Filed under: Silt, alaska, arrest, bobby hays, dave moore, election, mayor moore, recall, recount, sarah palin, town board, town government, town ordinances, trustee, violations, you betcha
I made The Paper today. Because I lost the election in April to The Stalker. Yesterday Town Trustee Bobby Hays pled guilty to harassment.
Silt trustee pleads guilty to harassment
Bobby Hays to keep his jobs because felony charge dismissed
By Pete FowlerGLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Bobby Hays doesn’t plan on resigning from his role as a Silt town trustee despite pleading guilty to misdemeanor harassment in a stalking case Thursday.
He said he would not be forced to resign from being a trustee or from his job at the Glenwood Springs Community Center because he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, not a felony. He maintains the stalking allegations have nothing to do with his service as a town trustee.
“I have no intention of resigning,” he said. “There’s no reason for me to resign.”
That’s right. Bobby intends to press on with his political career. With that he certainly elevates himself to the ranks of other such notable politicians as Senators Larry Craig and Ted Stevens. So good for him for thinking of himself first and to hell with the Town of Silt. Wow. That’s klassy – with a K.
And according to the article the Town Administrator says there’s not a damn thing we Siltoids can do about it, except vote him out of office. So just you wait …
Say what?
Despite the stalking allegations and the media coverage of them, Silt voters re-elected Hays to the Silt Board of Town Trustees on April 1.
Doh. How’d that happen? Oh yeah. Those 71 ballots that showed up right before Election Day. And rumor has it The Mayor voted twice. Now I remember …
Four trustee seats were being sought by five candidates. Hays received the second-lowest number of votes at 246. Peggy Tibbetts, unsuccessful in her efforts, got 199 votes. Her husband, Town Trustee Tod Tibbetts, spearheaded an unsuccessful recall effort against Mayor Dave Moore in the same election.
So what’s their point? That the voters preferred The Stalker to ME? That the likes of Tod and ME are even more revolting to Siltoids than The Stalker? That’s not very nice. True. But still – not very nice.
Funny though.
And it struck me how lately we’ve been hearing so much about Alaskan politics. What with indicted and convicted Senator Ted Stevens almost winning re-election. Sarah Palin’s antics as Mayor of Wasilla. Plus the investigations of Governor Palin both past and present. It all sounds so wacky. Yet it all sounds so familiar ….
Indicted Trustee wins re-election. The Mayor promotes his subdivision project in the local media. The Mayor was involved in staff members’ resignations. The Mayor violated Town Ordinances. The Mayor was almost recalled.
Huh. Sort of like Silt. Little Alaska. Must be all those oil & gas fumes in the air.
At least Alaskans had the good sense to do a recount. Maybe we should’ve done a recount in Silt last April.
But where’s the fun in that?
At least now we can say we’re wackier than Alaska. We have not one but two board members who put their own selves and their political aspirations first BEFORE what’s best for the people and the Town of Silt. Aren’t we lucky?
You betcha.
Filed under: Colorado, Encana, Garfield County, Silt, Silt Home Rule charter, autumn ridge, conflict of interest, county commissioner, dave moore, economy, election, energy companies, gas well industry, mayor, mayor moore, oil, republicans, tibbetts, town board, town government, town ordinances, trustee, violations
As the winds of change blew across the nation last week, we could only watch it all on the TV. We did not feel the change here in Garfield County.
Here we remain deeply divided – Obama and McCain tied with 11, 223 votes each. Unbelievable. I mean really unbelievable. We still have a lot of work to do.
The gas & oil industry’s iron fist holds its grip even more firmly on our economy and our future, yet here they are whining about their victory.
And in Silt, nothing happened.
At the October 27 SiltBOTs meeting the Mayor seemed especially crispy. During the meeting he verbally attacked Trustee Bobby Hayes and Trustee Nicky Leigh. I don’t remember the specifics. It came across to the TV audience as stop-talking-while-I’m-interrupting. We’ve all pretty much gotten used to that. The Mayor will ask one of the SiltBOTs or staff a question and then interrupts repeatedly when he doesn’t hear the answer he wants.
A curious thing occurred at the end of the meeting. The SiltBOTs talked about going into Executive Session. At first the Mayor acted like he didn’t know what they were talking about. Attorney Duran said the Executive Session was requested in a letter to the Board by Trustee Tibbetts. Then the Mayor es-ploded. He waved a piece of paper and accused Tibbetts of having a vendetta against him. Consequently the Executive Session didn’t happen and the Mayor followed Tibbetts out of Town Hall yelling and screaming at him.
So what was that about?
It took a few weeks but I finally put the pieces together. Last month, a citizen showed Tibbetts this article in the October 9 Citizen Telegram:
Affordable housing planned for Silt
Around 100 units to be builtBy Baron Zahuranec
Citizen Telegram StaffWhat could be the first affordable housing project in Garfield County is planned for Silt, with a new subdivision east of 16th Street on the north side of Grand Avenue.
“I’ve heard the cry from the (Garfield Re-2) school district and the towns that we need more affordable housing,” Mayor Dave Moore said. “I’ve been to symposiums and conferences and up until now it seems like it’s all talk and no walk. To our knowledge, this is the first, complete, affordable housing project in Garfield County.”
The Camario subdivision will be a multi-family development of 70-odd units in six condominiums, and 34 stand-alone deed-restricted units, with around 5,000 square feet of commercial space and mixed zoning, Moore said.
“What a restricted deed is basically saying is that it has to do with affordable housing and will protect the economics of the community,” he said. “It will attract responsible buyers and, above all, provide affordable housing to many well-deserving people who can’t otherwise afford it.”
Plans have been in the works for two years and the project will go to the Silt board of trustees and planning and zoning commission for preliminary approval.
The appraised values of the homes will be around $300,000, but after deductions from Habitat for Humanity, could be as low as $200,000 or less, Moore said.
Construction on the infrastructure of roads, sewer and water lines, and utilities will start in the spring and the buildings shortly after, Moore said.
“They’ll be following the best practices in energy-related areas,” he added.
Insulation in attics will exceed standard codes and all windows will be energy-efficient. The condos share a joint wall to help with heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, Moore said.
[Copied from the October 9, 2008 issue of the Citizen Telegram]
The citizen asked Tibbetts if the Mayor was supposed to be talking to the local media about a development that is coming before the Board. Tibbetts sent a copy of the article to Town Attorney Duran, and posed the same question.
The following week, October 16, this correction appeared in the Citizen Telegram:
What we really meant …
A story on page A5 of the Citizen Telegram about affordable housing in Silt contained several mistakes:
* The number of affordable units planned is 34, not 100.
* The location of the subdivision with those units is west of 16th Street, not east, and on the north side of Main Street, not Grand Avenue.
* The name of the planned unit development with the affordable units is Autumn Ridge, not Camario.
* The actual number of deed-restricted units is unknown at this point.
* Habitat for Humanity will not contribute money to the project nor deduct from the sales price of the townhomes.
The Citizen Telegram apologizes for these mistakes.[Copied from the October 16, 2008 issue of the Citizen Telegram]
So the reporter got it all wrong. The Mayor wasn’t promoting Camario (Phase 2 is pending before the Board), he was ACTUALLY promoting Autumn Ridge, HIS OWN development that is also pending before the Board.
In the meantime, the Citizen Telegram removed the October 9 article from their website – that’s why there’s no link.
Why didn’t they keep the article posted, with the correction?
Did someone demand that they remove the article?
The more important question is: Should the Mayor be promoting HIS OWN development in the local media? Which he did on February 29, on October 9, and also at a joint public meeting between the School Board and the Town Board in mid-October.
On October 20, Tibbetts wrote a letter to the Town Attorney and the other Board members which outlined the Mayor’s actions, and asked for an Executive Session to discuss whether the Mayor’s actions were appropriate, or in violation of Silt Municipal Code 2.04.110 (E1):
E. Direct Financial Interest or Personal Interest.
1. Any official who has a direct financial interest in any matter proposed or pending before the town board of trustees, any board, commission, agency, committee or entity shall disclose such interest to the governing body of such entity and shall not vote thereon, and shall refrain from influencing or attempting to influence the decisions of the other members of such entity in voting on the matter.
All of which led up to the Mayor’s outburst at the October 27 meeting. Again, the Executive Session never happened. So the discussion never happened. And according to Tibbetts, “Nothing happened.”
Whatever that means.
It’s really just Secret Trustee Code for “I can’t talk about the issue, so don’t ask.”
Now wait just a damn minute!
Peabody, turn on the Way Back Machine. Remember when Tod got into BIG TROUBLE for some things I said on my blog about Autumn Ridge?
That sure wasn’t nothing happened. No way. For TWO WHOLE MONTHS the Town Attorney and the SiltBOTs talked about me and my blog in public, behind closed doors, in retreat sessions. They scolded Tod. They told him I was inappropriate. They said I had written things that influenced his and the public’s opinions about Autumn Ridge. They said my opinion could be perceived as HIS opinion. They said he should be recused from hearing the Autumn Ridge PUD because of my blog. They said I was a naughty girl who said nasty things. They said Tod should be punished because of me.
A letter from our attorney and $2,100 later, the motion to recuse Tod from Autumn Ridge died a long, slow death on the floor. A total cop out.
Confus-ed yet? I sure hope so. Cuz I am.
OK. Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. According to the Town Attorney and the SiltBOTs, it’s NOT okay for ME to post MY OPINIONS on MY BLOG about land use issues before the Town because the PERCEPTION might be that those are Trustee Tibbetts’ opinions, too. But evidently it’s perfectly okay if THE MAYOR promotes HIS OPINIONS in the local media, about HIS DEVELOPMENT which is pending before the Board.
But isn’t that like, a double standard?
Wiki sez:
Double standard
When judicial processes are applied more strictly to some people than others, such double standards are seen as unjust because they violate a basic maxim of modern legal jurisprudence: that all parties should stand equal before the law.
Huh.
So. If you’re THE MAYOR and you YELL and SCREAM loud enough and BERATE and BULLY the other SiltBOTs, you can do anything you damn well please. And furthermore, it’s not up for discussion. HA-RUMPF!
Oh. Now I get it.
Same Silt – different day.
Filed under: Barack Obama, democracy, democrats, election, freedom, voting rights
We voted in record numbers and defeated the election fraud bogeyman!
Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden!
Congratulations to the American people for taking back our big-D DEMOCRACY!
