Coyote Gulch

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

2004 Presidential Election
The Daily Kos has some numbers in the race for the Democratic nomination from a recent National Poll along with numbers from New Hampshire and another national poll.
7:01:11 PM

2003 Denver Mayoral Transtion
Mayor Hickenlooper named two appointees yesterday according to the Rocky Mountain News [July 29, 2003, "Mayor appoints directors for human services and arts"]. From the article, "Roxane White, who long has been involved in programs that help homeless youths, was named manager of Human Services Department. Denise Montgomery, head of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts for the past three years, agreed to lead the city's endeavors in the arts." For those keeping score that's 10 appointments out of the approximately 50 or so the Mayor has said he would fill. He doesn't plan to have the full contingent of 64 appointees. Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [July 29, 2003, "Mayor fills two agency posts"].
The Rocky Mountain News [July 29, 2003, "Who are the finalists for police chief?"] wants the Mayor to name those he is considering for the job of Police Chief. So far the only candidate named is current Chief Gerry Whitman. From the Rocky editorial, "Does state law already require such a disclosure by the mayor? We think it does. The open meetings law was amended in 1991 to specifically include home-rule cities as among those jurisdictions where the names of finalists for "chief executive officer" of any agency shall be made public at least 14 days prior to the appointment."
The Denver ethics board has ruled that Mayor Hickenlooper cannot accept airline travel donated for his upcoming trip to Silicon Valley according to the Rocky Mountain News [July 29, 2003, "No freebie plane tickets"] From the article, "Hickenlooper, along with Gov. Bill Owens, will visit Silicon Valley companies such as Sun Microsystems, said Tom Clark, executive vice president of Metro Denver Network, and also meet with venture capitalists." The Rocky quotes Mayor Hickenlooper's spokesperson, Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, as saying, "In a time of budget crisis, the city cannot afford to (ignore) economic development, but it cannot necessarily afford to foot the bill for all these trips." During the election the Mayor kept saying that government, "Is not just about the bottom line." The Ethics Board repeated that sentiment in this ruling. Here's the coverage from the Denver Post [July 29, 2003, "Mayor can't use donated tickets"].
5:52:20 AM

Denver Charter Changes for the November 2003 Election
Update:
City Council has scheduled two public meeting on the proposed charter changes for the November ballot. Here ya go:
Wednesday, July 30th, 2003, 5:30pm- 8:30pm, Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Avenue, 1st Floor Atrium (Entrance at the west side of the building)
Saturday, August 2nd, 2003, 9:00am- 12:00pm, Place: Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building, 201 W. Colfax Avenue, 1st Floor Atrium
A group of former and present city employees, calling themselves Friends for Denver Municipal Service, is going to attempt to get a proposal for dealing with employee raises on the November ballot, that differs from the charter changes that Mayor Hickenlooper is asking for, according to the Rocky Mountain News [July 29, 2003, "Group backs city salary rules"]. From the article, "The head of the group, Dan Brown, is director of maintenance at Denver International Airport. He said the proposal was drafted because he believes the steps Hickenlooper is proposing - which would give him and the council the power to set salaries and defer raises - are too drastic. Brown said the current system was started to take politics out of the city's personnel system."
5:33:23 AM

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