Parker Chronicle 032422

Page 1

Week of March 24, 2022

FREE

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

ParkerChronicle.net

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 24

VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 17

Fed-up conservatives started organizing Lawyer responds

to Douglas County School Board questions about Sunshine Laws

Now they’re winning — and they don’t plan to stop BY JENNIFER BROWN THE COLORADO SUN

Loveland grandmother Mickie Nuffer grew more concerned by the day as she watched people on television shouting about “defunding the police” and later, in her own county, when businesses required proof of vaccination to enter. In Highlands Ranch, mom and former teacher’s aide Donna Jo Tompkins was growing increasingly frustrated with mask mandates, last-minute school quarantines and the latest curriculum controversy: critical race theory. And in Arvada, Angela Marriott was alarmed by the way people on Nextdoor pounced on any conservative sentiment, especially against masks, and was exasperated pretty much every time she watched the news. “I would turn on the news and just be enraged within minutes, watching our police being abused, properties being destroyed and trying to erase our history with tearing down and damaging statues,” she said. “I just decided one day I had had it. I was going to take this negative energy and put it into something constructive, to fight for freedom and my children’s future.” None of the three women had ever been political, but said they were compelled by the 2020 COVID shutdown and other government policies of the past two years to get involved. Similar to the way Democratic women mobilized after the election of former President Donald Trump, conservative women who never before attended a caucus or canvassed a SEE FED-UP, P6

BEST OF THE BEST

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit is still being debated in court filings BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Being a part of the Liberty Girls fosters friendship and support, said one member. “In the beginning, I felt kind of lost. You’re coming out of 2020 feeling really isolated and feeling alone. And then when we got together last March, we were all just crying. ... It’s much easier to tackle politics as a group, and to discern together. That really has brought us together and made this a group of action.” PHOTO BY OLIVIA SUN/THE COLORADO SUN VIA REPORT FOR AMERICA

An attorney involved in the lawsuit alleging Douglas County School Board members violated open meetings law has responded to some directors who said they are confused about how to comply with a judge’s order prohibiting serial meetings. The letter came amid ongoing efforts to dismiss the lawsuit, and ahead of what could become a months-long court dispute. In a letter to the board, open government attorney Steve Zansberg said he contacted the board’s legal representation in the lawsuit at Hall and Evans, a Denver law firm, after observing directors’ March 11 special meeting, where some board members said they wanted more clarity about a preliminary injunction in the case. Douglas County resident Robert Marshall sued the board in February alleging majority Directors Mike Peterson, Becky Myers, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar broke open meetings law by using a chain of private, one-onone meeting to discuss removing SEE LAWS, P10

VOTE NOW! ParkerChronicle.net


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