On Thursday, July 11, 2013, the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority and the City of Arvada relented and provided access to records 'Stop Arvada Walmart' requested in response to the Colorado Open Records Act.
There were plenty of records to go through and SAW representatives Dave Chandler, Cindi Kreutzer and Lyman Parkhurst spent several hours looking at piles of documents. This point should be made clear: Dave, Cindi and Lyman are just regular citizens working for what they believe to be the betterment of their community; they are not lawyers nor government 'insiders' nor high-powered administrators nor accountants, nor business consultants, etc. They examined and interpreted documents to the best of their ability and understanding and selected for copying those that appeared to be most relevant to preserving Arvada local businesses and protecting our neighborhoods.
More will come from these documents -- but first this: 'Stop Arvada Walmart' has of this date received no response from Arvada Mayor Marc Williams from our letter that he "disclose all relevant communications and interconnections you have had with IRG, and/or its client Walmart, through the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority or as part of the AURA board."
We've got a pretty good idea, however, about what he is planning to do. At the March 6, 2013, meeting of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority's Board of Commissioners (of which Williams is a member) the minutes report thus: "Due to the topic of the next discussion item, Commissioner Williams requested to be excused from the meeting during the Walmart development report, to avoid being accused of ex part contact, on a matter which may be subject to judicial-quasi review by City Council. Commissioner Williams step out of the meeting at 6:55 p.m."
It is a very lawyerly ploy ... you see Walmart submitted its development application to the City on March 5; Mayor Williams seems to think that now he needs to start acting like he's going to be impartial towards the Walmart/IRG project for the Arvada Plaza. (Marc Williams has been on the Arvada City Council since 1999, fourteen years, he knows that a proposal like this would have to come before the council in a quasi-judicial process.)
However, as the documents available for display here indicate, Marc Williams, wearing his two hats as Mayor and AURA Board Commissioner up until that seeming magic moment at 6:55 P.M., March 6, 2013, was anything but unbiased or impartial.
What was going on here just the previous month? From the February 6, 2013 AURA board meeting, Marc Williams present: "Walmart is expected to submit its application to the City in mid-February. AURA, the City, and IRG have started conversations regarding the formation of a PIC/PUF. Meetings are also scheduled with AURA's financial consultant, bond attorney and the City's Finance department to discuss options to finance the project." Later the board "moved to convene into Executive Session to discuss land sales, negotiations, and personnel issues." After the Executive Session back in 'regular meeting': "Commissioner Williams moved that the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority Board of Commissioners direct legal staff to execute the directions of the Board as discussed in Executive Session."
What did the board discuss? What kind of negotiations, possibly with Walmart/IRG did Mayor/Commissioner and the board direct just one month before he (Williams) begins 'excusing' himself from regular meetings when Walmart is discussed?
It isn't the burden of average citizens or a grassroots group of Arvada residents to demonstrate that Williams is going to be impartial and unbiased in the quasi-judicial city council hearing on Walmart/IRG on July 15 -- it is Mayor Williams's duty and obligation to disclose all.
The following photo reproductions of documents is surely incomplete, but just as surely raises many, many questions. 'Stop Arvada Walmart' is not making charges or leveling accusations of improprieties, however, with what SAW's efforts have produced -- not disclosures from the Mayor -- there seems to be strong indications that Mayor/Commissioner Williams was in communication even in recent days about Walmart/IRG strategy with interested participants and appears to have been instrumental in encouraging Walmart to build in the Arvada Plaza in the first place.
Is this in the spirit of impartiality that the 'quasi-judicial process' requires for the purposes of providing the public with confidence that its government is behaving in an honest, fair and responsible manner?
[ICSC is International Council of Shopping Centers. According to the AURA board minutes for the March 6, 2013 meeting, "The ICSC Conference will be held in Las Vegas in May 19-22. Commissioner Williams plans to attend the conference as a member of City Council."]
