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One more thing about commissioner candidate Janet Rowland…

by Anne Landman • September 12, 2019 • 3 Comments

Former County Commissioner Janet Rowland (January 2005 – January 2013) advocated a program that paid women with drug addictions $300 to get sterilized

Former Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland, who has already had two terms in the recent past and is now running for a third term, has given Mesa County voters plenty of reasons not to elect her again, but here’s another one, and get ready. This one is kind of creepy.

In 2008, Rowland promoted a program that paid drug-addicted women $300 to get sterilized so they couldn’t reproduce. The program, called Project Prevention, targeted its advertising mainly at women, and 37% of the women who had been sterilized under the program were African-American. In 2009, African-Americans made up just 12.4% of the U.S. population.

Recall effort against Governor Polis fails miserably

by Anne Landman • September 6, 2019 • 1 Comment

Rep. Jared Polis is safe in office after recall effort fails to gather anywhere near enough signatures.

It was another victory for progressives in Colorado today as upset Republicans who were trying desperately to recall Governor Jared Polis ended up gathering fewer than half the signatures they needed to put the recall measure on the ballot. The recall faction failed so miserably in fact that they didn’t even bother to turn in the signatures they did get.

Local Republican proponents of the effort were spotted using illegal techniques to gather signatures, like setting up tables in public parks without obtaining the required permits and taping signs advertising their petition effort on government buildings.

In the end, the “Dismiss Polis” people gathered only 300,000 of the 630,000 signatures they needed to qualify for the ballot.

Governor Polis responded to the news by saying “After all that fuss, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t turn in a single signature on the recall. I hope the remaining misguided efforts against others see the same results … Recalls should not be used for partisan gamesmanship.”

Crazy Republicans, Ethics, Harassment, Lies, politics, Trump Insanity, Worker advocacy

BLM to G.J.? Moving federal offices out of D.C. is a way to dismantle them, Mulvaney tells Republicans

by Anne Landman • September 6, 2019 • 0 Comments

Don’t cheer the relocation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) out of Washington, D.C. to Grand Junction until you understand the Trump administration’s real motive behind moving federal agencies out of Washington. Hint: It’s not to help them, and it’s not to help us.

The real motive for moving agencies out of Washington is to hobble and destroy them.

Uprooting federal agencies and moving them out of D.C. into “red” areas is a method the Trump administration is using to pressure skilled federal workers to leave by attrition and destroy federal oversight agencies. Republican Senator Cory Gardner, all three of our Republican Mesa County Commissioners (John Justman, Rose Pugliese and Scott McInnis) and Trump administration employees have all been telling the public that moving the agencies out of Washington is a way to streamline them, and make them more efficient and responsive to the people and industries they oversee.

Hogwash.

Senator Ray Scott caught watching a movie during the legislative session

by Anne Landman • September 5, 2019 • 1 Comment

ICYMI (in case you missed it), “Next with Kyle Clark,” (a front range Channel 9 TV news features show) broadcast video of our own Republican Mesa County State Senator Ray Scott spending his time watching a movie on his phone during a legislative session.

Colorado Pols identified the movie as the widely-panned 2018 Mark Wahlberg vanity vehicle called “Mile 22,” that got a one-star rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s no wonder Scott wants to ditch his senate seat and run for Mesa County Commissioner. It appears he’s bored to tears having to represent all of his conservative western slope supporters at the Capitol in Denver.

Beware local sales pitch for a free filet mignon dinner

by Anne Landman • September 5, 2019 • 0 Comments

Postcard mailed out locally that promotes a free meal in exchange for sitting through a financial services seminar.

Have you received a post card in the mail recently promising a free gourmet dinner, with your choice of filet mignon, poached salmon or grilled Portobello steak, at the Ocotillo Restaurant in exchange for sitting through an “informational seminar and insurance sales presentation”?

My first thought upon reading this post card was that given the high cost of the promotion — a sit-down filet mignon dinner at a really nice restaurant — that the company sponsoring this free dinner must be having a VERY hard time attracting customers on the merits of the company alone. I read the postcard thoroughly and squinted to read the mice type, which said “Securities and investment advisory services offered through Woodbury Financial Services.”

Then I looked into Woodbury Financial Services, and it was no wonder the person putting on this promo buried the company’s name in the mice type.

State Senator Ray Scott lied to the Daily Sentinel about social media blocking case

by Anne Landman • September 1, 2019 • 1 Comment

Full disclosure: I was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado brought against State Senator Ray Scott for blocking constituents from his official social media accounts.

On August 31, 2019 the Daily Sentinel printed an article about the settlement we reached in the case.

Had the Sentinel contacted me for this article, I would have let them know that Ray Scott lied to them about several specific pieces of information regarding the case.

Ray Scott’s first lie:

Scott told the Sentinel that he blocked people from his social media accounts “only if someone posted a profane or inappropriate comment.”

That is absolutely false.

City to re-zone Burkey Park for medium-high residential development at their September 4 meeting

by Anne Landman • August 31, 2019 • 1 Comment

Burkey Park on Patterson Road is a dry vacant lot with a trash can and split rail fence, but is prized by neighbors for open space and the longtime promise that the City would one turn the parcel into a developed park. The Burkey family donated the land to the City in 1967 on the condition the City would turn it into a park.

At their public hearing on Wednesday, September 4, 2019, Grand Junction City Council will hear an agenda item to rezone Burkey Park to allow construction of medium-high density residential development on it.

The City plans to rezone Burkey Park from its current zoning of “Recreational” to R-8 zoning to allow residential construction of a density of eight dwelling units per acre. This density would most likely be attached dwellings like condos, duplexes and townhouses. The City bills the rezone as “medium density” development, but the R-8 designation is actually labeled medium-high density in the City Code.

The 18 acre parcel located on Patterson Road between 29 1/2 and 30 Roads was donated to the City by the Burkey family in 1967 on the condition that the City would one day turn it into a park. The City never fulfilled its promise, though, and instead let the parcel languish as a weedy vacant lot for more than 50 years, while pouring taxpayer money into other odd areas, handing over $500,000 (pdf) – $750,000 every year to Colorado Mesa University for a period of 15 years.

Court Settlement: State Senator Ray Scott must unblock constituents from his social media

by Anne Landman • August 30, 2019 • 2 Comments

Senator Ray Scott blocked and banned constituents from his social media accounts simply for disagreeing with him on his policies. Then he got sued.

Every elected official in Colorado is now on notice: you cannot block constituents from your official social media accounts because they don’t agree with your point of view. If you do, you’re breaking the law.

ACLU of Colorado announced a settlement (pdf) today on behalf of Anne Landman, a constituent who State Senator Ray Scott blocked from his official social media accounts in 2017 after she was publicly critical of several of his policy positions. As a result of the lawsuit, Scott has now unblocked Landman and must refrain from censoring anyone else with critical viewpoints from his social media accounts as a Senator, or in any future elected position.

“The overwhelming majority of cases has made very clear that the official social media pages of public officials, like Senator Scott’s, are public forums where individual’s speech is constitutionally protected,” said ACLU Staff Attorney Sara Neel. “Recognizing this, Senator Scott has agreed to unblock all users from his social media pages and will not block anyone else in the future based on viewpoint.”

“Recall Polis” campaign violating laws to gather signatures – county passes Resolution prohibiting taping signs to their buildings

by Anne Landman • August 29, 2019 • 4 Comments

The Recall Polis people at 4:00 p.m. on 8/29/19 violating the law by setting up shop in a public park without obtaining the necessary permits from the City Parks and Rec Department.

Upset citizens have been contacting the City of Grand Junction Parks and Recreation Department and the Mesa County Elections Bureau left and right to complain about the “Recall Polis” campaign violating laws by putting up tables and signage in places that require permitting or where it is prohibited by law.

In the photo above, the Recall Polis people had set up their operation at Spring Valley Park on Patterson Road, a public park. A reader sent the above photo and complained to the City about it, upon which G.J. Parks and Rec Department responded:

Beware electing Janet Rowland as county commissioner again

by Anne Landman • August 24, 2019 • 14 Comments

Former County Commissioner Janet Rowland (January 2005 – January 2013) once compared same-sex marriage to bestiality on a state-wide talk show, drawing condemnation from around the nation.

Janet Rowland is running for Mesa County Commissioner.

Yes, again.

She’s already been a Mesa County Commissioner — from January, 2005 to January, 2013 — but that doesn’t mean her being commissioner again is a good idea. It arguably is not a good idea. From her previous two terms, we have an abundance of experience with her and know what is in store if Janet Rowland gets another chance to be Commissioner.

So let’s take a look at the past and see what it tells us.

Morally and ethically challenged

Certainly Janet has done some good things through her career, like trying to address child abuse and finding homes for foster kids. While those endeavors are laudable, we also need to take into account all the things she’s done that have set a poor example for kids, and our entire community and that have harmed the County.

Plagiarism

Shortly after losing statewide election for lieutenant governor as Bob Beauprez’s running mate in 2006, and while she was previously Mesa County Commissioner, Janet was a guest columnist for the Grand Junction Free Press, at the time a competing newspaper to the Daily Sentinel. She wrote several articles for the Free Press until one day a sharp reader noticed Janet had lifted most of one of her columns word for word from a government-published pamphlet, and brought this information to the attention of the Free Press’s editor.

Feb. 3, 2007 column in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel about Janet Rowland plagiarizing a guest column she wrote for the G.J. Free Press.

The Daily Sentinel reported on Rowland’s plagiarism on February 3, 2007:

A Mesa County official has plagiarized a government substance abuse booklet in her two most recent columns in the Grand Junction Free Press, that newspaper’s editor confirmed Friday.

The majority of Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland’s Feb. 1 column in the Free Press, titled “The importance of a strong parent-child bond,” was lifted verbatim from a 2006 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism publication titled, “Making a Difference: Talk to Your Teen About Alcohol.”

A reading of Rowland’s unattributed column and the text of the booklet revealed the two are virtually identical. The only differences were found in the column’s first sentence and its lead into several bullet points.

The editor said if Rowland had been a staff writer, she probably would have been fired.

Janet’s first reaction to the plagiarism charge was to claim she couldn’t even remember writing the columns. (Denial.) When that failed to tamp down the controversy, she next said the information she used in her columns had been intended for “mass duplication anyhow,” adding that if people wanted to make what she did out as something evil, that was THEIR prerogative. (Sour grapes.) Next, she blamed the plagiarism on others, saying she had included the necessary attributions in her column, but Free Press staff had edited them out. (Lying and blaming.) Free Press management quickly produced the emails that contained the articles exactly as they had received them from Janet for publication, showing that they contained no references or attributions.

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