Superstition & Spin? or Objective Facts & Analysis?

Whether you’ve voted by now or not, you need to know the truth. And the truth is we are not being told the truth. For our city to make the right decisions going forward it’s essential we citizens recognize when we’re being deceived. The deception from my opponent and the growth industry during this election is very typical of what has been happening in our community for quite some time.

A pro-1A ad in the March 22 Gazette promised 93% of new jobs will go to local residents. Their columns and speeches claim 93% of new jobs in the past have gone to local residents. My council-race opponent, Jerry Heimlicher, has repeated this while claiming I don’t have my facts straight. I’ve cited a national study by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research which found 1 in 5 new jobs go to local residents. And I’ve asked repeatedly for 1A proponents to produce the study that backs up their claim and their promise.

Six weeks after my first request, I finally got some answers yesterday. It will be educational for you to read the correspondence among myself, my opponent and the EDC about this. Keep in mind the EDC was founded by 3 developers and is dominated by builders and developers today.

In a nutshell, they do not have a study. All they have are the promises made by companies they recruited. They didn’t follow up to see what actually happened. And their definition of local hire includes everyone the firm didn’t pay to transfer. So falling into the definition of local hire could be everyone from out of town who applied, got the job, and paid their own expenses to move here. It would include everyone who moved to town a day, a week or a month before landing the job. And it would even include employees who paid their own relocation costs and followed their job to the Springs.

Here’s another example: My opponent claimed at several election forums and in a TV interview that new developments pay for all the utilities required - including gas lines and electric. That is completely false. I know it because I sat in on several months of meetings of the Utilities Policy Advisory Committee as they investigated who pays the cost of extending utilities to new customers. Utilities policy is very clear on this. If you want details, drop me a line.

Perhaps after 6 years on the Utilities Board Jerry Heimlicher doesn’t know the facts about utilities extension policies. Perhaps he doesn’t want to know the truth because it would not serve the special-interest growth lobby that got him elected. Perhaps he can’t reconcile the truth because it doesn’t square with his 1950s view of the world. I don’t know. But you should know he is not being truthful with you.

Another: Councilor Heimlicher told two different forums we need SDS to provide water supply redundancy because we only have one pipeline bringing water from the Western Slope. The fact is we have three pipelines today bringing us that water.

You have to wonder. Do our elected representatives - like Jerry - believe they are doing the right thing when they vote to subsidize growth, fund the EDC, stress our community, and hamstring our city and utilities budgets to expand our city? If they do, then why do they hide what they’re doing whenever possible? And when it comes out, why do they justify it with deceptions and distortions of fact? Could it be that deep down inside they know there is something unwise about what they’re doing?

If we’re doing the right thing, there will be no need to hide it or spin it.

I do my research and share the facts. The growth boosters state I have no facts and then repeat their completely false “growth pays its way” rhetoric. They do it time and again, and the news media never calls them on it. The City Council doesn’t call them on it, either - because most are busy repeating the same falsehoods. Does anyone want to know the truth? I do! And I want you to know it! The future of our city depends on it.