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Lakewood Spends Taxpayer Money on Keeping Taxpayer Money

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on February 3, 2024Posted in UncategorizedTagged budget, Colorado, Crime, featured, Lakewood, news, politics

In June 2023, the Lakewood Budget and Audit Board voted to recommend keeping future TABOR funds. To do that, they recommended finding a specialist to help find out what would make residents agree to this proposal. That decision seems to be proceeding, although requests for status have not yet been answered. As this CBS News article points out, governments cannot spend money on political campaigns. Although keeping TABOR refunds will be a ballot issue, it is not now. Therefore, there is a loophole to be taken advantage of in order to craft a political message before announcing the ballot measure. Jefferson County is doing the same so-called pre-campaigning for tax refunds. However, in the case of the county, they were very careful not to say that a decision had been made to keep the funds. Jeffco said they were just researching, which will include ways to craft ballot language. Lakewood has already made the decision to keep the TABOR funds by a vote of the Budget and Audit Board. So a ballot issue is pending but is not yet announced. The Board discussed using the specialist to find out what residents would be willing to pay for so that they could use that language. Former Mayor Paul pointed out how successful that strategy was the last time. Jefferson County was in the news for hiring a personal connection of Rep. Brittany Pettersen to research this TABOR issue. Lakewood did not have to suffer this scrutiny because they reached out for three quotes that did not go over the limit which would require a public Request For Proposals. The decision did not come to Council as a separate policy decision that would require public discussion. The expense would have been included in the 2024 budget and approved at that time. There is no word on the current status of this project. No Council Member responded to questions for status or where in the 2024 budget the funds were included. Update 3 February 2024: Council Member Olver responded that the current Budget Board Council Members would be more likely to have answers. Currently that would be Councilors Rebekah Stewart, Jeslin Shahrezaei, Isabel Cruz. Reader Recommended Business: Go With the Flow Plumbing

Save Belmar Park: The Inside Story

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on February 2, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Check out the new great content at SaveBelmarPark.com Mayor Adam Paul Quashed Purchase of 777 S Yarrow St The Looming Lakewood Parking Crisis -Over 800 Parking Spaces Short A fabulous local site with more stories available!

Local Person Nominated for Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on February 1, 2024Posted in UncategorizedTagged history, military, national-security, navy, news

Guest Post Jerad Knight, Navy spouse in Lakewood Colorado has been nominated for the 2024 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year (AFI MSOY). Jerad Knight is an active military spouse in his local and nationwide military spouse community. He has worked with local organizations and global military spouse networks to bring awareness to issues within the military community ranging from Mental health, suicide awareness, food insecurities, and housing issues. A full review of his accomplishments and nominations can be viewed on his candidate profile at: https://msoy.afi.org/profiles/2024-jerad-knight Public voting for the first round of competition opens from February 5 – 9 2024 at: https://msoy.afi.org To vote all anyone would need to do is create a user profile and they can vote daily each day of voting by logging in and casting their votes. Base winners (first round) will be announced February 13, 2024. A second round of voting will occur February 27 – 28 2024 and the public voting will happen the same way as the first round. Branch (Second Round winners) will be announced March 4, 2024. After the two rounds of public voting Branch winners will be judged for the overall Military Spouse of the Year 2024 award and announced at the AFI MSOY town Hall in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 2024. About AFI MSOY About the Military Spouse of the Year Program The Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year® (AFI MSOY) award was founded in 2008 to honor military spouses from all branches of service. More than one million military spouses support and maintain the home front while our service members defend this great nation. The AFI MSOY award recognizes military spouses’ important contributions and unwavering commitment to the military community and our country. Nominations for AFI MSOY are made by both the civilian and military community. There are four rounds of advancement, culminating in the announcement of the overall AFI MSOY in our nation’s capital in early May. AFI MSOY is so much more than an award!

No State of the Court Presentation

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on February 1, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Lakewood Courts got a little less transparent in 2023. The Lakewood Municipal Court holds an annual presentation for City Council and the public on the State of the Court. In 2022 we learned that Lakewood was focusing on compassion and opening an Outreach Court to clear warrants and provide resources. Unfortunately, in 2023 there was no update on this or any other subject. Judge Nicole Bozarth presides over the Lakewood Municipal Court. In 2022 it was reported that the number of service calls to police was up but the number of court hearings was down. Why? Is it still down? In 2023, Lakewood started the Outreach Court. How was success measured? Future plans? What is the state of the court?

Echo Chamber of Public Support for Navigation Center

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 28, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

The grant for the Navigation Center in Lakewood includes several letters of support from community organizations who have previously existing ties to the city. Organizations are a type of special interest group who have good intentions but do not necessarily democratically represent the neighborhood residents, for example by taking a vote. The residents who live around the Navigation Center did not provide any support letters, and no city meeting nor survey of Lakewood residents was conducted to solicit support. Was there a place for robust discussion and dissenting voices to be heard? Rather than talk to disparate residents, an easier route is to get a letter from organizations which has previous ties with the city. In this case, the Lakewood organizations all had close working relationships with Lakewood, including financial ties, as shown below. There is no evidence that the letters of support were financially motivated. What it may suggest is an echo chamber of existing, friendly partners rather than a coalition of broader community support. Other letters of support came from Jefferson County and the cities of Arvada, Westminster, Wheat Ridge and Golden. Each city letter used the same language: “fully supports the proposed goals of the project and looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the City of Lakewood and RecoveryWorks”. Only Jefferson County mentioned future funding, pending availability.

Colorado schools adjust to influx of migrant students in the classroom

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 26, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Cross-post from Denver7, by Kristian Lopez Note: Slater Elementary school is in Lakewood From the article… “The influx of migrants has boosted enrollment at schools across the Front Range. Jeffco Public Schools said it has been serving an additional 335 students this school year. Slater Elementary has seen around 50 new students this school year.” Read more from Denver7 …

Lakewood City Council votes to help Denver with influx of migrants

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 24, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Cross post from CBS news, reporting by Karen Morfitt “Council members want to hear from the public and say this is just a first step. The vote simply symbolizes a willingness to “be a good neighbor,” to the city of Denver, one councilman said.” https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/video/lakewood-city-council-votes-to-help-denver-with-influx-of-migrants/ A video report featuring Karen Morgan from the LakewoodInformer. Please contact us if you are interested in becoming a contributor. Click here to take a survey on the issue.

No Policy Discussion to Become the Homeless Center of Jeffco

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 24, 2024Posted in UncategorizedTagged Homeless, homelessness, housing, human-rights, news

City Council passed up another opportunity for an open discussion on a homeless policy for Lakewood. Instead, on January 22 Council approved a “supplemental appropriation” to the budget which will implement the strategy they decided on internally. Accepting this grant for a Navigation Center represents a multi-year fiscal obligation about how to serve the unhoused and Lakewood has not so much as set a committee or a study session to talk about best practices. Final vote to accept the grant will happen on second reading. City staff have let you know they received a grant. Council has taken no other public vote but brief mentions throughout the year indicated something was being researched by staff, not Council. It seems reasonable that if the city is researching something for a year, that maybe the public be brought into that conversation at some point before the final vote. The public may want to contribute or may be interested to see how Council will represent them on questions such as: Definition: Navigation Center is “This is a centralized location that provides residents easy access to a variety of supportive services to help with basic needs, medical and behavioral services and housing resources for residents without stable housing. The facility serves as a “one stop shop” for anyone in need of resources and provides a day shelter to our unhoused residents.” – Lakewood.org There are many options to solve this problem and Lakewood seems to assume it has the answer with the most public support. Lakewood also assumes it knows the problem when even the problem is controversial. For example, the Director of RecoveryWorks, James Ginsberg, says this is absolutely an economic problem. His non-profit, RecoveryWorks, will be running the Navigation Center. He says that people just need a place to stay, housing first. Housing first is a “low barrier” strategy that does not require people to address their problems to receive help. He says that although you want people to be able to be responsible for their own payments, “around 90% of the unhoused have suffered trauma.” Experts from cities with longer histories of homelessness disagree and say homelessness is mostly an open-air drug use problem. “Homeless is a propaganda word” because it also describes the open-drug scene. Because when you say homeless you think it’s a housing problem and people who only have housing problems are the easiest populations to help. The overwhelming problem with the homeless is street addition and untreated mental health crises. – Michael Shellenberger Is Lakewood ignoring the lessons learned by other cities? Perhaps. But what are the options? “How do we protect our society while at the same time showing compassion to those sick and struggling…. We can’t ignore or arrest our way out” –Dr. Jennifer Clark during KOMO News Documentary. One option found in Rhode Island was to strictly enforce all laws, with a specialized, voluntary, medical treatment program in jail to impose physical stability. This approach has pros and cons. Aurora (Colorado) just found another option, which was a work-first shelter, including sobriety testing for guests. They too reject the Denver “housing first” model that Lakewood embraces. Lakewood may have the right answer, but did residents know this discussion was held since it wasn’t public? Do they know what values their City Council member was standing for? How can residents vote for public officials with no public discussion on policy? If you have been listening very carefully to City Council meetings over the last year, you would have heard several mentions that a Navigation Center was being researched by staff. But even as of August 2023 it was unclear to the public and Jefferson County what was going on. What role did City Council play? There will be discussion and a public vote on second reading to receive the grant, presumably February 12, 2024. Please contact us if you are interested in being a contributor. Take a survey on the issue here.

SURVEY: Homeless and Migrant Policy

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 23, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Updated to show questions, 25 Jan 2024 The homeless and migrant situation is an ongoing concern for everyone. People want to help but disagree on what that help looks like. From tough love to complete care, what do you think? Let’s start the discussion at the beginning by answering a few basic questions. What would you like to see and how would you vote with your wallet? Please take the survey below and we will share the results next week. https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7687498/What-is-Your-homeless-policy Thank you for your time. Any suggestions for future surveys are welcome by email!

$60M apartment project in Lakewood ‘all but abandoned,’ lender says

By Lakewood News from KarenPosted on January 20, 2024Posted in Uncategorized

Cross-post from BusinessDen.com, Justin Wingerter January 19, 2024 Construction on a $60 million apartment complex along Wadsworth Boulevard “has come to a standstill due to infighting” and been “all but abandoned,” its lender alleges. Aspen Heights Partners, a Texas developer, broke ground in 2020 on a 352-unit apartment project at 1225 Wadsworth in Lakewood, with plans to finish it by the end of 2022. Amenities were to include a heated pool, dog park, bike repair shop and golf simulator. Get a subscription to continue reading this story….