ISSUE # 34 ... ASPEN COUNCIL PRIORITIES AS SEEN FROM THE ANT HILL

THE POWER DYNAMIC ON THE NEW CITY COUNCIL

With nearly two months since taking office, the outlook on power and direction with the new City Council is varied, but, compared to the track record of the last 2 years, The Red Ant is cautiously optimistic -- the election broke Mick's previous perceived built-in voting block.

Instead, new Councilman Derek Johnson, who won his seat by a long-shot, promises to be an objective and level-headed representative with pro-business and pro-jobs politics, likely more in line with those of Councilman Dwayne Romero. Torre returns after a 4-year hiatus, as a confident and independent thinker -- not one to blindly drink the Kool-Aid. And remember, Torre boldly challenged Mick in the 2007 Mayoral election.

Early analysis reveals no pre-set alliances, which is ideal for good governance. Dwayne, Derek and Torre will surely together ensure a great cultural shift in council chambers --- the three of them will never engage in rudeness and incivility to members of the public! Councilman Steve Skadron will quickly embrace this positive change.

The likelihood of a complete cultural change on Council is probably too much to ask for, but hope springs eternal with The Red Ant. Mick may choose to govern differently given the new make-up of the Council. Then again, he may not, as evidenced by his impatience and rudeness at two recent Council meetings. The Red Ant hopes that this new group of Council members will lead a CHANGE we can ALL believe in!

CITY COUNCIL TO SET PRIORITIES THIS WEEK
 
The new Council will meet on July 31 and August 3 in public session to craft their priorities for the coming year. It is rare that manyAspen citizens engage their Council representativesin suggesting Council priorities, but The Red Ant encourages citizens to do so. (Read on--we've made it easy for you to do so.) As constituents, if we don't communicate where we want Council to focus, we shouldn't criticize what they choose as priorities.

The Red Ant suggests the following 10 priorities for the new City Council. These are all concepts that we brought up during the recent campaign season:

Click to read more ...

ISSUE # 33 ... ONE DEAL OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST - ASPEN STYLE

DRIVING AROUND, LOOKING FOR "HISTORY" 

"I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this."
R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson's Character.) 

In 2000, Amy Guthrie, the City's Historic Preservation czarina, noticed a house at 312 W. Hyman while doing a "windshield survey" of Aspen properties which might have "historic character." She saw the house as potentially historic, as it vaguely resembles several local buildings mimicking the European "chalet-style.   

The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) took a look. In addition to the original building permit from 1954 that establishes the structure as a pre-fabricated kit house, 312 W. Hyman Ave. is only a dolled-up ranch-style house, with some fancy trim added, and HPC's review -- marked "FINAL" -- determined that 312, much to the relief of the owner, did not have the historic significance to warrant involuntary (forced upon the owner) designation.

Shortly thereafter, owner Jordie Gerberg obtained

Click to read more ...

THE RED ANT FOR MAYOR!

Updated on March 25 by Elizabeth

Updated on March 26 by Elizabeth

Updated on March 27 by Elizabeth

Press Release

March 23, 2009 (Aspen, CO) --

At the Zele coffee shop, across the street from City Hall, The Red Ant, a pesky 8-month-old solenopsis invicta, announced her candidacy for Mayor of Aspen, Colorado.

Known for her fiery style and demand for truth, accuracy, transparency and

Click to read more ...

ANT BITE -- The BMC HypoAppraisal

The long awaited BMC "appraisal"—sort of---has been released by the City. Initially, upon reading the newspapers last week,Aspenites were comforted by the assurance that the value was only $1.45 million less than the $16.8 million paid in December, 2007. But upon further examination of the appraisal, and discussions with real estate professionals, the City is once again being challenged with the outrageous spin they put on the so called, “appraisal.” (Reminds us of the bogus press releases issued after the Burlingame audits.)

Turns out the “appraisal” was a very nonstandard valuation based on “Extraordinary Assumptions” and “Hypothetical conditions”---not what a reasonable buyer would pay!! And one any bank would laugh you out of the room for presenting.

John McBride, one of the most respected developers and businessmen

Click to read more ...

ISSUE # 32 ... EXPOSE: THE BURLINGAME BACK STORY

by Marilyn Marks

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." - Mark Twain

The shameful Burlingame "back story" is one that the local papers did not weave together to give the citizens a complete picture of the wrongs against the taxpayers, the housing fund, and the community support for affordable housing. It is a distressing tale of:
-falsified audit findings
-dishonesty
-likely election law violations
-phony cost studies
-corruption
-elected officials' purposeful misrepresentations
-abusive treatment of private citizens
-cover ups
-reckless squandering of tens of millions of taxpayer funds
-cronyism
-incompetence, and
-gross mismanagement.

Apparently, this was acceptable behavior to our current City Council, which has failed to denounce these unacceptable standards of governance. Burlingame is an embarrassing story for Aspen. Most citizens have no idea just how

Click to read more ...

PLUCKING THE SILENT GOOSE Issue # 31

Updated on March 4 by Elizabeth

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing." Jean Baptist Colbert, attributed

Given the recent disclosures of Burlingame multi-million dollar mismanagement, millions in real estate speculation losses, a bloated City budget and the abuse of City employee p-cards and bonus plans, we've been getting a lot of questions from full-time locals and part-time residents alike on how to have a more effective voice in our local government.

PART TIME RESIDENTS Part-time residents, including seasonal residents and second homeowners are not well-represented in our local democracy. Particularly for second homeowners who pay the bulk of local property taxes, being continually tapped to fund local programs and projects is not so much the issue as not being able to participate in the process. They clearly are the lifeblood of most of the Valley's non-profits, as well as property tax-funded activities. Seasonal renters and workers are also making great financial and personal contributions to our lifestyle here. According to an economic white paper recently commissioned by the City, local residents only pay 10% of the sales taxes which go into the general fund. Second homeowners, part-time residents and visitors contribute 90%

Click to read more ...

ISSUE # 30 ... CALEB KLEPPNER AND HIS KLEPTOMANIACAL MACHINE

Updated on March 5 by Elizabeth

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." -

Will Rogers

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO TOWN 

Caleb Kleppner (TrueBallot.com) is packing his bags and his little black box for a most-important business trip to Aspen. He may be the one guy in America who has the "counting machine" and ready ability to program it specifically for the Instant Run-Off Voting (IRV) vote count that will be implemented for our May 2009 election.

Remember, Aspen voters overwhelmingly supported a conversion to IRV in the November 2007 election when city officials claimed that IRV would save time and money by eliminating a separate run-off election should one candidate not get 50% plus one. They failed to disclose all of the confusing and practical difficulties with the untested system. The truth of the matter is that depending on which vote-counting method is selected (because the ballot language left this to the discretion of Council), the results can vary dramatically as demonstrated in last week's IRV open house at City Hall.

Click to read more ...

ISSUE # 29b ... DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ALGEBRA .... Part II

Paul Menter is also concerned about IRV. Paul's letter gives us the 30,000 foot view of the mess.

See his letter below. (Also see updatedinformation following the Orginal Posting.)

To the Editor,

I’ve been hearing the distant, gravelly voice of Edward P. Benton recently. My 8th grade social studies teacher’s mantra was …”You study the past so you can make better decisions in the present and improve the future.”

Or something like that…

Click to read more ...