CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
June 19, 2009 08:24 PM UTC
28 Comments
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Where’s the prostitutes? Where’s the coke? There wasn’t even a city council orgy?
This is really stretching.
City officials went to a conference, and some of them didn’t even go to every session!
When I go to conferences (infrequently…), I don’t attend every session. Some of the sessions aren’t really targeted at me or my situation. And sometimes you really can get just as much done around the outdoor cafe table with your fellow travelers-in-profession.
It seems there’s a sudden stigma associated with conferences; first it was trade conferences attended by troubled investment firms, and now it seems we’re going to demonize governments getting together and exchanging ideas for better governance. The cities probably save more money in a year by the ideas exchanged at these conferences than any of them spend attending them.
Having said all that, Glendale obviously has some issues bringing 6 people to the conference when bigger cities are bringing smaller delegations.
passed notes, chewed gum and copied off each other’s laptops. I say, send them all to detention.
If these “reporters” had actually asked attendees what the value of the conference was, they would undoubtedly say that it’s meeting other officials facing similar challenges and sharing ideas.
I thought everybody knew that.
Another way to bypass A-54. No wonder the Teamsters boss is upset, no corruption angle for him.
SPONSORS: Wal-Mart Stores, COLOTRUST, Black Hills Utility Holdings, CEBT, Chevron Energy Solutions, CIRSA, Colorado Chapter of the International Code Council, Colorado PERA, Colorado Water Resources & Power Development Authority, Comcast, EAI West Inc., Ennovate Corporation, IB Engineering Corporation, ICMA Retirement Corporation, Richard P Arber Associates, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, SAFEbuilt Colorado, Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., Souder Miller & Associates, Weston Solutions Inc., Xcel Energy, Stantec Consulting, AECOM, Core Learning Matters Inc., George K Baum & Company, Mountain States Employers Council, Murray Dahl Kuechenmeister & Renaud LLP, Patrick Miller & Kropf PC, Peck Shaffer & Williams LLP, Saunders Construction Inc., The Engineering Company, Widner Michow & Cox LLP, Williamson and Hayashi LLC
There couldn’t possibly be any other reason to sponsor this conference.
You’re right, that’s the salient point about this, not that some Glendale officials spent some time relaxing in the mountains.
Since the Teamsters guy got such airplay and good ink in the 9News and DPost article, was this a hit on CML because of their outspoken opposition to SB180?
Why else would reporters ask a union guy what he thinks about this nonissue?
your on to something. Both labor friendly bills Gov. Ritter vetoed lately were also opposed by CML.
The Gov. and CML were wrong on those two.
Though 9News, the Post’s partner on this coverage, isn’t predisposed one way or the other covering unions. Car31 does raise an interesting point — who the hell cares what a Teamster has to say about this? It is kind of odd.
…I’ve seen some pretty rough characters behind the counter at the DMV.
The amount of money spent by the towns and cities was $180,000, (Pols, you forgot to mention that in your accounting of this) let alone the expense accounts that will be boosted to reimburse for transportation and the like. When all the bills come due on this one the tab will be close to $250,000.
I understand that this is not nearly as close to what Obama might spend on a date night in NYC ($1,000,000 for that one) but still…times are tough and these people ought to get a clue.
How do you get a moribund economy going? Well, one way is to spend money!
The way you righties carp about any “unneccessary” spending is astoundingly ignorant. Same kvetching going on here in FL, too.
No problem spending for our wars, though, eh?
We made an addition to the post above addressing this point, but here it is in short:
The story is also disingenuous in how it calculated the total amount spent, saying that $180,000 total was spent for all cities combined. But without the proper context, that number is meaningless. It’s like calling a baseball player a .500 hitter without noting that he’s only had 10 at-bats in the entire season.
It’s not like all of that money could have been spent in one chunk to do something else, because it is split up among dozens and dozens of different municipalities. While $180,000 seems like a big number, when you break it down and consider that Aurora has a large budget and spent only $2,000, it’s not really a big deal.
Aurora sent 4 people, so $500 each. Early member registration was $190 per person; add in two nights’ hotel in Vail minimum (3, or even 4 nights for some who want to stay overnight after the Friday closing event…), and I’d say it’s a great deal.
The cheapest you can get in to GDC and attend the sessions is $750 for essentially the same time period as the CML conference. Attendance at USENIX is $740 or $1890 depending on whether you’re attending the technical sessions or a training track. In fact, I can’t attend a professional conference for the bargain-basement price these folks got.
Sales tax receipts are down statewide, some towns and cities are laying off, instituting furloughs and hiring freezes, so they trot off to a luxury resort for their conference. You bet that’s a good story.
However, the alleged journalists who didn’t identify themselves committed horseshit. the Post editors (if they have any left) should have dumped the whole sequence.
There’s value in these conferences, sure. But with the economy in the dumpster, it was the wrong time to do it up in a high-priced resort. The same conference could have been held for much less money in a number of fine Colorado cities and towns. It didn’t have to be Vail.
I hear Lamar and Sterling are lovely this time of year, as are Montrose and Craig.
It also needs to be centrally-located. You can’t hold a conference like this in Montrose or Lamar when 90% of the municipalities are several hours away. You’d also have a hard time finding a hotel/conference center in Lamar that was big enough.
When I’m writing something, you shouldn’t be taking all of my talking points away from me and posting them first!!!
Now, get out of my head…
The Democrats were blasted, and rightly so, for giving out bonuses to legislative staff and taking the little retreat to learn how to play well with others. It was dumb spending during a recession.
It’s dumb spending for municipal officials to run off to a ski resort during a recession. Maybe they had conversations in the bar about raising garbage collection fees, or hiking the cost of a parking ticket, while they sip on $6 glasses of wine or $5 beers.
And you’d be surprised what kind of hotel and conference facilities “outstate” Colorado towns have. But you’d have to get out of Denver first.
Vail often has some good pricing during the off-season. The CML brochure notes they were offering discount rates – probably well under $100 per night if the total expenses by Aurora are correct.
Lamar, Sterling, Montrose and Craig have some distinct disadvantages – namely, distance from the other ends of the state and room to hold a conference of this size. Holding the event in Denver might not have made such a splash, but the overall cost of hotel rooms would have been higher…
Local television news rooms are facing the same budget issues as other media. True investigative journalism takes time, money and staff resources, and I’m sure there a plenty of stories of governmental malfeasance out there that won’t be exposed for this reason.
I don’t think 9News and the Post are in bed with the Teamsters or any other union. They did the story because it had an easy to dumb-down story line that appeals to the 9th grade level of education the newscast caters to, could be thrown together in a couple days time with research done over the internet, and, best of all, provided visuals of public officials acting dumb. In today’s television news world, that’s what counts a good investigative report.
All the municipalities who sent people to the conference have nothing to hide or be ashamed of.
The Post and 9News took SIX reporters to cover this thing? Sounds like someone other than CML conventioneers was enjoying a trip to Vail disguised as official business.
(The Post story now just has Osher’s byline and credits a “joint investigation” with 9News, but the first story posted last night had six reporters listed.)
It’s hard to fathom how the little actually reported in this story took more than even a single reporter.
covering another weather event in Weld County
Six. One to cover the story, and five to take body shots off of Paula Woodward.
The first story that was in the post claimed the reporters had ‘infiltrated’ the event. A bit much. Kind of makes it sound like a drug cartel or the like.