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LovelandPolitics
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Loveland - October 22, 2012
Longtime Loveland attorney, Richard Ball, is a Loveland native whose father, Conrad Ball, was a well
respected Larimer County District Court judge for 20 years, for whom Conrad Ball Middle School in
Loveland is named.
Mayor Cecil Gutierrez and Councilwoman Joan Shaffer have long sought Ball's candidacy for city council to
fill the ranks of Democrats on Loveland's City Council. However, on February 5, Ball publicly scolded
Loveland's City Council for approving a 3.5% pay increase for Loveland's Municipal Judge William Starks
(see video highlights) which has created some division in local Democrat ranks.
Ball stated he didn't intend to speak on the matter while attending the February 5, 2013 Loveland City
Council meeting but spoke anyway following comments by another local attorney, Troy Krenning, who also
questioned Starks' pay increase and the need for a full-time municipal judge in Loveland.
Ball asked how much Judge Starks is currently paid but staff was unable to answer his question. He
turned to the council as members shuffled through their papers trying to find the answer. City staff said
they didn't know either but could get the information. One councilor complained the council had spent
more time on evaluating Judge Starks than any other single issue in 2012.
That comment alluded to an independent evaluation the city ordered to investigate employee complaints
made to the city's Human Resources department by Starks' subordinate employees. According to one
confidential source familiar with the inquiry, Judge Starks was accused of authoritarian behavior by
demanding employees work long hours while only working part-time himself.
LovelandPolitics did speak with a member of the City Council who confirmed the council indeed spent
many hours on the topic and heard a full report into the independent inquiry. At the end, the councilor
commented, "there was nothing to the complaints in my mind."
Regardless, Gutierrez is a strong backer of Starks and has later questioned Ball's assertions the council
doesn't know what it is doing or in anyway rubber-stamped the pay increase for Starks. In addition, one
local Democrat told LovelandPolitics that Gutierrez fears a Ball candidacy will be run on a promise to fire
the judge more than any other issue. In the meantime, local Democrats have been encouraging a Ball
candidacy over Meg Corwin whose comments on a recent LovelandPolitics blog appeared juvenile.
Ball now serves on the city's Financial Advisory Committee. This is a common place Gutierrez likes to
appoint potential candidates so they can become familiar with the city's finances before announcing their
candidacy. In the meantime, Richard Ball has joined Councilwoman Joan Shaffer's estranged husband,
Mark Shaffer, in his law practice in downtown Loveland.
Please post any comments about this story on our blog.
Longtime Loveland attorney, Richard Ball, is a Loveland native whose father, Conrad Ball, was a well
respected Larimer County District Court judge for 20 years, for whom Conrad Ball Middle School in
Loveland is named.
Mayor Cecil Gutierrez and Councilwoman Joan Shaffer have long sought Ball's candidacy for city council to
fill the ranks of Democrats on Loveland's City Council. However, on February 5, Ball publicly scolded
Loveland's City Council for approving a 3.5% pay increase for Loveland's Municipal Judge William Starks
(see video highlights) which has created some division in local Democrat ranks.
Ball stated he didn't intend to speak on the matter while attending the February 5, 2013 Loveland City
Council meeting but spoke anyway following comments by another local attorney, Troy Krenning, who also
questioned Starks' pay increase and the need for a full-time municipal judge in Loveland.
Ball asked how much Judge Starks is currently paid but staff was unable to answer his question. He
turned to the council as members shuffled through their papers trying to find the answer. City staff said
they didn't know either but could get the information. One councilor complained the council had spent
more time on evaluating Judge Starks than any other single issue in 2012.
That comment alluded to an independent evaluation the city ordered to investigate employee complaints
made to the city's Human Resources department by Starks' subordinate employees. According to one
confidential source familiar with the inquiry, Judge Starks was accused of authoritarian behavior by
demanding employees work long hours while only working part-time himself.
LovelandPolitics did speak with a member of the City Council who confirmed the council indeed spent
many hours on the topic and heard a full report into the independent inquiry. At the end, the councilor
commented, "there was nothing to the complaints in my mind."
Regardless, Gutierrez is a strong backer of Starks and has later questioned Ball's assertions the council
doesn't know what it is doing or in anyway rubber-stamped the pay increase for Starks. In addition, one
local Democrat told LovelandPolitics that Gutierrez fears a Ball candidacy will be run on a promise to fire
the judge more than any other issue. In the meantime, local Democrats have been encouraging a Ball
candidacy over Meg Corwin whose comments on a recent LovelandPolitics blog appeared juvenile.
Ball now serves on the city's Financial Advisory Committee. This is a common place Gutierrez likes to
appoint potential candidates so they can become familiar with the city's finances before announcing their
candidacy. In the meantime, Richard Ball has joined Councilwoman Joan Shaffer's estranged husband,
Mark Shaffer, in his law practice in downtown Loveland.
Please post any comments about this story on our blog.
| Judging Judge Starks Potential Ward 1 Candidate Jeopardizes Support of Friends on Council 2 Minute Video Clip of Rich Ball Confronting Council |
Why The Ball Family Cannot Vote Republican in Any Election Judge Conrad Ball, Richard Ball's father, was known for telling people his family hasn't voted for a Republican since President Lincoln freed his grandmother's slaves in Kentucky - the plantation being a source of the family's wealth. When LovelandPolitics reported this in 2010 while Richard Ball was a State Senate candidate, the reference in the online article we cited was later changed to a more politically correct comment even though Conrad Ball had long passed away. The Colorado Bar Association article by Richard Clark now states, "His ancestors came from Virginia and Kentucky. Conrad’s grandfather, Alonza Ball, fought for the Confederacy for four years. At the war’ s end, it took Alonza months to hitchhike back to Gallatin. Conrad, however, was a lifelong admirer of Abraham Lincoln, even though, as he sometimes joked, Lincoln had set his grandmother’s slaves free." At some point the Ball family moved their plantation fortune to Missouri where Conrad Ball was born in 1907. Richard Ball's grandfather was a part owner of the Gallatin Democrat newspaper in Gallatin, Missouri. Following a shooting (as described below in the same Colorado Bar Association article) the family moved to Loveland, CO. "Conrad’s father, Robert Ball, was co- owner of the Gallatin Democrat newspaper. In 1919, a disgruntled drunk, upset about an editorial Ball had written, burst into the newspaper’s office and killed the newspaper’s co- owner, thinking he was Ball. Robert was grazed in the shooting. Due to guilt at having been the intended target, Robert Ball soon found himself unable to continue publishing the Gallatin paper. In 1922, he purchased the Loveland Reporter Herald newspaper and moved his family to Loveland, Colorado. Robert published the Loveland newspaper, assisted at times by other family members, until his death in 1938." No word on whether Richard Ball's current positions on gun control trace back to his own grandfather's near miss with an enraged shooter. |
| Richard Ball Loveland Attorney and likely candidate for Council Ward 1, 2013 |