October 18, 2011 11:46 PM UTC

It's Good To Be Mayor of Longmont

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• by: Colorado Pols

A fascinating story relayed to us from the Free Range Longmont blog–we last checked in with Longmont Mayor Bryan Baum a couple of years ago, when he tried unsuccessfully to limit the time allowed for public comment in city council meetings. Baum complained that citizens were taking too long, saying “I just think it’s ridiculous to be there an hour and a half and listen to the same thing over and over again.” Safe to say, this wasn’t a particularly good moment in the history of government relations.

Apparently, though, being mayor of Longmont comes with some…advantages:

On July 4, 2010 as my wife Michiko was walking our dog, 2 dogs broke through their owner’s fence and attacked our dog, a medium Dachshund. The larger dog had him down when my wife grabbed our dog and ran for home, getting several bites to her hand, and our dog also had several bites.

The 2 dogs chased my wife to our home, about ½ block, and when she came in I was able to get both dogs into our home and lock them in our pantry area. I called 911 to report the dog attack…

I watched the paper since they normally report on 911 calls.  But nothing appeared, although almost 2 months later a police report included a 911 call for a boy being bitten by a dog. [Pols emphasis]

The next day, while the Animal Control Officer was at the house, a car pulled up and a man whom I didn’t recognize came up to me and introduced himself as Bryan Baum (Mayor of Longmont). He apologized for their dogs getting out and biting my wife and dog…

The case went to trial on May 5th, 2011 at 2:00PM, case number 2011 S 000054. The case was found in our favor and Ms Stephanie Baum was ordered to pay the sum $566.62…when I went up front in the court room to pick up some papers, my wife left the court room and was spoken to in a loud voice by Mr. Bryan Baum.  He said both of us were trying to ruin his political career, and he would sue if we didn’t stop. [Pols emphasis]  A friend of ours was there and heard this.  When I came out of the courtroom Mr. Baum started in on me, and a Police Office of the courts told him to calm down and leave the court house…

The story looks legit based on the court record posted to the blog, as well as an audio clip of the judge’s ruling. Obviously, we can’t vouch for the conversation described above, but it is pretty interesting that a 911 call of the mayor of Longmont’s dogs attacking a citizen did not rate a mention in the Longmont Times-Call. The Times-Call does have a police blotter section like most papers, you can read about dog bites in their “Police Notes” section all the time. We can’t possibly imagine that something like this wouldn’t qualify.

Which makes you think that even if it didn’t help in county court, it’s still good to be mayor.