The backroom deal I warned about last year is now playing out in broad daylight.
In February 2024, I asked whether Lakewood was eyeing a bargain on the closed Emory Elementary — a deal that could dodge public input and leave Jeffco taxpayers holding the bag.
Fifteen months later, the answer is a resounding yes.
On Monday, Lakewood’s City Council authorized a $4 million below-market purchase of the school — a site that got $2.6 million in taxpayer-funded upgrades before Jeffco closed it in 2023. It’s now on track to become the new home of the nonprofit Action Center — courtesy of a taxpayer-funded workaround.
The Action Center’s mission may be noble, serving vulnerable families and individuals. But the process? Not so much. It reeks of an almost theatrical disregard for transparency and taxpayer interests — with a straight face.
In January 2024, Jeffco Schools quietly introduced a new “Municipal Interest” process giving municipalities like Lakewood first dibs on shuttered schools — without competitive bidding or public input. COO Jeff Gatlin confirmed Lakewood’s “interest in the Emory property,” revealing they were already “working through the municipal interest route.”
Translation? A backdoor sale — letting Jeffco Schools unload taxpayer-funded property at a loss. A consultant even advised this process empowered the district to skip community feedback entirely.
“In 2023 the county [Jefferson] received about $105 million in federal revenue from approximately 130 different awards. The county relies on these federal dollars to provide a broad range of critical services such as food assistance, early childhood education, highway safety, crime victim assistance, employment services, child support, medical assistance, emergency management, and preventative health services. Additionally, in 2023 we administered about $110 million in direct federal assistance to our community. Once our 2024 audit is complete, we will have more recent numbers.”
Question: Why are Jeffco County Commissioners risking the loss of $215 million dollars in essential federal funds to openly defy federal law by not cooperating with federal immigration law and an Executive Order to eliminate DEI offices?
County answer: “We will continue to provide essential services and resources to our community and are in the process of identifying strategies to do that in the event that we lose funding.”
In other words, RAISE OUR TAXES AGAIN.
Voters in Jefferson County were not allowed to vote on implementing DEI in the County nor could we vote on defying federal immigration law for the County to protect illegal immigrants nor vote on defying the DEI Executive Order. These decisions are the sole responsibility of the County Commissioners and their handlers.
Please share any answers you hear from the county as to whether they will comply with federal direction in order to receive federal money.
The Colorado Gives Foundation donated $20,000 to the 2024 Jeffco political issues to eliminate TABOR refunds. Free State Colorado walks through the mechanism in the video below with Natalie Menten.
As reported in Lakewood news, Colorado Gives also gave $5,000 to de-TABOR Lakewood.
Cory Gaines reports that Colorado Gives Director Dunkin confirmed that the foundation, after a vote by their board, did donate the money. The board felt as though the donation reflected their mission.
Gaines also reported that “Director Dunkin was quite emphatic in saying that no donation that comes through cogives.org or cogivesday.org is ever used, in any way, for any ballot issue or political purpose. Nor is it used by Colorado Gives for anything other than a tiny fraction to keep the donation infrastructure running.”
As reported by Free State Colorado, there is no record of where the money came from to donate to the Jeffco and Lakewood de-TABOR political issue.
Colorado Gives raised $54.6 million in 2024 for Colorado causes.
From the Jefferson County Board of Education Update, November 15, 2024*
The Board of Education has voted unanimously to approve the contracts for the purchase of the Vivian, Thomson, and Glennon Heights properties. This decision follows the unanimous recommendation from the Property Disposition Advisory Committee (PDAC), which included ad-hoc community members representing each site and district staff. Below are the details:
Glennon Heights
Jacob Academy, a local daycare and early childhood education provider, will relocate one of their campuses to this site. They also plan to reuse the building and site as is.
Thomson
This site is contracted to Evoke Behavioral Health, a provider of services for children and young adults with autism and other behavioral support needs. They will reuse the building and site as is.
Vivian
The property is under contract with Carlson Associates, a local home developer. The plan is to build 30-33 single-family homes and to collaborate with the City of Lakewood to develop a roughly 3-acre park.
What Can Neighbors Expect Next?
Thomson and Glennon Heights
Since these properties will be reused without changes and fall under existing zoning regulations, no further city governmental approvals are needed. The contracts are expected to close in approximately three months, once the buyers complete their due diligence.
Vivian
This property will have a longer timeline for completion as it involves development requiring additional community engagement with the City of Lakewood’s planning department. This includes the platting of home sites and the development of the park. The total entitlement process will take up to 540 days beyond the initial 90-day due diligence period.
(*Note: Post copied in its entirety because the BOE website has not updated at this time to provide full information)
