ET met Jeff Peckman today in Denver.

Peckman, the 54-year-old Denverite behind the move to put an initiative on the ballot to create a Denver Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission, smiled during his press conference at Metro State today as the People Examiner (aka E.T.) asked when he became a believer in visitors from outer space.

“I wouldn’t say I was ever skeptical about UFOs, but about a year ago, I attended a talk” which included images captured by Stan Romanek, who has his own website devoted to such encounters. Such a close encounter got Peckman  on the same wavelength. However, it wasn’t until last January, when he saw Romanek's infra-red video taken July 17, 2003 in Nebraska that he became truly convinced, and started his universal outreach. Romanek, it seems, set up a camera to catch what he thought was a Peeping Tom looking through a window at his two teenage daughters.

“That did it,” said Peckman, who unlike Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in that slime-splattering flick “Men in Black” was dressed in an impeccable beige suit, and not wearing dark sunglasses.

In the build-up to the screening, some experts on tape and in person testified that to their knowledge, there had been no alteration of the video. Peckman and organizers declared the video off-limits to the two dozen or so TV cameras present because they want to investigate further. Then the brief segment rolled on a big screen, showing a grainy bulbous gray head with two bug-eyes appear in a window frame said to be eight feet above the ground. The critter seems to blink, then bobs down, out of sight.

Reporters and other skeptics questioned whether the apparition could have been some sort of prank or puppet.

"If it was a puppet, it would be a very elaborate and sophisticated puppet," said Alejandro Rojas, spokesman for MUFON, the Colorado-based Mutual UFO Network.

Peckman, who indicated he may be part of a UFO discussion tonight on Larry King’s show (and Larry's no skeptic, by the way), assured the crowd he wants the Denver commission as a way to foster positive contact with the non-humans. “I never mentioned anything about invasions or attacks,” despite some media suggestions to the contrary – a remark apparently intended to calm skittish voters, already jumpy about the onslaught of Democrats this summer.

Indeed, Peckman -- a website developer in his free time -- said he’s hopeful that as the expected 17,000 reporters descend on Denver for the convention, his 4,000-signature petition will get worldwide -- or would that be intergalactic? -- attention.

It would be, he said, an interesting discussion. Some might say even out of this world.