Denver, this is a stickup

June 25, 1:27 PMDenver City Hall ExaminerLisa Jones

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Denver City Hall Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Just hand it over and no one gets hurt.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has been robbing Peter to pay Paul -- specifically, raiding Denver's wastewater fund to pay for Public Works projects and other goodies unrelated to wastewater.

In an outstanding investigative report, Westword's Jared Jacang Maher dishes the details:

Each of the city's 150,637 property owners must pay at least $10.26 a year for Stormwater Utility to the city. The result is at least $28 million annually for the Storm Drainage Enterprise Fund, which is supposed to be used solely for maintaining and updating Denver's rapidly aging storm-drainage sewer system.

...As money got tighter in recent years, city officials started dipping into the fund to help pay for such services as emergency snow removal and street repair. Over the past three years, in fact, nearly $29 million has been pulled from the fund to "reimburse" other agencies within Public Works, such as Street Maintenance. Another $9 million has paid for sweeping streets and paving alleyways. And $14.6 million went to buy land that Public Works plans to use for a new general facility; in March, $27.9 million was taken from the fund for the design and construction of a new campus with state-of-the-art offices, warehouses and maintenance garages for every Public Works agency but Wastewater.

As one taxpayer told Westword:

"If I'm going to pay more taxes, I'd like to know where the money is going. I don't think they should tell you that it's being used for the storm drains and then use it for something else."

Indeedy.

The Westword investigation comes at an inopportune time for the mayor. Hickenlooper's staff is in the process of hosting public meetings (and an online survey) to see if Denver residents will swallow an increase in trash collection fees, among other things.

According to Hick's folks, charging property owners approximately $10 per month for garbage pickup will "save" the city $20 million in 2010's budget.

Critics are quick to point out that this is a fee increase, not a savings. Property owners already pay taxes allocated for garbage collection. One might wonder, Have these funds been raided, too?

So far, Mayor Hickenlooper's partners at The Denver Post have ignored Westword's devastating report.

The conventional wisdom is that Denverites don't care. Mayor Hickenlooper is a smart guy, a nice guy -- plus, legend has it, he singlehandedly reinvented LoDo and the microbrew industry. So people assume the city is in good hands; they need not pay attention.

A complacent public rots Democracy from the inside out, no?

I care about this stuff, and you probably do, too. A handful of other concerned citizens have started an open discussion board over at my old web space, DearDenver. All are welcome to participate.