With Sack's Help, City Keeps Lying About Burlingate

July 19th, 2008 at 07:09pm Michael Conniff 2

Now I'm really really mad.

The City of Aspen has identified yours truly as the source of the half-a-billion dollar Burlingame "rumor." In a story by the always power-friendly Carolyn Sackariasan, she spells my name right on the front page in a lead story and gets everything else wrong. Nor did she bother to even try to contact me to set the record straight.

Never would she let the facts get in the way of a good story if that story advances the Burlingate coverup.

I debunked the "rumor" in detail on my "Con Games" radio show and on Aspen Post this week ("Burlingate Ad Scam"): I never said Burlingate was a $500 million debacle; in a break on my "Con Games" radio program, I answered City Manager Steve Barwick by explaining the number referred to the entire affordable housing program, and was based on the city's plan--from the official City 2007 planning document--to spend $200 million within the next five years alone. For the record, $200 worth of bonds at 4 percent over 30 years comes to $440 million. That number doesn't include the overruns and add-ons the City is so famous for. Half a billion might turn out to be way too conservative given the City's insatiable ambitions for affordable housing at any cost.

Steve Barwick never said another word about it until the new City advertising campaign. Barwick and other City officials, in other words, are the source of spreading the "rumor"--not me--because he knows better. A "rumor" is based on unsubstantiated information, while my numbers are documented and accurate.

I don't flabbergast easily when it comes to local coverage of the powers-that-be in Aspen: I've never in my life seen a group of reporters so deep in the pocket of local pols. Even so I'm flabbergasted by the slant in Sackariason's front-page story:

"Aspen city government is working overtime in its attempt to set the record straight on allegations swirling over the cost escalation of the Burlingame affordable-housing development.

"The city of Aspen is running advertisements in both local newspapers trying to debunk the over-exaggeration and myths by government critics concerning how the cost of Burlingame became $73 million more than what a brochure disseminated to voters in 2005 indicated.""Over-exaggeration and myths by government critics"? Name one. Everything I've seen from critics like Marilyn Marks and the citizen's budget subcommittee has been truthful and well-documented. (Marks has proven the other ad paid for by the City to be so riddled with errors that they've agreed to correct it; they also need to correct the one based on the $500 million "rumor").

Notice the Sack's complete acceptance of the city story line. They're City officials, right? They wouldn't think of lying to us, would they?

Except for, oh yeah, the mistakes surrounding Burlingate, where the lies keep piling up like garbage left at the curb.

Or how about this Sack of whoopie: "City officials recognize they walk a fine line when it comes to speaking on behalf of a ballot initiative but since one hasn’t been officially proposed, they will continue to beat the Burlingame drum. The question is whether it comes in the form of information or advocacy."

Don't get it? That's code for how the City can't legally spend to advocate Burlingame once the bond issue is on the ballot--so they're spending before the bond is on the ballot so they won't technically break any law. Most reporters would see that as a distinction without a difference, or at the very least an end-run around the governing law by a power-drunk City administration.

Not Carolyn Sackariason. She's got a job to do--the job of making sure the Mayor and the Aspen City Council get exactly what they want: unlimited funds without even a modicum of accountability.

“There is a line there that can’t be crossed and we are well aware of that line,” City Attorney John Worcester told the Sack. “But the city has to respond to these allegations; otherwise it’s like having our hands tied in a boxing ring.”

Say what? The only obligation the City has is to tell the truth to the people--and to thank citizens like Marilyn Markst when they speak truth to power. The coverage of the Burlingame "information" campaign represents a new low, even by local standards. Not only can't you believe what the City says about Burlingate, you shouldn't believe a thing you read in the papers.

Entry Filed under: Aspen, Affordable Housing, Aspen City Council

1 Comment Add your own

1. Marilyn Marks | July 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Con Man,
Thanks for the nice comments. And thanks for taking an active role in the dialogue. The dialogue also needs the voices of many more citizens so that our elected leaders will get the message. It is too easy for most of us to let someone else be the spokesman. When that happens, the potential to effect change is greatly reduced. I hope that you can use your show to encourage people to write the City Council with their concerns.

Yes, after my considerable nagging of the city staff, the Aspen Daily News did print a story on Saturday attempting to correct the City ad which purportedly attempted to correct a city-fabricated rumor. Problem was that they STILL got it wrong. The City understated the cost by $1.3 million in their correction story. I went back to nagging, and on Sunday, if you read the fine print, the Daily News corrected the correction of the correction. That was the third stab at getting the description of $58.5 million of spending correct. I predict a fourth will be required as well.

The City is completely reckless with the information they release to the public. We shouldn’t tolerate it. But until more people take a stand, we are reinforcing bad behavior by our city officials.

Marilyn Marks

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