Archive for the ‘City Manager’ Category

Building Without Permits – Part II

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Like a bad sequel, Loveland architect Roger Kenney’s renovation project on his historic downtown building is back in the news as city staff again attempts to whitewash a clear pattern of preferential treatment when it comes to enforcing city codes. see story

This time, Loveland City Manager Bill Cahill investigated public complaints with the help of Assistant City Manager Rod Wensing. Their inquiry appears to have been an inquiry to the fox only about why the chickens are complaining. Staff predictably misunderstood the complaints and narrowed the scope of the inquiry to the only part of the renovation project that eventually was provided a permit.

Ed Klen, the most recent complainer, paid over $1,000 to Colorado Code Consultants LLC to review the plans the city did approve after the project was well under way. You can read their independent analysis by reading Klen’s recent appeal to Loveland’s Council.

We look forward to a more complete review of the matter by the city council in an OPEN and public meeting.

Posted in Brothers Klen, City Council - General Issues, City Manager | No Comments »

Secret Meeting Video (just for fun)

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

LovelandPolitics has obtained a copy of this recording of a discussion between City Manager Bill Cahill and Loveland Mayor Cecil Gutierrez about Cecil’s concern his run for State House may be impacted by the Reporter-Herald closed session lawsuit outcome.

Any comments?

Posted in ACE-Loveland, City Budget, City Council - Budget, City Council - General Issues, City Manager | 10 Comments »

Council Rejects RH Request – Closed Session Law Suit

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Tuesday the Loveland City Council rejected the Loveland Reporter-Herald’s (RH) request to address the ongoing litigation challenging a closed session interview of city manager candidates in private. see Reporter-Herald

Our View
Personnel matters, we believe, are appropriate for closed session meetings and that opinion is backed by 30 years of legal precedent in Colorado — so we don’t believe the newspaper will prevail on that allegation. However, we do believe the council was in error when they determined candidate Matt Brower performed poorly in his personal appearances thus making a decision in private to remove him from the candidate pool. That vote and discussion should not have taken place in a closed session meeting even though we understand it was by unanimous consent.

The Real Issue
We believe the lawsuit is motivated, in part, by the council breaking a long held tradition in Loveland of seeking advice from the RH on their choices for the city’s top job. Former RH Editor Bob Rummel participated in secret meetings by a group of “community leaders” appointed by previous councils in the 1990’s to choose the next city manager. Mayor Gutierrez and his council instead took an active role interviewing as many candidates as possible without consulting outside “authorities” like the local newspaper, chamber of commerce or other special interest groups. The secret meetings the RH Editor Rummel participated in years ago are covered under the same sunshine laws (since his committee was appointed by council to provide a recommendation) as those laws now being exalted by the RH today.

It is certainly ironic that on a City Council of 4 attorneys and 1 paralegal they defend themselves by saying everyone relied on the city attorney’s direction. Especially when 4 of the 5 ran for council claiming the city attorney allowed closed sessions in matters not appropriate for closed session.

The Loveland Reporter-Herald has shown extra-ordinary courage and integrity by challenging the inappropriate use of closed sessions by Loveland councils in the past. Unfortunately, that record is inconsistent since some meetings (like deciding to buy 97 acres along 402) were never challenged by the newspaper. And, of course, the meetings where their own RH Editor participated in choosing previous city managers in private meetings were not challenged in defense of open meeting laws.

So we believe our city council was in error when making the decision in private to remove one candidate. We do not believe they were in error when interviewing and discussing the other candidates’ applications and interviews in private. Salary negotiations, applicant benefit demands and other sensitive issues should not be the subject of public domain. Such issues should become public only when the council makes a choice on which candidate they will hire and also how much the candidate will be paid. The public has a right to know which public official supported the hiring of a particular candidate not what every candidate said in their interviews.

What is your view?

Posted in City Council - General Issues, City Manager | 7 Comments »

Consultant: $2,000 to Appear Before Council

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Consultant Robert S. Tipton is reported to have demanded an additional $2,000 in consulting fees from the City of Loveland in order to appear before the City Council during an upcoming public meeting scheduled for July 20, 2010.

Tipton recently conducted a study at the hourly rate of $200 per hour to provide “Process Mapping and Recommendations” while Assistant City Manager Rod Wensing is said to be avoiding the public’s eye and willing to pay Tipton the extra $2,000 to shrug the burden of explaining the study to an inquisitive council in public.

Read the entire story.

Rod Wensing is among the top 3 internal candidates for City Manager but this type of disregard for the public’s money isn’t earning him friends among the more fiscally conservative members of Loveland’s City Council.

Wensing has been credited with saying it is best to stay out of the public’s eye because that way you don’t get blamed when things go wrong. Whether he really did say this or not is probably secondary to the point Assistant City Manager Rene Wheeler and Public Works Director Keith Reester are the ones willing to stand-up and be accountable for staff decisions and recommendations while Wensing is frequently absent from council meetings.

In the LovelandPolitics score book that gives both Wheeler and Reester points for accountability and competence while Wensing’s alleged cynical backdoor strategy of earning the top job earns him a big zero.

Any comments?

Posted in City Budget, City Council - General Issues, City Manager, City Manager Replacement | 4 Comments »

Loveland City Manager’s Land Speculation Deal; Safety Hazard For Residents

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Last month a father and son died during a house fire on Boxelder Drive in Loveland. While some residents began calling 911 between 11:10 to 11:15 pm, the emergency response team wasn’t dispatched until 11:27 and nobody arrived on scene until 6 minutes later at 11:33 pm. It was too late.

The fire on Boxelder Drive has reignited a debate within Loveland’s city hall as to whether the city’s 5 minute emergency response requirement anywhere in the city is feasible given the dramatic growth Loveland has experienced during the past decade and the failure of the former city council to properly invest in the fire services commensurate with that growth in population. While the Boxelder fire was only 3 minutes from a fire station, the “Incident Investigation Report” failed to flag it as a concern.

City Manager Don Williams has long been an advocate of lowering resident expectations for emergency services by promoting the removal of the 5 minute rule, advocating greater spacing between fire stations and by postponing building another fire station in Centerra. The Boxelder fire is a reminder that such actions can cost lives in an emergency (crews cannot cover larger areas without reducing their response time to residences closer to their station at the same time).

In November of 2007, Williams talked a lame duck council into spending $6 million on land speculation to buy 97 acres along the I-25 next to Johnstown while paying for half of it with funds he took from the money collected through Fire CEF’s (Capital Expansion Fees) to help our fire services keep pace with population growth.

In one breath Williams says no money is available for new stations or equipment replacement (June 2009) while in the other he supports a council waiver of McWhinney’s obligation to pay CEF’s.

Investing nearly $3 million in Fire CEF’s into property along I-25 near Johnstown was a terrible mistake as the property has plummeted in value and the city’s emergency services capital expansion money is stranded in the bad investment. Whether that money can be recouped as commercial land values recover still remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the tragic deaths of two residents from smoke inhalation should not be ignored and residents need to respond. Local government’s primary function is to protect the Health, Welfare and Safety of its citizens. Until Loveland’s Fire Department can promise every resident a response within 5 minutes to a house fire, the CEF’s were collected in vein and Lovelanders’ quality of life has suffered.

The city council needs to replace the $3 million stranded in the failed property speculation (97 acres near Johnstown) plus the funds which McWhinney didn’t pay due to their special tax holiday waiver last year.

Read our story about the fire and diversion of critical resources needed to expand the fire services.

Posted in City Council - Budget, City Council - General Issues, City Manager, Fire Chief Resignation, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Councilwoman Working To Remove City Manager

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Loveland’s City Manager, Don Williams, is fond of telling people this has been the most difficult council to manage in the years since he was promoted to city manager.

LovelandPolitics has learned that complaints by City Councilwoman Carol Johnson who compares him constantly with Mike Bestor, her previous city manager while serving on the Golden City Council, are getting under his skin. She has even taken her concerns to Todd Gamble, Loveland’s Director of Human Resources.

Poor Job References?

They say a good reputation follows you and a bad one goes ahead of you. This may be why Johnson can’t seem to connect with organizations in the community who she apparently believes would love to put a city councilmember on the payroll. Rejected for jobs at both McWhinney Enterprises and more recently Loveland’s Chamber of Commerce, Johnson is smarting from the rejections.

It is unlikely that Williams would have done anything overt to disqualify her for the positions but private talk and complaints to friends on the golf course can also impact a candidate’s probability of success. Williams, like Johnson, tend to prefer keeping their objections private so his views are closely held.

Williams, for his part, has played the rejection coolly by meeting with Johnson only when he must and telling her only what he has to tell her. He is also reluctant to support the many Golden copycat ideas she wants to implement for Loveland’s downtown.

Nonetheless, her efforts to convince colleagues and staff alike that Williams lacks the credentials to be city manager has only created a bigger rift between them. While we question Williams’ value to the city (as he is more worried about serving the interest of developers near I-25 than the residents of the community) we also think he doesn’t deserve the destructive backdoor gossip Johnson appears to be engaging in to undermine his authority.

Williams has created a culture of secrecy where the most important decisions are made privately instead of in public. Johnson appears to be giving him a taste of his own medicine and he doesn’t like it.

Please feel free to post any comments below – especially if you are named in this story.

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As Nope calls us the -

“Whiny pissant ….. clowns that run this illiterate blog”

Posted in City Manager | 5 Comments »

Fire Chief Resignation Could Be Symptom of Larger Problem

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

In 2005 when City Manager Don Williams appointed Mike Chard as Loveland’s fire chief, Williams made an interesting comment. He was quoted in a City of Loveland press release saying, “Mike is appreciated and well respected for his emphasis on operations, his efforts to build efficiency without exceeding resources and his creative, most-bang-for-the-buck approach” To many, the statement appeared to say more about his ability to follow orders than to provide a high quality of public safety. Nine days ago Chard resigned his position after being placed on administrative leave beginning August 1, 2008. While the reasons behind his resignation have not been released, the interim fire chief said something equally telling. Merlin Green, who is filling the position temporarily, was quoted in the Loveland Connection saying, “We were all shocked at the announcement, but our focus is to maintain a positive image.”

For those focused on public safety instead of public image, this blog is for you to comment. Our story on this topic points to an incident some years back when Chard requested changing the city’s emergency response policy to reflect a “goal” of arriving in five minutes instead of the previous “requirement.”

Any comments?

Posted in City Manager | 6 Comments »