.
Auditor
Candidates Seeing Red at Neighborhood
Forum
by
Judah Ken Freed
Vague
allusion to misuse of city funds sparks
angry reaction from one of the leading
Auditor candidates.
.
Five
of six Denver Auditor candidates attended
a Washington Park neighborhood forum for
city candidates. So did about 50 people in
the audience, perhaps half of them with
the candidates.
The race is
important politically because the
Auditor's office has long been a launchpad
for bids to become the Denver Mayor, such
as the current city auditor and mayoral
candidate Don Mares.
Held in the same
historic church at Virginia and Pearl as
the mayoral candidates forum two weeks
earlier, once again, all residents of the
West and East Washington Park
neighborhoods, plus the Cory-Merrill
neighborhood were invited.
As for the thousands
of citizens in the "south-central"
communities who never heard about the
forum or chose to stay home, they missed a
good show.
Held in conjunction
with at at-large City Council candidates
forums, the event was a scaled down
production all around.
This time on the
grass outside the church, instead of hot
food on a cold night as at the mayoral
forum, on this mild spring evening, all
that stood on the little hill leading up
to the open door were candidate yard
signs, jabbed into the dry earth at
hapless angles.
The literature table
inside the door looked full, but not as
full, and literature for some of the
candidates was not available, either
already gone or never set out. There was
no second literature table this time,
fewer beverages, and only two types of
cookies, a most of them still laying in
rows like fallen dominoes by the time
things started.
The forum began
late, on purpose. Originally slated for
this church, the event had been moved to
another church at the southeast end of
Washington Park, near South High School. A
lone young woman stood on the steps there
telling new arrivals that the event was
moved back to the church northwest of the
park.
Again the forum was
organized by Anne McGihon, board member of
the West Washington Park Neighborhood
Association, a Democratic party activist.
Again she sat on the stage with the
candidates before standing to offer a
welcome and to lay out the ground
rules.
She stood behind a
standard stage podium. So the audience
could hear, she adjusted the microphone,
attached to a pole bent at an angle. This
is the kind of mic stand normally used for
guitar players.
All five candidates
would be asked the same questions, she
announced, but the order of responses
would change. Each candidate would have 90
seconds to answer, this because of remarks
by mayoral candidates and the audience
about the limits of one minute responses
last time. There would be fewer rounds of
questions, however, because of two forums
in one night.
Again the program
permitted no audience interaction with the
candidates.
Going left to right
across the platform, from the audience
perspective, each of the candidates stood
and presented opening statements at the
podium.
Deborah "Debbie"
Ortega began. She pulled down the
microphone to her chin, paused to look
around the room, then began
talking.
The term-limited
Denver City Councilwoman for District 9,
southwest Denver, she's often been a lone
voice for city accountability on social
justice issues. Ortega opened with a
promise to support neighborhood businesses
in her management of the city's
business.
She ticked off the
Auditor's key job duties as she saw them.
Audit the city books. Control city
payroll. Pay city bills.
How would she do
these jobs?
Auditing the books
for her would be about finding and
eliminating waste in municipal operations
and purchasing. A complete city tax audit
would be one of her first
priorities.
Controlling the
payroll would mean investigating
prevailing wages for thousands of jobs
titles, maintaining the records of 10,500
city personnel.
Paying city bills
would mean making sure all city contracts
match the city charter and statutes. She'd
then make sure all contracts were properly
fulfilled before any checks were
written
"I'd look for
deficiencies in all areas," Ortega
said.
Ed Thomas arose and
stepped to the podium, pulling the
microphone up to his height.
The term-limited
Denver City Council for District 10,
mostly Capitol Hill and vicinity, told the
audience that he's been a fiscal watchdog
on city council for nine years. Before
that, he devoted 27 years to the Denver
Police Departments, serving as a
detective. That tough duty still seems
suggested in his countenance.
"I want to continue
my public service after a lifetime of 54
years in Denver," Thomas said.
The Auditors' office
plays an important role in the checks and
balances of government, he continued, and
promised to do performance audits.
"I have a documented
track record of watching out for how your
tax dollars are spent, so the money is
spent not just legally, but
honestly."
Bill Wells lowered
the mic slightly. With his white hair and
black suit, he stood relaxed before the
audience, resulting from years of training
and leadership in Toastmasters with
involvement in Optimists and Rotary and
Mensa.
Wells spoke about
nine years as a management analyst in the
Denver Budget and Management Office, he
did not mention additional experiences as
the purchasing agent for Arapahoe County.
He's chief concern
that night was making sure the audience
knew he had done and could do effective
performance audits.
He's worked with
Denver Health in establishing auditing
standards now being adopted nationally.
But this is not his only sign of
merit.
"I've personally
exposed waste in the city fleet," he said.
His audit proved that replacing some
vehicles would be cheaper than maintaining
them. Wells did not mention that he knew
about cars from being president and CEO of
Smethport Auto and Truck Parts.
"I'm the only
candidate who has actually done the job of
a city auditor," Wells said.
Landri C. Taylor now
unlimbered his lean frame to stand at the
podium.
"I've been active in
the Denver business community for 25
years," he said. "I've raised a family
here."
Little known by the
general public, the northeast Denver
resident has been a vital player behind
the scenes. He noted his accomplishments
to the voters at this neighborhood
forum.
As co-chair of the
1998 Neighborhood Bond Campaign, he helped
win voter approval for $100 million to
finance neighborhood improvement.
As treasurer of the
Regional Transportation District, RTD,
Taylor held auditing responsibilities for
construction Denver's first Light Rail
Transit System on time and on budget.
He's also a member
of the Denver Public Library Commission,
working to promote the financial health of
that cultural facility
For the duration of
the election, Taylor is on leave as vice
president of community affairs for Forest
City Stapleton, the new development on the
old airport grounds.
Dennis J. Gallagher
was the last candidate to speak. The
former state legislator with a Colorado
budget amendment named after him is the
term-limited Denver City Council
representative for District 1, northwest
Denver. He's also a speech communication
professor at Regis University.
"I've directed
performance audits of state agencies while
a state senator," he said, "and I'd like
to see the same done for all Denver
agencies." He'd also "like to see what can
be done" for Denver's neighborhoods and
small businesses in city
services.
"I remember hearing
how the new city office building would
feature a 'one-stop shop' for all permits
and licenses, but it's not there. As
Auditor I could ask why and do something
about all the money being
wasted."
If elected Auditor,
he promised that he would his own car
instead of a city vehicle, and he
questioned if so many in the city
government staff even need vehicles. "Are
they racing to some crime scene or a fire
in the middle of the night?"
And on top of all
that, he said, he's the only member of
term-limited city council members in the
Auditor's race who will give back to the
city 30 percent of his budget.
Denver City Council
members have traditionally rolled forward
unused funds from year to year, and the
tallies for some council members have
grown over time.
"I'd have to face
any ethical challenges about spending a
million dollars before I left office," he
concluded. "So just remember the name of
Gallagher."
Ed Thomas instantly
was on his feet and at the podium, his
face angry.
McGihon was on her
feet almost as fast, and despite the
former police officer standing almost head
a taller than her, she gently coaxed him
back fro the podium, explaining it wasn't
his turn, that it was time for the
questions.
"But I have to
protest these lies," Thomas said,
gesturing briefly at Gallagher.
The moderator held
her ground in silence until Thomas resumed
his seat. The audience remembered to
breathed again.
The rest of the
Auditor's forum seemed
anticlimactic.
Among the high
points, Thomas used his first question
time to defend his use of city funds,
accusing Gallagher of maliciously
misrepresenting the facts. As he spoke,
his staff slipped a photocopied council
member budget chart onto the wooden pews
beside where reporters sat scribbling
notes.
Gallagher remained
the perfect genial Irishman, his eyes
flashing with hints of mirth each time
Thomas attacked him.
Ortega and Taylor
chiefly reiterated their opening themes
the questions, describing how their
experiences in this or that area prepared
them to be Auditor, reinforcing their
values and their vision.
Closing statements
from the candidates repeated the messages
in abut one case. Wells placed a captstone
on the forum with his own
disclosure."
"I'm the only one
here who has never before run for public
office or led a political campaign," he
said. "I'm the only one here who does not
think of the job as a step to higher
office."
He paused, looking
almost serene for a moment. "Budgets and
audits may sound boring to some of you,
but the idea of being Denver Auditor has
been a passion of mine for a long time.
This is my dream. That's the kind of
person I am."
Orginally
written for The Colorado
Statesman.
March 2003
(c) 2002-03 by Judah Ken Freed
|
