Blog Entry 31 of 49
The Lakewood Lowdown
Hi, I'm Erin Feese, a community journalist here at YourHub.com.
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Ethics Watch files complaint against council prez
Contributed by:
Erin Feese/YourHub.com
on 10/30/2007
As election day rolls closer, the drama in Lakewood continues.
According to an Oct. 30
Denver Post article, Ethics Watch, a government ethics watchdog group, filed a campaign-finance complaint against Lakewood City Council President
Cheryl Wise after she reportedly criticized candidate Ward 1 candidate
Charley Able and commended the other Ward 1 candidate,
Karen Kellen, during the Oct. 8 city council meeting.
Wise is term-limited, so Able and Kellen are running to fill her spot. According to a
press release issued by Ethics Watch, The Fair Campaign Practices Act prohibits political subdivisions like Lakewood from expending public funds, including the use of city supplies and labor, in support of a candidate's campaign for public office.
"Councilwoman Wise broke the law when she endorsed her favorite candidate for her city council seat at an official city council meeting," said
Chantell Taylor, director of Ethics Watch, in the press release.
After I heard the news, I was curious, so I looked up the city council video from the meeting on the city of Lakewood's web site. The video feed didn't work for me, but I was able to listen to the audio of Wise's comments, which occured during the public comments section of the meeting. As far as I could tell, people were offering comments about the election, and in particular, the nature of campaigning, and Wise decided to chime in.
Wise began her comments with a reminder that she will be leaving her seat because of term limitations.
"I am very concerned about who represents me up here when I leave," she said.
Although she never refers to Able by name, she addresses voters directly and encourages them to not fix something that isn't broken, saying she was "quite concerned about how we are going to maintain the high quality of city government."
"It's come to me that one of the folks running for my seat is out there saying that board and commissioners are hand-picked. I have to tell you, seven of my eight years I've sat on the screening committee and ... we always solicit staff input on those applications ... but staff does not pick those appointments," Wise said.
She also goes on to say voters should think twice about electing candidates who are launching personal attacks on city officials and says, "... I don't want someone like that. "
According to the
Post, Able is "a vitriolic critic of
(Mike) Rock," Lakewood's city manager. In Able's candidate profile on the city of Lakewood Web site (he declined to fill out
YourHub.com's questionnaire), he writes, "I remember that public money once was in the pockets of our citizens and must be spent wisely and cautiously, not labeled 'free money' by elected officials, then spent on projects with little or no permanent effect."
During her speech, Wise does mention Kellen by name: "Voters ought to consider what is right in Lakewood. Karen Kellen did that - I distinctly remember when I met her, she sat there for ten minutes and told me every reason why her and her family chose to move to Lakewood."
Does Wise cross the line? If you would like to listen for yourself, click
here for the video on the Web site, the click on the Oct. 8 meeting. Wise's comments start at about 1 hour and 18 minutes in.
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