Mayor’s Effort to Protect Developers Endangers Voters

As part of his ongoing efforts to promote more development in Lakewood, Mayor Murphy had his city council create new legal protection for shoddy condo builders. Called the construction defects bill, the new ordinance makes it impossible for new condo projects to sue their builders for any shoddy construction work. Regardless of the relative merits of having the city step in to protect his developer buddies, the measure denies the…

Councilors Hide Their Marijuana Position

The recent ballot issue (2A) to ban recreational marijuana shops in Lakewood is turning out to be expensive exercise in protecting politicians from a potential voter backlash. A majority of council wants to bring in the recreational pot shops in order to bring in more tax revenue that the council can then spend on their favorite causes. However, the mayor is afraid an outright council approval of the pot shops…