“The Little Newspaper with the Big Influence” Volume 31 • Number 13 • February 21, 2013
What’s Inside
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Centennial recognizes ‘Snow Hero’
Page 8 Page 15
Metro mayors get rare tour of Buckley AFB
Don’t Miss:
citizens answer • Good the $20 question Page 4 Littleton arrests • business owner for drug sales boy learns • Local rock climbing the hard way
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Index Page 5..............................................Opinion Page 8.........................................Classifieds Page 12.............................................School Pages 13-16....................................Fleurish Pages 17-26......................................Legals
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Clerk & recorder candidate cleared in ethics probe
Anonymous email accused Crane of conflicts of interest
Marin Special District members asked to help cover legal cost
Since 1982
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By Peter Jones candidate vying to be appointed as Arapahoe County’s interim clerk and recorder has been cleared by a county ethics board. Matt Crane, the county’s deputy of elections, had been under investigation after an anonymous email to the Board of Commissioners accused him of ethics violations and conflicts of interest while working for the City and County of Denver. Arapahoe County’s five-member Ethics Committee voted unanimously on Feb. 14 that Crane did not commit the violations outlined in the email that had been sent to the elected commissioners in late January. Crane had been Denver’s election operations manager in 2006, when the city’s elections department was overwhelmed with Election Day problems. Glitches with Denver’s centralized registration system had resulted in very long lines at about half of the city’s vote centers.
The Jan. 27 email tried to connect Crane’s relationship with Lisa Flanagan, whom he later married, to the debacle. Flanagan works for Sequoia Voting Systems, the company that manufactured Denver’s voting machines. The anonymous email inferred that Crane’s personal association with Flanagan might have amounted to a conflict of interest. “Matt Crane failed to consider free, proven software used to process voters in Larimer County since 2003,” the two-page email said in part. “Instead, he negotiated with Sequoia to build a custom program for checking in voters.” The Ethics Committee said Crane had nothing to do with Denver’s arrangement with Sequoia, concluding that the contract had been signed prior to Crane’s appointment. What’s more, the committee said Crane’s relationship with Flanagan was properly reported to his supervisors. Flanagan still works for Sequoia, but is not involved with Arapahoe County’s contract with the elections equipment provider. As for the software purchase de-
Centennial moving cautiously on marijuana City likely to let voters decide about pot shops
By Peter Jones As state officials mull regulations for legalized marijuana, the Centennial City Council is poised to impose a one-year moratorium on marijuana-related businesses while the Colorado Department of Revenue sorts through the legal complexities. Amendment 64, the voterapproved measure that last year enshrined recreational marijuana use in the state Constitution, has also charged state revenue officials with developing rules for the marijuana industry expected to flourish in Colorado.
If we go for a ban at some point, that should be by referral to the electorate. I don’t think we should impose that by council fiat on an issue that’s this close.
- District 1 City Councilman Rick Dindinger
[Centennial] is not going as far as Greenwood Village has done. -Centennial City Attorney Robert Widner
Tentative plans call for Centennial to coordinate the timing of its temporary halt on pot shops and cultivation facilities with the expected imposition of state regulations. Amendment 64 requires such rules to be issued by July 1 and city officials say a yearlong ban would present the council an opportunity to consider their impact. “That will give us more time to see what other cities have done and see what the courts have done with respect to what other cities have done,” District 1 Councilman Rick Dindinger said at the council’s Feb. 11 meeting. Centennial’s cautious approach comes one month after neighboring Greenwood Village imposed what has so far been the most restrictive marijuana ordinance in Colorado. That city’s council has banned possession of the plant on all city property, including public streets, making it illegal for an adult to even pass through Greenwood Village with an otherwise Continued on Page 3
cision, the committee concluded that the free product mentioned in the email would not have been sufficient for Denver’s large number of voter registrations. The committee’s findings have been forwarded to the Board of Commissioners, which is expected to make its appointment in March when all five commissioners will be available. Crane, who cooperated with the investigation, said he had expected to be exonerated. “My wife and I had nothing to hide. Everything was aboveboard,” he said. “I didn’t mind the questions being asked because for the clerk’s position, it’s all about public trust, especially when it comes to elections.” Crane said he is not sure who sent the anonymous and “cowardly” email. “I think it’s fair to say it’s mudslinging by people who don’t want to see me get that job,” he said. “I have my suspicions about who sent it, but it’s by people who wanted to see somebody else get the job.” Crane is one of three finalists to fill the clerk position in the wake of Clerk Nancy Doty being elected last November as a District 1 county commissioner. The other two hope-
Matt Crane fuls are former state Rep. Cindy Acree and former county Commissioner Susan Beckman, whom Doty has replaced in office. All three are Republicans. Because Doty is an elected Republican, the GOP-majority Board of Commissioners had asked the party to assist in recruitment efforts. According to Commissioner Rod Bockenfeld, R-Centennial, the board interviewed three of the four candidates who applied as a result of the party’s outreach. The person eventually selected will complete the rest of Doty’s term, which expires Jan. 15, 2015. Calls to members of the Ethics Committee for further comment had not been returned at press time. Deputy Clerk Mary Whitley continues to manage the day-to-day operations of the clerk’s office.
Greenwood Village quality of life affirmed by citizens
W By Jan Wondra
hat makes a great city? Its beauty? The quality of its parks and trails? Mobility and ease of travel? Safety? A sense of community? A government that listens to and helps its residents? Apparently in Greenwood Village, all these things contribute to the 98 percent satisfaction with the overall quality of life according to a citizen survey conducted in November 2012 by the Howell Research Group. This was the city’s sixth citizen survey since 1999, the last conducted more than four years ago in 2008. A statistically reliable total of 1,657 surveys were returned, for a 27.7 percent response rate. Satisfaction with life in the Village has increased between 2001 and 2012 from an average rating of 3.6 to 3.8 on a 4.0 scale. When asked what they liked most about where they lived, Greenwood Village residents name “parks and trails” as their favorite feature, just as they did
in the 2006 and 2008 surveys. Following that favorite feature, residents offered “landscaping/ aesthetics/design,” “feelings of safety/security,” “cleanliness/well maintained,” and “rural/low density atmosphere.” Among the highlights of the findings, 97 percent of all residents feel safe in their homes, with nearly that percentage feeling safe in the shopping areas and in their neighborhood. Perceptions of safety were similar across all council districts. More than eight out of 10 Village residents were satisfied with the presence of police around their home or property. Greenwood Village residents give extremely high ratings of the appearance of the city. Seventytwo percent approved of street appearance and nine out of 10 residents rated the appearance of streams and drainage ways as clean and attractive. Village parks, trails and open space are residential favorites. Two out of Continued on Page 3