Archive for June, 2010

Consultant: $2,000 to Appear Before Council

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Consultant Robert S. Tipton is reported to have demanded an additional $2,000 in consulting fees from the City of Loveland in order to appear before the City Council during an upcoming public meeting scheduled for July 20, 2010.

Tipton recently conducted a study at the hourly rate of $200 per hour to provide “Process Mapping and Recommendations” while Assistant City Manager Rod Wensing is said to be avoiding the public’s eye and willing to pay Tipton the extra $2,000 to shrug the burden of explaining the study to an inquisitive council in public.

Read the entire story.

Rod Wensing is among the top 3 internal candidates for City Manager but this type of disregard for the public’s money isn’t earning him friends among the more fiscally conservative members of Loveland’s City Council.

Wensing has been credited with saying it is best to stay out of the public’s eye because that way you don’t get blamed when things go wrong. Whether he really did say this or not is probably secondary to the point Assistant City Manager Rene Wheeler and Public Works Director Keith Reester are the ones willing to stand-up and be accountable for staff decisions and recommendations while Wensing is frequently absent from council meetings.

In the LovelandPolitics score book that gives both Wheeler and Reester points for accountability and competence while Wensing’s alleged cynical backdoor strategy of earning the top job earns him a big zero.

Any comments?

Posted in City Budget, City Council - General Issues, City Manager, City Manager Replacement | 4 Comments »

Harassing Emails Linked to McWhinney

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

For years people critical of this website have attempted to discredit this news source by making personal attacks upon the publisher and his motives instead of disputing the facts uncovered through investigative reporting. Sometimes, people drunk on their own bath water can’t resist lashing out.

Mike Hill, Loveland real estate broker and Director of McWhinney’s Multi-Family Housing may just be such a person. Emails sent to Admin@LovelandPolitics.com were insulting and barely literate so we assumed they couldn’t possibly be from Mike Hill until we bought an email trace online of the offending email address pbwaverider@Yahoo.com. The information indicated the emails were emanating from a Yahoo account owned by Mike Hill of Loveland and registered to both his home and business addresses.

When we sent our findings to Chad and Troy McWhinney along with their COO, Doug Hill (Mike’s Father we are told) via email, Mike Hill responded with the following explanation;

“Please be aware that I have friends in California that use my home computer while in town visiting me (that obvisouly have opinions on the politics and events in this area) and have access to this e-mail account both while in and out of state.”

Really? Where is Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC when we need to confront someone over who was sending emails from their account?

Please take a minute to read our story about how we tracked the source and see what things were being said in the emails along with Mike Hill’s complete email in response to our inquiry to McWhinney.

Do you believe his friends from Southern California were angry with LovelandPolitics and felt the need to attack us or did it really come from a senior McWhinney associate?

The personal attacks, intimidation and nastiness often displayed by those who support McWhinney against anyone who questions their public subsidies is unsettling. Contrary to what the offensive emails argue, rich doesn’t make right and measuring the value of one’s argument only by the size of their bank account is an argument absent any reason.

Remember, it is LovelandPolitics that is supposed to not be credible. People who claim out of town friends are taking over their personal email accounts to argue Loveland politics; are apparently the credible people you should be trusting with millions of dollars of your future sales and property taxes.

Are you kidding?

Posted in McWhinney | 15 Comments »

Loveland City Manager’s Land Speculation Deal; Safety Hazard For Residents

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Last month a father and son died during a house fire on Boxelder Drive in Loveland. While some residents began calling 911 between 11:10 to 11:15 pm, the emergency response team wasn’t dispatched until 11:27 and nobody arrived on scene until 6 minutes later at 11:33 pm. It was too late.

The fire on Boxelder Drive has reignited a debate within Loveland’s city hall as to whether the city’s 5 minute emergency response requirement anywhere in the city is feasible given the dramatic growth Loveland has experienced during the past decade and the failure of the former city council to properly invest in the fire services commensurate with that growth in population. While the Boxelder fire was only 3 minutes from a fire station, the “Incident Investigation Report” failed to flag it as a concern.

City Manager Don Williams has long been an advocate of lowering resident expectations for emergency services by promoting the removal of the 5 minute rule, advocating greater spacing between fire stations and by postponing building another fire station in Centerra. The Boxelder fire is a reminder that such actions can cost lives in an emergency (crews cannot cover larger areas without reducing their response time to residences closer to their station at the same time).

In November of 2007, Williams talked a lame duck council into spending $6 million on land speculation to buy 97 acres along the I-25 next to Johnstown while paying for half of it with funds he took from the money collected through Fire CEF’s (Capital Expansion Fees) to help our fire services keep pace with population growth.

In one breath Williams says no money is available for new stations or equipment replacement (June 2009) while in the other he supports a council waiver of McWhinney’s obligation to pay CEF’s.

Investing nearly $3 million in Fire CEF’s into property along I-25 near Johnstown was a terrible mistake as the property has plummeted in value and the city’s emergency services capital expansion money is stranded in the bad investment. Whether that money can be recouped as commercial land values recover still remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the tragic deaths of two residents from smoke inhalation should not be ignored and residents need to respond. Local government’s primary function is to protect the Health, Welfare and Safety of its citizens. Until Loveland’s Fire Department can promise every resident a response within 5 minutes to a house fire, the CEF’s were collected in vein and Lovelanders’ quality of life has suffered.

The city council needs to replace the $3 million stranded in the failed property speculation (97 acres near Johnstown) plus the funds which McWhinney didn’t pay due to their special tax holiday waiver last year.

Read our story about the fire and diversion of critical resources needed to expand the fire services.

Posted in City Council - Budget, City Council - General Issues, City Manager, Fire Chief Resignation, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Marathon Council Meetings Ends In A Dodge

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Loveland’s City Council adjourned at 1:24 AM June 2, from a public meeting that began 7 hours earlier.

Last on the open agenda was the State of Colorado medical marijuana bill recently passed by the State Legislature regarding the regulation of marijuana dispensaries allowed under Colorado’s Amendment 20 passed by voters approximately 10 years ago. City Attorney John Duval said he expected the Governor to sign the bill while providing a complete outline of its provisions and choices now before the city council. Among the choices allowed in the bill are to prohibit commercial marijuana dispensaries, allow them with limits or ignore the matter completely leaving all regulation to state authorities.

In the audience was Loveland’s representative to Colorado’s State House, Brian Delgrosso, along with Loveland Police Chief Luke Hecker and a dozen representatives from some 17 marijuana dispensaries operating illegally throughout Loveland. Federal law still prohibits the distribution of the controlled substance without a pharmaceutical license.

The council dodged any tough decision in favor of looking into settling the question of whether to continue to allow the dispensaries by public ballot. However, some wanted to wait for Loveland’s pro-pot lobby to place a measure on the ballot through petitions while others preferred having the council place the question on the ballot during the next municipal election.

Earlier in the evening Councilman Klassen went to battle (legislatively speaking) to try and get any money at all for the Loveland based charity Dissabled Resource Service. see article but was unsuccessful.

The final item scheduled for closed session was the city’s recovery of the nearly $1 million the city lost to a business incentive deal to vNET when the company laid-off most of its workers and sold its assets to another entity. The council opted to scheduled a special meeting for June 8, to discuss the vNET scandal rathar than began a closed session meeting at 1:30 am.

Please feel free to post any comments regarding the issues decided and discussed at the June 1, council meeting here on this blog string.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Reporter-Herald Misleads Readers On Council Agenda

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

The Loveland Reporter-Herald reported on the upcoming agenda for the June 1, Loveland Council meeting as being one of the longest in memory. What the reporter Tom Hacker failed to mention in his article was agenda item #14 that Loveland City Manager Don Williams placed at the end of the long agenda (likely to occur after midnight) to avoid public scrutiny.

Loveland City Manager Don Williams was directed three months ago by council in a public vote to take legal action against Colorado vNet and its former owner to recover nearly $1 million the city provided in business incentives for which the owner provided a personal guarantee.

Williams is again attempting to discuss the matter in a closed session meeting which will further delay the action thus violating Williams’ lawful duty to comply with council direction.

So far, Williams has The Loveland Reporter-Herald story (5-31-10) instead focused on the medical marijuana bill that Governor Ritter hasn’t signed into law yet but the newspaper erroneously reported, “the new law gives local governments broad latitude….”

The council will likely take no action on a pending medical marijuana bill other than to direct staff to look into the issue. Many confused readers will likely turn-out to lobby the council on an issue not being voted upon June 1, 2010 as the newspaper story implies.

Don Williams’ tricks seem to never end. According to the state constitution the elected officials provide direction to the city manager. According to this city manager he provides direction to council. Allowing the ugly matter of losing $1 million of city money in a half-baked scheme to disappear after midnight is unpardonable.

Williams is trying desperately to avoid spoiling his legacy just before he retires with the Golden Nest Egg he brought back and back to council until they approved it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Floor Dropping Out of Councilman Heckel’s Political Career

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Loveland homeowners are suing Loveland Councilman Larry Heckel and his construction company for negligence. According to a source close to the case, Heckel used temporary support posts to suspend the floors that are now slowly collapsing despite being warned by the lumber yard and manufacturer not to use those posts. Where were the city building inspectors?

Read the full story and feel free to post any comments.

Posted in City Council - General Issues | 8 Comments »