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• 1. Marilyn Marks  |  November 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

  The blue font is used to distinguish my responses from the original posting of the story. I have refrained from engaging on the blog for the last week, due to the level of unprofessional discourse. I will insert a few comments below to correct the errors I was concerned about. –the very problem which caused me to insist on reading for accuracy as a condition of the interview. FAIR board members became aware of the significant errors in the story. Presumably, this influenced their decision to severe the relationship with Conniff.

  ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—The harshest critic of both Aspen City Council and City of Aspen staff now admits there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by anyone in the Burlingame Ranch affordable housing brouhaha.

  The reporter got this backwards. I said that there are significant indications of violation of election laws, which should be investigated through independent legal investigation. (there is a witness to this interview, and copious notes.) My position on this issue has not changed, but, in fact, gotten stronger.

  “There were no criminal actions,” Marilyn Marks told Post Time News, “and we are not accusing anybody.”

  The reporter fabricated the first part of this quote. It is the opposite of what i suggested. I did say that i was not “accusing” anyone. That would be the proper role of an investigator after they had thoroughly investigated.

  Marks, a citizen advocate who has found a calling in monitoring city governance, supported a criminal investigation into Burlingame when another Aspen activist, James Perry, made the formal request to Aspen City Attorney John Worcester—who quickly turned thumbs down on the idea. Marks, nonetheless, continues to call for an investigation.

  “We never broke any laws,” Worcester said. “Besides that I have no other comment.”

  The admission from Marks represents a level of vindication for the targets of her considerable ire—including Mayor Mick Ireland and City Manager Steve Barwick.

  There was no “admission”. I have not changed my position on the need for an investigation. I don’t know why the reporter reported this fabrication. I believe that he was confused by the complexities of the legal issues, which we never discussed. Neither the mayor nor i have changed our opposing positions since the beginning.

  “We have said from the beginning that there was no criminal action,” Mayor Ireland told Post Time News. “We have been above board the whole time. I think her words speak for themselves.”

  Marks, first known for her opposition to what she considered an onerous historic preservation ordinance—Ordinance 30—became a household name in Aspen when her participation in the affordable housing subcommittee of the Citizens Budget Task Force led to the discovery of major discrepancies in an informational brochure made available to voters as the City tried to convince them to approve the Burlingame project.

  The Burlingame brochure misled voters in 2005 with an inaccurate “total” cost figure of $74 million for all three phases, a number approved by voters but one that left out infrastructure costs in a snafu she uncovered in April 2008.

  But Marks quickly resigned from the task force to agitate on her own: as she continued to question officials with a punctilious politeness, Marks soon became a target of vitriolic criticism from Mayor Ireland and City Council Members Jack Johnson and Steve Skadron. Since leaving the task force she has maintained an inexorable drumbeat of criticism of elected and appointed City officials—criticism and commentary that now includes The Red Ant blog with ally Elizabeth Milias, a GrassRoots TV show, and televised public forums.

  Here are the gist of her charges about City governance:

  --Marks feels the City of Aspen misrepresented the findings of the two reports concerning what went wrong at Burlingame. Even though the City quickly admitted the error and posted a correction on its web site almost immediately thereafter. That was not good enough for Marks: she told Post Time News the City did not correct the press release correctly and come clean with the mistakes they made.

  The reporter completely missed the issue on the unethical city press releases and the fact that they have not been corrected. Some insiders refer to those press releases as “fraudulent”. Regardless, the public has reason for concern, which has not been satisfied.

  --Marks is also upset at one of the companies that was used to perform the audit. Without documentation of the charge, Marks claims that Alvarez & Marsal, might be in line for future jobs in Aspen and that they might therefore have been biased in the City’s favor. If Marks had her way there would have been a more independent investigation. “That’s wrong,” Mayor Ireland told Post Time News. “Alvarez & Marsal are a multimillion dollar company. They don’t need Aspen.”

  I am not upset with A&M. Again, a claim completely fabricated by the reporter. I stand by my concerns about the independence of the firm, particularly after having talked with A&M about their interest in future large consulting work with the city. (For the record, I am not aware of any effort by the city to further engage them at this time, so I am not suggesting any ongoing potential conflict of interest.)

  -- City Manager Barwick said the rise in cost for Burlingame was due to $30 million-plus in inflation and construction costs. Marks feels this number is a manufactured, made-up number, or “plug,” as accountants call such a device. “City Hall did not back this number up,” Marks told Post Time News. “That’s what I mean when I say there needs to be more transparency coming from City Hall.” When questioned on the number, City Manager Steve Barwick did not respond to phone calls or emails, but he has admitted on the KNFO radio show “Con Games with Michael Conniff” that the inflation costs are an estimate and not based on any hard costs, thereby validating her complaint about the plug.

  This is something that FAIR could have dug into and reported on, which would have opened the eyes of the public to the ongoing credibility problems with the city’s explanations of the Burlingame expenditures.

  “I think she’s right,” James Perry told Post Time News concerning her issues regarding the City’s fiscal management. “City Hall basically feels they can work with a blank check.”
  Marks had no significant experience in municipal matters until she moved to Aspen as a retired executive—and that lack of experience has marked some of her efforts. In part as a result of her lobbying and letter writing, the Aspen City Council removed a bond issue worth tens of millions of dollars for affordable housing from the November 2008 ballot. But when a Council Member told her of the decision, she responded: “Oh no!”—not quite comprehending that her side in the controversial argument had prevailed.

  Again, a ridiculous misquote. Of course I comprehended how effective the citizens group had been in affecting the council decision.

  Further, because she had successfully delayed the bond issue, Marks, Milias, and their minions never formed a planned political action committee (PAC) to stop the bonds.

  This is in total error. A PAC was never planned or even discussed. An issue committee (not a PAC —they are quite different in important ways) to campaign to postpone the potential bond offering that was being planned. When the Council decided to postpone the measure, there was no need to form the committee. The work was done.

  “We didn’t even have to have a meeting or raise a dime,” Marks wrote in an email after the bond issue was derailed.

  That meant Marks and her allies never effectively mobilized to stop the passage of the critical Referendum 2F, which extended the 1.0 percent Real Estate Transfer Tax (RETT) until 2040, a measure passed narrowly by voters despite her opposition. The extension of the RETT gives City Council the open-ended ability to float hundreds of millions of bonds for affordable housing in the future if voters approve.

  We never intended or desired to organize to fight the RETT extension. My involvement in commenting on the RETT extension measure was limited to a letter to the editor and comment on the blog. The time for organized activities, if appropriate, is when a bond issue is put on the ballot. Then each should be considered on its merits.

  Interesting to be criticized for failure of an initiative I never intended.

  Another example is a front-page newspaper story in The Aspen Times this fall about her initiative to allow second-home owners to vote in Aspen. The problem: the article appeared just as the deadline for such registration came and went, thereby rendering the idea all but moot in the current election cycle.

  Again a problem in the reporter researching the facts---there was no “initiative” to allow second-homeowners to vote. If the reporter had read the only piece i wrote on this, he would have realized that it was encouraging all voters to register, plan to vote, check their registration status, and register in Colorado if they legally qualified. The appeal was to all legally qualified residents, whether part- time, students, seasonal workers, or second homeowners. A letter encouraging voters to register is hardly an “initiative”.

  Finally, beyond her specific Burlingame and fiscal concerns, Marks has also accused City officials of a culture of intimidation—a charge that dozens of citizens agreed with at a town hall forum on Burlingame at Paepcke Auditorium organized by Marks and Milias.

  “The Aspen City government controls most dissent through its growing power,” reads a posting on The Red Ant web site. “Citizens who are not paying close attention have no sense this is happening. Many who experience it can’t fight back. Time and again, citizens are intimidated, stonewalled, and discouraged from voicing dissent for fear of very real repercussions.”

  But Marilyn Marks herself is not averse to wielding her growing influence in Aspen. She lobbied hard and ultimately successfully with two Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR) board members to kill this story before it was even written. And two executives with business in front of the City would not speak about her on the record for fear she might turn her displeasure in their direction.

  I’m sure that the board members will confirm that I never once suggested “killing the story”. In fact I made a clear point in every communication that I had no issue with them writing a story on me. I only asked that they honor the commitment to allow me to read and correct for any inaccuracies such as the above.

  As far as those communications with FAIR’s board members, I can count on two hands the number of phone calls placed in the last two weeks. Michael’s claim of 30 phone calls is preposterous.

  “Marilyn deserves all kinds of credit for the Burlingame brochure,” said one who requested anonymity. “But she is unrelenting. It’s not so much what she does as the way she goes about it.”

  My comments also below—(Marilyn)
  It is unfortunate that so much time, resources and goodwill have been squandered over this non-story. I have only had one goal throughout the process---to be certain that the facts reported were as accurate as reasonably possible. There is enough confusion in the community on the Burlingame mess. Those of us critics, the press, and the City do not need to add confusion by spreading incorrect information. That was my sole message, as I trust will be confirmed by the FAIR board.

  It should be noted that I had considerable prior experience with Conniff and his reporter, which caused me to realize that they did not have the skill sets and experience to produce a quality story on such a complex topic as Burlingame concerns. (Many others have reported the same experiences to FAIR.) So I declined the interview.

  Weeks later, I granted a very limited scope interview on the simple subject of The Red Ant, still with the condition of reading copy for accuracy only.

  Unfortunately, the interview was requested under false pretenses, which Conniff does not deny. Once in the interview, there was no mention of The Red Ant, only Burlingame concerns.—the very subject I had denied to interview on for fear of exactly what happened. The reporter couldn’t get the story right.

  After two other interviewees publicly complained of gross inaccuracies and fabricated quotes in a previous story, I had hoped that Conniff would be more diligent, and actually encourage me to read the article for accuracy. That would have been in everyone’ s best interest. In fact, the opposite happened. And hence the unfortunate meltdown.

  At root, I feel that the problem was one of lack of good communication between Conniff and his young reporter. Conniff did not initially realize the commitments the reporter made in exchange for the interview, and never understand why I required those quality controls, and therefore would not honor them. Conniff did not supervise the reporter closely enough to see that he was not ready for the financial, legal and organization complexities of such a story, and threw him into the deep end of the pool. (Almost everyone who interviewed with this reporter had the same problems.) Admirably, he was loyal to his reporter, and had blind confidence in him, but that loyalty got in the way of ensuring that the work was professionally done. If Michael had just honored the agreement to allow me to read and correct the accuracies such as the above, this entire issue could have been avoided, and we’d have an accurate (but possibly even more boring) story.

  As for Conniff’s bizarre claims of threatened lawsuits, rumor mongering about his engagement, and the host of other claims made on the blog and radio in the last week, they are without any foundation or truth. If any reader wants to know more, they may contact me off line at TheRedAntMM@comcast.net. I'm not going to dignify the silliness with postings.

  I am sorry that the public’s and press’ time and energy has been wasted with this tempest in a teapot. Our attention as a community needs to be focused on substantive issues, not Conniff-created side-shows.

  Credit goes to Michael for attempting the FAIR assignment, recruiting a well-meaning reporter, and putting the effort into a worthy goal. In the end, it may have been a function of too few resources for a major challenge in covering the complexities of local issues. The FAIR founders deserve credit and encouragement for developing the mission of FAIR, and putting their money and time into it. I, for one, hope they see these as growing pains and pick up the effort again in the near future.

  Credit also goes to Conniff for having a blog that encourages freedom of expression by all. We recognize that blogs are not bound by traditional standards of print journalism. That seems to work for us and against us at times. While I don’t intend to be a blogger here, I hope that Conniff will continue to make the Aspen Post a place for diversity of opinion and freedom of expression.

  To Jon from Glenwood who called into the show asking why I have done nothing on topics of Affordable Housing compliance—write me, and I’ll send you the work I’ve done.

  To Ben from Blue Lake who said he was going to show his son the blog story and use it as a positive example ---I hope you read these notes, and change your opinion with new information.

  Marilyn Marks

• 2. Wharf Rat  |  November 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

  In a late-breaking news story out of Tennessee, Phil Fulmer has submitted his "resignation" as head football coach at the University of Tennessee because the university officials won't allow him to win football games.

  It's unfortunate that the Con Man just missed the latest election cycle, because now that he lost his F.A.I.R. gig he could work wonders in the Spin Room. The reason I-Con isn't working for F.A.I.R. any longer is quite simple:

  1. Poor journalism.

  2. Conflict of interest.

  When an organization like F.A.I.R. sets high standards of unbiased journalism and seeks to create a better product than the local newspapers, public credibility in its journalistic integrity is of paramount importance. The last thing such an organization needs in its efforts to develop credibility is shoddy reporting, misquotations, and decision-making by an "editor" who has never met a vituperative remark he doesn't like.

  Now I-Con may think that with all his superior journalistic skills bestowed upon him by the Almighty, supplemented with his Harvard education (wait, tell me one more time where he went to college), he can flip the switch from calling people "butt boys", "wackers" and "liars" to crafting a neutral, above-board journalistic piece, but the problem is one of public perception. He don't have any credibility, and for good reason.

  The public is not going to listen to hour-long rants against individuals or read one of his sleazy attack pieces on Aspen Post and take him seriously when he later serves up "factual investigative reporting". Like one of the posters on the Aspen Times website suggested, F.A.I.R. wouldn't hire Sean Hannity to do its unbiased reporting, so why would they hire the Con Man.

  The truly sad thing is not that I-Con has tried to make Marilyn Marks his scapegoat (she can handle herself)--it's that he will have expected people to be so ignorant as to believe his preposterous version of the events. The people motivated enough to keep up on this story know what happened, and the Con Man's revisionist history efforts are laughable. If he wants to bitterly cling to guns, religion and the notion that I'm wrong, Marilyn Marks is wrong, Paul Menter is wrong, Don Davidson is wrong, Susan O'Neal is wrong, Curtis Wackerle is wrong, Jon Colson is wrong, the Board of F.A.I.R. is wrong...and that the Con Man alone is right, well, I wish him the best of luck trying to peddle that fable.

  Jonathan, I don't know you, but I feel bad that you had to uproot from New Jersey only to have your boss contaminate you with his meltdown. However, it was only a matter of time because this was a design flaw that doomed the operation well before the first article was written.

  Now it's back to business as usual: radio vitriol and blog attack pieces will lead to preposterous claims that Aspen Post and Con Games are galactic in reach and that newpapers are dying, all in the name of a few free meals and a shrub or two.

  In the end, like all snake oil salesmen, the Con Man will run his cons and require a new, unwitting audience to scam and will march with unyielding bravado into the heart of a new locale. Now that, my friends, is liberty and justice for all--at least for all of us.

• 3. Marilyn Marks  |  November 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm

  A few more facts:
  For laughs— Here is Michael’s justification for reneging on the agreement for me to read the draft for accuracy:

  “You should know there are no opinions or comments in our stories--only verifiable facts”. M Conniff email. 11/5/08

  Under pressure from the Board, Conniff sent the journalist’s “notes”, while he steadfastly refused to send the article. Almost all of the above noted errors also appeared in those notes. I gave Michael notice of the specific errors and misquotes on November 9, within hours of his sending them to me. He has had nine days to correct them and chose not to.

  So much for his claims of dedication to accuracy and “verifiable facts”.

• 4. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 18th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  [For laughs...]

  Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp,
  To guard a title that was rich before,
  To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
  To throw a perfume on the violet,
  To smooth the ice, or add another hue
  Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
  To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
  Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
  ~Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John

  Cheers,

• 5. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 18th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

  Cheers,

• 6. infowars.com  |  November 19th, 2008 at 9:20 am

  More Censorship from the Con-Man.

  He Censored my post, then crys foul. lol

• 7. Wharf Rat  |  November 19th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

  I give up on the embed thing, Mitch.

  Here's the link:

• 8. infowars.com  |  November 19th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

  I think this one is more suited for the Con-Man and his "golden triangle" south of carbondale.

• 9. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 20th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

  [Crying game]

  Douche bag...

• 10. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 20th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

  Just in case there's any question...

• 11. Wharf Rat  |  November 21st, 2008 at 1:01 am

• 12. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm

  The latte hottie at the Grand Avenue drive through coffee drip is young enough to be my daughter. Keep it in perspective, Rat...

  Cheers! [I'm abandoning the comma for the bang]

• 13. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm

  [screw] it... I've signed off with a comma for as long as I've posted here. You'll miss it when it's gone.

  Cheers,

• 14. Wharf Rat  |  November 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm

  Don't you dare hit on Regina, Mitch! She's the daughter of a friend of mine. And I've never really had a hankering for women with robot heads.

• 15. Mitch Mulhall  |  November 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 pm

  [I've never really had a hankering for women with robot heads.]

  Hmmmm. Computers, and ostensibly robot heads, only do what you tell them to do... That ain't no woman.

  As for the fetching young barista who shlepps lattes out of the Grand Avenue coffee shack, I'd never hit on her. That'd be weird. That said, she has single-handedly increased my coffee intake.

  Cheers,

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