Councilor Able speaks on freedom of speech, campaign finance and more

Council Member Charley Able joined us on December 29 to discuss the meetings regarding incentives for the Lakewood City Manager. Those meetings resulted in first, a denial of executive session on December 5th, followed by a public meeting wherein members accuse Lakewood Mayor Paul of muting their microphones.

(a second attempt to reach Mayor Paul has not yet been answered)

I have cut the video into a couple parts for viewability. Both contain information and news for Lakewood, Colorado

Charley Able Interview Part 1: Fighting for transparency and to have his voice heard

Charley Able Interview Part 2: Campaign finance, special interests, homelessness and home ownership.

Highlights from Lakewood City Council Member Charley Able (loose transcription):

The mayor muted me. He didn’t want to hear what I had to say, even though I had to listen to his point of view on the same subject.

• I often feel like [I don’t get to say all I want] On the night in question, Adam decided he was going to put some irritation out there where there shouldn’t have been.
• We claim to be transparent but if we aren’t provided the essential information for a discussion, we shouldn’t be discussing it and that isn’t transparency. So the mayor muted me for trying to set the record straight about his allegation. Then he recognized Councilor Olver and apparently Councilor Olver said something the mayor didn’t want to hear so he muted him too.
• Later, the mayor muted his frequent muting target, Anita Springsteen. When she said “Mayor, when you mute these council people you are muting tens of thousands of voters”. Not her exact words but close summation. He didn’t want to hear that either so he muted her.
• No, I was not disparaging, I was merely pointing out that the mayor was giving us a line of bs. I wasn’t disparaging, and I certainly wasn’t talking about staff. I wasn’t speaking over the mayor. Our policies and procedures manual says that when we have the floor, we aren’t to be interrupted until we yield the floor. And the mayor just ignores that completely, very often.
• (Why didn’t you go back to executive session on the 19^th? Why was it a special meeting) That’s a good question. Because they provided the information that I needed in the first place so I would have had no objection to it.
• To show you how closely we abide by the city charter when I was elected, and sworn in, they swore me in with the wrong oath.
• It is difficult to bring in something that is not on the agenda. … If the majority vote for it, we can schedule it for a study session. We could probably have accomplished that sometime next year.
• We spent less than 3 hours on city manager evaluation and negotiations.
• I have never, in all my evaluations, had [survey results] presented to me beforehand, outside of the executive session, as a condition that needs to be met [per contract]. 

In the run up to [the Dec 5] meeting, the mayor provided council with no information at all. Not the wording of the new incentives, not the wording of the new incentives in the context of the contract she’s working under now

… its not what constitutes a lack of decorum to me but what constitutes a lack of decorum to the mayor. And apparently it’s just someone saying no mayor, you didn’t speak correctly there.

Charley Able

…by not allowing us to communicate the facts to our constituents and that [muting] our speaking time at city council meeting, I believe the mayor is interfering in our first amendment rights.

In Part 2:

• I am chairman of the campaign finance committee. One of our problems is that special interests spent I think $700k on the strategic growth initiative. $40-$50k on council races. I think that is part of what makes it so difficult that people who look towards re-election when making votes. I’m afraid they often look to the side of special interests instead of to the side of the community.
• Crime is much easier to enforce the law if you have jail space. At one time if you stole a car it was grand theft auto. Now it’s a slap on the wrist and don’t do it again. If we catch you a second or third time we’ll put you in jail. But that’s also trying to fund on government budgets.
• folks with the American apartments out of Chicago, donate heavily to people in lakewood. They expect their voice to be heard, and I do believe it’s being heard.
• Basically, the reason I formed this committee to start with is because people shouldn’t have $50k to spend on running for mayor.
• We are handling [homelessness] with some compassion and there’s so many resources out there. We should do our best to emulate [what works]. It’s expensive.

We need to follow through with the promises we’ve been making (on home ownership)