Post Time News resigned Monday from working with Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR) because of this story--a story FAIR killed because of unrelenting pressure from good governance advocate Marilyn Marks. It's a story Post Time News says it's proud to publish because it's fair, accurate, and balanced, with plenty of positive things to say about Marks, who nonetheless threatened to unleash the hounds of hell if she could not control the story. What's the big deal: "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."
Read the story and judge for yourself.
Only the Aspen Daily News, with its long history of glorious distortion, could assign a reporter with a clear conflict-of-interest--and then blame the victim of their unethical tabloid practices. "Post Time News," writes Aspen Daily News Editor Troy Hooper, "does not gather news. It pukes twisted lies and rumors without bothering to substantiate the subject matter. Your lame attack on Curtis today/last night was full of errors and bold-faced lies. So to extend the argument of my initial premise: I don’t view Post Time News as competition [sic] either." Wow. It doesn't get any clearer than that, does it? If ever there were a question about the disdain journalists hold for bloggers, Hooper cleared it up.
"In typical fashion," writes Post blogger Michael Conniff, "an inexperienced reporter at the Aspen Daily News called me up twice in the last two days to let me know I was in 'hot water'...for the investigative reporting undertaken by Post Time News for the new nonprofit, Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR). Understand a couple of things about the reporter in question—Curtis Wackerle, part of the hack Wack a’ Sack tag team covering Aspen City Hall with kid gloves. I know for a fact from inside the newsroom that Wackerle, in direct competition at City Hall with Post Time News, is feeling the heat from our coverage. Let me put it more directly: we’re making him look bad...."
Posts filed under 'Aspen City Council'
Aspen City Council Member J.E. DeVilbiss is “very ill” according to Mayor Mick Ireland.
Due to his illness Judge DeVilbiss has missed the last two Council meetings, including the one Monday night, and it is unclear when he will return to his elected post.
“He is very ill,” Mayor Mick Ireland said after at a City Council meeting at Aspen City Hall Monday September 15th, 2008. “I am not going to comment any more or get into specifics, but he is ill.”
Continue Reading September 15th, 2008
The President of the United States cannot personally amend the Constitution. Should our Mayor be able to effectively change the Aspen City Charter in order to rule the roost?
Continue Reading September 12th, 2008
Some called it a "punch in the stomach," others "complete incompetence," but Thursday, most of the volunteer professionals of the Burlingame Construction Experts Group expressed surprise and dismay when informed that the City had essentially granted bullet proof veto rights to current Burlingame homeowners to prevent density beyond 236 units! The group, working for the past three months to increase Burlingame density was informed that any increase will require a 100%* (yes, unanimous!) vote of the homeowners! (Could even a March powder day garner a 100% affirmative vote in Aspen? Probably not!) Sounds like a sure fire way to avoid optimizing this crucial property. We are astounded that the City would have limited the housing program's flexibility in this way. One member says he has "lost hope" [for fixing Burlingame].
Continue Reading September 6th, 2008
When it comes to fateful decisions, nothing beats the one by Aspen City Council to “bank” land—to spend $35 million, far more than they had in the bank, for a series of land purchases that culminated in the controversial $18 million-plus that went to pay for the BMC West lumber yard.
If the Council had kept the money in the bank—and not borrowed $8 million or so from the city-owned Wheeler Opera House—then there would have been a margin of error for the Burlingame affordable housing project when things went south. As it was, the City had no safety net when disaster struck. That set me to thinking about whether the City might have missed what was right under theirs noses: some choice land, already owned by the City or within the realm of possibility, that would have filled in the blanks when it came to bankable land.
Continue Reading September 4th, 2008
I badly want to believe the news that Aspen City Council is likely to postpone any bond relating to affordable housing—the $16 million “stealth bond” I’ve blogged about before.
I badly want to applaud that decision but I can’t, because it’s clear City Mamas and Papas are embracing the postponement for all the wrong reasons, citing concerns like multiple administrative costs for multiple bonds, as if a little tweaking will make everything right.
My applause will have to wait, because I have seen or heard nothing to indicate anyone in the top of the Aspen hierarchy—pols or staff—understands what just happened in the last six months when it comes to affordable housing.
Continue Reading August 22nd, 2008
After the hot-damn town hall meeting about affordable housing at the Paepcke, I was more than willing to leave the Burlingate affordable housing fiasco behind. When you’re sick of both sides—when your allies are cursing you out harder than the other times—it’s time to step back.
Just not yet.
The City, you see, is trying to pull another fast one.
Continue Reading August 19th, 2008
Side-by-side on the front page of the local paper Friday morning were two stories that said everything that’s wrong about Aspen—and, more to the point, everything that’s right.
The first story spoke of the open house on affordable housing I moderated for “The Jerry Bovino Show” at the Paepcke auditorium Thursday night (and seen on GrassRoots TV); the second of Aspen City Manager Steve Barwick’s decision not to support placing a $50 million bond on the ballot come November 2008 to pay for affordable housing.
In my opinion, the news contained in both stories was nothing less than a monumental ellipsis in the history of Aspen, a “Return of the Jedi” moment for the plain old people who form the heart and soul of the town.
Continue Reading August 10th, 2008
I will have (much) more to say about what went down Thursday night at the Paepcke when about 100 people who really do care about Aspen showed up for a Town Hall confab put on by The Committee That Knows No Name. But something amazing happened at the very end of the evening, something I’m confident the reporters from the local papers missed.
By the time the topic of intimidation came onto the table, about 50 people were still in the room—the people who really really cared. I think it was Jerry Bovino who asked whether those in the audience felt they could speak out in Aspen without fear of intimidation or retribution.
Close to half the hands shot up into the air, including many of those up front and right on the aisle—another signal of their intense interest in the town.
Continue Reading August 8th, 2008
The appalling dishonesty in the Burlingame saga continues. The City persists in its misrepresentation of the facts, deception of the public and cover-ups of deliberate actions related to Burlingame.
The results of recent audits were presented to our local media last Monday via a press release from the City that erroneously cited that the "two independent investigations" found "no evidence of intentional misrepresentation of facts." Tuesday’s headlines screamed "vindication" for the City. This is particularly troubling since the CPA audit appropriately did not even address this issue, yet alone comment on it. (CPA audits do not and cannot undertake legal issues such as “intentional misrepresentation.”)
Continue Reading August 5th, 2008
Assistant City Manager Bentley Henderson is not exactly a casualty of the Burlingate affordable housing brouhaha. He just got a better job in his hometown of Basalt.
That's the story emanating from Aspen City Hall and there's no reason not to believe it. Many of Burlingame's headaches preceded Henderson's tenure as head of the asset management department, and so he was not personally on the hook for Burlingate's sordid unaffordable history. Compared to months of agita to come in Aspen, no wonder he chose the relative anonymity of the Basalt Public Works department.
Continue Reading August 5th, 2008
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