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Blog Entry 6 of 6 2007 Lakewood City Council/Mayorial Race Blog
This is what I think of the mayorial race. It will explain my postings and include responses to postings.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~MayorialRace

A lament for Carma's neighbors and a history
Contributed by: Allan Berger   on 10/27/2007

This is long. Sorry.

Let's face it. Those whose houses back up to the Carma property got hosed. It was the City of Lakewood (to include the city manager's office and the city council) that supplied the water, hooked up the hose, and aimed it. Rita Bertolli just turned on the water.

This is how I see what happened (some might call it a revisionist history).

The plan was set years ago. Bob Murphy and other planners developed a plan for the Rooney Ranch development,. All told, it was either the best or the second best option for Lakewood (the best keeping the land open space in perpetuity, but Lakewood voted against that a quarter of a century ago). The plan is massive. It is comprehensive. It is well thought out.

One part of the plan was to trade some part of Iron Horse Park (or Forsberg Park) for a swath of land, creating a corridor. That was a great idea. The only viable means to acquire the land was to authorize a trade, because Lakewood simply did not have the money to buy the open space it wanted. So Mike Rock worked with Carma on a deal. From the minutes of the Planning Commission, it looks like he did not consider anything but an acre for acre trade.

Everything was going well. Finally, the plan came up for approval. And approve the plan a unanimous city council did. Done deal, we all thought. Then came Rita Bertolli on her high horse. She claimed that the approval would cause Lakewood to lose its park and violate the terms of the conveyance.

Ms. Bertolli organized a petition drive to force rescission or a city-wide election The drive had little time. So, those of us who signed the petition did not have enough time to study the issue. We thought that, by forcing an election, we could educate ourselves and determine what happened. Against all odds, the drive succeeded. The city council unanimously decided to place the issue on the ballot. At a cost of $250,000.

Then we had a campaign. The proponents claimed we would lose a wildlife corridor (it turns out that they were wrong, but that the corridor is narrower than the exchange would have provided). They said that the corridor had been in the planning stages for years. And it had. They said that we would not lose Iron Horse Park, but only a portion of it, and that we would gain a dog run. They said that the land the city was getting was more suitable for a park. All true.

Embedded in the proponents were Carma and its neighbors. They all had a financial stake in this. They would all have benefited. I do not begrudge any of my neighbors in Ward 4 those who supported the measure, such as Lisa Scott, Ginny Krause. I don't even have a grudge against Carma. I don't think Carma gives a rat's behind about Lakewood. Carma supported the measure for its own self interest and profit. Cool, that's what companies do. If I could get Lakewood to trade me a million dollar piece of property for my five hundred thousand dollar property, I would do it, too. All told, Carma and its neighbors were not objective.

(Personally, at the beginning of the campaign I was pissed off because one of the proponents used a school directory to pitch for a "yes" vote, in direct violation of the school policy. I thought this was dirty politics. Little did I know how dirty the politics would get.)

Ms. Bertolli and her crowd claimed we would lose Iron Horse Park. She was wrong. She said that the conveyance of the park was not the intent of the owners. That was irrelevant. She said the law did not allow for the exchange due to restrictions in the deed. She may or may not have been right on that one. She leveled personal attacks on the city manager and many of the proponents. That was uncalled for.

Another group emerged. They just wanted the facts. I was part of the group. I remember sending out an e-mail asking for good maps. In November 2006, there were none. I asked for the appraisal. I even thought that the exchange should get the benefit of the doubt because it was supported by our elected government. I then looked at the plans for the Rooney Valley Ranch and discovered that the land the city owned was great for development, but that the land Carma was going to exchange was not so great. I questioned whether the deal was so skewed, financially, toward Carma that it would not make sense. I questioned why the city would not release the appraisal (it finally did). I questioned whether any one on the council owned property near Carma (it turns out the answer was no). I even corresponded with Mr. Murphy (and posted his response on Yourhub).

The bottom line of the election for me was whether Lakewood was getting a good deal. I did not buy Ms. Bertolli's argument that the exchange was illegal. To me, it was a close call. In the end, I thought Lakewood would be better off without the exchange. Even Rich Urbannowski, a member of the planning commissioner agreed, saying "he is not particularly in agreement with the idea that the City is swapping exact land for exact land, high land versus other lands." http://tinyurl.com/3a9bzm. But he was speaking at a Planning Commission meeting, where the issue of whether the trade was a good deal was not up for a vote.

In the end, most of my fellow residents also agreed and the measure lost. Whether it lost because people believed Rita Bertolli is an open question. There were many other factors at play, to include that the exchange was a bad deal. Also included was a group of residents very angry at the city government because they perceived that the government had not acted in good faith over the previous quarter century. They voted against the deal in order to "take it to the man" as it were.

After it lost, the proponents were bitter and continued carping that it was a waste of $250,000 to have an election. On the other side, Ms. Bertolli gloated, which was unseemly. When the opponents should have unified, they divided. And to be clear, I believe the proponents were less to blame for the division.

Caught in the middle were the homeowners whose land abuts Carma's. They had a reasonable expectation that this deal would go through. What they could not have expected was that the city would negotiate such a bad deal. What they could not have expected was that the city would not have explained what it was doing to the populace well enough to avoid an election. What they could not have expected was the proponents would run such a lousy campaign. On the other hand, they could and should have expected Ms. Bertolli to use the tactics she did. Do they blame those who failed them, i.e., the city and the campaigners? No. They blame Ms. Bertolli for doing what they knew she would do.

Were I one of those landowners, I would be bitter. I would be frustrated. It was not fair. They were sucker-punched. But to blame Ms. Bertolli, solely, is wrongheaded.

The bottom line is that the deal that was brought to the city council, and ultimately to the voters, was a bad deal for the general populace of Lakewood. It was good for Carma and those whose landed abutted Carma. A solution benefitting everyone (but skewed less toward Carma) could have happened, but no-one foresaw what the result would be if the city stuck to its guns and went with Mike Rock's proposal.

At the end of it all, I was disillusioned. After doing all the research, looking at all the plans, reading what Mr. Murphy thought, reading the appraisal, and going out to the land, I was befuddled. I wondered how in the world the 11 people chosen to run my city government could have agreed to this exchange. I concluded that they were not very smart or they were in the pocket of Carma (and other developers). In either case, I did not want these jokers representing me any more unless there was some reasonable explanation for their decision. (I spoke with Councilman Anderson and he explained his position. Were he running I would support him).

Then we get to the mayorial race. For all that was said and done on the exchange, the issue in the mayoral race for me is that Bob Murphy has explained why he was such a fervant supporter of such a bad deal. If he would do so, it might make things better. Especially if he explained why he acceded to bring such a bad deal to the voters. I am convinced that, if Mr. Murphy wanted, he had the political wherewithal to stop the train. I do not know why he chose not to do so. I am not sure that 8 years on the city council and 4 years on the planning commission are enough to outweigh his decision to support the exchange.

In the end, I do not blame anyone on the losing side for opposing Ms. Bertolli. Of all those who sullied themselves in this sty, she was the one who dug for the most mud and who slung it at the most people. But I just cannot get over the feeling that Mr. Murphy did the city wrong and should be held accountable. If I could vote for someone other than Rita Bertolli in opposition to Mr. Murphy, I would. But I have no other options.

Finally. Those who suffered the most from this are my neighbors who live near the Carma land. I am sorry you got caught in this mess. I know you worked hard for years, if not decades, to prevent this from happening. And we stole your golden ring.




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Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: Mike Muller
posted on 11/1/2007 @ 10:28:20 PM
(Not Rated)
The answer is now obvious, look at the amount of money received by Murphy for his mayoral race, and look at how much Bertolli received from Carma. You should also be aware of another soon to be ex councilman that is going to run for County Commissioner, and an incumbent County Commissioner, that will be receiving large amounts of money from Carma and other large developers.
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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Allan Berger

Lakewood , CO

Allan Berger has posted 6 blog entries and 4 comments since joining on 12/1/2006. Allan Berger 's average blog rating is 2.93.
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