Dave Jackson
Billy Jackson
Founding Par tner
Par tner
Luxur y Kitchens in 3 Weeks! 303-835-0630 | www.jacksondesignbuild.com VOLUME 36 • NUMBER 47 • OCTOBER 18, 2018
Since 1982
www.villagerpublishing.com
TheVillagerNewspaper
@VillagerDenver
The new $11.5 million Cherry Hills Village City Hall is currently on time and budget ABOVE: Construction progresses on the new City Hall building at 2450 E. Quincy Ave. Completion is scheduled for the beginning of next year. LEF
As it will look when the new city hall is finished.
CHV election brings out differences between candidates The mayor and two out of three city councilors are facing fervent opposition in their bids for re-election in Cherry Hills Village. The Villager talked to the candidates and compared their positions on issues. All three challengers to the incumbents strongly object to the city’s failure to ask voters’ permission to use Certificates of Participation (COP’s) to finance the $11.5 million project to build a new city hall, acquire
a new public works facility, and build improvements to John Meade Park and the Alan Hutto Memorial Commons. Zach Bishop, a public finance executive running against incumbent web development consultant and MIT graduate Katy Brown in CHV district 6, told The Villager, “There wasn’t a full public process.” Afshin Safavi, Ph.D. biochemist in district 2 running against incumbent MBA nuclear engineer and lawyer Earl Hoellen said, “The project should have been done, but with more public discussion and vot-
ing. Every individual in the city should have been notified.” Russell Stewart, a 19-year CHV resident who served on city council from 2006-2015, is seeking to unseat four-year mayor Laura Christman. Both are attorneys. Stewart, too, voiced his objection to the council’s failure to put the use of COP’s to finance the project to a vote of the people. Despite their objection to what they consider a lack of transparency, all three challengers agreed that a vote of the people was not required by law or practice. Moreover, none of
the three challengers expressed any objection to any part of the project itself or to its cost. Christman, running for a third two-year term, pushed back on the charge of a lack of transparency, saying “As many as nine public meetings about the project were held. COP’s are a common finance instrument. The decision to move forward allowed CHV to take advantage of record-low interest rates, freeze construction costs and avoid the tariffs (on steel and aluminum), all without raising taxes.” Councilor
Katy Brown said, “Stewart attended at least one of the nine public meetings where the city manager explained that COP’s were being used to finance the project. Stewart spoke in favor of moving the public works facility to Sheridan and didn’t voice any objection to the use of COP’s.” Earl Hoellen echoed Christman’s statement that using COP’s allowed the city to get low interest rates. He went on, “If we had chosen to wait for a vote, the project would not be getting done today.” Continued on page 8