“Political corruption” is an ever expanding pile accumulating atop the Estes Parkian in basket. There is a chasm between local political spin, ethics and what is legal. The everyday citizen is responsible for establishing and maintaining standards expectable in your community if you except questionable ethics and deceptive spin politics that cloud legal precepts, you are what you eat. To complicate it further every community is an agglomeration of individuals the sum of the parts equal the community physique. When you hire an attorney that spends half his time in Harmony House, being censured for ethics issues and administrators advanced for their ability within the “system”. You function like any computer – crap in= crap out.
Look back through the history books to a community know as the Robbers Roost and the Hole in the Wall gang for an appropriate analogy. This was a community of thieves, killers, hijackers, bushwhackers of the worst sort, on the run from the law. Robbers Roost and the Hole in the Wall was ideal for the those that accumulated there, isolated, hidden, a choke point where a lookout could see the law coming from miles away and if necessary one could loose pursuers in the maze of Utah canyons - so many rats which trail do you follow? In a community like the Robbers Roost the commonality being everyone was an outlaw and everyone was armed with a six gun. One would never venture there unless one was armed and dangerous and on the lamb. In that society if someone annoyed you or you desire some thing you simply shoot first and take what you want that’s the expectable “local politics”. The laws of the United States say you can’t kill people, the laws of Utah say you can’t shoot people but in the Robbers Roost it was done every day, like changing your socks. In a den of thieves the rule of civil law is useless the local politics in the Robbers Roost say dead men tell no tails you cannot enforce the law amongst the lawless. If a person in the Robbers Roost stood up and said “you can’t just shoot someone and take his stuff – “it’s against the law”. Everyone would shoot you many times and you the do-gooder would be “terminally correct”.
Back to Estes Park; November 1999 the town went to the citizens to ask permission to build an Information Center complex at the confluence of Highway 34 and 36. The citizens went to the polls and said “NO we the citizens do not want this”. In 2005 it is being built. Town Hall’s way of telling you the citizens who runs this damn town and it isn’t you. So much for why people do not vote around here - retired or not.
Currently the town is going through the budgeting process, as they shotgun line items 5% over here 2% over there ultimately intended for the “community reinvestment fund”. The town spends 2.5 million plus on an advertising program no matter how creative the math that is not 6.8% of the general funds - a lawful cap.
2004, the community development commission created a schedule of tax/fees for their newly created CVB to charge intown/out of town business. Greg White, town attorney, assured everyone that he studied this in depth and those tax/fees were legal. The Chamber of Commerce challenged this on behalf of its members and the law ruled the tax/fees were illegal and must be returned. Tom Pickering a town employee was quoted in the Trail Gazette that this ruling means nothing town staff will just find a new way to break the law. On and on and on and on.
A reasonable community would be very concerned about this level of lack of judgment in its elected officials and employees, but not Estes Park. A reasonable town would question elected officials that spit in the eye of the people that elect them, but not Estes Park. They hug the pedophile and ostracize the molested child’s family. Count the roster, the convicted, that were leaders from the Rotary, town hall, school board who were the enablers and how did they profit?
Look at the roster of names, who allowed the school districts money to walk out the back door, what’s going out the town’s back door? There is commonality between the town and the old school district, who does the accounting, who works for the town and the district do not insult me by suggesting that they crossed the street and found ethics.
In a den of thieves, the law of the land means nothing, the local politicians throw so much fertilizer at the wall sooner or latter something sticks. The Estes Parkian concedes to the Hole in the Law Gang. Estes Park you are ethically challenged. It is impossible to dictate a code of ethics, you are a law abiding respecting community or you are not, by choice. We think you are a silly bunch, the new spin is “care” in other words if you do not agree with us you are not “caring” that’s crap politics.
All we can do is steady the mirror so you can look at the problem.
Look back through the history books to a community know as the Robbers Roost and the Hole in the Wall gang for an appropriate analogy. This was a community of thieves, killers, hijackers, bushwhackers of the worst sort, on the run from the law. Robbers Roost and the Hole in the Wall was ideal for the those that accumulated there, isolated, hidden, a choke point where a lookout could see the law coming from miles away and if necessary one could loose pursuers in the maze of Utah canyons - so many rats which trail do you follow? In a community like the Robbers Roost the commonality being everyone was an outlaw and everyone was armed with a six gun. One would never venture there unless one was armed and dangerous and on the lamb. In that society if someone annoyed you or you desire some thing you simply shoot first and take what you want that’s the expectable “local politics”. The laws of the United States say you can’t kill people, the laws of Utah say you can’t shoot people but in the Robbers Roost it was done every day, like changing your socks. In a den of thieves the rule of civil law is useless the local politics in the Robbers Roost say dead men tell no tails you cannot enforce the law amongst the lawless. If a person in the Robbers Roost stood up and said “you can’t just shoot someone and take his stuff – “it’s against the law”. Everyone would shoot you many times and you the do-gooder would be “terminally correct”.
Back to Estes Park; November 1999 the town went to the citizens to ask permission to build an Information Center complex at the confluence of Highway 34 and 36. The citizens went to the polls and said “NO we the citizens do not want this”. In 2005 it is being built. Town Hall’s way of telling you the citizens who runs this damn town and it isn’t you. So much for why people do not vote around here - retired or not.
Currently the town is going through the budgeting process, as they shotgun line items 5% over here 2% over there ultimately intended for the “community reinvestment fund”. The town spends 2.5 million plus on an advertising program no matter how creative the math that is not 6.8% of the general funds - a lawful cap.
2004, the community development commission created a schedule of tax/fees for their newly created CVB to charge intown/out of town business. Greg White, town attorney, assured everyone that he studied this in depth and those tax/fees were legal. The Chamber of Commerce challenged this on behalf of its members and the law ruled the tax/fees were illegal and must be returned. Tom Pickering a town employee was quoted in the Trail Gazette that this ruling means nothing town staff will just find a new way to break the law. On and on and on and on.
A reasonable community would be very concerned about this level of lack of judgment in its elected officials and employees, but not Estes Park. A reasonable town would question elected officials that spit in the eye of the people that elect them, but not Estes Park. They hug the pedophile and ostracize the molested child’s family. Count the roster, the convicted, that were leaders from the Rotary, town hall, school board who were the enablers and how did they profit?
Look at the roster of names, who allowed the school districts money to walk out the back door, what’s going out the town’s back door? There is commonality between the town and the old school district, who does the accounting, who works for the town and the district do not insult me by suggesting that they crossed the street and found ethics.
In a den of thieves, the law of the land means nothing, the local politicians throw so much fertilizer at the wall sooner or latter something sticks. The Estes Parkian concedes to the Hole in the Law Gang. Estes Park you are ethically challenged. It is impossible to dictate a code of ethics, you are a law abiding respecting community or you are not, by choice. We think you are a silly bunch, the new spin is “care” in other words if you do not agree with us you are not “caring” that’s crap politics.
All we can do is steady the mirror so you can look at the problem.
