Governor Hickenlooper showed some political spine when he called legislators back to work Monday. Legislators allowed the 2012 legislative session to expire at midnight on the 120th day without debating a civil unions bill. In fact, the GOP leadership was so afraid of debate on the civil unions bill that they also failed to vote on more than two dozen bills with bi-partisan support.

Special sessions are extremely rare in Colorado. They can be called two ways: by the governor or by written request by 2/3 of the members of each house. The last time there was a special session was in 2006, the result of controversial immigration legislation. Evidently special sessions are favored by Democrats—Dick Lamm called five during the 12 years that he was governor, and Roy Romer called one about tax rebates.

There is a rumor floating around that Hickenlooper phoned five large GOP donors and called in some favors. The five donors promptly notified the GOP that they could expect no money from them in the coming election. If this rumor has any truth to it, we can expect a quick up and down vote on civil unions early next week.

Homework:

Wikipedia Discussion of Colorado General Assembly

Washington Post Story About Special Session

The Latin Anglo Alliance Foundation has been sponsoring a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Grand Junction for decades. This year the event is actually happening on May 5! And for a change the weather is predicted to be hot.

What you may not know is that this is more than just a celebration of Mexican culture; it is also a fundraiser for scholarships for Latino youth. At noon today, nine kids will receive scholarships honoring their work in high school, and encouraging them in their post graduation educational efforts. There will

The Latin Anglo Alliance has been offering these opportunities to kids since the 1950’s. With the education gap in Colorado being largest between white and Latino kids, this is an impressive, on-going effort to close that gap. It is an investment in the future of kids who have worked hard for grades, and have positively reflected the heritage of their Latino culture.

I’m hoping to see a lot of my friends at this celebration—downtown, starting at 10:00 a.m. and ending with a free street dance starting at 6:00 p.m. Bring a check for the Latin Anglo Alliance Foundation, and some cash to buy some beer. I’ll be working in the beer booth from 4:00 until 6:00, which just happens to be when there will be a jalapeno eating contest. You wouldn’t want to miss that, would you?

Homework

Latin Anglo Alliance Foundation

Colorado is one step closer to approving civil unions. Yesterday the bill that would give equal rights to same sex partners, passed out of the Judiciary Committee in the house when one Republican legislator took a deep breath and changed her vote to yes. Last year this same committee killed a similar bill.

There are still two hurdles for the bill to negotiate—it must be approved by Appropriations and Finance before it can go to the floor for a vote of the House. The Speaker of the House is the real question. Given how little time is left in this legislative session, it is possible that he will never schedule a vote on this bill.  That would be a shame.

I have facebook friends who posted all day yesterday about the legislative watch party they were having. They sat tuned in to the hearing for most of the day, frequently posting about what was happening in the hearing room. They couldn’t wait to get to this bill, but it was last on the agenda, so they had to listen to lots of testimony about other things. One post that struck my funny bone was, “We are tired of listening to marijuana dui bill ... let's get the ball rolling on Civil Unions.” Later they ordered pizza, and finally congregated at Tenacious Brothers for a celebratory drink.

Some explanation is probably needed about why a post about the marijuana dui bill was amusing to me… It was Steve King’s bill. I previously heard all of his arguments at a League of Women Voter’s legislative update meeting. It wasn’t all that interesting when he was in the room, so I can’t imagine that it improved without the eye candy that video provides.

Homework

ColoradoPols First Hand Account

Even Atlanta Noticed

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.

Maybe Colorado’s legislative sessions, committee meetings and hearings are only observed by policy wonks, political junkies and reporters. But that doesn’t mean that the Sunshine Laws that require public access to the sausage making in the capital aren’t important. If democracy is truly of the people, the people need to know that their representatives are doing the people’s work. Nobody, other than the legislators themselves, has the time to monitor each and every meeting as they occur, but that doesn’t mean that those meetings shouldn’t be open to review by we the people.

I recently wrote about how Craig Meis met with officials of other counties in a closed door meeting in Vernal, Utah. I’m not an attorney, so I don’t know if that meeting was an actual violation of the law, but I know for sure that it was a violation of the intent of the law. What came out of that meeting was a document that was filled with industry talking points, many of which blurred the reality of oil shale development in Colorado. Without any expert testimony or real public hearings this resolution has been rammed through county commissioner meetings.

Evidently flaunting of Colorado’s Sunshine laws has infected more than county commissioners. Under the Gold Dome, a newsletter that daily summarizes goings on in the capital while the legislature is in session had this to say about the recently passed budget:

“THE JOINT BUDGET COMMITTEE MET SECRETLY in the Senate minority leader’s office with other high-level officials, including a member of Hickenlooper’s cabinet, in another apparent violation this session of the state’s Open Meeting Law. The secret meetings, which are typically revealed via the short-messaging service Twitter, appear to be used to hash out partisan differences behind closed doors. The Denver Post’s Tim Hoover (@timhoover) broke the news of Wednesday’s apparent violation, sending this Tweet, “Found JBC in closed-door meeting in Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman’s office. I walked in as they were wrapping up. #coleg#copolitics.” Other Capitol reporters sent Tweets revealing the legislators’ conduct. Megan Verlee sent this Tweet, “While we were all in hearings, @timhoover caught legislative leadershp, JBC, and gov’s budget chief in private mtg #coleg”

I have written before about democracy needing at least a two party system so that when laws are passed all aspects of impacts are considered. Clearly a multi-party system would be superior to a single point of view based in ideology. The more eyes looking at a problem, the more accurate the understanding, and the more viable the solution will be.

Another important aspect to democracy is an informed public. Jefferson, currently being dismissed by far right extremists, but nevertheless one of the authors of our constitution, was so passionate about being informed that he personally owned the largest library in the New World. Madison had this to say, “A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

The founding fathers were so concerned about citizens being informed that they mandated the printing of both the laws coming out of congress and the details of the proceedings creating those laws as early as 1789. Colorado went even further and passed laws mandating that any meeting of two or more public officials, that was not a casual social encounter, be open to the public. This law does two things: keeps the public informed and keeps the politicians honest.

Shame on you Joint Budget Committee for violating the sacred trust of we the people. It may be that you want to provide cover for some elected officials who will face their constituents in the voting booth this fall, but that is not your job. Your job is to inform the people of Colorado about how you are conducting the people’s business. Sunshine Laws were passed to do away with the tradition of smoke filled backroom deals; you have violated our trust by ignoring them.

Homework

Colorado Sunshine Laws

Spring Fling

I’ve been a little distracted lately, since Spring Fling is this Saturday. I hope you have your tickets reserved! It is going to be a lot of fun.

Homework

Mesa County Dems

Dirty Laundry Aired

The Republicans punish anybody who listens to voices other than their own. Yesterday I posted one silly comment to the Grand Junction Sentinel’s E-edition. It was a Gary Harmon story about Western Slope Conservative Alliance and Occupy Grand Junction both having events in Lincoln Park next week. Oh boy! All day long I was treated to the Republicans, GJResult, and WSCA airing some dirty laundry. I feel sorry for GJResult. In the end, one officer of the Mesa County Republicans threatened to sue them, swore to never defend them again and finally posted this comment:

Drew Dickey: This will be my last response, because when your argue with an idiot, people may not be able to tell the difference.
Yes, I am not from the Valley, but I do not prefer Chicago style politics. I prefer Honesty. GJ Results is no longer honest. If you were, your Founder might actually put his real name on your website and his writings. What is Chuck so afraid of? That people might find out he is a liberal parading as a TEA Party Member to do harm to the Conservative movement?
Yes your website is really revealing. Why do you not show the proud relationship you have with Claudette Konola? She certainly is no Conservative and certainly does not espouse any TEA Party ethics. Yet here she is attacking the WSCA on this site without revealing her membership.
Should we just say now that GJ Results is the lap dog for the Democrats and Barack Obama. The lap dogs for the Occupy Movement. Those are some real TEA Party ideals you guys stand for.

 

For the record, I did sign up on the GJResults website just because I am curious about what concerns them. It turns out that both GJResults and I dislike the shenanigans surrounding HB 1280, which is co-sponsored by Ray Scott. I had conversations with both Chuck and Drew (mentioned in the GOP officer’s post) and we decided that we will never get in bed with each other, and I’m not talking about sex. Politically we are really, really far apart. However, we did find one area of commonality, and recognize that solutions come from reaching across the aisle, not from blowing up the building. Clearly the local GOP and WSCA prefer hurling hand grenades and bombs. They must have investments in the military industrial complex.

 

Homework:

Dirty Laundry Aired at the Sentinel.

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

Grand Junction spent most of Saturday celebrating Earth Day, which was first celebrated in 1970.  That is 32 years worth of celebrating! But the health of the planet is still tenuous. One could say that the planet has a hang-over from all of our celebrating.

Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County (WCC-Mesa) honored the day with a presentation from the Climate Reality Project. Sadly the turnout, with one notable exception, was disappointing. Our hope was that by giving access to a scientist to talk about the scientific aspects of climate change we might change the minds of some people who still deny the reality of a climate hang-over.

The presentation was via Skype, and audience participants were able to ask questions of the presenter, Susan Loomans.  Susan is a former climatologist, who formerly taught the subject at the Air Force Academy. She is the owner and president of PropertyVets LLC, a company that renovates and rents foreclosed homes while employing military veterans. Susan said, “We focus on creating safe and sustainable homes that revitalize neighborhoods and the lives of the vets that work with us.”

I won’t go into the science of climate change in this brief blog, but have linked to the Climate Reality website in the Homework section for those who would like to know more. Instead, I’d like to challenge everyone reading this blog to commit to doing just one green thing that lasts until the 33rd celebration of Earth Day.

Here are some suggestions:

Power your home with Solar Power.  WCC Mesa has been promoting a leasing program with High Noon Solar, that allows you to convert to solar energy for your home with no upfront outlay of cash. Check it out! I did, and my solar panels are scheduled to be installed on May 19.

If you aren’t already recycling your trash, commit to do so now. Don’t bag up all of your weeds and twigs, start a compost pit.

How about converting your backyard into a community garden for you and your neighbors? Every bit of food that you harvest locally is food that isn’t transported using fossil fuels. An added benefit is that it usually tastes better. If you grow too much you can use Grow Another Row to help you donate it to homeless shelters and food banks.

Use the bike trails to get around town instead of hopping into your car. Speaking of cars, did you know that Bozarth Chevrolet has a leasing program for the Chevy Volt? You could be fueling your car by plugging it into the solar system installed by High Noon Solar. The money you save at the gas pump just might equal the payments on a brand new car.

If you have other ideas, why not post them as a comment, for everyone to see?

Homework

Climate Reality Project

Grow Another Row

No Cost Solar from High Noon

Composting 101

Chevy Volt

This week the Mesa County Commissioners passed a resolution regarding development of Colorado’s oil shale. Everything about this resolution should raise questions about how Mesa County is governed and who Commissioners represent.

First, the resolution was written in a closed door meeting in Vernal, Utah. Craig Meis met with elected officials from counties in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. Nobody knows who called this meeting, but there is a better than average chance that it was called, and funded by companies and investors in oil shale plays.

 

Colorado has Sunshine laws requiring transparency in law making. According to the Office of Legislative Services (OLS), “The Colorado Sunshine Law generally requires that any state or local governmental body that meets to discuss public business or to take formal action do so in meetings that are open to the public.” Based on my reading Colorado’s Sunshine Law, this meeting would have been in violation of Sunshine Laws had more than one Mesa County Commissioner attended the meeting.  Although it technically was not a violation, since Meis was the only Commissioner from Mesa County to attend, it was certainly unethical given that the result was a resolution that is being rammed through several Colorado Counties.

Colorado Sunshine laws also require that notice of a meeting be posted in a public place at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. I am unaware of any public notice of the meeting held in Vernal, Utah. In the case of the County Commissioner’s meeting, notice of the resolution was posted on a Friday, with the meeting held on the following Monday morning. Again, the letter of the law appears to have been followed, but I’d venture a guess that very few citizens knew that this resolution was going to be passed without any public hearings other than a brief comment period before the commissioners took their vote.

In February, the BLM requested public comment on their draft “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Oil Shale and Tar Sands” (PEIS). The resolution passed by the County Commissioners is in response to the request for comments, and includes political bashing of the Obama administration.

This PEIS was the result of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. Thanks to some vigilance on the part of a community organizer, members of local environmental groups saw both the resolution and notice of meeting.

The BLM offered several alternatives in the PEIS, but preferred one that limits the leasing of federal land for the purpose of oil shale development to 461,965 acres, of which 35,308 acres are in Colorado. BLM director  Bob Abbey said, “The preferred alternative continues our commitment to encouraging research, development, and demonstration projects so that companies can develop technologies that can lead to economic and commercial viability. Because there are still many unanswered questions about the technology, water use, and impacts of potential commercial-scale oil shale development, we are proposing a prudent and orderly approach that could facilitate significant improvements to technology needed for commercial-scale activity.  If oil shale is to be viable on a commercial scale, we must take a common-sense approach that encourages research and development first.”

To hear Commissioner Craig Meis, one would believe that the BLM is shutting down all possibility of development of oil shale. It makes one wonder if Meis has invested money in oil shale, which would add conflict of interest to his ethical lapses regarding transparency in decisions regarding oil shale. His argument that industry needs consistency in rules is a bit amusing, since no regulations are changing—only the pace of research and development is impacted by this PEIS.

Even more disturbing was the lack of respect shown by Meis to people who showed up to testify against this resolution. At one point he snickered and laughed when Benita Phillips, President of Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County, mentioned the work of Dr. Theo Colborn, founder of TEDX and an internationally recognized scientist. TEDX is a not-for-profit that compiles and disseminates scientific information about how exposure to chemicals interferes with the development of children, both inside and outside of the womb. No mother laughs at anything that poses a risk to her kids. Shame on you Craig Meis.