by Mark Smiley | Mar 23, 2018 | Editorials
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them One ring to bring them all and in the daRkness bind them
Norm Brownstein
David Sirota, senior editor for the International Business Times, called the Denver based law and lobbying firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, LLC (the “Brownstein Law Firm”) the Octopus as its corrupting tentacles stretch to every important institution in Colorado and even Washington, D.C.
Norm Brownstein, Jack Hyatt and Steve Farber formed the firm 50 years ago just out of University of Colorado Law School. Today the law firm law has over 500 attorneys in 11 offices across the country. From the start Brownstein and his fellow attorneys were never the most talented or brightest lawyers, but operated on the maxim — “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”
The firm has and does pour enormous sums of money to politicians and other movers and shakers in Colorado and Washington, D.C. In turn the Brownstein Law Firm expects, or more correctly demands, favors in return. One can go nowhere in Colorado in any hallway of power and not run into a present or former Brownstein attorney. Brownstein attorneys have been the City Attorney for Mayor Michael Hancock, the Chief of Staff for Governor John Hickenlooper etc. etc. It is not simply state and local offices as the United States Attorney for Colorado, Robert Troyer, is a former Brownstein partner who will undoubtedly return to Mordor once his term serving Donald Trump is over.
The Brownstein Law Firm is only interested in power and thus it makes no distinction between Republicans or Democrats. Troyer himself was appointed to the United States Attorney’s Office by President Obama, but the Brownstein Law Firm had enough pull in Republican circles to get Troyer appointed to a permanent U.S. Attorney for Colorado position.
If you have been wronged by the Brownstein Law Firm do not think you can successfully seek justice in state or federal court in Colorado, as many, if not most, of the judges have been appointed to their positions due to the influence of the Brownstein Law Firm.
The most recent scandals involving Denver Mayor Michael Hancock show just how far the malodorous influence of the firm extends. Back in 2011 The Denver Post and Channel 9 News discovered that Hancock had been a client of the Denver Players/Sugar brothel. Bruce James, the managing partner of the Brownstein Law Firm, who was the co-campaign manager of the Hancock for Mayor effort, convinc
Doug Friednash
ed those two news organizations not to publish anything concerning the Hancock scandal until after the election promising to provide proof that Hancock was innocent.
After Hancock won James reneged on his word. It was believed that Hancock had been filmed going into the brothel by the Denver Police. When the Post and Channel 9 News submitted a joint open records request for the video, James volunteered to sign on to show Hancock was “open and transparent,” but, in fact, he surreptitiously and separately sent a second secret letter to Police Chief Gerry Whitman on behalf of the mayor-elect. The police chief, of course, knew that in a matter of weeks Hancock would have the power to fire him without a moment’s notice. In the secret letter James instructed the police chief to send him all the evidence and then not tell the public what had been done. Unfortunately for James the second letter was discovered by Channel 7 News. Allegedly the members of the Brownstein Law Firm were unfazed at the bad publicity, allegedly laughing about how clever and utterly unscrupulous the firm’s attorneys were.
Bob Troyer
The scandal went away when The Denver Post simply declared that there was all of a sudden no proof tying Hancock to Denver Players/Sugar. Since that time The Denver Post has acted as little more than a cheerleader for Hancock.
Now when the Post identifies Norm Brownstein it often no longer calls him a lawyer or a lobbyist but rather a “philanthropist.” Cynics note that even Al Capone gave back a little bit of his ill-gotten gains to soup kitchens in Chicago, but the Chicago papers were never so debauched as to call him a “philanthropist.”
Don’t want the Winter Olympics in Colorado in 2026? Not to worry; the Brownstein Law Firm doesn’t care what you think or want and they have a partner on the Denver Olympic Exploratory Committee to help with the legal work to bring that financial and logistical nightmare here. Don’t want the massive taxpayer giveaways to b
Bruce James
ring Amazon’s second headquarters to Denver? Once again don’t worry, the Brownstein lobbying arm has a lucrative contract to try to make it happen, citizens be damned.
There is virtually nothing in Denver which citizens hate that the Brownstein Law Firm hasn’t had a hand in and made a profit from. It has gotten so bad when a member of the Denver illuminati sees horrendous traffic jams or when parks and open space are destroyed or when neighborhoods are ruined by high density apartment houses he or she simply shrugs and notes: “Well I guess we have just gotten Brownsteined again.”
Over the last 50 years since the founding of the Brownstein Law Firm, Norm Brownstein and his partners have gotten incredibly rich, but they have done so on the backs of every man, woman and child in the City and County of Denver. Happy 50th Lord of the Rings. May justice someday come to your doorstep.
by Mark Smiley | Mar 1, 2018 | Editorials
Denver media recently hyped that the eating and entertainment district along Cherry Creek near Virginia Avenue known as Glendale 180 is once again right around the corner. Channel 7 News declared that the “city could break ground as early as next year.”
Deputy City Manager Chuck Line is quoted in a February 19, 2018, story in The Denver Post about the project: “Before, we were barely getting out of the driveway, and now we’re definitely driving down the interstate.”
Oh, pleaseeeeee! Members of this Editorial Board were instrumental in envisioning The Glendale Riverwalk which was later retitled Glendale 180 as far back as 2003. Since then, every few years the city has publicly announced that a groundbreaking would occur in the next 12 to 18 months.
Of course, it is not entirely the city’s fault. After an announcement that the city was envisioning building a Riverwalk modeled after the one in San Antonio, Texas, Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi and his family who own Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs rushed out and outbid the city for the 3.8 acres of developable land fronting Colorado Boulevard from longtime owner Jimmy O’Connor.
Grossly overpaying for the land, Kheirkhahi and his family apparently hoped to hold up the city for over three times what they paid for it. When the city declined, they went out and asserted the city was threatening eminent domain and organized potentially violent marches with the para-military groups like the Oath Keepers and others in an attempt to cow the City Council.
When that failed, the rug merchants brought a series of highly expensive lawsuits utilizing some of the most expensive lawyers in Colorado and the nation to stop any d
evelopment on land other than theirs. Having lost those lawsuits after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, Kheirkhahi and his kin have filed numerous questionable ethics complaints with the highly dubious Independent Ethics Commission.
But the rug merchants may have finally outsmarted themselves. At their request the Kheirkhahi land was excluded out of Glendale’s Downtown Development Authority. Thus any development on their land cannot by law receive any tax increment financing. Because of that fact Kheirkhahi’s land is now worth a great deal less to any potential purchaser.
Having beaten back the rug merchant’s vicious attempts to destroy Glendale 180, the city has now entered into a Development Agreement with the highly regarded Lincoln Properties. But that is only the first step, and not the last, in getting Glendale 180 to become a reality. The next crucial step is agreeing to a “Financing Agreement” whereby the parties concur on how to pay for everything. Many a project in Colorado has died due to disagreements on who and how everything is going to be paid.
If that huge hurdle can be overcome, Lincoln Properties must submit a Site Plan for the land which would meet the public’s approval and garner a majority of the City Council. Even if that is obtained there is no assurance that the bonds and other financing instruments envisioned by the “Financing Agreement” can be successfully marketed. That will in part depend on how Colorado’s economy is doing when the city goes to the financial markets.
Thus, with all due respect to Mr. Line, we are afraid the city is hardly cruising along the highway to the destination of a completed project but rather Glendale has but simply left the driveway. When a “Financing Agreement” has been signed and a “Site Plan” approved, talk of a possible groundbreaking ceremony becomes viable, but even then, by no means assured.
We will let our readers know from time to time how Glendale and Lincoln Properties are doing regarding their goal of getting to a completed project. Excessive hype in the early stages of an actual project is not always helpful. Congratulations to Glendale and Lincoln Properties on the Development Agreement, but a great deal of hard rowing still awaits all involved.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Jan 29, 2018 | Editorials
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock can no longer escape the fact that many of the citizens of the Mile-High City are increasingly viewing him as bought and paid for by some of the worst high-density developers in the country. That reputation has become so prevalent that he and The Denver Post believed it had to be rebutted. The Denver Post has become so financially weakened that it is dependent for its survival on the municipal government.
The Post somewhat quietly abandoned its iconic building between the State Capitol and the City and County Building for unincorporated Adams County. The large building has been rented sub silencio by the municipality thereby saving the Post from having to close. Thus, the paper is no longer in the position to do anything but be a cheerleader for Mayor Hancock and Governor Hickenlooper, the prior mayor of Denver.
Under the heading “Is Denver Mayor Michael Hancock too friendly to developers? Here’s what he thinks,” reporter Jon Murray offered up an extended single soft ball question with no follow up. Murray noted that Hancock was “seen as developer friendly” and that “developers have donated heavily to your campaigns.” Noting that developers “are the ones who are savvy” and “the system kind of favors them” he asks whether there are “things that you plan to try to even the playing field for people who feel like developers are running this town.”
The approximately 500-word answer could be summed up as: No, I have no plans to even the playing field because (1) I am powerless and (2) back in 2011 Denver needed business development. He protested that “I would never sell my integrity — for anyone . . . . not just for me but for my family.” One wanted to ask how that squared with his administration starting off with claims he was a regular “John” for prostitutes working for “Denver Players/Denver Sugar” but no follow up questions were apparently allowed.
He noted secondly that people just didn’t “understand the process” and that “the mayor does not decide where development goes and does not engage in the permitting process. Someone may bring a design to me and I may offer an idea to them, but this is their project, and we stay out of it.”
Wow! It is clear that it is not the public that does not understand “the process” but it is Mayor Hancock who is utterly clueless how the system is supposed to work and how it really works. Assuming the “we” in the quote refers to is the government of the City and County of Denver the mayor is correct that under his aegis the city is little more than a rubber stamp for developers. He goes on, sadly, to note that in his mind all that needs to happen is for a developer see a market need and declares “we need the space.” Game over.
His Honor does not appear to understand that Denver, like virtually every other city in the country, actually has a “Zoning Code” as well as “Master Plans.” We understand he has never read them but it would be nice if he were at least vaguely aware of them. He might also be shocked to find out that there is a “Denver Community Planning and Development Department” headed up by an executive director (Brad Buchanan) and even an 11-member Denver Planning Board that must approve real estate projects before they go on to the City Council. He is apparently unaware that he appointed Mr. Buchanan, as well as each and every member of the Planning Board, and that they are all total developer cronies and hacks and Mr. Buchanan is himself a developer.
The Mayor also appoints members of dozens of board and advisory panels. They all have been systematically stripped of anyone who ever indicated any affinity to parks and open space or even suggests that Denver might want to do a little planning for parking or traffic.
We, of course, understand that he actually did not choose any of these people but they are chosen by Oakwood Homes CEO Pat Hamill and the boys and girls over at Colorado Concern who fund all of his election bids. Perhaps they have an autopen for his signature for all such appointments, so as not to overburden his Honor.
It is consistently rumored that Mayor Hancock spends most of his time when in his office watching ESPN and that his staff has had to put “parental controls” on his office computer to prevent him from going to sites like Ashley Madison.
If you found reading Michael Wolfe’s book Fire and Fury on how the Trump White House works depressing, the relatively short interview by Jon Murray with Mayor Hancock printed on December 12 is even worse.
The 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck is said to have noted that: “Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.” The Denver Post did all of Denver a disservice in showing us how Mayor Hancock and his city government actually operate. We all have had our fears, but apparently the reality is even more difficult to stomach.
Mayor Hancock is, of course, highly favored to be re-elected as mayor for a third term next spring. People really do get the government they deserve.
Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Dec 17, 2017 | Editorials
Mayor Mike Dunafon
The announcement by CBS Sports that it had agreed to a multi-year rights deal with Major League Rugby (MLR) to televise 13 games starting this spring, including a game of the week and two weeks of playoff action for MLB’s inaugural season, is a dream come true for Glendale and its many rugby fans.
MLR was formed earlier this year with seven teams, including the Glendale Raptors and teams from Austin, Houston New Orleans, San Diego, Seattle and Salt Lake City.
Glendale Rugby was the vision of the Chronicle Publisher Chuck Bonniwell, Michael Dunafon and Debbie Matthews, all of whom had played rugby. The team logo of a three-headed raptor represents the three founders.
The concept was to bring a sports team to Glendale which the town could rally around and bring a sense of community. As Chuck Bonniwell remarked, “Glendale wasn’t going to get a National Football League or Major League Baseball team, but rugby worldwide is the second most popular team sport after soccer, and little Glendale could make a mark, not only nationally but even internationally, with rugby.”
Mike Dunafon, now the mayor of Glendale, has been the relentless major driving force behind rugby in Glendale but it has not been an easy task. For its initial team in 2007 Glendale did not want to cannibalize the existing teams in the Denver metropolitan area so they placed ads in The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News for new players and brought in players from across the country.
One of the keys to Glendale’s success was the early addition of Stanford educated Mark Bullock, who is now the Director of Rugby for Glendale. Bullock has coached with great success the men’s team, the women’s team and youth teams. His intelligence, tenacity and broad range of abilities has made him one of the faces of Glendale rugby.
Glendale built a world class stadium specifically for rugby with a seating capacity of 5,000 which can be doubled for special events. The city also built an adjacent venue with artificial turf that is open to the Glendale public for myriad sports in addition to rugby. Dunafon ensured that the Infinity Park Stadium was designed to be a state-of-the-art broadcast facility which now meshes perfectly with the national broadcasting standards of CBS Sports.
The Infinity Park Stadium has won numerous state and national awards relating to its field and turf management thanks to the extraordinary work of Josh Bertrand, Glendale’s Director of Public Works.
It was always envisioned that Glendale would compete at the highest level nationally which proved to be a challenge, not because of the quality of the Glendale team, but the state of rugby in the United States. The top level of American rugby when Glendale rugby started was the Rugby Super League which refused to admit Glendale due to petty jealousies by older more established clubs to a newcomer. By the time the Super League was willing to accept the Raptors, Glendale was no longer interested and the Super League folded in 2012. It was replaced by the Rugby Elite Cup which lasted only one year before closing in 2013, which Glendale also declined to join.
National and international rugby bodies sanctioned America’s first professional rugby competition named PRO Rugby in 2016 which was owned and operated by a single individual, the quixotic Doug Schoninger, and also did not include Glendale. Schoninger was not up to the task and that league also folded after that single season (2016) amid acrimony and threats of lawsuits. Schoninger, in the process, lost millions due to his investment in professional rugby.
In the meantime, during those years, Glendale competed in whatever top competition it could find, including winning USA Rugby’s Division I championship in 2011 and the Pacific Premier Championships in 2015 and 2016. In addition, Glendale’s women’s team, now known as the Merlins, was also excelling, winning back-to-back National Championships in 2014 and 2015.
The CBS Sports television contract elevates the MLR, and American rugby in general, to a level never reached before. It is expected the league will attract traditional power houses on both coasts, and Chicago to join in the near future.
After a decade Glendale is now competing at the highest level nationally with country-wide television exposure thanks to CBS Sports. The Glendale team has some of the best players in the United States with international players from across the globe sprinkled in. It can be expected to compete strongly for the league championship.
The success of Major League Rugby is by no means guaranteed, but Dunafon and Glendale can be justifiably proud of the fact that the dream and vision, over a decade old, has been fulfilled. The future of Glendale rugby is bright and the upcoming season of Major League Rugby in Glendale should be one exciting ride.
by Mark Smiley | Nov 20, 2017 | Editorials
Perhaps the greatest upset of the November 7 election in Colorado was the approval by Denver voters of the citizen referred Initiative 300, better known as “Green Roof Initiative,” by a clear 54% to 46% margin. Denver resident Brandon Rietheimer and a group of environmental activists prevailed against the odds. They started this summer gaining signatures and submitted over 4,700 this past August to make the ballot.
The initiative mandates new buildings larger than 25,000 square feet must dedicate some of their roof space to trees, plants, solar panels or a mix. Existing buildings are not included unless they either expand to above 25,000 square feet or they need a new roof.
The initiative was opposed by all the forces and money that control the Mayor’s Office and the rest of the city. Rietheimer and his hardy band were outspent according to the financial disclosure records by an incredible 12 to 1 margin with the proponents raising only $20,000. Conversely the “no” side had over a quarter million dollars in their pockets to bend the voting public to their side.
The “no” contributors were a Who’s Who of those who wish to destroy Denver for their own purpose led by developer Pat Hamill’s Colorado Concern organization which has dozens of Denver fat cats whose only real “concern” is lining their own pockets at the expense of the public.
Will green roofs work? Will the Denver Botanic Gardens build an elaborate garden and display on top of its parking garage to the delight of thousands of visitors ever
y year? It goes without saying that the same will reduce noise and pollution in the city which is never a bad idea.
The Mayor’s greedy friends argued that it would increase the cost of developments in the city and, of course, it will. Similarly, any open space requirements or parking requirements also raise the cost of the potential developments until they are waived by the city’s corrupt Community Planning and Development Department. The mayor’s friends believe that the only real purpose of parks and open space is to be monetized for commercial enterprises which, of course, they did to Ruby Hill Park and Overland Park Golf Course.
They also love to see parks used for massive drainage holes to save land for development on the I-70 project. Wouldn’t want the Mayor’s friends’ land to be used for such a purpose.
If you hate the idea of greenery on top of roofs don’t despair — it’s not going to actually happen. Mayor Hancock after passage of the Initiative stated, “We have always made a good-faith effort to implement the initiatives — once the people have spoken, that’s our job.”
He is, of course, lying.
Initiative 300 provides that it can be amended after six months with two-thirds vote of the City Council. Pat Hamill and his friends own more than two-thirds of the City Council and it will be slowly amended until the Initiative becomes virtually meaningless.
Moreover, any implementation would have to go through the Department of Community Planning and Development. Its Executive Director is the corpulent Brad Buchanan. He proved with his interpretation of no parking required for micro units that he will perversely interpret virtually any provision of law for benefit of high density developers. Rietheimer and his band of rebels will find that Buchanan will determine Ordinance 300 to mean exactly the opposite of what they intended. Buchanan is Denver’s very own Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland where any word in Ordinance 300 means “just what I [Brad Buchanan] choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” Mr. Rietheimer unfortunately is going to get to learn how things really work in today’s City and County of Denver.
But citizens for the first time ever during the Hancock Administration have shown that they can defeat all the King’s horses and all the King’s men even when outspent 12 to 1. For the first time, Pat Hamill’s regime has suffered a loss. Let us pray that this is just the beginning and not a one-time aberration.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Oct 23, 2017 | Editorials
Beth McCann
The strange short career of Beth McCann as District Attorney of Denver gets darker virtually every day. As reported in our August editorial McCann had gone on the Craig Silverman Show on 710 KNUS to explain why she had not charged illegal alien Ricardo Lopez-Vera in the jailhouse death of William Anderson. She claimed that her chief deputy (apparently Ryan Brackley) had determined that the death was a matter of self-defense in a one punch landed fight after which Anderson had then fallen down and hit his head.
She declared the whole matter had taken no more than 12 seconds and a deputy sheriff had rushed up and saw Anderson in a wobbly state and falling down. She declared that there was only one witness to the actual fight who said it was a mutual combat scenario with Anderson throwing the first punch which missed and when Anderson was drawing back to throw another punch Lopez-Vera hit him causing Anderson to fall and hit his head on a step.
Without even waiting for a formal coroner’s autopsy report she declared Lopez-Vera innocent due to self-defense. Two days later she had him released on a de minimis $1,000 bail. He was then purportedly given a lift by the deputies to a hospital after which he disappeared.
The problem for McCann was that sheriff’s deputies who saw the mangled and battered body of Anderson knew that it could not have been caused by a one-punch fight and leaked that McCann was lying.
Federal ICE agents were also outraged that McCann refused to honor federal retainer requests and accused her of harboring and hiding a criminal illegal alien. McCann is a strong advocate for sanctuary city policies but even she does not go so far as publicly declaring that murder is allowable in Denver by persons illegally in the country.
It turns out McCann knew exactly where Lopez-Vera was after he was released from police custody since she had him on a monitored ankle bracelet. As far as the assertion the death was due to “self-defense” C.R.S. 18-1-704 explicitly states a claim of self-defense is not valid in the case of mutually agreed combat and, furthermore, there is no such thing as legal mutually agreed upon combat inside of a city jail.
Cyril Wecht
The Denver coroner has now issued the autopsy and it is clear that the so-called one punch fight was an utter fabrication. World famous forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who has performed 20,000 autopsies and supervised or reviewed 40,000 more, went on the Craig Silverman Show and declared that the multitude of head injuries, including the injuries to both sides of the neck, and injuries to the lower back could never have happened from a one punch fight where the victim fell down and hit his head. Apparently, it is far more likely that after punching Anderson, Lopez-Vera grabbed him by the neck and smashed his head into the concrete and then kicked the dying or dead Anderson.
The one witness to the fight appears to have been a gang member lookout for Lopez-Vera. What about the Deputy Sheriff statement that he was there in under 12 seconds and watched the wobbly Anderson falling over and hitting his head? In fact, we only have McCann’s claim to the same as the Sheriff’s Office is refusing to release to the press the Sheriff’s Report on the incident claiming the matter is confidential, since it is still under investigation. But, of course, the DA is not investigating the Anderson killing any more as she has publicly declared the same to be a matter of “self defense.”
As for DA McCann, she has gone into hiding, refusing to comment on the matter, having been caught red-handed lying about the facts of the case by Cyril Wecht.
Sheriff deputies and ICE agents want a grand jury empaneled by the U.S. Attorney’s office with McCann and her chief deputy Brackley indicted for conducting a fraudulent investigation and harboring an illegal alien in violation of federal law. Unfortunately for law enforcement, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado is Bob Troyer. He was an attorney in the Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck law firm which means he is highly politically connected with the legal cesspool in Denver run by the Brownstein law firm that protects persons like DA McCann.
Some in law enforcement hope that a regular U.S. Attorney for Colorado will soon be appointed who is not part of and controlled by the Brownstein firm but they realize that the firm has its tentacles virtually everywhere as stated by journalist David Sirota. [Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, Editorial, October 2017, page 3.] Additionally they have apparently sworn that they will not stop in their pursuit of bringing DA Beth McCann to the bar of justice.
— Editorial Board
