Halt ‘Denveright Plan’ Vote Until After City’s Upcoming Elections INC Implores

by Mark Smiley | Feb 25, 2019 | Main Articles

Meetings To Explain Plan’s Impact Haven’t Occurred; Lowry’s Christine O’Connor Named Person Of The Year

by Glen Richardson

Denver’s Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation or INC passed a resolution Feb. 8 to postpone bringing the city’s “Denveright Plan” to a City Council vote until after the upcoming city elections. Little more than a couple of weeks earlier on Jan. 23, the organization named Christine O’Connor INC’s Person of the Year.

The voluntary coalition of registered neighborhood organizations representing two-thirds of Denver households urged the delay because the next City Council shouldn’t be accountable for a plan voted in by a prior council. Furthermore they say that, “the process did not include all neighborhood voices.” The Plan is currently scheduled for a City Council vote on April 15.

O’Connor received the Virginia Oredson Memorial Award during the 33rd Annual Awards Dinner held at the Holiday Inn Denver-Cherry Creek. For over a decade, she has led Lowry United Neighborhoods and worked with the broader east Denver neighborhoods on environmental and development issues on the former Lowry Air Force base property. In presenting the award the organization described her as, “An amazing and courageous community advocate and friend to so many.”

Daunting Documents

INC declared at its February Delegate Meeting that the sheer volume of the “Denveright” plan documents has been daunting for most neighborhood organizations and interested citizens to respond to thoroughly and intelligently by City-set deadlines. The documents total more than 1,000 pages, with over 100 goals, nearly 300 policies and recommendations, and more than 450 strategies addressing development through 2040 as Denver’s population increases.

The resolution also alleges, “meetings with neighborhoods to explain impacts of the documents have not occurred throughout the city; further, the city’s official website listing information received through citizen and neighborhood comments is missing many individual comments that were formally submitted.”

Also, the group asserts, “Information identifying changes made to the plan documents for the second draft are divorced from the materials listing specific requests for changes and additions received from the public.” Finally, according to INC, plan documents continue to be incomplete and vague in terms of addressing impacts on the city’s budget and work program, especially with the more than 450 proposed strategies.

Fights For Citizens

Person of the Year O’Connor has worked tirelessly to support the needs and desires of some of Denver’s most burdened neighborhoods, such as Cole, Globeville and Elyria/ Swansea. She currently serves as INC’s representative to the Citizens Action Group to the I-70 Superfund Site.

She worked with neighbors across north Denver, and participated in litigation regarding the  Platte to Park Hill Drainage Project and Denver’s taking of City Park Golf Course to support expansion of I-70.

More recently, O’Connor became one of the leaders in initiating a 2019 ballot measure called “Let Denver Vote.” This ballot measure, if approved, will allow Denver to pursue a future Winter Olympics’ bid only if spending is first approved by Denver voters. What Christine says she values most about INC is “the powerful link it provides among neighbors citywide and the opportunity to work on issues that go beyond one neighborhood.” Her hope for INC is that the “newer members will take the helm and pour their hearts and souls into bettering our City in the decades to come!”

City Wide Awards

Drew Dutcher of the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood was named Outstanding Delegate of the Year. The honor credits him “for his outstanding representation from his neighborhood and representation on behalf of INC to Citizen Advisory Boards connected to city endeavors.”

Public Safety honors were given to four groups for their, “legal win for a public health study related to environment health connected to the I-70 expansion.” They were the Chaffee Neighborhood, Elyria-Swansea Neighborhood, Colorado Latino Forum and the Colorado Sierra Club.

Ronnie Crawford from the Overland Park Neighborhood was presented with the Sustainability Award for his efforts to work with the city to sustain the environment connected to river ways, specifically the Platte River.

Sundial Star

Hilltop resident Denise Sanderson received a Neighborhood Star Award for her leadership of the Save the Sundial Committee and the significant fundraising efforts that were necessary to complete renovation of the Sundial & Plaza.

She was instrumental in getting the Sundial & Plaza put on Colorado’s “Most Endangered Places” list, giving the fundraising project more visibility and a sense of urgency. After years of raising awareness and funding to save this historic landmark, in early 2014, the Committee turned to The Park People, who adopted the project, taking the outreach and fundraising to another level.

It took nearly a decade, but the effort came to a celebratory close last year on Oct 3 when the Cranmer Park Sundial & Plaza officially reopened after completing nine months of restoration work. Now the Denver neighborhood park with a sweeping view of the Front Range has a solid foundation for generations to come.

More Valley Stars

Nine other residents were also given Neighborhood Star Awards for their work on specific projects that impacted the community. They are in alphabetical order:

Anne Callison, Winston Downs’s neighborhood, for her balanced leadership regarding information and education for a liquor-cabaret dance license at a cemetery.

Glenn Harper of the Sun Valley neighborhood for opening his restaurant to support a food bank and education to future chefs in his neighborhood.

John Robinson in the Harvey Park neighborhood for work on the Loretto Heights redesign and neighborhood festival fundraiser.

Greater Park Hill’s Blair Taylor for her activism in representing all neighborhood voices in projects that impact her area.

Diane Travis, Uptown on the Hill (Swallow Hill) for her education of residents and city on how to efficiently save historic flagstone sidewalks and for getting her suggestions adopted into city sidewalk planning.

Michelle Valeri from the Colfax Business Improvement District for her success with the Colfax Works program that employs the homeless.

Phyllis Ward of the University Park Community for her dedication to ensuring the neighborhood newsletter was distributed.

Brooke Webb in the Virginia Village-Ellis area for her efforts to improve the public image of the Ellis Elementary School and PTA.

Ann White of Montbello 20/20 for her leadership in health awareness and representing Montbello on the WorkNow program.

Denver Heroin Sites Bill Pulled

by Mark Smiley | Feb 25, 2019 | Main Articles

Rep. Garnett Blames Albus Brooks And Denver For Stunning Defeat
by Glen Richardson

In a stunning reversal of fortune, the sponsors of the so-called Safe Injection Sites (“SIS”) bill was dropped by its sponsors — House Majority Leader Alec Garnett and State Senator Brittany Pettersen. The proposed but never introduced bill would have, in effect, made heroin sales and use legal at and around designated sites, including 231 East Colfax by the State Capitol. At the SIS centers would be medical personnel to administer naloxone or other drugs which would revive a heroin user from overdoses, including where fentanyl is added to the heroin.

The SIS centers would also allow injection of methamphetamines and other drugs, including what is known as a “speed ball” where methamphetamines and heroin are mixed together. The bill was promoted as being “compassionate” to heroin users and limiting the harm incurred by users. Critics said the bill was little more than a backdoor method to legalize heroin and meth sales and use which critics say has been a long-sought goal of Mexican drug cartels who supply most of the heroin/ meth to Denver and the state.

Garnett Attacks Denver

State House Majority Leader Alec Garnett pointed the finger at Denver and City Councilman Albus Brooks for the loss. “I think Denver kind of wanted to be the first city in the country,” Garnett stated, “but I think the eagerness drew a lot of negative attention from the public, from the U.S. attorney and the feds.”

Councilman Brooks was the lead person on the Denver push. He brought Harm Reduction Action Center head Lisa Raville before the City Council. He obtained City Council approval by a 12 to 1 vote with only Kevin Flynn voting against the proposal. However, the approval of one or more SIS centers in Denver was made subject to approval of the State Legislature.

Brooks Responds

Brooks, in turn, blamed 710 KNUS radio host (and Chronicle columnist) Peter Boyles who, along with fellow radio host Stephan Tubbs, went to Vancouver, Canada, to see how SIS was working in that city which had approved them in 2003. The two broadcast live from Vancouver and posted pictures and videos of what they found along East Hastings Street which once had been a historic portion of Vancouver analogous to Larimer Square.

Radio Hosts In Vancouver

The descriptions and photographs painted a horrific picture of masses of heroin and meth users all along Hastings and adjoining streets. The Central American drug soldiers, they reported, controlled the streets and openly sold their wares to one and all. The SIS center was not cheerful and clean but a place of misery and pain, they reported. Many users did not bother to go into the SIS center itself, but simply shot up in the alleys and along the sidewalks. The addicts came to East Hastings Street they indicated not for the SIS center but because heroin and other drugs could be bought and consumed without fear of interruption or arrest.

Tubbs described one addict on the floor of the SIS center while his girlfriend jammed needles in his neck attempting to find a vein as the vein system in other parts of his body had apparently failed to be available.

The personnel at the SIS center told the two that they did not try to get heroin and other users into rehab as it would cause them to feel stigmatized and less likely to frequent the SIS center.

Brooks indicated that the live broadcasts had caused a groundswell of opposition to the SIS bill at the State Capitol. Brooks tweeted out: “Radio Hosts don’t have evidence. Last time I checked that’s not the truth.” Brooks claimed that he had been to Vancouver and saw nothing of the sort when he visited. It is not clear whether he was claiming the pictures and videos were somehow doctored or that he had been given a phony “Potemkin Village” tour of East Hastings and Vancouver.

Checks of Brooks’ expense records, according to former Speaker of the House Frank McNulty, show no expenses whatsoever concerning any trip to Vancouver. That fact could indicate he never, in fact, went to Vancouver, or his plane, hotel and other expenses were paid by third parties which could be illegal.

Pettersen’s Viewpoint

Interestingly co-sponsor State Senator Brittany Pettersen refused to appear with Garnett at his news conference and instead held her own conference. Insiders indicate that there is, in fact, a growing rift between Pettersen and Garnett. They indicate that Garnett, by blaming Denver and Brooks, was indirectly criticizing Pettersen’s husband, Ian Silverii, the executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, who had helped behind the scenes with the Denver rollout of the SIS legislation.

Supporters of Silverii think Garnett’s criticism of Denver and by implication Silverii and Brooks is badly misplaced. They point out that Silverii had obtained highly favorable coverage for SIS in The Denver Post, Westword, 5280 magazine, 630 KHOW radio and many other media outlets. Many others credit him with turning Channel 9 news anchor Kyle Clark into a very strong supporter of SIS centers and its failure is seen by many as a black mark on Clark’s record and reputation.

Pettersen in her news conference did not put the blame on Denver and by implication Brooks and Silverii but rather on Patrick Neville, the Republican Minority Leader of the House.

“This got caught up in the fact that Democrats hold every chamber, and there are desperate attempts to try to regain power,” Pettersen said. “This has been chosen as a political top target.”

She went on to note, “I’m unwilling to give them a political platform.”

Pettersen acknowledged that she needed no Republican votes and even had a Republican sponsor for her bill, Kevin Priola. She had, however, lost her own Democratic caucus.

The Fight Continues

The supporters of SIS centers are not going to simply disappear. An enormous amount of money was expended to promote the SIS legislation in Denver and at the Capitol and the financial backers are apparently not pleased. They are reportedly putting an enormous amount of pressure on Albus Brooks, Ian Silverii and Lisa Raville to figure out some way to legalize, directly or indirectly, heroin/meth sales in Denver by this summer.

Raville has told the press “It’s not May 4th yet. We certainly aren’t giving up the fight. We continue to look forward. We know this is the gold-standard evidence-based intervention that we want to push forward with.” May 4th is the last day of the Colorado legislative session and bills such as the “hospital provider fee” bill have been introduced and passed even at the very end of the legislative calendar.

Brooks in turn has tweeted out, “Denver will find a way to address this Public Health Crisis with or without the State.”

Opponents including Patrick Neville have indicated that they “will be there” to battle heroin legalization wherever the fight may be.

Retail Reversal: Shopping Center In Cherry Creek Making A Comeback

by Mark Smiley | Jan 28, 2019 | Main Articles

Retailers Click To Brick And Are Moving Into The Mall; Outdoor Shops Trading Storefronts For Mall Across Street
by Glen Richardson

Seemingly in a downward spiral following the addition of paid parking, the Cherry Creek Shopping Center is making a comeback.

As the New Year was getting underway General Manager Nick LeMasters disclosed that, “every single space in the mall is either occupied, under negotiation or under construction.” Unfazed by e-commerce and aided by developers and contractors choking retailers out of Cherry Creek North, LeMasters now says, “We are effectively full.”

As business stages a comeback, the shopping center is making capital investments to keep the momentum on an upward curve. For starters, the mall is installing solar panels on the roof along its western side. LeMasters says the project is nearly complete and will likely be turned on next month (March). “Because of the predominance of the sun in Denver — 300 days of sunshine — we’re going to be effectively powering half of the common-area energy supply with these solar panels,” he says. “It will reduce our overhead significantly, and it’s the right thing to do,” he points out.

Jumping Into Mall

Biggest news as 2019 got underway is that French luxury brand Hermes will begin construction of a 5,000-sq.-ft. space within the mall early this year. Expected to open in 2020, the mall store will replace the company’s standalone site across the street at 105 Fillmore St.

The upscale retailer will be placed next to similar shops, such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and Tory Burch, according to LeMasters. “Hermes is the personification of luxury, and luxury retailers want to be next to other luxury retailers,” he notes. “To be next to other luxury retailers, there’s spin-off business. They tend to complement each other more than compete with each other.”

Opening in late November, North Face also moved into the mall from its former Cherry Creek North location at 100 Detroit St. The retailer now has 5,000-sq. ft. in the lower level of the mall, near Nordstrom. The space used to be part of the jewelry company Tiffany and Co. that relocated within the mall. The move followed the announcement that the North Face’s central office is moving to Denver from San Francisco as part of parent company VF Corp.’s headquarters relocation.

More Making Leap

Hermes and North Face aren’t the only Cherry Creek North retailers who have recently moved into the shopping center. Jewelry maker Alex and Ani made the jump to the mall from 2827 E. 3rd Ave. Earlier this year women’s apparel store White House Black Market relocated to the mall from Cherry Creek North’s Clayton Lane. Also, Lucy Activewear closed its store on Clayton Lane and was folded into North Face now located in the mall. Plus A Pea in the Pod moved across 1st Ave. into the mall.

New additions to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center at year’s end included San Francisco- based candy shop Lolli and Pops, as well as several businesses that started as Internet retailers. Companies that started in the mall as popup operations and now have their own stores there include mattress maker Casper and stationary bike company Peloton.

Two major retailers — Macy’s Furniture Gallery and The Container Store — relocated within the shopping center, moving from the west to the east side of the mall. Macy’s Furniture Gallery is now adjacent to Macy’s Department Store. The re-imagined Container Store features an open layout plus a Custom Closet Design Center. The two stores built out in the space previously housing Rite Aid and Safeway.

Luring New Brands

The Shopping Center has recently lured several new brands. The Casper store allows customers to schedule a 30-minute “sleep trial” on a Casper mattress in one of the company’s makeshift bedrooms. Peloton opened a showroom at the mall in 2017 where potential buyers can demo the company’s stationary bikes. And Amazon has a pop-up store at the shopping center, where consumers can play around with its Fire tablets and Alexa smart-home devices.

Untuckit — a men’s apparel brand that sells shirts designed to wear untucked — is also opening a store in the shopping center, reveals LeMasters. “They’re going to start construction relatively soon,” he adds. “I think we’re going to see them in the first quarter of 2019.” Launched in 2011, its shirts are shorter than the typical men’s dress shirt. After four years as an entirely online retailer, the brand’s first brick-and-mortar store opened in 2015 in New York’s SoHo district.

“It’s interesting to see this trend that’s emerging with these native online brands that are recognizing the importance of brick-and-mortars,” LeMasters observes. “These brands were thought to be a threat to brick-and-mortar retail, but they’re clearly going to have the opposite effect.”

Stores, Theatre Updating

To encourage tenants to update their looks, LeMasters says the shopping center now offers leases shorter than the 10-year industry standard and builds “midterm remodel” language into its leases.

“We’ve found that a lot of retailers want to renovate,” LeMasters said. “They’re rolling out stores all the time and as they do so, they evolve their concept and their presentation.” Pandora is an example of a store in the midst of a midterm remodel.

More: AMC Theatres — an original tenant of the mall — is upgrading its look in 2019, which LeMasters called overdue. “Today’s moviegoer expects an upscale experience,” he says. “Our customers love the convenience of this particular theater, but it hasn’t kept pace with others in the market. It will have a completely new and upscale feel to it.”

Space Shuffle, New Stores

Stores are also getting moved around in the mall in the hopes of boosting sales. For example, LensCrafters soon will move to a different storefront in the mall, and a new retailer — which LeMasters declined to disclose — will take its place.

The year-end addition of Zara, a popular European outfitter, also required rearranging, so Brooks Brothers and Express both moved into different mall locations. Zara has taken up 38,000-sq. ft., making it the largest non-department store in the mall.

LeMasters says the mall will continue to look for emerging retail categories to bring in, such as e-commerce brands adding brick-and-mortar stores and not just selling online. Casper, Peloton and Amazon are examples of such businesses now in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center.

Making Mall Leap: The standalone Hermes store at 1st and Fillmore in Cherry Creek North will begin construction of a 5,000-sq.-ft. space in the Shopping Center early this year. The French luxury brand expects to open the mall store in 2020 to replace the site across the street.

JUDGE BLOCKS IEC

by Mark Smiley | Jan 28, 2019 | Main Articles

Rug Merchants Latest Gambit Against Glendale Fails
by Glen Richardson

The owners of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs on Colorado Boulevard (Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi and his relatives through M.A.K. Investment Group LLC) suffered their latest defeat in their war against the City of Glendale, its residents and officials, in Denver District Court. M.A.K. wants to build a massive high-rise at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and East Virginia dubbed the “Iranian Death Star” by residents. Glendale residents have opposed it and the City Council has indicated that it will not scrap its Master Plan and Zoning Code to allow it.

In order to force the City and its residents to bend to its will, M.A.K. had brought a half dozen lawsuits in federal and state courts orchestrated by Russell Kemp of the Denver law firm of Ireland, Stapleton, Pryor & Pascoe, which have cost the rug merchants and the city millions of dollars in legal fees. The rug merchants hired a top public relations firm and held marches and protests with threats issued against the Mayor and City Council of Glendale. They also, it is alleged, got the FBI to unsuccessfully attempt to bribe various City officials. An undercover FBI agent, Charles Johnson, was arrested in Glendale after harassing Glendale officials and citizens who had spoken out against the M.A.K. project.

All of the lawsuits have been dismissed and the public relations efforts ended badly. But the latest gambit by the rug merchants was to file a myriad ethics charges against Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon and other officials. The charges were dismissed as frivolous in hearings in the City of Glendale, but another attorney at the Ireland Stapleton law firm, Bernie Buescher, had a novel concept of filing them with the state Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) to which he had close ties.

The hearings on the M.A.K. claims before the IEC have taken years to adjudicate. When the IEC finally declared it had jurisdiction over the matters, suit was brought in Denver District Court before Judge Edward D. Bronfin asking that a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) be issued preventing the IEC from proceeding.

Judge Bronfin took the unusual step of skipping the TRO process and went directly to issuing a permanent injunction against the IEC declaring: “any decision made by the IEC [regarding Mayor Dunafon] is deemed null and void and is vacated. Any and all pending and further IEC investigations as about the the complaints against Mayor Dunafon are permanently enjoined.”

The ruling was closely watched and celebrated by various municipalities throughout Colorado. The IEC is viewed by many as an out of control entity which is attempting to expand its power in all directions. Much of the criticism is directed at Matt Smith who lives in Grand Junction, and William Leone who resides in New York City, who periodically shift off the IEC chairman role. Smith and Leone have asserted that the IEC is not subject to term limits or most of the state ethical rules. Smith has been on the IEC since its inception in 2007 and Leone since 2013. The two dominate the proceedings and try to cajole or, if necessary, bully the three other commissioners resulting in regular turnover at the other three spots.

Smith and Leone also have regularly claimed that IEC is not subject to the Colorado Open Records Act which is being challenged in a separate lawsuit before Judge Bronfin. Most of the IEC work is held in executive sessions away from the public. If the recordings of those sessions are made public some believe they will be highly embarrassing to Smith and Leone, or worse.

The exact question before Judge Bronfin was could IEC assert jurisdiction over ethics complaints involving home rule cities that had their own ethical standards of conduct like Glendale, Denver, Colorado Springs, and many other Colorado cities. Amendment 41 to the State Constitution, which brought the IEC into existence, expressly states that Amendment 41 does “not apply to home municipalities that have adopted charters and codes” relating to ethics. Smith and Leone have long claimed that the expressed plain language should not apply if the IEC does not believe that any charter or code is not the same or more stringent in virtually all aspects to Amendment 41. Judge Bronfin ruled the language in the Amendment was “clear” and moreover the intent of the drafters was the same and the IEC did not have jurisdiction.

Embarrassed by the ruling Smith and Leone convinced one more commissioner in a 3 to 2 vote to appeal the court ruling up to the Colorado Court of Appeals. In the Colorado legislature Leone has alienated many state legislators by personally yelling and screaming at them concerning past legislative attempts to rein in the IEC. It is expected that new legislative attempts will be made this year at the State Capitol especially since the new governor, Jared Polis, was the progenitor of Amendment 41 and may believe that Smith and Leone have not conducted themselves in an ethical manner or in a manner intended by the language of Amendment 41.

Extreme Pro Developer Council Members Kendra Black And Mary Beth Susman Will Face Opponents In Spring City Election

by Mark Smiley | Dec 17, 2018 | Main Articles

by Glen Richardson

Two members of Denver City Council deemed by some to be in the back pocket of the developers are overturning quiet residential neighborhoods in favor of unpopular high-density projects and are going to be challenged this upcoming municipal election to be held May 7, 2019. Councilmember Mary Beth Susman of District 5 and Councilmember Kendra Black of District 4 will be opposed by challengers Amanda Sawyer and Colleen Zaharadnicek respectively.

Black and Susman were part of the large council majority that approved another massive high-density development, this time at the former CDOT property near Colorado Boulevard and Arkansas. Black and Susman were viewed to have mocked and belittled residents of Virginia Vale who opposed the massive development and effectively taunted residents to try to do something about developers’ absolute control of the City Council.

Following the four-hour hearing many residents attending the event were once again outraged by the actions of Black, Susman and the other councilmembers. “Virginia Village is the latest victim in Denver City Council’s efforts to force development and density into every Denver neighborhood,” said Denver resident Florence Sebern. “Existing guidelines were either ignored or misapplied; the registered neighborhood organization was co-opted; and the much-touted ‘affordable housing’ will be subsidized via DURA and CHFA. No wonder developers love them.”

But it appears that Sawyer and Zaharadnicek are going to take up the incumbent’s challenge for residents to do something about the actions of the existing council by putting their names up for election.Developers and their lobbyists are expected to heavily fund the re-election campaigns of Black and Susman while Sawyer and Zaharadnicek will depend onaverage citizens going door to door to their neighbors to get out the vote against the well-heeled incumbents.

Sawyer who is challenging Susman is a longtime resident of District 5 which includes Hilltop and Crestmoor Park with her mother and brother living in the area. A mother of three girls she is a licensed Colorado attorney with an MBA and is an entrepreneur. Her campaign will concentrate on neighborhood safety, property values and the economic future of the city.

Zaharadnicek, a University Hills resident who is opposing Black, is a real estate developer who grew up in Denver and spent time abroad in Prague, and returned to Denver in 2013 to a town she did not recognize. “The boom blew my mind. I kind of wasn’t really expecting it. . . . I saw a lot more visible homeless people. I had a lot of friends that complained about the market — they still can’t rent and they still can’t buy.”

Black and Susman have incensed some residents by pushing heroin injection sites for local neighborhoods. A local businessperson who did not want to be identified for this story noted: “It is one thing to destroy neighborhoods by overcrowding and density and another to be useful idiots for the Sinaloa cartel. Yes they would cause heroin to become essentially legal in Denver and how many lives they would destroy is untold. It is not compassionate to subsidize heroin use by providing needles, syringes, Naloxone and attendants. We need City Council members who care about our kids and not making life easier and more profitable for Honduran drug dealers. These two elected officials are a disgrace and a danger to any community.”

Another issue which may become a hot button topic during the spring campaign is the refusal of Black, Susman and the rest of the Council to hold Mayor Michael Hancock responsible for his sexual harassment of Denver Police Detective Leslie Branch-Wise and the use of taxpayer funds as hush money to try to buy the silence of the police detective.

While beating incumbent City Council members has never been easy in Denver the victory of Rafael Espinoza over incumbent Susan Shepherd in District 1 in the last city election shows that in can be done.

The election date for Denver is May 7. If no candidate for an elected office obtains 50% of the vote, a runoff of the top two candidates will be held on June 4.

Citizens Outraged: Some voters in District 4 and 5 are outraged at Black and Susman for voting to place heroin sites in their neighborhoods, as well as their helping developers destroy Denver neighborhoods with high-density developments and attendant traffic jams.

Holly Street Super Block: The Denver City Council has given approval for a 12-acre portion of the former CDOT headquarters property along Arkansas Street. The developer and the city declined to say how they would address the massive traffic jams the development will cause in the Virginia Village neighborhood and along Colorado Boulevard.

Super Search Finalist Susana Cordova At Center Of DPS Controversy: Which Way Will She Go?

by Mark Smiley | Dec 17, 2018 | Main Articles

by Ruthy Wexler

The November 29 announcement that Susana Cordova had been chosen as the sole finalist for Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent came as good news to some but an unpleasant shock to others. Ever since former DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said on July 17 that he would step down, rumors persisted that DPS insiders had already handpicked Deputy Superintendent Cordova as his successor. But days after Boasberg’s announcement, Denver’s Board of Education (BOE) made one of their own: they would conduct an utterly transparent, community-informed, nationwide “Super Search” to find, as BOE President Anne Rowe said, “the best possible individual to lead DPS forward.”For four and one-half months, over 4,500 citizens — families, students,educators, even DPS’s staunchest critics — attended community forums to say what they wanted in a new superintendent. Then the BOE called a last-minute meeting to say they had a finalist: Susana Cordova.

Critics got their mojo back and denounced DPS for wasting taxpayer money with the elaborate (nine Town Halls, 100 small forums, two consulting firms) and expensive ($161,375) Super Search. But Rowe proudly pointed to the high level of community involvement and, brandishing the 86-page Community Report, she defended the coincidental nature of the board’s choice: “Cordova possesses every attribute the community said it wanted.”

Was Susana Cordova truly the best person to lead DPS forward? Or had the Super Search been, as many claimed, a “super sham?”

Continue Or Confront?

Part of the answer, some said, lay in the mess Boasberg left behind as he flew off to Singapore for his new job. Besides scandals at several high schools, a more difficult-to-address mess lay in the educational policies Boasberg had cemented into the city’s school system, policies that a new superintendent would either continue — or confront.

Many parents and educators agree with East High Principal John Youngquist’s statement that “DPS needs to address failure.”

For 15 years, DPS has hewed to only one education theory: the data-driven “reform” model. Boasberg did not just follow his friend and predecessor Michael Bennet’s reform ideas. Aided by an unusually long tenure (10 years) and cooperative (or convinced) boards, Boasberg brooked no opposition as he installed reform notions like high stakes testing, evaluating teachers on student test scores and closing neighborhood schools.

In recent years, however, evidence has flowed in that reform educational notions make bold promises but bear little fruit. The Gates Foundation admits “We haven’t seen the large impact we had hoped for.” Closer to home, in April 2018, the National Association of Education Progress (NAEP) released data showing DPS’s “achievement gap” between low-income students and those from more affluent backgrounds as unusually large. Another study showed that gap to be third largest in the nation. Even pro-reform groups like A+ Colorado admit “Denver has “some of the largest [achievement] gaps between different groups of students.” Since 70% of DPS students are black or Hispanic, a majority low-income, many parents have grasped the significance of the achievement gap. 

Increasing numbers of Denver parents and teachers haveformed and joined community groups to “take back” their public schools. Manyworked to elect school board candidates who felt similarly. This last election,two such candidates, Dr. Carrie Olson and Jennifer Bacon, won seats — and on November 29, voted “no” on the resolution to approve Cordova as sole finalist.(There were three finalists, but two dropped out.)

After the resolution passed, 5-2, Cordova said, “I learned a lot from Tom, but I am not him … I’m a much more collaborative leader.” Some believed Cordova was signaling her intention, once appointed, to listen more closely to the community than Boasberg ever did.

The BOE is due to appoint someone — almost certainly Cordova — on December 17. Until then, Cordova anticipates showing — at community meetings around the city — ”what I believe and who I am.”

Who Are You?

Referencing the list of attributes the community said it wanted, one DPS principal said, “They want an educator above everything. Susana has spent her entire career as a teacher, principal, administrator. Check. They want someone committed to Denver … who sends their kids to DPS schools. Check, check, check …”

Board Vice President Barbara O’Brien said Cordova fulfills other community requests “coming from the Latino community and being bilingual.”

On December 5, at North High, in Cordova’s first appearance since being named finalist, a colleague described Cordova as “warm, caring and sensitive,” then opened the floor for questions.

“What will you do about the achievement gap?” a parent asked.

“Being Latina … the achievement gap is very personal to me,” Cordova began. “I know what that gap means to families … jobs …” She then proceeded to deliver upbeat generalities; e.g., “With support, our schools can improve”; “We need to value our teachers more”; which caused an observer to mutter, “Platitudes will get her nowhere. She needs a specific plan!”

Only when asked twice if “school closings are still on the table, “ did Cordova go specific. “I think [closing a school] has to be one of the tools in our toolbox,” she finally said.

Why Not Cordova?

“The strategies [Cordova] championed as deputy superintendent are now being held up as examples of why the reform movement is not working,” says teacher Anna Noble.

“If these policies aren’t working, why would we want someone who believes in them to be superintendent?” says former BOE member Jeannie Kaplan.

“I went to the [December 5] meeting with an open mind,” says Jane Diamond, activist and DPS parent. “I believe that Susana is a bright and sincere person. What I didn’t hear was passion, innovation, energy, anything new or inspiring.”

“New direction is needed,” insists DPS parent Maggie Miller.

Activist Brandon Pryor recently brought attention to Cordova’s involvement in the “AmeriCorps scandal.” The AmeriCorps program, overseen by Cordova and two others, was terminated in June 2018, when a state agency discovered DPS hadn’t complied with requirements and must pay the program back. “This will set taxpayers back millions,” said Pryor, who said the real scandal was Cordova’s complicity “with a program that allowed unlicensed individuals to teach in DPS classrooms.”

Conflict Of Interest?

Cordova is married to Eric Duran, Managing Director in the Denver office of D.A. Davidson, a firm that has participated in bonds where Denver tax dollars go to a charter school. Contradicting O’Brien’s insistence that “there is no conflict of interest … Eric’s firm has not done business with DPS charters for 10 years,” public records show only a few years back, Duran’s firm did an $8.3 million-dollar deal with a DPS Charter School known as Highline.

Duran’s firm has pledged “not to conduct business with DPS.” But some point to Cordova’s already profiting from charter school bond deals as sufficient conflict of interest.

A Little Help From Her Friends

Months before the Super Search meetings began, parents and community leaders were urged through phone calls from a DPS insider to be “part of the campaign to support Susana Cordova.” One parent said the caller “insisted ‘Susana was her own person.’ So I asked, ‘Then why does she support Boasberg’s policies?’ and they said, ‘Oh, she can’t say no to her boss!’”

“It could be Susana has been in DPS too long,” mused Kaplan, whose vast store of knowledge about DPS and fairmindedness are respected on all sides. “But maybe … she’s biding her time, waiting till she’s confirmed to break out of the mold.”

Endgame

In a November 28 post on her blog Kaplan for Kids, Kaplan gave a blistering assessment of DPS’s history and suggested that DPS, rather than learning from failure, seeks to hide that failure by appointing Cordova.

In a more recent conversation, Kaplan said she wished Cordova well. “I want her to succeed! And I think she could, if she sees this as a great opportunity. But in order to succeed, she has to reach out to the other side.

“A perfect way to do that,” Kaplan said, “would be to name Antwan Jefferson — he does amazing work — as deputy superintendent. That would bring a whole other part of the community into this discussion.” “She could, if she really wanted to, be a bridge-builder! And that would be so amazing for DPS.” Others say that Cordova should pick a deputy superintendent that aligns with her as well as the majority of the BOE opinions.