The limit of the reformers’ influence was dramatically illustrated when the powerful (quarter million dollars a year) legal contract for City Attorney services was awarded to an establishment insider without any competitive bidding.  The reformers argued it is prudent “best practices” business to put such an expensive and important contract out to competitive bid.  There was also a proposal to evaluate the overall legal situation and investigate whether it would be…

In a repeat of the decision last year, the new City Council again voted to give away $100,000/year in tax monies to local charities.  Although this year’s proposal took away much of the mayor’s power, the vote was split with the newly elected reformers voting against the measure which passed on a narrow 6-5 vote.  To make the proposal more palpable to the reformers, the evaluation committee will not be…

This year’s annual planning “retreat” was a mixed bag.  On the positive side, the reformers were finally able to get the meeting held in Lakewood.  By having a full day session at the Heritage Center’s Visitor Center at Belmar Park instead of a day and half at a Colorado resort, the taxpayers saved thousands of dollars, local businesses benefited from food purchases, Council members did not have take a day…

In a confused election, Lakewood’s voters rejected both the Republicans and the city establishment.  In the Jefferson County school board election, voters threw out the three Republican incumbents and elected five Democrats from the union-backed slate.  While this 60% anti-Republican electoral wave did change the Lakewood mayor race and one of the Council seats, it was not enough to save the other four City Council seats up for election.  Despite…

In a strange sense of deva vu, watching Mayor Bob’s last Council meeting was reminiscent of the 2090 S. Wright St. debacle two years ago.  In recent weeks Mayor Bob negotiated a convoluted scheme to buy the northwest corner of the Denver Federal Center so he could build a utopian village.  Whether Murphy is playing a real life game of SimsCity (where player get to create their own world), is angling for a job with a developer…

The latest issue of the Lakewood Watchdog (also available on facebook) showed up in mailboxes this week.  In addition to an in-depth look at the Council’s plan to spend $25 million of the taxpayers’ dollars to go into the development business, this issue looks at some the campaign promises made by the candidates.  It goes into some depth about Adam Paul’s claim to protect parks and open space.  Specifically it…

A review of the recent campaign finance disclosure reports indicate that the Adam Paul campaign will be the most expensive campaign in Lakewood history.  As expected the Adam Paul campaign is receiving a ton of money from the special interests who want to continue to have their access to the mayor’s office and the City largess.  In addition to the usual labor unions, realtors, lawyers and lobbyists there a lot…

This Fall’s City Council elections just got a lot more interesting with the entry of two new candidates and the withdrawal of another.  In an expected move, John Batsch, a relative unknown, has withdrawn from the race to represent Ward 1, leaving former city employee and establishment endorsee Jeff Yeager battling against Charley Able, the former Denver Post reporter who covered Lakewood City news for years and another unknown, Ty…

At the July 27 City Council meeting, scores of residents and  from the Daniels-Welchester neighborhood and business owners in the Simms Street area came to complain about Jefferson County’s proposal to move their men’s halfway house to 10th and Quail Street.  You may recall when Council passed the new zoning ordinance a year or so ago, one of the buried features was to remove many of the controversial decisions Council…

Breaking Lakewood Campaign Rules As the establishment candidate for mayor, Adam Paul tries to portray himself as a player by the rules and his opposition as renegades.  However when it comes to campaign signs, turns out Adam is not playing by the rules he swore to uphold.   When he declared his candidacy Adam signed an affidavit that he understood the campaign rules and would follow them.  It appears the temptation…