April 6, 2010, it is our responsibility to select town hall leadership. Choose wisely Grasshopper!
The leaders we now have appear to be out of touch, out of order, dysfunctional, out of step, lost, clueless, hopeless, useless and misguided, not to be trusted, and disciples of puffery; descriptions of current leaders we have received via email directed at the town trustees (other comments, not included here, were inappropriate and basically not nice).
How does a trustee of Estes Park reconcile all of the legal action brought against them by the citizens and voters of Estes Park?
If the legal actions were frivolous, harassment, or even political maneuvering it would be one thing, but the actions taken against trustees in the past five years have all been common sense issues. The town trustees have lost all these challenges in the court room and at the ballet box. That never happens in most communities, but it is common place in Estes Park. In retaliation the trustees have engaged in a loosing war against their own electorate. The town is being run like a private little club, and the trustees believing they have Card Blanche. What’s the harm in hiring my wife - what’s the harm in granting a few favors - what’s the harm if I skew budget and sales tax numbers to look positive, and what’s the harm in going into executive session?
The trustees all swear an oath to follow state statutes, and then somehow ignore state law. Unbelievably your elected officials have justified their actions by claiming to break the law on behalf of all small towns in Colorado, making a mockery of our town government. The most resent example (even though the trustees waved the white flag on the EPURA vote) the assistant town administrator recently fired one more shot at the Estes Park voting public at the League of Woman Voters meeting, opening the door again for legal action to reverse the vote on EPURA. This is a staff member contradicting what the trustees and mayor stated the week prior to that. So who is leader in town hall anyway, is the tail wagging the dog as we have surmised all along? The town assistant administrator would know all about the town trustee’s awful legal record, because he too took the town to task in a wrongful termination suit and won.
The trustee rhetoric is all to familiar. The trustees being volunteers claim with a unified voice “all I want to do is serve my community and give back in my retirement years.” The trustees are elected at large by the people of Estes Park to oversee the town’s essential services, just use common sense people - who could get elected to anything if they said “heck I don’t know spit and I will learn on the job (kind of like in a junior high civics class) the employees make all the decisions anyway.” How about exercising a little backbone leadership skills people!
What is so difficult about running a seasonal tourist town of 5,000 people, especially now that a vast majority of essential services are financed and managed by regional special district boards - not the trustees?
What makes it so difficult for elected town officials in Estes Park to follow the law and stand up for what is right - just do the right thing - shouldn’t that be basic? Upon examination, doing the right thing I suppose is consequently related to ones perspective; like in “what’s right for town staff may not be right for you and me.” It would, I suppose, be directly related to what side of the table you are sitting. The trustees are charged with serving the common good, but do they succeed? Law suit after law suit speaks to massive failure in that regard, how do the trustees miss the mark so very badly? My answer is - leadership deficiency. Staff drives the bus!
So what side of the town table do the trustees sit, any how?
One would like to think that the trustees are elected by the people and are seated to serve the needs of the people that elect them. But, if you think like that (like the Estes Parkian thinks) you would be sadly mistaken. Recently during a conference for potential candidates Town Trustee “Jerry Miller” educated the pool of trustee candidates as to the reality of Estes Park politics, “it takes about nine months for a new trustee to become indoctrinated into the town hall culture” according to Jerry. How is town hall culture different from Estes Park culture the Estes Parkian would like to know? Evidently it is different, because it takes nine months to assimilate according to Jerry Miller and he must know because he certainly seems to have been indoctrinated and assimilated nicely. We know because we watch how he votes. Jerry went on to explain how “once you are assigned a town department committee it is essential to work in cooperation with other trustees to get your committee requests through trustee votes.” In other words “group think” - you must join the team, the town hall team. Jerry explained how town staff needs are met, but sadly Jerry Miller never explained how the needs of the people who elected him are met (I guess you and I don’t have a team). Evidently during indoctrination a trustee is required to divorce themselves from the Estes Park people, after all no one can serve two masters. If you join in and blend in - who is leader? You guessed it, town staff!
In the same vein Dorla announced her reelection intentions Wednesday we read in the Trail Gazette, claiming it took her the past four years to get a clue. Wayne Nuisance used the same tactic after his first four years as trustee, which were followed by four more years of nothing. Dorla admits to not knowing spit, but she reserves the right to go into executive session to instruct negotiators on how to spend our money. The first day on the job you are a leader or you are not a leader - Dorla you were not a leader four years ago and you are not today, but you serve nicely as a gopher!
The bigger question for Estes Park would be for whom do the trustees work, whom do they represent, and in whose best interest are they acting? Town staff or town residents?
The Estes Parkian contends that once a trustee is elected they assimilate into the culture of town staff, exactly as described by trustee Jerry Miller. Group think and cooperation to go along to get along is essential to the oligarchy, “our way or the highway.” That is exactly why the mayor was stumped and fuming when the school board came to a different conclusion about EPURA than the trustees did, the mayor viewed that as treason. In the end it proved out the school board is in closer sync with the citizens of Estes Park than the trustees, by a very wide margin. A few leaders acted over the past few years to clean up the school district, do the unpopular but necessary things, leadership! The trustees are still blind to how far off of the mark they really are, and stumped by leadership and initiative. It makes a lot of sense that sadly Richard Holmier will not seek a second term as trustee, he attempted to represent the people and exercise leadership, but I guess they beat him down inside the Rotary walls.
Trustees once assimilated into town hall culture spend time on town staff committees, town staff pet projects, and essentially carry out employees bidding - in what can only be described as “empire building.” Trustees have opted to create town departments and services that burn precious tax dollars for no real discernable purpose beyond the employment of friends and family. For example; a common practice of staff and the trustees is to shift departments around, realigning the flow chart, and redistributing responsibilities. The trick is to create administrative combinations and gaps for ghost services that can generate revenue in the form of fees added to utility bills (much like credit card companies and phone companies do), but with no real value added for the citizen - the proposed road and storm drain fees being a prime example. Our elected untrustworthy trustees will not step up to stop this abuse, because town staff has alpha status on department committees making the trustee simply gophers - go for this - go for that.
With trustee elections coming in April will electing new trustees make a difference?
Would it make any difference who you elected if they are soon to be assimilated and indoctrinated into town culture, and lost to you as representatives anyway? It would depend on the individual and it takes a strong leadership personality to buck the system, because the rewards are greater to go along.
In a nut shell, our trustees are not policy makers – town staff drives policy, our trustees are not legislators - the state legislates Estes Park (we are a statutory town), they are foreign and divorced from the general population and leadership is not encouraged, so what do they do? Who would you elected to start kicking some butt and demanding accountability and transparency? Certainly not any of the incumbents!
So, if you are retired and have a lot of time on your hands circulate a petition, throw your hat in the ring, and become a town trustee. You don’t need to know doodley squat about your constituency or have a lick of common sense, and staff will instruct you “how to vote” and you too can sleep walk through the next four years while feeling a part of the team.
Leadership skills not required!
