The Estes Parkian has many sources and learns many things via the miracle of electronic mail/twitter. This week, I learned that the EPURA Board violated the state open meetings laws, and that School Board President Todd Jirsa and Planning Commission member Doug Klink complained to the Mayor and Town staff. Because of a loophole in the open meetings laws, towns and government boards routinely use meetings with their attorneys to conceal board deliberations on issues of public concern from the voters. Here is the entirety of the tape of the public meeting of the EPURA board concerning their discussion of a threatened lawsuit against the voters:
Newsom: “It is the consensus of opinion of this Board we will wait until we get the final decision from the Town Trustees with regard to their disposition of EPURA.”
"Is there anything else to come before this Board this morning?"
(motion to adjourn)
"All in favor say Aye."
"All opposed."
Newsom: "This meeting is adjourned."
Not recorded was former Town Trustee Newsom’s statement that he would “entertain” a motion to declare that the EPURA Board would not act on its legal options until a final decision by the Town Board on the disposition of EPURA. There were clearly deliberations in that secret meeting that should have been conducted in public.
The Estes Parkian is solely responsible for this missive, not his/her sources, but the Mayor’s dismissive response to this secretive process inspired the following:
(shamelessly based on a letter Rush Limbaugh wrote to President Obama)
ESTES PARKIAN: I penned a message to Mayor Pinkham that I would like to deliver now. Because Mr. Mayor, I think it's time we had a heart-to-heart talk. Let me be the political mentor that you never had or never really knew, because I think you need some guidance. It's time to man up. It's time to step up. Being Mayor is a big job. It's a big responsibility. You wanted the position, Bill. You campaigned for it. You told the public to trust you with it, and they elected you -- and you're now Mayor of Estes Park in the greatest Rocky Mountain valley, and yet you act like this was all coming to you, like you deserve it, that you're better than the people you are supposed to serve and that you have no tolerance for debate or dissent. That's not the way it works as Mayor, Bill. We are a statutory town, governed by the Colorado Constitution and the Colorado statutes -- and more importantly we the people. You don't get to impose your programs and policies on the Town and the people without our consent, meaning we the people.
This is a representative government, not a banana republic, and let me remind you: Town Attorney Greg White and Town Administrator Jacquie Halburnt are not our Founders. This is a community built on individuality, built on liberty, free markets, and faith. From Joel Estes to F.O. Stanley the men & women of the Estes Valley relied on individual initiative to carve out a living. They said what they meant and meant what they said.
Yet you, Mayor, demanded fidelity to a different belief system: A system that crushes individual initiative and free will, a system that elevates government favoritism over free & fair competition, a system that promotes secretiveness and excludes and misleads the public.
A Mayor does not threaten to sue and berate the voters who have no ability to respond to your attacks. You've made such a mess of things, Mayor, and it's time to stop deluding yourself. It's time to stop blaming others. You are delusional. You are delirious. It's time for you to assume the responsibilities of a Mayor rather than pretending to be one.
In the last two years, you've spent down the Town’s reserves, despite well over $1 million in tax increases. It is your responsibility to fix it now. Otherwise, our Town will have no future. You are wrong to expand one Town department budget after another, while jettisoning other services through various tax schemes. You are destroying our valley’s competitive position and jobs. You need to stop what you are doing, before dozens of more businesses go broke from your misguided policies and property tax hikes. It's not too late to stop this.
I know you're not going to stop it because you told our School Board President that you don’t tell him how to run the School Board, and I know what you mean. You're going to keep plugging for the same agenda, which is going to destroy this Town and Valley even more -- which makes me think, Mayor, that's your objective. You keep telling us over and over that gas prices will soar and destroy the tourist economy anyway. You’ve defined the problem, but where is the solution?
Town staff just wants the party to keep continuing, which is why they used Town equipment & personnel to plow the Lake Shore Lodge parking lot before their annual $15,000 Christmas party. Did the Town offer to plow all the other 200-some hotels, motels, lodges and bed & breakfasts in the Estes Valley? Most assuredly--not.
You know, Mayor, unlike most mayors you're dealing with a Town Board that is largely compliant with Town staff, then manages to ignore the few initiatives where you could make a positive difference. It amazes me that with all the talk about your ability to persuade and communicate, that you can't even hold your own Town Board together anymore. They won’t move forward on Ethics, because Eric Blackhurst says he has his own ethics -- and nobody is gonna tell him he can’t use his office for personal and family gain.
Is that the voter’s fault, too? Is it the fault of the downtown businesses or the retirees that you can't keep your own Town Board on task -- or is it a problem with your leadership Mayor, or lack of leadership? It's the latter, Mayor. I'll tell you, you are not a leader. You are a ribbon cutter and recycling bin guy, and a process guy, but you are not a leader. You usually seem likeable, but can we like the results? It is you who are doing something wrong.
The people in Estes Park don't like it. When you were part of a scheme to sell Ed Grueff and his buddies a Town property in front of the Stanley Hotel at a 40 percent discount, 74 percent of the voters said we don't like it. The voters rose up and defended their right to vote on the sale of Town property. Ed Grueff slinked away, threatening to sue the Town, but only willing to invest in sure-bet insider deals.
When you tried to continue EPURA/urban renewal for 25 more years over the objection of three of our taxing districts—while having no real “plan for progress, ” 61 percent of the voters said we don't like it.
You backed a fire district scheme to raise my taxes as an Estes Park voter to benefit and remove a fee structure from people who did not vote for you and refuse to annex into the boundaries of your authority. You will never put out that fire and it will be vented at the voting booth!
You repeatedly told voters that the Town would sue them if they adopted this ordinance. After the election, you even told it to the Denver Post, then denied it the next day in our local paper. The people all over the valley have the ability to inform themselves outside of your sycophant EP News, and they are doing so. I mean, this calls for some self-reflection and some circumspection. Has it occurred to you, Mr. Mayor, even once that you're not as cool as you think you are? Has it occurred to you that you are screwing up? And if it has, are you happy about that? Has it occurred to you that you have a great deal to learn and that you need to take your own measure, or are you Mr. Perfect? Are you God-sent? (Don’t tell David Habecker).
Are you The One that you've been waiting for? See, I have a little concern there may be a psychological issue at play here. I don't say this to demean you, Bill. I say it because I'm concerned. I mean, Sue Doylen was always "concerned" and I like the word. I'm concerned. You seem to have a whole lot of enemies, at least in your own mind. A partial list would include the School Board, the Hospital Board, the Library Board, the owner of the Park Theatre Mall, the developer of Stanley Village, the owner of the Stanley Hotel, the survivors of the Town’s destruction of the Chamber of Commerce, downtown businesses, out-of-town businesses, the Association for Responsible Development, the Estes Valley Contractors Association, the state courts, Republicans, Democrats, Independents -- and the list goes on and on and on. You have the longest enemies list of anybody I've ever known in the Estes Valley.
These people are not your enemies, though, Mayor. They are Estes Parkians they are part of the hundreds of Estes Parkians who read this blog every day. They are part of this Town and valley. They are part of what makes the community work. You are not. You have nothing to do, and have had nothing to do, with this community’s greatness. You can't lay claim to leadership on any scale, not even rhetorical. You have no direct relationship to the leadership of this valley. You are damaging the possibility of further leadership. Nevertheless, like a bully, you threatened all of these people. The School Board, the Hospital Board, the list goes on. You threaten anybody who does not agree with you. You try to intimidate them. Your sycophantic supporters go right along and carry your water by smearing them. But this is not what leaders do.
You're supposed to lead not by threatening people but by encouraging them, by embracing them, by thanking them, by inspiring them. Most of all you don't seem to appreciate the magnificence of this community! I know you don't. The way you've been educated about this valley it's painfully obvious. You’ve let your attorneys sway you with bad advice for a year-and-a-half. Then you did a 180 when the voters finally had their say. Didn’t your lawyers already know they had a bad case in the summer of 2008? If so, doesn’t that mean you instructed the lawyers to go ahead and attack our voting rights anyway? If not, doesn’t that suggest you need to lead, instead of following the lawyers who sent you down one more in a long list of gopher holes? And if you can’t lead, if the Town Attorney is the real leader, shouldn’t you use all your powers to pick a new leader?
Still, you think the voters are guilty, period. Guilty and unjust. But you were elected to be Mayor, not some kind of dictator. You must operate within the confines of the Colorado Constitution and the state statutes. You are not bigger than the law, and you are not bigger than the people. You were elected to serve the people, not dictate to them.
Anyway, I'm sure this little lecture will not do you much good, particularly given the spectacle of the Urban Renewal Board meeting last week. You really are full of yourself, complaining that the Trail-Gazette didn’t have enough nice things to say about a failed program. But I truly hope that this little talk does do you some good down the way, because something is going to have to change in you or we are doomed for at least the next two years.
PS
Maybe politics and public administration isn’t a good choice for a retirement hobby, you might consider fly fishing , wood working, watercolor, bird watching, hiking, Bache ball, shuffle board, bridge etc. etc..
Thank You For Your Attention
The Estes Parkian – A Home Rule of One
