I never realized how hard it is to juggle lots of balls, especially when a few of those balls get heavier than the others. Please accept that as my excuse for not getting a blog written every day.

Oil Shale

This is the last week that you can make comments at the BLM site about the proposed EIS for oil shale. As a citizen you really should take the time to express your opinion. I’ve written about a secret meeting held in Vernal, Utah for the purpose of drafting a response to this PEIS. Mesa County and Garfield County both submitted industry drafted comments to the BLM. Craig Meis was the only commissioner from Mesa County to attend this meeting, so he is technically off the hook when it comes to violations of Sunshine Laws. The Garfield County Commissioners are not so lucky—they are the target of a Common Cause investigation.

Yesterday there were hearings in Denver about several oil and gas proposals. Craig Meis, proved again that he is a wholly owned subsidiary of the industry. He traveled to Denver just to put his opinion into the public records. Gary Harmon, wholly owned reporter for the oil and gas industry dutifully reported on his testimony in today’s Sentinel. Harmon quotes Meis: “We should have guessed that the hysteria would hit a new high-water mark” when hydraulic fracturing was employed near the population centers of those states, Meis said. Poor Baby! Meis won’t be able to intimidate the people living in the population centers of New York and Pittsburg the way he has intimidated his fellow commissioners and members of the local GOP. I’m wondering if he is planning to travel to Washington DC where the federal government is considering new fracking rules.

In a bit of good news, the citizens of the North Fork Valley got leasing in their area postponed. Leases for 40,000 acres of BLM land was to be auctioned in August until the organic farmers of region took their pitchforks to town. I’m proud to say that Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County played a small role in getting the BLM to back down. At a community open house we had participants sign postcards, which were delivered to the BLM, and which included the concerns of the citizens of the North Fork Valley. Our President, Benita Phillips, and our Oil and Gas Committee Chairman, Duke Cox travelled to meetings in the North Fork Valley to demonstrate our support of their efforts.

Meis isn’t the only county commissioner who is a money whore. Evidently the vote has already been counted on the Uranium Downs, VLT concession for the Mesa County Fairgrounds, if that bill passes Colorado’s state government. Rumor has it that two commissioners have already agreed to vote in favor of establishing a VLT in Mesa County. Rumor also has it that Jennifer Bailey, head of WSCA and volunteer in Ray Scott’s campaign, has already been promised the position of casino manager. No wonder her daughter wrote such a glowing endorsement for the bill in a recent E-mail to the editor at the Sentinel.

Homework

Use this link to comment

Glenwood Newspaper Reports that Vernal Meeting May Have Been Illegal

Sentinel Story About Meis in Denver

North Fork leasing

Amber Gragert Letter to the Editor

Last night Ray Scott hosted his first Town Hall meeting in Grand Junction. The days of the Irish Pub, as in public house, seem to be over. Now the public square has moved to the back room of Main Street Bagels, which is where Scott’s Town Hall was held.

The room was no more full than it is on Friday mornings, when a bunch of malcontents meet to munch on bagels, drink coffee, and cure the ills of the world. The people in the room were the leadership of Western Slope Conservative Alliance and the local GOP. I even got to put a face with a name that was recently in a dustup with members of GJResult Tea Party and me on the pages of the E-Edition of the Daily Sentinel.

Conspicuously absent were members of GJResult, with their trademark yellow hats and T-shirts. The room was packed with people wearing red. The candidate didn’t seem to have gotten the dress code message—he was wearing a blue shirt. Ray Scott once told me that he knew I was a liberal by the dangly beaded earrings I was wearing, so I know that the dress code is important to Republicans. I wore a traditional African garment, in blue, to the meeting. I’m sure my silent protest was missed by all in attendance.

Ray Scott is a friendly sort. He pulled a Bush, and sneaked up behind me to rub my shoulders. I confess it felt pretty good. I’ve been burning the candle on both ends, and had quite a bit of stress built up. He also made sure to announce to the crowd that I was his opponent’s campaign manager. I was amused by the hostile stares I received thereafter, although Scott wasn’t one of the hostiles.

I did overhear some interesting conversations. A man and woman sitting close by were talking about how they really didn’t care if gay marriage was approved. They couldn’t figure out how allowing two gay people to get married would impact their own solid marriages. The woman even mentioned that there were gay people in her life that she loved with her whole heart. Maybe they weren’t real Republicans, she wore green and he wore beige, although they seemed to know everyone in the room.

The content of the meeting wasn’t any less superficial than this blog has been so far. Scott began by explaining how his first year was all about figuring out the lay of the land. He did drop one bombshell that seemed to be as silent as my dashiki—when he went to Denver he had no plan, no program, no legislation to propose. That probably explains why most of us don’t know what he’s done for Mesa County. He didn’t go there to do anything other than take up space and clown around.

He highlighted three nowhere bills in his discussion. All three of them are bills that Scott is carrying either as favors to the oil and gas industry, who he vowed to fight for in a December 2012 Free Press article; or employers of Josh Penry (the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and EIS Solutions.)

The first was HB12-1335, which was an amendment, with footnotes, to another bill, and which will go nowhere. Scott is concerned that a whole laundry list of budget line items will suffer because they received $56-million in federal mineral lease revenues that are the subject of an “ongoing Roan Plateau lawsuit seeking to cancel the federal mineral leases sold in August 2008.”  The footnote goes on to allege that the “royalty” money has been spent, but if the sale is struck down by the court, Colorado may need to reimburse the BLM.  (For the record, I am a director of Western Colorado Congress, which is a party to the lawsuit.)

Psst. Scott, there is no “royalty” money unless a lease is producing, although money has changed hands it is not “royalty” money, it is a lease purchase. They really are two different things, and as an “oil industry expert” you really should know the difference. Likewise, your aide who wrote the footnote should have gotten the terms straight. Scott did mention that he wrote this footnote as a message to Governor Frackenlooper, who does not like this amendment, which is going nowhere.

The second bill was HB 12-1329, which is the screw Paul Brown bill. It seeks to eliminate public trustees who are appointed by the governor, and roll their duties into the duties of the county treasurer. I’m guessing that Jay Seaton of the Daily Sentinel lobbied hard for this bill because he’s still smarting from Brown’s decision to move about $500,000 worth of advertising revenue to Palisade and Fruita newspapers. Josh Penry writes a weekly column for this publication.

The third bill was HB 12-1280, which has already been analyzed in previous blogs. Scott pointed out that nowhere in the bill does it mention Mesa County. True. He also mentioned that Cortez and Durango would like video lottery terminals in their cities—the original bill would have eliminated these two communities but protected the Ute’s casino with a requirement that no VLTs were authorized within 100 miles of an existing casino. Originally this bill authorized two VLT’s, now it authorizes three VLT’s—Grand Junction, Cortez and Durango? Scott attempted to refute the allegation that this legislation would benefit one pari-mutuel licensee. He said there are more than one of them in the state. However, my analysis turns up only one that meets the definition in the legislation—Arapahoe Park. I’ve been told that EIS Solutions is lobbying for this bill.

I’ve been somewhat amused to watch Representative Ray Scott during his first term in office. When he was in a primary race he made two notable comments—that for him this would be a one term deal because he had a business to run in Grand Junction and that he was shocked to take his first trip to Denver as a candidate and learn that there were people who would write legislation for representatives. I don’t know that he was referring to ALEC in his second comment, but I have my suspicions.

But I’m even more suspicious about his sponsorship of HB 12-1280. I’m speculating that Josh Penry had a hand in writing this bill, which benefits one race track owner. Isn’t he a lobbyist these days?

HB 12-1280 authorizes the installation of 2,500 video lottery terminals (VLTs) west of the Continental Divide, but not within 100 miles of the Ute casinos. It limits the terminals to no more than two retailers, which is an “improvement.” In the beginning, this was a bill with one video terminal retailer in mind. I guess the Republican sponsors decided they needed to at least pretend there was the potential for some competition. Or maybe there is more than one county that wants VLTs? One for Don Coram. One for Ray Scott.

According to the fiscal notes on the bill, “Prior to installation of VLT machines or operation of a site, local approval is required by either a majority of the governing body or a majority of the voters in the city or county where the VLT site is to be located. The local governing body may impose annual impact fees of up to $5 million, adjusted annually for inflation, to be paid by the lottery retailer to defray the costs of the on- and off-site impacts directly related to the operation of the VLTs.” Clearly the intent is to give Craig Meis and Janet Rowland the ability to approve a VLT in Mesa County and to decide what local impact fees should be charged. Citizens will never be given the right to vote on this. The last time there was such a vote it was defeated 4 to 1.

But it gets better: “Lottery retailers must be a pari-mutuel licensee that owns or controls a licensed track and that is in compliance with all statutes and rules regarding the conduct of a race meet of horses at, and the operation of, the licensed track. Lottery retailers are entitled to receive compensation equal to

70 percent of net machine income.” That begs the question of who owns licensed tracks in Colorado, since this bill is directed at increasing their revenue. Arapaho Park, is the only eligible licensed track in Colorado, and is owned by Mile High Racing and Entertainment, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BLB Investors, LLC.  BLB Investors, headquartered in Connecticut, is owned by Kerzner International Limited, Starwood Capital Group Global, LLC and Waterford Group, LLC. If I were a real investigative journalist, I’d be digging even more, but my head is spinning from all of the layers already uncovered in this investment scheme, so I’m going to leave the question here.

This sorry tale has even more twists. If passed it will certainly wind up in court, since it is using semantics to get around the Colorado Constitution’s limits on gambling. Casino owners in Colorado’s mountain towns will be heading to court the minute this bill is signed, if ever. Then there is the question of who should regulate this operation. The bill suggests that it be regulated by the State Lottery Division, which is a deliberate attempt to get it outside of the constitutional limitations.

But there is just one more twist: at least one writer (Peter Blake, of the Colorado News Agency) is speculating that this is step one in getting Uranium Downs up and running in Grand Junction. Hey, WAIT A MINUTE! Isn’t the old Uranium Downs the current Mesa County Fairgrounds?

Now I’m really curious. How do Janet Rowland, Craig Meis, and Ray Scott plan to turn the fairgrounds over to a Connecticut horse and greyhound racing association? And which pocket gets filled with cash?

Sponsors built in one nice feature—some of the new revenues to the state, estimated to be in the range of $17-million, would go to Colorado schools and kids needing scholarships. Nevertheless, I’m guessing it will never get out of the Senate if it ever makes it out of the House.

Homework

Text HB 12-1280

Fiscal Notes HB 12-1280

Arapaho Park Racetrack

Story About Odds of HB 12-1280 Passing

Map of Uranium Downs

Map of Mesa County Fairgrounds