Guest post by Lenore Herskovitz On February 19, 2022 the City held an “ in person only” Annual Planning Retreat. The attendees consisted mostly of Council members, the Mayor, the city manager and 4 members of the public. The only record of this meeting was a written summary provided by the facilitator Heather Bergman. This year’s retreat is scheduled for January 28 so it seems like an opportune time to look back at the status of the priorities that were set last year. The priorites fell into several categories including: These topics were assigned 4 designations to determine the focal efforts of the City in moving forward: potential new initiatives, staff circle backs, current efforts and study sessions. During one of the retreat exercises, the councilors prioritized 6 potential new initiatives: When the city manager was asked if she thought the 6 goals were achievable, she cut the list in half citing staff shortages and budgetary constraints. So where do we stand as of January, 2023? On the plus side, a Safe Lots ordinance change took effect, but according to Councilor Vincent, only one church in Lakewood ( located in Ward 2) is participating in the program. Distressed properties finally made the Council agenda as a study session on December 19, ten months after the retreat. On February 6, 2023 there is a study session scheduled with a presentation on the Strategic Housing Plan. It is uncertain what this entails. The use of the term “strategic” is interesting because staff...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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Lakewood City Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei joined us on January 6, 2023, to discuss a variety of issues. Starting with her views on the Moms Demand Action meetings, meeting disruptions, and how the process should work. Thank you, Councilor, for continuing through an especially bumbly interview – I won’t quit my day job. Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei Interview Part 1: Moms Demand Action, Lakewood City Council meeting disruptions December 2022, and proper processes Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei Interview Part 2: Continuation of meeting process, Lakewood City Manager agreement amendments, future goals and DRCOG Highlights from Lakewood City Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei (loose transcription): (Regarding muting) it’s not as black and white as people’s free speech being dismantled through muting …. Ultimately everyone has the right to their opinion, and they should be able to speak, and I don’t know that I necessarily agree that that’s not what we’re seeing We were asked to renew a contract because earlier in the year we had found consensus. The staff member was doing a job that was well enough to continue their service to the community. I trusted the ability of the mayor and the mayor pro attempt to sort of operate that process What the agenda was requesting of us was to vote yes or no on the extension of the city managers, contract and that’s what we did I did not see a single counselor come prepared to bring an amendment…. We were at the point where you needed to be...
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. 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...
LakewoodInformer reached out to Mayor Paul for comment on muting. It was (still is) the holidays so we gave it a few days but wanted to report that as of now, there is no comment from the mayor of Lakewood, Colorado. We will always take comment from those involved in our stories. Email sent: Dear Mayor Paul, I am reporting on the Dec 19 meeting with the city manager contract and muting of councilors. Would you like to comment? The reasons you stated in the meeting were a need for decorum, to keep to the agenda items, and a need for discretion with personnel matters. If you’d care to expand on that, please let me know. I am also available for a zoom interview any afternoon this week. Possible questions to answer: Thank you
After the Moms Demand Action came to a Lakewood City Council meeting, a rumor started that they were invited by City Council Member Jeslin Shahrezaei. I asked Councilor Shahrezaei herself and she denies that she invitated them. A CORA (Colorado Open Records Act) request on correspondence regarding that meeting and the documents support her claim. Indeed, Moms Demand Action are active in several areas outside of Lakewood, showing Lakewood was not specifically targeted. To be clear, if Council Member Shahrezaei had invited them that would be within her rights and theirs. But spreading false information is hurtful to all sides.
Council Member Rich Olver graciously sat down with us on December 22, to talk about the recent meeting where he was muted during discussions regarding incentives for the Lakewood City Manager. I have cut the video into a couple parts for viewability. Both contain information and news for Lakewood, Colorado Part 1: How the job is going and other tidbits about how the City Council and the City of Lakewood Colorado works Part 2: The December meetings about the City Manager incentives where Councilors were muted Notable remarks from Rich: “They said that, in the May meeting, the Mayor and Mayor pro tem should do the renegotiation. Only those two would do the negotiations for the contract, for the contract modifications. It was only a small piece of the contract and some oversight. They took away a lot of oversight. …it’s the number one job we have [to oversee the City Manager and contract]” Rich Olver “Charlie started the comments and he paused and the Mayor muted him and recognized someone else to talk. …the floor should have come back to me, so I started speaking so he muted me and went to the next person.it went back to Charlie and then the Mayor muted him two minutes into his talk and passed the floor to me. The Mayor interrupted me several times and he muted me several times [The mayor] has done this many times to Councilor Springsteen, and no one has really spoken up when he has done...
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