Watch and Colorado Common Cause.
This is certainly not the first public condemnation of the IEC while under the control of its Chairman William Leone, an attorney, who has been controversial and is considered in some quarters to be highly disreputable. In early 2016 the State Auditor did an audit of the IEC and as stated by the headline in The Colorado Independent, “Audit: Colorado’s Ethics Commission has questionable ethics.” The State Auditor castigated Leone’s IEC saying it engaged in incredible sloppy record keeping and openly violated the state’s open meetings and open records laws. The Auditor could not even determine “whether the IEC consistently followed it rules over time, or properly conducted hearings . . . .” Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler has simply called the IEC — “Corrupt.”
As a result of the audit the Colorado Legislature was aghast at the conduct of IEC and Leone who was a former Acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado, albeit intimately involved in the Alberto Gonzales scandal at the United States Department of Justice in 2006.
When Pat Steadman, State Senator for District 31 (which includes Denver and Glendale), sought to address the ethical lapses of Leone and the IEC including its use of the Attorney General lawyers and not its own, Leone went ballistic. He declared the bill was a “backroom deal” made by an unnamed former commissioner and Ethics Watch and Common Cause. He threatened to sue the legislature and “fight to the death in court,” if necessary. Steadman was incredulous at Leone’s assertion that not even the legislature had the right to pass bills that would in any manner affect the IEC. As one observer noted, “Bill Leone believes he is above the law and the ethics rules apply to everyone but him.” The bill ultimately failed and Leone’s megalomania went unchecked.
But few people knew exactly how out of control Bill Leone was until mid-January. Under Amendment 41 all complaints to it must be kept confidential until it is determined that the IEC has jurisdiction and the complaint is determined to be “non-frivolous.” The IEC illegally leaked to The Denver Post that it had determined that a complaint against Jeff Allen filed by the owners of the Authentic Persian & Oriental Rug store by Russell Kemp of Ireland Stapleton was “non-frivolous.”
The claim proffered was that Allen should not have voted on a unanimously approved city budget because the City, under a law adopted years ago, gives money to the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce and Jeff Allen as COO of the Chamber draws a small salary. Under such ludicrous logic no councilman could ever approve any annual budget because under that budget they draw a salary approved years before.
But the key to the decision is what in the world does such a complaint have to do with the IEC under Amendment 41 and its gift/lobbying limitations? Aha! It doesn’t. Amendment 41 has a vague little noticed provision that declares that the IEC has jurisdiction over not only gifts and revolving door lobbying but also “any other standard of conduct or reporting requirement in state law.” Thus under Bill Leone the IEC could go after doctors, lawyers, contractors, or virtually anyone else in the state. Its purported jurisdiction is virtually unlimited according to William Leone.
Moreover, individuals covering IEC meetings and hearings have reported possible skullduggery concerning the Allen case. Last year another ethically dubious establishment character Bernie Buescher (once an appointed Secretary of State but later soundly rejected by voters) was discovered hanging around various meetings although he had no public case or controversy before the IEC. He was engaged in what appeared to be illegal ex parte communications with Leone and Leone’s Executive Director Dino Ioannides. When caught in the act he disclosed that he was representing “rug merchants” in Glendale to get their high-rise built and was hoping to use the IEC to pressure the City Council. Upon review it was discovered that Buescher is “of counsel” to the law firm of Ireland Stapleton which of course represents M.A.K. Investments.
In various IEC minutes Ioannides declared that he has a “conflict of interest” regarding a certain mysterious case which observers believe concerned Jeff Allen. Typical of the lack of ethics of the IEC, Ioannides did not disclose (as required by state law) what was in fact the “conflict of interest.” Did it involve Bernie Buescher and the wealthy rug merchants of Glendale?
Which brings us back to Jeff Allen. He is but a pawn in a massive power game of William Leone. Allen left the City Council years ago and gets only a small salary as a Chamber COO. He has no funds to fight the sick megalomaniac dreams of ethically challenged Bill Leone and his IEC. It will of course bankrupt him.
That is, of course, why Leone picked Allen. If he challenged Mayor Michael Hancock over his 2015 Super Bowl Trip he could expect a major fight on his hands. Leone and the IEC can roll over the corpse of Jeff Allen many times over. He has no ability to fight a cadre of sleazy, unscrupulous lawyers like Bill Leone, Russell Kemp and Bernie Buescher.
It can only be hoped that Glendale and home rule cities throughout Colorado will rise up to take on Bill Leone and his highly unethical Independent Ethics Commission on behalf of Allen. If Allen goes down, he will be only the first of many potential victims of one morally repugnant individual — William Leone.
— Editorial Board
