1-Color
February 27, 2014
50 cents Adams County and Jefferson County, Colorado | Volume 69, Issue 16 A publication of
westminsterwindow.com
Highway project advances
One fOr One
By Ashley Reimers
areimers@coloradocommunitymedia. com
Martin Jaderko, a bartender at Kachina Southwestern Grill in Westminster prepares a margarita during National Margarita Day on Feb. 22. For the national celebration, anyone who bought a margarita on Saturday at Kachina’s would receive a margarita on-the-house during their next visit to the restaurant. Photo by Ashley Reimers
Cities sue sheriff, commissioners Inmate cap dispute at county jail becomes legal battle By Tammy Kranz
tkranz@coloradocommunitymedia.com The cities of Thornton and Northglenn are among five cities who have filed a joint complaint against the Adams County Board of Commissioners and Sheriff Doug Darr for restricting or denying to house municipal prisoners in the county jail. Aurora, Commerce City and Federal Heights are the other plaintiffs named in the civil suit, which was filed Feb. 19 in the Adams County District Court. The board of commissioners includes Eva Henry, Charles Tedesco and Erik Hansen. The cities are disputing Darr’s authority to refuse municipal inmates at the Adams County Jail, noting that the commissioners rescinded a cap on municipal inmates during its April 15, 2013 meeting. The cities are asking the court to compel Darr to accept municipal prisoners and ask for monetary damages for Aurora. Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams said that the city has been working hard with the county and the sheriff’s office for more than two years to resolve the issues but to no avail. “Thornton has had lawfully detained offenders released by the sheriff’s jail staff and we’ve had to monitor the number of our prisoners daily,” she said. “The arbitrary cap imposed by the sheriff is unacceptable and we believe it’s time for a court to clarify whether the sheriff has the authority to impose these restrictions.”
Thornton police Chief Randy Nelson talks to the media at a press conference about the Adams County sheriff turning away prisoners. From left, Brighton Chief Clint Blackhurst, Commerce City Chief Troy Smith, and Westminster Chief Lee Birk join Nelson and Aurora Chief Dan Oates (not in picture) who served as the spokesman. Photo by Tammy Kranz
The board of commissioners approved a cap restriction on municipal inmates, which was enacted on Jan. 1, 2012, to help ease financial constraints at the county jail. The cap was set at 30 and was divided among nine cities: Thornton, eight; Westminster, five; Aurora and Commerce City, four apiece; Northglenn and Brighton, three each; and one each for Federal Heights, Arvada and Bennett. The commissioners — during their April
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15, 2013 meeting — unanimously rescinded the caps placed on the number of inmates sent by cities to the county jail. However, the sheriff continued to impose the cap. Thornton, Westminster, Aurora, Commerce City and Brighton police chiefs aired public safety concerns related to inmates being turned away from the Adams County jail during a press conference May 28, 2013. Darr responded with his own press conference the following day and said that budget cuts and hiring restrictions made by the board of county commissioners affect jail staffing. The commissioners unanimously approved during its regular meeting Monday to reinstate the cap on municipal inmates at 30. “The board is encouraging an ongoing dialogue between the sheriff’s office and the impacted municipalities to resolve this issue outside of a courtroom,” the board said in a statement.
The U.S. 36 public-private partnership concessionaire agreement is moving forward after two approvals, one from the High Performance Transportation Enterprise, HPTE Board on Feb. 19 and the other from the Colorado Department of Transportation, CDOT, Transportation Commission on Feb. 20. Before the approval, the 600-page agreement among CDOT, HPTE and Plenary Roads Denver was released to the public after community members were dissatisfied with the ins and outs of the contract. The three entities have been working on the public-private partnership and the contract for almost a year and Plenary was chosen last April as the concessionaire for the project after a two-phase competitive bid process. This is the first public-private partnership in Colorado. Amy Ford, director of communications for CDOT, said CDOT entered into the agreement simply to make improvements on U.S. 36 through the U.S. 36 Express Lanes Project. The project is a $312 million, multimodule project between Federal Boulevard and 88th Avenue Street in Louisville/ Superior. The project is building an express lane in each direction of U.S. 36. The lanes will accommodate high-occupancy vehicles, bus rapid transit and tolled singleoccupancy vehicles. The project is split into two phases, the first to be complete by spring 2015. Phase II of the project will be executed through a public-private partnership. “Through the public-private partnership we are able to accelerate the project by 20 years,” Ford said. “We had initially released the 80-page contract summary to answer the public’s questions. Once we got all the financial moving parts in place, we were able to release the entire contract.” Ford said there were some major misconceptions concerning the U.S. 36 Express Lanes project, like the belief that all lanes of the highway would have a toll, when in reality the plan calls for just one toll lane, which according to Ford, will significantly reduce the overall impact of congestion on the corridor. The toll lane will also be used for the new Bus Rapid Transit system provided by RTD. “We recognize that we needed to do a better job in our communication with the public on the financial solution for the corridor,” Ford said. “That’s why a private public partnership is necessary and we want people to understand what that means and what steps are needed to get the project complete. According to CDOT’s website, as the first public private partnership for the state of Colorado, the arrangement will accelerate construction through the investment of the private sector while transferring the risk of construction and maintenance costs, as well as toll revenues to the concessionaire. Although there is now information on the CDOT website regarding contract, many people were unhappy with the lack of information initially offered to the community on a public-private partnership. To help with the distress, CDOT hosted two community meetings, one on Feb. 12 in Westminster and the second on Feb. 13 in Louisville. The dissatisfaction from the public prompted the release of the 600page contract. Former state legislator and public policy consultant Miller Hudson Highway continues on Page 12