With headlines every day announcing foreclosures, bankruptcies, payoffs, and corruption, it is no wonder that Arapahoe County citizens are unaware that the leadership of their Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is pushing through a deal to give the City of Glendale about $4 million to buy old apartment buildings. The kicker, you ask? Well, besides the apartment buildings being located in the City and County of Denver, that $4 million dollars is coming from our Arapahoe County Open Space and Trails Acquisition dollars.

Now, leadership over at the City of Glendale or the BOCC might try to convince you that this is open space, but a park is a park. Shoot, it is even called, "Infinity Park," but what's in a name? The key here is that the county open space and trail acquisition funds cannot be used for parks and sports fields. That specificity or subtlety, if you want to call it that, was specifically designed to keep Arapahoe County from diverting open space money into turf, that is "parks."

Designed by whom?

In 1999, each member of the BOCC appointed a representative to the Arapahoe County Open Space and Trails Advisory Group (OSTAG). T he mission of OSTAG was to plan and develop an approach for the preservation of open space in Arapahoe County. During their term, OSTAG members attended: 40 scheduled meetings, 8 meetings with the BOCC, 1 public hearing and 13 presentations to the incorporated jurisdictions of Arapahoe County. In addition, two public surveys were conducted with the assistance of a nationally recognized not-for-profit land protection organization.

Following three years of leg work, OSTAG members crafted the proposed open space program and presented the principal program components and associated details in a final letter before the BOCC in July 2002. Finally (in 2003), the BOCC agreed to put the open space sales tax questions before voters. In November 2003, Measure 1A passed with 55 percent in support - Glendale voters supported the measure with 62 percent. In short, the proposed program was well vetted and Arapahoe County voters aren't dumb. However, it appears that the BOCC leadership will do whatever it wants regardless of voter sentiment or resolution guidelines.

So why is this happening? In my opinion, there are several elements at play, but I will highlight three here.

First, there is little information disseminated in a timely fashion or at all to the public regarding programmatic matters such as proposals coming before the Open Space and Trails Advisory Board (OSTAB), the appointed citizen's advisory board and successor to OSTAG. In the Glendale case, the Infinity Park proposal was not even available to the public prior to OSTAB's meeting on August 25, 2008. To make matters worse, Glendale didn't even get its proposal in on time meaning some members of OSTAB didn't have the appropriate timeline to review the over 120-page submittal. The proposal should have been pulled from the August 25 th OSTAB meeting.

Second, from my persepective, the leadership of the BOCC has adopted a top-down philosophy for the open space program in terms of its relationship to the citizen advisory board (OSTAB) and open space staff. That probably explains why Glendale's Infinity Park appeared as a $4.5-million line item in an account projection back in July 2008. Interesting only because it had never been discussed publicly before.

Third, perhaps we as citizens trust the leadership of the BOCC a little too much to implement in spirit and from a legal standpoint what we as voters passed into law. But, then again, with all those headlines about foreclosures, the stock market plummeting, health care costs, and corruption, we have little time as citizens to keep tabs on everything.

From where I sit, I think there are fortunately a number of actions we can take to make sure Arapahoe County's Open Space Program is implemented correctly.

Short term - contact your county commissioner and urge her or him to reject the Infinity Park proposal. At best, the proposal violates the spirit and letter of the law. At worst, the proposal is being pushed forward at the behest of those trying to pad their political résumé.

Near term - with Election Day just weeks away and early voting underway, consider the opportunity you may have in your district to change the leadership of the BOCC.

Long term - I urge citizens to request meeting materials, review proposals, and attend OSTAB's meetings (fourth Monday every month) on a regular basis.

Note: Andy Cole is a native of Arapahoe County and a resident of Littleton. He served for two years as a member of OSTAG, drafted the initial open space resolution, worked on the Measure 1A campaign, and served three years on OSTAB; one year as OSTAB's vice chair and two as its chair.