Who Makes Up The Charter Commission?

Apparently there are over 25 petitioners who are asking for signatures for the Charter Commission should we decide to adopt Home Rule. This is a staggering number for our town since there has formerly been a complacency that kept people away from politics. Congratulations to those who are making this choice, as it is an important issue and needs the commitment of our citizens.

A caution:

Town Government, currently led by John Baudeck, has for years stressed the lack of need for any change to our Town Government. These have been very public positions taken by the Mayor, Commissioners and the Town Administrator. The full Board has been in agreement, repeatedly, that we don’t need Home Rule, that several internal studies have been done and it was deemed not necessary in this Town. The reality is that there is potential under Home Rule that the Town may lose some privilege and control under Home Rule and may have to face tough decisions in the public eye. Rules could change so that salaries are published, bids for contract work would be made public, committees could be made up of elected members not all appointed by the Mayor. It seems time that finally we have an opportunity to make these positive changes in our community. Don’t be misled. Home Rule does not mean that taxes will go up. Home Rule does not mean that we are going to dismantle the good qualities that we have in the current political system. Instead, it would give us an opportunity to increase public input and openness and give citizens more say in spending, especially for large projects.

The caution is that the Town is in fear of losing the control they now have and are trying to stack the deck by having nearly the entire board run for Charter Commission. This is not the intention of the process and is not the case in most towns making the change. Often there is only one, sometimes there are none of current town officials on these commissions. The reason is that their input is not really needed. The State has provided a formula for writing and adopting a charter, an experienced attorney is brought in to assist and give examples of other town charters and the citizens are given free reign, without prejudice, to look at all viable options. It takes open minds, not those who only know one way of doing things. The past and present Town Boards have had many opportunities to make positive changes and have chosen not to. Therefore it should be obvious that if the Town is allowed to stack the deck we will lose options and will instead potentially lose our rights. They have suggested they wish to protect the current system and give themselves even more power. We need a true citizen’s effort to achieve a positive outcome. This is perhaps the one final opportunity we have to speak about the future of our Town. Trust independent candidates just as they have done in other towns.

How Deep Does It Go?

There appears to be an incestuous relationship between certain officials in Town Government, the school system and a local bank. Although it isn’t fully discovered as yet, there is an investigation under way to determine why Estes Park pays such high salaries, finds jobs for their spouses in the school system and gets special loan benefits in combination with the Town and a local bank. What do you suppose a complete audit with an accredited audit firm would discover? It is believed that an investigation will follow the money and discover who is behind this suspect behavior and will lead to further investigation such as Top Hands and the marketing department, personal reimbursements for “services” and more. The more in this case would be EPURA and the Reinvestment Fund. Follow the money!

The suspicion is that this isn’t the usual small town politics, but is a deep and far reaching cooperative effort among a select group that is now trying to hide their dirty little secrets.

One has to only stop playing their little shell game of misdirection and turn over all of the cups at the same time to get at the truth. This is what the school board is doing and won’t it be interesting what they uncover?

lie n :

lie n : an untrue statement made with intent to deceive

Are you familiar with the phenomenon of mass hysteria? In Estes Park we have our own version it is "the mass lie". For all Estes Parkians this will be a difficult read. Like grandpa, you love him, but a visual of him in the shower is to much truth.

Statistics tell us that 85% off all businesses in Estes Park turn over every five years. That is numbing information on several dimensions. Sue Doylan and Tom Pickering of the Town's Community development department provided this information, it is a direct quote. Town staff and elected officials have known this for years. Think about this for a moment...... Town staff and the elected officials know that the electorate of Estes Park, the vast majority of the population, will not be around to vote for or against them. The principles of the town will never see what happens in town hall they will have moved back to Omaha!!! That is the ultimate in supervisor free operations. Oh I got to get me one of those City jobs.

What sane businessman would invest in a business in Estes Park if eighty five percent fail. You cannot make money, you will not have customers two thirds of the year and it is one fight after another. No wonder it is so easy for town staff to keep the business community divided, they are the only constant. If 85% of businesses fail in five years then logic would dictate that about the same number of businesses come into town in the same time frame. It would seem that someone would notice that in the past five years there has been five new businesses next door. Go to any long time business owner on Elkhorn and ask how business is and he will tell you business is great up 30% over last year, LIE. If you go in and talk to a landlord about a lease they will tell you that the previous business was there for twenty years and made $50, 000.00 per month in tee shirts alone....LIE. If you down-loaded the Trail Gazette on the web you would have read an article quoting Randy Repola on how business was ahead of Aspen during the past quarter...LIE. Why would the whole town lie to these people? Well the property owner needs to fill the empty store, the town needs the sales tax, and the long time business owner needs other businesses around him ...LIE, LIE, LIE. What if there were 85% vacancies on Elkhorn? What if the general fund of the town was down 85%. Big reasons to lie and you have all done it.

The biggest liars of all is the town; they do all the advertising, marketing and public relations. Town hall has attempted to attract chain stores into the commercial district to no avail because these chains actually do traffic counts and count parking spaces and look at the year around potential. No Thank You. It is a lot easier to lie to the mom and pop operation. Sure they go broke move back to Omaha thinking it is all their fault. Town hall loves the big whooper lie because the ones they cheat leave and no one is around long enough to look behind the curtains of town hall and find the liar. Long time locals excuse the big lie as just being small town. I have news for you not all small towns in Colorado are like this, except maybe for Granby. The ends do not justify the means. The Estes Parkian.

A Reckoning

It is coming and it is coming soon. A reckoning, an accountability of the ethics within our community. Sure we will have to prosecute a few employees, but its our job as citizens to clean your own messes. Estes Park is a small town and our town elected officials oversee the operation of this community with very little if any local interest, the citizenry has been bullied into apathy. The local voters and citizens of the Town of Estes Park are ultimately accountable for the actions of the people hired and entrusted to act in the public good. The local citizens have not controlled their charges and as is always the case - when unsupervised spending is allowed corruption is sure to follow. Who is getting a piece of that 23 million dollar pie? The local citizen voter has been cut so far out of the operation of their community that they are not factors. The town employees and those mayoral politically appointed officials have this town wired in,,, it is all about money. Years ago local people began turning their backs to the realities of the corruption for various reasons. Estes Park will not be the first nor will it be the last statutory town to beat a path down the corruption trail, before local citizens wake up to their responsibilities as supervisors and clean house. Citizens of Estes Park it is your town, it is your dirt, the corruption exists because you allow it. Your employees steal from you every day, your elected officials deceive you every day, and yes the local press is involved. Stay tuned there is a reckoning coming.

Racially Motivated?

Is it true that the school board is being harassed because they hired some new Spanish speaking teachers? There is a great deal of parental criticism of our Hispanic students that share our classrooms. Is that because they provide 30-40% of the funding for the schools but as a minority aren’t supposed to get any services? Is the whole school board issue really racially motivated?

Town Puts Nix on Porn!

Town government has been busy with their consultant. Seems they just spent over $70,000 on a computer specialist cleaning pornography off Town employee’s computers. Nasty habits they have there. What ever happened to solitaire?

Double the pleasure with two Town Administrators!

Estes Park has the distinction of being the smallest town in America with two Town Administrators! That’s a Ripley’s.

Seems that on the face of it Randy Repola has the title, but Rich Widmer is still getting paid and receiving full benefits. Perhaps that’s because he’s still doing the job he did before his supposed retirement – NOTHING!

Perhaps he’s being paid for what he knows about certain Town officials?

School Board Fiasco - Again!

What is Town Administrator Randy Repola doing laying it on the line in lambasting the School Board? Let’s see, Repola is critical of the Board President so he makes up stories about him and sends it all over the Internet; anything to discredit the Board. Let us not forget that Repola is the one that broke the law by inviting a pedophile to school functions, against court orders. Was he helping him find his next victim? Now he’s using his influence at his church (along with another Town Trustee) to support an admitted thief of school funds (didn’t he also support the former superintendent who is now in jail?). One would think he’d know better since he was once a cop. Of course that didn’t stop him from providing liquor to minors in his home. Apparently he has one standard for himself and one for everyone else. Ah, the comfort of privilege.

That's it, Widmer is back-up.

QUICK FIXES LEAVE PROBLEMS UNTOUCHED!

It seems as though the many problems in this great Town never really get handled. Let's use some examples to see if you agree.
Problem/Solution
Brain Tumor -Haircut
Broken Leg -Massage
Stomach Cancer -Soda and Bitters

If this sounds familiar, let us look at some real life examples and find what has been done and give some possibilities of what should/could have been done.

Opportunity -Town's Solution -Better Solution
FOSH Money -Study Then Keep Money -Build Smaller Arts Complex
Filthy Streets- Build Kayak Course- Clean Steets Year Around
Failing Business /Less Tax- Expand Kayak Course -Replace Marketing Team
Lack of Parking -Give Parking to RMNP- Build Parking Facility
Loss in Tax $ -Encourage No Tax Art Shows -Support Local Business

If we truly want a difference in this community we will have to make some painful choices. We need chemo and radiation, not band-aids. When you think about what we could be you should be encouraged to run for the Charter Commission for Home Rule and vote for Home Rule.
Many of you can't or won't run for the Commission, but surely you know some pople who would be good citizens and are interested in the community. Let's do what is necessary to become the best community possible. We need a bright new face to highlight our beauty and the many benefits we have to offer both locals and visitors alike.

Dripping in Patriotism!

Didn't it just bring a tear to your eye when former Town Trustee Habecker finally stood for the flag and gave it a loving kiss? That, just before he stepped down and our new Trusee took his place. Kind of fitting that the replacement lost that seat in a coin toss, then won it fairly in a new election. If he had shown that respect a little earlier he may have kept is seat. Too little too late.

Has The Deli Become a Laundry?

Well, typical of the culture in Estes Park, everyone wants to get their piece of cheese. It doesn't seem to matter how they get it, but when the chips are down - just take the money!
Marylee Deleo, a school employee is under investigation for writing personal checks for her own use from school funds. She must have used the former superintendent as a role model. After all, he pleaded guilty to stealing over $60,000 in school funds for his personal use. He recently got 4 years in the slammer for that one.
Although Ms. Deleo's husband claims he knew nothing about any of this, it seems that he may now be under in investigation for assisting her in laundering the money through his deli.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.

Home Rule

Be sure to learn about Home Rule. What is it? What can it do for our Town?
http://www.estesparkhomerule.com/

It's The Stupid People in this Town!

According to Tom Pickering and Sue Doylen, spokespersons for our Town, business failures in Estes Park have to do with stupid people moving here without enough money, no business plan and no dedication to hard work. Gosh, thanks for that.
So, for those 87 businesses that closed out of the 92 that opened last year you should feel consoled that it is your entire fault. You had the wrong expectations, according to Mayor Baudek. For those of you that live here and don’t have a business, you are another root of the problem. You shop out of town. As Pickering says; “that’s killing us.” He’d surely know, his own business went broke so he jumped on the Town payroll and tells the rest of us what we’re doing wrong. His failures at marketing the Conference Center earned him a promotion. That’s the way it’s done in this Town.
The reality is that when we have a huge influx of visitors they have no place to park, so they can’t spend money. In addition, the Town allows craft fairs to compete with local businesses on heavy traffic weekends with no control over collecting sales tax. Unfortunately, those vendors take up all of the parking spaces around Bond Park, further exacerbating the parking problem.
Is it possible that people don’t come here because the downtown streets are filthy? Or, that there is no marketing in the off-season? Or, that there is no parking?
It should be obvious by now that it is just the stupid people in this Town.