migrants Archives - Lakewood Informer

Secret Plans for Emory Elementary

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on April 18, 2024.

New information shows that Lakewood has been planning on purchasing Emory Elementary, in partnership with the Action Center, since at least September 2023 as part of a homeless strategy.

In December of 2023, Lakewood City Manager Cathy Hodgson stated that Lakewood would be working with the Jeffco Action Center to move the Center into a closed public school so that Lakewood would have another building for their solution to homelessness. There was a strong, negative public reaction to this news, which only increased when Lakewood started talking about welcoming migrants. In reaction to the public backlash, the city cried “misinformation”, and both Hodgson and Mayor Strom stated that Lakewood has no direct control over the schools.

However, Hodgson did not explicitly deny that Lakewood has been working with the Action Center and Jeffco schools to move homeless services into a closed neighborhood school and increase housing for homeless. Instead, the manager or council called it “misinformation” in the news headlines, a statement solely aimed at migrant support (this claim was later also negated by discussions that homeless is homeless and Lakewood would support everyone possible.)

Recently a local effort called Concerned Citizens in Lakewood, [email protected], submitted a CORA Request (Colorado Open Records Access request) which revealed planning meetings with the City of Lakewood, JeffCo Public Schools, and the JeffCo Action Center related to Emory Elementary School and a real estate transaction.

These planning meetings have been going on since at least September 2023.

According to emails, Lakewood’s City Manager Hodgson hosted an organizational meeting between Lakewood, the Action Center Executive Director Pam Brier and Jeff Gaitlin, Jefferson County School’s Chief Operating Officer. The email pictured below reveals that Lakewood and Jeffco Schools have held behind-the-scenes planning meetings for this school, while officials from both governments denied or stayed silent regarding any knowledge of future plans. The email appears to indicate that the purpose of this meeting was to define next steps on the partnership to buy Emory Elementary.

To: Pam Brier; Kathy Hodgson
Cc: Gatlin Jeff; Donna Repp; Tolleson Julie
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] Re: Emory Elementary Next Steps Meeting
Date: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 1:40:36 PM
Attachments: image001.png
# EXTERNAL – USE CAUTION #
Kathy and Pam, Jeff and I are very excited to meet with you next week! Pam, I know you had been
talking with JLL, our commercial real estate agent. We’re not sure we’ll need an agent for this
transaction, but we will be using an outside real estate attorney. We believe it will be helpful (and
expeditious) for the attorney to be present early on in our conversations. Our attorney is Blair
Lichtenfels with Brownstein.
We would like to proceed with our meeting next week without counsel to do introductions and
talk timeline and next steps. At the next meeting we set, we would like to have our counsel and your
counsels present so that we can begin to move forward.
My rough thoughts on an agenda are as follows. Please feel free to suggest content:
Introductions
Catch-up on current context – Action Center, Lakewood, and Jeffco
Discuss Jeffco surplus process and timeline
Identify next steps, including to set a meeting with counsel present
Thank you both!
Lisa
Lisa Relou
Chief of Strategy & Communications

Not only do the emails show the partnership being formed months ago, they show the plans were detailed enough to involve future meetings with real estate agents and school board attorneys. Notable in this email was that commercial real estate agents may not be needed. This was not the public process with ample notice the school board advertised.

Gaitlin, from Jeffco Schools, said in February that Lakewood was in the early stages of using the municipal option. The municipal option seems to have come into being just for Lakewood, since it was unveiled just after Hodgson announced the plans for the school.

Using the municipal option, no community involvement is necessary, and the city could get the property at a discount. There is no municipal option for a non-profit and there is no information on how the Action Center could afford to buy the property directly, although recent evidence shows there is ample money in grants from the state to provide housing.

Officials from all organizations have had months to tell the public that these plans were being formed and to explain the public good they expected to achieve. Instead, they chose silence and a “misinformation” campaign.

There has been no public disclosure of what the city and or the Action Center plans to do with the building, should the deal go through.

There has been no public disclosure of any possible agreements Lakewood has with the Action Center in order to use the municipal option for the benefit of the non-profit.

City Councilor Rich Olver explained in one Council meeting that he was told that Lakewood just wanted the use of the ballparks, they were not interested in the school building. He stated that by talking to city staff he believed Lakewood had no intention of buying Emory Elementary building.

This statement, unfortunately, does not seem to be accurate or else Lakewood would not have to be involved with a meeting between Jeffco Schools and the Action Center, let alone hosting such a meeting. So even sitting City Council Members are not getting the whole story from the City Manager.

Paying close attention to wording, all parties could be honestly portraying the information they want to portray:

Lakewood has no interest in the Emory Elementary building – but the Action Center does
Lakewood has no direct control over the school – unless they buy it
There is a public input period in the school disposal process – unless the municipal option is taken
Plans are not definite – but they are far enough along that at this point, trying to stop it is difficult since minds have been made up for months
Lakewood will not be housing people in the school – no, at that point it would be the Action Center, if they so choose. At the minimum they would continue with homeless services.

The Action Center has not replied to several requests for comment. Lakewood and Jeffco schools have gone out of their way to not talk about their plans when the opportunity arose.

When will residents know what is going on with their taxpayer-funded infrastructure?

As of April 11, the School Board voted to dispose of two more Lakewood elementary schools: Glennon Heights Elementary & Vivian Elementary. To receive JeffCo Public Schools updates on these and other school properties sign up on Jeffco’s Property Disposition Work: Community Distribution List & Jeffco Public Schools: Property Disposition Community Voice Form

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Jeffco Schools Continue to Have Influx of Migrants

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on February 10, 2024.

Correction: The Denver7 article said that migrants were causing enrollment to go up and enrollment at Slater went up by 50 students. The two statements were apparently unrelated to migrant enrollment. 12 February, 2024

Several new migrant families have started attending Foothills Elementary school in Lakewood. This information comes after the Denver7 report that 50 migrant students were attending Slater Elementary in Lakewood, indicating that the migrant influx continues. Jefferson County Schools have not yet replied to official requests for information (made only late on 2/9/24). An accurate head count may not be possible as the number of migrants attending school continues to change.

A large, sudden influx of students this late in the year will present challenges for the entire school community. Denver is currently dealing with the issues inherent with a large influx of non-english speaking students this late in the year. According to the Denver Post:

“DPS, which has a $1.3 billion budget, also has drawn from reserves to help make up the difference, district spokesman Bill Good said. The district is now working to hire more Spanish-speaking teachers and other support staff.”

“Our system was never built to handle this kind of challenge,” said Rob Gould, President of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. “You’re taking an already stressed system and applying more stress to it.”
From Migrant influx leaves Denver Public Schools short $17.5 million in funding as students keep enrolling

According to the article, Denver has needed more bus routes, more furniture, more teachers, and more classrooms. New York schools ran special classes for processing and assimilation.

There is no indication that Jefferson County Schools have enough licensed teachers or had public assimilation workshops. However, teachers are generally dedicated professionals who do their best in challenging situations. The children are in good hands.

Jefferson County is listed on some sites as being an official sanctuary county. Records show that Jefferson County has not detained a single person for ICE in over a year.

Migrants find access to Lakewood resources through the non-profit network set up to help homeless. This at a time when Lakewood is set to approve the largest homeless assistance appropriation in it’s history, on Feb 12, 2024. Almost all homeless resources are available without an ID required.

Survey Results for Homeless or Migrant Assistance

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on February 8, 2024.

Two weeks ago, Lakewood Informer opened a survey to find out what residents were thinking about supporting the homeless and migrants. Lakewood doesn’t ask IF or HOW you want to support these communities. Residents are generally presented with fully implementable plans. See the Navigation Center for an example. This survey was an attempt to bridge the gap in asking the residents what they thought. It had as much turnout as many city surveys (100-200 respondents).

Thank you for your feedback!

Key Findings

Most respondents did not agree with the cities current plan for a low-barrier shelter
If people were to provide homeless assistance, the most favored alternative was a shelter that would require sobriety, self-help or responsibilities (there was no survey option for doing nothing)
Most respondents don’t want “free money” assistance
Homeless and migrant assistance are intertwined, or at least support by the same people
There were more people interested in answering a survey if anonymity was possible

Perhaps the most interesting finding was the strong correlation between free-money advocates and their personal spending. In simple terms, a person who would use free money, would also pay the most themselves (over $500). And exactly the opposite was also true, a person who wouldn’t use free money also wouldn’t pay it for themselves (0-$100).

So some people would take any amount of money or pay any price for homeless or migrant assistance.

Does this indicate that there are big spenders out there who could finance this project through their own philanthropy? Or does it suggest that the people who support the use of free money think it’s WORTH that much but really don’t expect to pay for it? Does it suggest that one group understands that free money isn’t free while the other does?

There is an apparent disconnect between the need for free money and the availability of funds.

Results:

Note: This survey was closed before the emergency citizens’ meeting which includes about 100 respondents.

31% of respondents support Lakewood's current plan for a low barrier shelter

If they didn't support a low-barrier shelter, 44% supported a shelter with contingencies, 29% supported more economic development, 27% supported mental health services

65% of people would pay 0-$100 for HOMELESS (no option for spending $0

57% would not vote for assistance if it was free

of the 43% would would use free money, 46% would spend over $500, 26% would spend $100-$500

Of the 57% who would not vote for free money, 93% would only pay 0-$100 for assistance themselves

Reader Recommended Business: Karen M Sweat, Certified Public Accountant

The Sanctuary Misinformation Campaign and Response

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on February 7, 2024.

When Lakewood voted to take the first step in helping with Denver’s migrant crisis, residents interpreted that as Lakewood becoming a sanctuary city. Lakewood immediately cried misinformation. At the emergency citizens’ townhall of February 6, 2024, several speakers addressed concerns over Lakewood’s sanctuary status, saying that Lakewood is not using the word “sanctuary” and is not discussing that issue. However, by a show of hands at the meeting, attendees thought the current role of Lakewood Police and Lakewood’s offer to support migrants would match both the proposed support and the definition of a sanctuary city. Both set of words applied to the same actions. Yet Lakewood still spent tax dollars and energy on a campaign to cry “misinformation.” Resident comments show that the meeting was useful to talk to each other, as much as it was useful for gathering information.

Lakewood has a taxpayer funded PR department that can respond instantly to crises. In this case, the crisis was the residents’ concern over the possible “sanctuary” status of our city. Within a couple days, Lakewood had a new website that included a public statement which was also widely circulated (see below).

(above) Lakewood also had a flyer circulating on social media sites that most residents would not even know existed so would have a hard time advertising on. At the same time, residents had difficulty on Nextdoor.com, which kept stripping posts of the meeting and discussion on the matter.

Despite the problems, residents came by the hundreds to learn about Lakewood’s plans to support migrants. Speaker Karen Morgan (disclosure: this author is Karen Morgan) said,

“We all operate with different ears. I might say one thing and you hear another. For example, it’s absolutely true that Council is not discussing anything using the word “sanctuary”. They use words like good neighbor, welcoming, inclusive, supporting, sheltering…”

The audience laughed as they recognized that all these words meant the same thing. One resident commented after the meeting, “thank you for making that point, I was going to say the same thing.”

An interesting note is that in the city’s flyer above, “sanctuary city” and “being a good neighbor” are in quotes, as though even Lakewood recognizes these are just words with fluid meaning. At the same time, they imply one is right and the other is wrong.

Other resident comments:

One resident said they understood Lakewood was just taking the first step, but this was opening the door and the time to stop it was now.

Yet another resident said he will be at the February 12 Council meeting to show support. He said that the Citizens’ Meeting was a great way to reconnect with some old friends.

Another asked for the address to City Hall. He has never participated before but he will be there.

Several people commented that the problem was the lack of accountability of the City Manager, Kathy Hodgson who has the ability to work behind the scenes.

At least a dozen residents told this author personally that the meeting was needed, they wished the city had done something like this.

Other residents were interested in information and the Citizens’ Meeting was an opportunity to find answers.

Did the Mayor really go to Harvard?
What’s really happening since the City says misinformation?
What can we do to stop this?

Was there misinformation?

In today’s world, one persons misinformation is another persons’ fact. No matter what, an important discussion is taking place and residents are participating in their government. Council Member Isabel Cruz stated in the January 8 meeting that “This is important to step up to our responsibility as good neighbors…This [approved motion] is only the first step.” And now, more Lakewood residents are engaged in discussions about what, if any, steps will follow.

One meeting organizer said, “This was about the citizens. They all pulled together, it wasn’t about the organizers. This was about everyone.”

It seems hundreds of attendees agreed with that.

Tag: migrants