Developers: 2, Jefferson County Citizens: 0

I was quoted in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News in a story about Commissioner Kevin McCasky's curious decisions to ignore the pleas of hundreds of Jeffco residents in order to approve controversial rezoning cases that favored developer friends:

Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky said at a recent hearing that he had no connection to a developer whose project he approved.

But the developer contributed $500 to his 2004 election campaign, and angry homeowners have raised questions about a possible conflict of interest in this and another controversial project. McCasky said he doesn't recall the contribution in 2004 or whether there have been any since, but he said contributions have no effect on his decisions…

… Disgruntled residents urged McCasky to recuse himself from the vote June 10, saying his ties to developers presented a conflict of interest.

At the time, McCasky said, "I have no connection to Shea Homes or Colorado Christian University. I made an independent, unbiased decision in this case."

But campaign contribution records show Peter Culshaw, of Shea Homes, made a $500 contribution to McCasky's election campaign in 2004. The commissioner also drew fire over his vote in May to approve a controversial expansion of the Rock South Baptist Church in Littleton.

Among the critics is Jason Bane, a Democratic candidate for commissioner.

"It's not the amount of the money," Bane said. "It is the issue of trying to lie about the fact that you have these connections. I have a vested interest, obviously, but I also think this is wrong."

"I think the real shame in all of this is that the will of the people is completely ignored," he said

"The Lords of Payback" Show Yet Again Why Jeffco Needs New Leadership

Westword ran a great in-depth story about the ridiculous efforts by Jeffco officials to attack a private citizen:

Since Congrove and two other commissioners took office in 2005, the board and the county attorney's office have been the targets of numerous ethics complaints and law-enforcement investigations, most of them revolving around alleged retaliation against Zinna. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spent months puzzling over the disappearance of 8,000 pages of Zinna-related documents from the county attorney's office. The Arvada Police Department and a grand jury looked at possible bank fraud after someone forged Zinna's name on documents dealing with business transactions involving Congrove. A special prosecutor and the CBI poked around the hiring of a private investigator to tail Zinna. But while the investigations have uncovered what one prosecutor calls "troubling" behavior, to date no one has been charged with doing anything illegal.

I'd strongly encourage you to read the entire article - it is truly frightening to see what can happen when elected officials decide to embark on a vendetta against a private citizen.

McCasky's Words Don't Match His Deeds

I couldn't have said it better than this op-ed from The Canyon Courier:

By The Candid Curmudgeon

County Commissioner Kevin McCasky (Canyon Courier June 18) does an outstanding job summarizing commissioners’ responsibilities regarding land use decisions. But he doesn’t practice what he preaches. He writes of preserving “charm and beauty,” sustainability and improving property values. Many of his decisions do the opposite. He notes that, legally, his decisions cannot be subjective, yet his votes often ignore the bulk of citizen and expert testimony, community plans and county staff recommendations. If it comes down to new development versus rights of existing residents — the residents rarely win.

McCasky says he values citizen input but often overrules citizen-written community plans. Many citizens worked on these plans, and everyone had the opportunity, including developers. McCasky says government shouldn’t interfere with rights to own property and accumulate wealth. Fine, but government should also not take actions that harm existing residents.

McCasky says, “commissioners must be steadfast and properly consider legally protected property rights.” We fully agree, but his actions bear scant resemblance to his words. Developers come before the commissioners not to use existing property rights but seeking to change those rights to let them do something not currently allowed. Commissioners McCasky and Jim Congrove nearly always side with the developers, even when affected citizens overwhelmingly object.

McCasky and Congrove are destroying county planning. They don’t want to hear about problems, and they dismantled Jeffco’s Long Range Planning Group, which worked on issues affecting citizens in both the near and distant future. Planning coordination has mostly evaporated, so the big picture is ignored. The award-winning head of the group was sacked, ostensibly for budgetary reasons. Ridiculous — losing her knowledge, decades of experience and interagency contacts leaves a huge void. Commissioners claim they don’t get involved in personnel matters, but their political-appointed lackeys do, with their guidance and blessing.

McCasky and Congrove have delegated decision-making powers to appointed bureaucrats who answer to them and not the public. That takes land use decisions out of the public arena with its messy citizen hearings, and lets their administrator waive the rules behind closed doors. They have made a backroom deal to let a developer use Cub Creek Road as primary access contrary to what was agreed to in a public hearing; waived limits on subdivision size without emergency access; and ignored questions of sustainability of groundwater.

McCasky claims regard for communities and planning, but he appointed a planning commissioner who has publicly said mountain citizens should not expect Jeffco planning to look out for their rights, and if you live in the mountains, you take your chances. If McCasky believed in planning, he should have adopted the long-range group’s recommendations, not eliminated the group and its leader. The master plan McCasky advocates is being prepared by the planning commission and county staff, not by citizens, who can’t comment until completion. It would become county policy and could override citizen-prepared community plans.

Jefferson County has many unresolved long-range planning issues, including limited water supplies and obsolete high-density plats of thousands of tiny lots in the mountains. Difficult problems to resolve, but now they’re deliberately ignored.

Go back and read McCasky’s column. He states very well what a commissioner’s duties are and what the citizens want in a commissioner. He fails on both counts. His actions betray those duties and belie his words. Remember in November.

This Candid Curmudgeon column was provided by Jim Peterson, geologist and attorney. Columns reflect the views of most Curmudgeons, but not always everyone. The Evergreen Curmudgeons are a group of retired professional men who are citizen advocates.