Press releases. They come. We delete. Life goes on. But every once in a while, we get one that piques our interest, like this one from the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments:

Colorado Springs, CO-The Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) has released the 2008 Annual Report to the Citizens. The report highlights how the four member governments of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, and El Paso County made significant transportation improvements and spent more than $83 million in new revenue on major construction and design projects, maintenance activities, and transit services.

More than 200,000 copies of the PPRTA Annual Report will be distributed through major news publications including the Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, Cheyenne and Woodmen Editions, Military News, the Tri-lakes Tribune, Fountain Valley News, the Pikes Peak Bulletin, Ranchland News and Black Forest News. The report will also be available in all area King Soopers and Safeway grocery stores.

200,000 copies? That’s more than enough for every man, woman and literate child in the PPRTA’s entire service area. It’s also about 199,900 copies more than any reasonable person would imagine the demand for such a publication to be.

Let’s not forget that this is the cash-strapped PPRTA that had its budget cut by 51 percent this year and cannot afford to fill its usual number of potholes.

Obviously, you might conclude that we have a dog in this fight. After all, our peerless publication was inexplicably deprived of the no doubt lucrative business of enclosing this bit of puffery, and making it available to our similarly deprived readers.

But here’s a question: why publish the piece at all? Why not just make a PDF, and drop it in the websites of all the member entities? Cost for printing, insertion, and distribution - zero. Take the money saved thereby, and fill a few more potholes…and that reminds me of yet another press release, this one received Tuesday morning from the city.

“Fewer streets to be resurfaced in 2009.”

But maybe I’m way off base - and if so, I’m sure our readers will let me know. If any of y’all feel unjustly deprived of your PPRTA annual report, let me know. I’ll arrange to have one delivered to you.

<-Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 26th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Colorado Springs, El Paso County, potholes, PPACG, PPRTA

---

The withdrawal notice from the city to its erstwhile partners in the U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters deal, LandCo and the USOC itself, gives a preview of the defense that Colorado Springs will offer to the lawsuit LandCo filed against it and the USOC.

The USOC withdrew from the Economic Development Agreement last month.

The city seems to be following a simple strategy: It’s all LandCo’s fault!  Poor, gullible, misunderstood, slandered, libelled, seduced, betrayed and left at the altar - that’s us!  The city alleges that LandCo has been in breach of the ill-fated EDA for well over a year - in other words, from the moment it was signed. 

While reciting LandCo’s alleged breaches of contract, misrepresentations and multiple failures to perform, the city admits to no shortcomings and mentions none by the USOC.

Clearly, the script we’re seeing is a minor variation on that of “Heathers”, the classic mean girl movie of the 1980s.  The USOC is the alpha Heather and the city is, it hopes, another Heather - and LandCo is the spurned, ridiculed and derided Veronica Sawyer.

The Heathers just want to ditch Veronica and find a new BFF, a suitably cool girl to hang out with … but what’s Veronica going to do?  Will she just go home and cry?  Oh, nooo … watch out, Heathers!! Veronica’s got a gun!!

The USOC deal is, slowly but surely, heading for a denouement.  The city and the USOC have signalled that they won’t play nice any more.  Marshall and LandCo might be on the ropes, but they’ve still got some fight in ‘em.

Will Marshall and LandCo seek an injunction preventing the city and USOC from moving forward?  Will UMB foreclose on the half-completed headquarters building at 27 S. Tejon St.? Will LandCo file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and simultaneously file fresh lawsuits against the city and USOC?

LandCo, Ray - it’s your move.

And thanks, all three of you, for the free fireworks - with this kind of show, who needs Memorial Park?

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Blog
Tags :: Heathers, LandCo, Ray Marshall, the City, USOC, Veronica

---

Back in the 50s, my first job consisted of cleaning up messes, human and animal, at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It paid $50 a week-not bad for a summer job, and wealth beyond compare for a 15 year old. I caught a ride every morning with a colorful old guy (who was probably considerably younger than I am now) named Ben Sillix. Ben chewed tobacco, and spat the juice out of the window of his battered ‘49 Ford sedan, staining the driver’s side door a dull brown.

One day, Ben, who hadn’t been feeling well, told me that he had cancer.

“The Doc says I don’t have long, Johnny,” he said, “and I’ve never been anywhere. I was thinking of just going to California - got nothin’ to keep me here. What do you think?”

“Ben,” I said, full of adolescent optimism, “split for the coast! You’ll get better.”

The next day, Ben didn’t show up, and my Mom took me to work. He had left for California. I never knew what happened to him.

Like so many Americans - and Mexicans, and Vietnamese, and Chinese, and Japanese, and Hondurans, and…well, name a nation - Ben was a California dreamer.

That dream is a little frayed around the edges now. Like Governor Schwarzenegger, the golden state is not ageing gracefully, figuratively showing its sagging pecs and flabby behind.

On Tuesday, California voters resoundingly rejected half a dozen referred issues that would have allowed the state to implement a budget that the legislature, after months of argument, had finally managed to pass.

So, now, Californians are bracing (that’s newspaperspeak for “reluctantly preparing) for across-the-board cuts in every government service.

California state government is what you’d get if you asked Douglas Bruce and Ralph Nader (or Sarah Palin and Amy Goodman) to write a constitution, and accepted all of their ideas, contradictory or not. Compared to California’s, Colorado’s lunatic document is a model of rationality.

As Tim Egan wrote this morning in the New York Times, Californians hate their politicians, and their politicians despise the voters whose capricious decisions created the mess.

What’s next? Maybe a Constitutional Convention, or more chaos, or more companies moving here, or…who knows?

But California’s still California. Come November, I’ll think of Ben Sillix and wonder whether it’s not too late to jump in my battered car and split for the coast. It’s a vastly different state than it was 50 years ago - more crowded, more polluted, more dangerous, more diverse. But it’s still the land of opportunity, a place where fortune smiles upon eager castaways, and nothing’s impossible.

Maybe old Ben’s still alive, a leathery old man chewing a cigar beside his swimming pool in the Hollywood Hills. Maybe he made his fortune buying a tract of then-worthless land in the San Fernando Valley.

And if Ben did it, if he wasn’t afraid to strike out for Califas, heading west on two-lane blacktop into Kerouac’s Great American Night, so could we all.

It’s never too late for California dreaming.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by Rob Larimer on May 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized

---

We’d kind of gotten used to our government-financed fireworks display, hadn’t we?  The symphony, then the philharmonic.  The 1812 Overture.  Tens of thousands of folks coming together in the only celebratory, city-wide event of the year.  The event that, for the last thirty years, has defined and celebrated our community and our nation.

Absent a “deus ex machina”, a great-hearted philanthropist willing to pony up a hundred grand or so to fund the event, the fabulous fourth at Memorial Park may be gone forever.  It’ll be recreated at Fort Carson, according to news reports, and will no longer be a true community event.

It’ll be a perfectly nice fireworks display - and that’s about it.  No more picnicking in the park, no more walking/riding a bike to Memorial Park, no more fire in the sky, arching high over the heart of the city.

Tens of thousands gathered in the park - and tens of thousands more watched from backyards, decks, and roofs throughout the city’s core. 

City Council’s decision is understandable. Like medics on the battlefield, they’re engaged in a kind of urban triage.  This year, the cops will still be lurking to catch speeders, the ghetto bird (aka the police helicopter) will be keeping west side residents awake, and some potholes will be filled.  Those programs survive-but no more fabulous fourth, no more water to keep the parks green, and the city auditorium will decay for yet another year.

Why are we in such a fix?  Is it TABOR, the recession, or just government inefficiency?  Or some combination of all three? 

At this point, it doesn’t much matter.  There isn’t enough money, cuts have to be made, and council has the unenviable job of making those cuts. 

But I guess I look at things differently.  It seems to me that the cumulative impact of these cuts will lessen our sense of community, our belief in ourselves and our pride of place. 

A city that can’t water its parks and continue an event that has delighted its residents for 30 years is, sad to say, not much of a city.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 20th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized

---

No, I didn’t actually suffer through Sen. Michael Bennet’s commencement speech at Colorado College - I tend to subscribe to a corollary of Noel Coward’s famous axiom “television is not to watch, but to appear on.”  Similarly speeches are not to listen to, but to deliver.

But Bennet’s office released the text after he’d given his (extremely long!) speech, so I scanned it.

As you’d expect, there was an inspiring quotation from President Obama, and a long recital of the plagues visited upon our unfortunate nation by those Wascally Wepublicans (as Elmer Fudd might have said), and some sympathetic musings about the plight of new graduates who would soon be seeking employment in these recessionary times.

None of it was particularly interesting, or inspiring, until I came to this:

“On a lot of nights, after I’ve hitched our minivan to its post and we have put our three daughters to bed, like a lot of people, I take a walk through our neighborhood.  And, I often come to a place where the sidewalk has an imprint on it.  It says, “B.T. Sowell, contractor, 1964,” the year I was born.  I’m afraid that concrete has worn its 44 years better than I.  Now, I’ve never met Mr. Sowell, but I know something about him.

When I get to that spot, I think about Mr. Sowell, working on the day he laid that concrete.   He could have rushed the job, thinned out the cement, cheated the folks who paid for the path, taking shortcuts that might not have become evident for years.  But, instead, he put his name on it so that generations of children between then and now – children who rode their bikes over it, who skateboarded and skipped rope over it, children who walked to school or to church on it — would know that he hadn’t cheated, hadn’t thinned it out; hadn’t cut any corner. They would know, as their parents had known that he had put an honest day’s work in for an honest day’s pay.  He laid his work down – he laid his cement down – in a way that would create an enduring legacy that literally would support the footsteps of generations of children, and, in my case, their very weary parents.”

I couldn’t believe it.  As far as I knew, I was the only person in the world who was interested in, or even looked, at the sidewalk stamps of long-vanished contractors.

My opinion of Bennet went from neutral to slightly negative to overwhelmingly positive.  Bennet, you the man!!  You’ve got my vote!! And, I’m sure, that of every other sidewalk stamp connoisseur…but you’ve got several hundred thousand more to go.  And most ‘em, alas, don’t care about sidewalk stamps.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: Colorado College, Commencement speech, Michael Bennet, Noel Coward, President Obama, sidewalk stamps

---

Absent supporting data, the city “Ethics Commission” acted correctly in refusing to consider, at least for the time being, the complaint filed against Mayor Lionel Rivera.  The complaint alleged that the Mayor had, and may still have, an undisclosed business relationship with LandCo CEO Ray Marshall.  The complaint further alleges that Rivera profited thereby, creating a conflict of interest.

The complainant, investment advisor Ron Johnson, said that he would produce documentary evidence of this conflictual relationship in the near future.

That’s fine - but two points come to mind.

First, the commission is barred from considering ethical lapses that occurred more than a year from the filing of a complaint.  Granted, there needs to be some sort of “statute of limitations” on such complaints-but one year?  That seems unduly short.

Secondly, the commission, like Caesar’s wife, ought to be above suspicion.  Of the three memebers, one is a lawyer with the city attorney’s office, and another is a longtime political insider who supported the Mayor in his re-election bid two years ago.  I know them both-and believe them to be extraordinarily honorable and capable individuals, who would be unswayed in their judgment by personal, political, or job-related concerns.  But appearance is everything.

And third, this entire, elaborate charade, this home-grown Kabuki theater that so entrances the political junkies among us, could be ended ina minute - if the Mayor spoke up. 

But, for reasons best known to himself, he hasn’t.  And the show goes on.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 18th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized

---

 

Every day brings a new USOC rumor - and yesterday was no exception.

 

According to the usual unreliable source (I could tell you who she is, but I’d have to lie) USOC Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird will be hiring as many as six employees to staff the USOC’s marketing program, which may no longer be located in Colorado Springs. 

Baird, who previously worked for the NFL as a senior VP for consumer products and marketing, took over the position as CMO on Jan. 20.

 

Baird, who lives in Connecticut, cited her desire to spend more time with her family, which includes three young children, when she resigned from her post at the NFL. 

 

When she accepted the job with the USOC, there was widespread speculation that she would remain on the East Coast, and that major components of the USOC’s marketing division would relocate to New York.

 

So is this, in fact, the case?  Is the USOC starting to move quietly out of town, going by twos and threes rather than all at once?  We asked the USOC’s Darryl Seibel, who replied via e-mail

late yesterday afternoon.

 

“We are in the process of reorganizing our Marketing Division,” he wrote, “The reorganization will include the addition of several new positions, primarily in sponsorship sales and support.  As to where the positions will be based: we have not made a final decision, but our priority is to operate from markets that create the best opportunity for success for the USOC and our Corporate Partners.  Of course, if Chicago is fortunate enough to earn the honor of hosting the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, that will have some bearing on where these positions are located.”

 

Is the USOC’s major marketing group moving out of town?  Or are these new hires, which may be located elsewhere, simply a means of bolstering the USOC’s marketing efforts?

 

My guess is that major marketing, in fact if not in name, will locate in NYC, which Baird may  have made a condition of her employment.  In a recessionary environment, coupled with the loss of former sponsors such as General Motors (once, as some may remember, an automobile manufacturer in the United States), USOC marketers need to have the kind of access to transportation, and to corporate decisionmakers, that our sunny little backwater can scarcely offer.

 

But given that this move may have been anticipated since December, it most likely has no bearing on whether the USOC will actually pull up stakes and leave Colorado Springs for greener pastures-even ones with better air service and solvent developers.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 13th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: Chicago, Darryl Seibel, Lisa Baird, New York, USOC

---

The ethics complaint filed May 4 against Mayor Lionel Rivera by the Ron Johnson, CEO of Central Bancorp,  makes serious allegations against the mayor, to which he ought to respond swiftly, openly and honestly.

Johnson complaint alleges, among other things, that “The Mayor has and continues to negotiate on behalf of the City with parties (Landco) and Ray Marshall) with whom a direct conflict of interest exists. The conflict exists by virtue of Mayor Rivera’s employment and compensation at UBS Securities where Mr. Rivera manages accounts controlled by Landco and Ray Marshall, from which Mr. Rivera receives direct or indirect compensation.”

Rivera is an investment adviser and Marshall had money available for investment.  The mayor can hardly survive on council’s miserly stipend of $6,250 annually, so he has to work.  Advising investors is, in part, what he does for a living.

So where’s the impropriety?

Here are the alternatives:

- The mayor had no such business relationship, and, ergo, no impropriety of any kind.

- The mayor had such a relationship, and it was of such a nature that he profited thereby, and he did not disclose this to council. While he has a fiduciary relationship with his customers, he is also an elected official who owes his loyalty to the residents of the community.  In a case where loyalties so clearly conflict, he must notify council of an undisclosed conflict regarding negotiations with LandCo, and recuse himself from all votes and negotiations. 

- The mayor’s relationship was so inconsequential, or so fleeting and transitory, that he simply didn’t regard it as conflictual.  In such a case, he should have disclosed it anyway, but his failure to do so is understandable.  

Rumours regarding the alleged accounts have been circulating through the city’s business community for months. The time has come for the mayor to act, and to tell the people who elected him to office the whole truth.

It won’t do for him to hide behind the supposed “confidentiality” policies of his employer or his industry.  It’s difficult to understand how the interests of the city, of UBS or of the mayor himself are served by continued stonewalling.

Every politician who tries to cover up his or her missteps finds that the coverup is more damaging than the original mistake.  Confession and contrition work - lies and evasions don’t.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 8th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: Central Bancorp, LandCo, Ray Marshall, Rivera, UBS, USOC

---

A vast improvement! 

Local news highlighted, a great cover photo and an interesting, local and relevant center spread. 

Looks as if the editorial department at The Gazette is starting to take the new pub seriously - one of the photo credits, a shot of John Shroka at his Harbour Hot Dogs stand on Manitou Avenue, was credited to none other than G editor Jeff Thomas! 

When you can pry the Big Dog away from his computer and get him out on the streets with a camera, then you’re making a statement.

And just as an aside: picked up FreshInk this morning at 7:30 at a rack next to a downtown Starbucks.  The Independent publishes on Thursday, but it had yet to arrive. 

Wake up, guys!  You no longer have the streets to yourselves …

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 7th, 2009 :: Filed under Blog, Uncategorized
Tags :: FreshInk, Gazette, Independent

---

We all know that local government is in crisis, right? Thanks to the recession, not to mention the unavoidable constraints imposed by TABOR, our elected officials are finding it difficult to fund even the basic needs of government, right?  No money for frills-it’s just meat and potatoes at the city and the county, right?

So how, pray tell, does El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa justify paying for an expensively produced, 36 page, glossy magazine titled “2008 Special Edition Annual Report?”

The mag, printed on heavy, glossy stock, with color on every page, masquerades as a report to the taxpayers.  It’s not an annual report,-just as Congressman Doug Lamborn’s equally slick and glossy “newsletters” have little to do with news.

To read the “Annual Report” is to find out that all is well in the Sheriff’s department.  According to Sheriff Maketa, “Every component of our organization achieved higher levels of performance” and “The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office continues to carve a path of creativity, resourcefulness and commitment toward serving our great community.” 

In subsequent pages, every part of the office is singled out for embarassingly fulsome praise.  The mag contains no fewer than 115 color photographs, as well as a smaller number of (largely uninformative) charts and graphs.  There’s a single page of financial information, which consists only of a couple of bar charts and a pie chart. 

Let’s call this “Annual Report” what it really is: a taxpayer-funded campaign piece for Sheriff Maketa.  At least, I assume that it’s taxpayer funded-if it isn’t, if it was paid for by anonymous private contributors, that’s even worse, since it pretends to be an official government document.

In any case, it, along with Lamborn’s taxpayer-funded mailings, are both deplorable.  We don’t need glossy P.R. pieces from our elected officials, telling us how noble, selfless, and dedicated they are - we need the unvarnished truth.  And if times are as difficult as our leaders tell us, how can they afford to squander thousands on fancy print jobs?

To quote the legendary Sergeant Joe Friday of the LAPD “Just the facts, Ma’am.”  Forget the color, forget the pics, forget the puffery - just the facts, Sheriff.

<- Back to CSBJ.com

---

Posted by John Hazlehurst on May 6th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: El Paso County, Lamborn, Maketa

---