Author : Lakewood News from Karen

While Saying They Won’t Remove the Consequences to Crime Disclosure: The author, Karen Morgan, is a member of the Lakewood Advisory Commission. All views and research are her own and do not represent Lakewood nor the Commission. Have you wondered why people are allowed to come wash your windshield and solicit money in the middle of the street? Have you heard there is a law against that? Yes, there is a law against that. Lakewood does not enforce it. Have you seen evidence of lax enforcement, like the comments below from nextdoor.com? All of the situations quoted above have complicating factors and reasons for the law not being enforced. Some of the most popular reasons are: For these reasons, there are a number of crimes that Lakewood routinely forgives through various programs. Following this thought process, a person might think: What’s the point of having a law that is not enforced? A recent proposal from the Lakewood Advisory Commission aimed to research unenforced or partially enforced laws to see if it would make sense to remove them. City Council came out strongly against the proposal. Listening to some Council comments, a person may think Lakewood supported enforcing and penalizing all crimes. Mayor Strom: “I can’t imagine telling a voter that we said we’re going to get rid of the consequences to crime. “ But that is NOT WHAT HAPPENED. In fact, nine Councilors, the Mayor and the City Manager defended the current practice of removing the consequences to crime for all the reasons listed above. This was a “have your cake and eat it too” moment for the city. Picking up on the quote above… Mayor Strom continued with praise for the “innovative” new city programs that are “very much on the side of addressing the homelessness challenge.” The programs she referred to do, in fact, remove the consequences to crime, by diverting offenders into receiving resources instead of penalties. Lakewood Programs that Remove Penalties to Crime Outreach Court is a special court that will connect a person to resources, rather than impose penalties. Council spent a majority of their speaking time defending this growing program. For more on Outreach Court, click here for Lakewood FAQ, click here for forgiving of crimes, click here for original news story. For example, Councilor Sinks says this program works to bring people to [Outreach] Court so they can be forgiven and then get an ID while there. Councilor Stewart defended the Court with the idea that moving the court to a less intimidating place helps people “mitigate” their failure to appear. Councilor Low also believes that low-level offenses are “how we get people in front of Outreach Court”. Note: Failure to Appear is cleared (i.e. forgiven) 99.999% of the time City Manager Kathy Hodgson provided a litany of resources that are provided at Lakewood Outreach Court, including everything from blankets to food to housing assistance. The number of people served at the Outreach Court increases every month, which the city counts as a success. The measure of success does not include recidivism rates nor overall crime rates. Providing people help and resources rather than proceeding with criminal charges is what’s known as “diversion”. The pros and cons of diversion is a whole topic unto itself. Some people love it, such as the ACLU who is known to sue governments who do not make diversion known to those who qualify. Others are still looking for evidence of any benefit. Getting an ID is not a consequence to crime. Forgiving (i.e. clearing or mitigating) is not a consequence to crime. The city’s fierce defense of Outreach Court shows the city is very much in favor of removing the consequences to crime, at least for some crimes, for some people. Non-enforcement also happens routinely, with full Council support. For example, Council Member LaBure said “I think we’re not gonna be able to police our way out of a lot of the problems and the challenges that we’re facing, so we gotta find new strategies to help our police department to make sure that, they’re not spending their time on sort of low-level crimes and that are really focusing on the real, important challenges.” Council Member Shahrezaei supported “the creative ways that we’re serving some of our most vulnerable in the community” and said these programs have a “positive impact on us.”  She feared people who might want “want to eliminate programs that don’t impact everyone.” Another “creative way” of serving the community is through the LEAD program. This program diverts crimes associated with homelessness by “providing resources to those committing low-level crimes.” Low-level crimes named by the police include trespassing, drug paraphernalia, and public intoxication. Explanations for non-enforcement include lack of time, lack of resources, and the low-level nature of the crime. The rest of Council supported the track Lakewood is on, that is lessening enforcement, for a variety of reasons. Councilor Mayott-Guerrero said “our police force is doing an incredible job balancing really difficult changing circumstances within our city and our working very hard to recommend and figure out their staffing challenges to figure out how to again address some of these crimes.” Read more here about current police philosophy of treating the individual, not the crime, in Lakewood news. Taking Lakewood at it’s word, non-enforcement and consequence-removal programs are already in place. That it not the question. The question is if it might make sense to research alternative programs that do the same thing. One alternative is law removal. For example: These kinds of policies seem the natural progression of the track Lakewood is on. It is similar to suggestions from the city to “lessen deportation fears”. Are Current Practices Working Councilor Olver was the only one to suggest that current practices are not working. Speaking to the manager of the Walmart on Wadsworth, he has confirmed that the self-checkout lanes in both stores have been closed due to rampant shoplifting. He suggested that research go forward, not to remove laws but to

In the last week, Lakewood citizens launched a petition, started gathering signatures, and had the petition stalled by the city. From Save Open Space Lakewood Today Lakewood citizens start to take back their parks and open spaces from developers Thursday, March 21, 2024—Today Save Open Space Lakewood launches a petition requiring the City of Lakewood to strengthen and adhere to its ordinances to preserve land and open space.   Once the petition reaches a requisite 6,000 Lakewood citizen signatures, it qualifies to become a ballot issue. Initiative Summary as Set by Lakewood City Clerk: Shall the City of Lakewood Municipal Code Chapter 14.16. PARK AND OPEN SPACE DEDICATION be repealed and replaced to eliminate the option for developers to pay a fee in lieu of parkland dedication and to require the City to accept open space and land dedications for current and future developments. For the full initiative text and to learn where Lakewood registered voters can sign the petition, go to SOSLakewood.org or contact Cathy Kentner at (303) 349-2434. Gross ineptitude or sabotage? City of Lakewood’s actions last week and in the past show loyalty to developers over citizens Citizens’ petition to save Lakewood’s parks from developers deemed invalid due to City error, robbing petitioners of time to secure enough signatures for citywide vote  Is this gross ineptitude or sabotage by Lakewood, which has thwarted dozens of citizen-led efforts, many to combat large developments next to parks and open space Read the full story at Save Open Space Lakewood

Terumo BCT is one of four commercial medical sterilization facilities in Colorado subject to a new regulation meant to decrease emissions and reduce cancer risk associated with ethylene oxide. Terumo BCT Sterilization Services Inc., Lakewood’s 10th largest employer, has been the subject of lawsuits regarding concentrations of this compound that may cause cancer (see Westword article for more information). Residents have been submitting Lakewood news and public comment on the issue and it came to the attention of Lakewood City Councilor Rich Olver. Olver made a request on May 4, 2023 to hold a study session on the topic, inviting the EPA and Terumo to discuss. The motion was approved on May 22, 2023, but no study session ever occurred. Council Member Olver reports that he has renewed his request for a study session. The EPA press release does not provide any outside scientific references for how or why this the new rule is necessary but does predict a 90% reduction in emissions. Promoted Post:

Lakewood City Council has set new penalty fees for vacant property owners in Lakewood. Some vacant land has been elevated to the level of a public nuisance because of the homeless encampments on them. However, camps on private property are a relatively new and lesser phenomenon than camps on public property. Public homeless camps have been increasing in Lakewood news for years, as Denver homeless have been expanding into Lakewood. Public encampments are so prevalent that they are increasingly being found on private property. The increased crime and poor economy has led to a downward spiral of vacant properties. So Lakewood has instituted fines on a property owner for having vacant land. Did Lakewood focus on the lesser private problem instead of addressing the larger public problem and is this an adequate alternative to hiring more police officers? Public Homeless Camps 2013-Oct, 2020 In 2020, Lakewood first started posting notices for private property. As shown below, they made a significant number of private property notices over two months, but it was still not as common as public camps. The temptation for Lakewood will now be to pursue these private properties to bring in revenue from fines at the expense of cleaning up the larger public property problem. Many properties in Lakewood have been vacant for years, with no crime problem, but since economic development has stagnated, these owners are left with property the owners would like to have in productive use but that option isn’t available at this time. So now property owners will be fined for a condition that is already not of their choosing, making it harder to sell the property as well. As of January 22, 2024, each vacant property owner must pay the city $700 every six months if the property is vacant and $800 for every emergency service call. The purpose of the fines is to incentivize property owners to find a renter faster or take their own security precautions. It is important to note that these taxpayers already pay for city and emergency services but the city is now charging extra. This may disincentivize new buyers from investing in Lakewood for long-term buy and hold strategies. At the City Council retreat on March 2, Mayor Wendi Strom commented that using city funds to demolish vacant private property was better than pursuing more police hires when Lakewood has still not hired to full staff capacity. In the end, if the city cannot control the larger issue of camps on public property, what are private owners to do differently? Reader Recommended Business: Cafe Ole

Two flyers are circulating for a community meeting on March 12, 2024. One flyer lists a speaker and suggests the topic of the meeting is immigration. The other flyer suggests the meeting is being called because City Council cancelled the March 11 Council meeting. The Council meeting was cancelled so that Councilors might attend the previously scheduled National League of Cities meeting in Washington DC. It is unclear when city officials were invited to the community meeting or if any can attend. Although discussion topics are not listed, the growing number of migrants is a concern to Lakewood residents – a concern that did not make it to the City Council 2024 priority list. These community meetings may offer residents an opportunity for discussion that is not otherwise available. The community meeting is open to all, at Emory Elementary, March 12 at 6:30 pm.

Cross post from the Colorado Accountability Project …the issue here isn’t one along party lines.  It’s one where an arrogant group of politicians have no compunctions about limiting the public’s ability to see what they’re doing.  And they do this in direct defiance of voters saying they want more transparency. I take this CORA vote the same way.  This is legislators thumbing their nose at everyday Coloradans like you and me.  Read more at the Colorado Accountability Project Editor’s Note: Lakewood has taken no position on this or any other legislative item, including: prohibiting residential occupancy limits, higher density construction , more statewide land use control, allowing local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE The Lakewood Legislative Committee meets March 7 at 3 pm. An explanation of HB 24-1296 from the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition The introduced version of House Bill 24-1296 had given records custodians the power to consider anyone — except a journalist — as vexatious if that person demonstrated “an intent to annoy or harass a custodian,” limiting their access to public records under CORA for 30 working days and making them go to court to challenge that designation. Read more…

Public comment from a Lakewood, Colorado local, Marge Callum, had over 45 million views as of March 5, 2024. The clip has been posted for 48 hours at this time. Great job making local and national news, Marge! Posted on @elonmusk.

Two, separate, eyewitnesses confirm that an extended bus of migrants was dropped at the Hometowne Studios at 6th and Kipling, in Lakewood, Colorado. The first report came in on Monday, February 26 during a City Council meeting where Lakewood Mayor Wendi Strom would later say she feared a busload of migrants would show up without prior notice. The news was confirmed the next day by a second eyewitness near the motel. An extended bus is the same as two regular buses and has been described as an RTD-style bus that was painted white. Hotel management has not returned calls. Denver responded that they have no involvement in any hotel in Lakewood. Mayor Strom responded promptly on February 28 that she was not aware of such a bus. A high-ranking city official has said that a private group is paying for the hotel.