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...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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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!
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...
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?
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.
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 …
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