"Two pink flags" in Greeley

Raymond Lee's ear might have been ringing tonight. And not his good ear. The extravagantly paid new Portland city administrator came up in conversation a couple of times at the monthly city council meeting in Greeley, Colorado, where Lee was city manager until he resigned just before making finalist for the Portland gig. Neither mention of Lee at tonight's meeting was complimentary, to say the least.

It was the first council meeting in Greeley since an upstart group, opposed to a city-funded real estate boondoggle, forced a public vote on the project, and then went on to win the election. The result of the vote, which overturns the zoning for the site of the proposed "entertainment district," leaves the project, known as Cascadia, in limbo.

During public comment time this evening, more than a dozen of those opposed to the hockey rink and water park got up and explained to the council why they voted against it. Some of the speakers were still pretty angry, and a couple of them threatened to recall council members from office if they continued to ram a bad deal down the taxpayers' throats. The politicians sat silently and took their lumps, although the mayor didn't seem to give two hoots about what anyone was saying. It was pretty painful to watch. Open mic time dragged on for about an hour.

The main complaints voiced by the grassroots challengers were that the terms of the deal were way too favorable to the developer; and that when the public begged to see details, it was either kept in the dark or affirmatively misled. Lee, who had been the city's chief spokesman for the deal, left behind what is now clearly a divided town.

When the public comment segment was over, the mayor turned the group's attention to other matters, and I was almost ready to check out. But my ears definitely perked up when one of the at-large council members, Melissa McDonald, gave an emotional speech about how the controversy is wearing her down. It starts at about the 1 hour and 30 minute mark of the meeting, here. McDonald, an insurance agent who has been on the Greeley council for two years and serves as mayor pro tem, had this to say, seemingly choking up a time or two along the way:

What I wanted to address that gets frustrating here is that I feel like a lot of you are focused on this thing right here, which is this West Greeley project. And all the stuff we have is like, out here. And I will say for the staff that's in the room, and all the people on the U-shaped circle, we're exhausted, exhausted. So if you want to recall me, get a petition, get somebody to run against me, I'll get my life back. Because this is a full-time job, aside from my other job. And I care about this city.

And the transparency? I would agree with you 100 percent. The transparency in the beginning was not very well communicated. Things weren't done. You've seen a leadership change, though, haven't ya? Big leadership change. We're trying to find that transparency, so you're not the only ones that want transparency with this project and what's going on, and we're asking the questions. We're not the enemy. We're trying to figure it out, too.

'Cause I will tell you, our last city manager is on recording, with the county, telling them we don't need any of their money for County Roads 17 and 34. That was complete B.S., and a lie. Because that is one of things that's been discovered, that we need to figure out in this GID. So we are in a mess. 

There's two pink flags that came out after the leadership change, after we asked questions, and after the information was stopped being gatekeeped by the leadership, previous leadership. We're asking the questions. So I just want to reiterate that, that we're not the enemies, we're trying to figure it out, too.

So in a couple weeks, we had to do it. The reason that this last analysis has been delayed is because of the leadership change. And now we are going to get real information with real numbers. And we're going to have to crunch it, and we're going to have to figure it out. 

Hmmmmm, "two pink flags" after Lee (and perhaps the former mayor, John Gates) stopped "gatekeeping" information. Sounds interesting indeed. I don't know whether that hockey rink is ever going to be built in Greeley, but I do know that Portland City Hall, with its reputation for questionable hires and bloated severance payments, is certainly living up to expectations.

Later, Lee was mentioned by name as the Greeley council considered pay raises for the city attorney and the municipal judge. One resident got up and cited Lee as an example of someone the city had overpaid.

Eventually, the council left the room and went into an "executive session." Discussing the Cascadia project, again. Behind closed doors, again.