Rooney Valley News

The election for Mayor is probably the most important issue on the ballot for our community.

The vote on 200 – Regaining Citizen control of high density development – was a warm up to this election.

Adam Paul lost the vote on 200.  I hope he loses this vote as well.  Here is why.

He is affable, very good at handing out citizen awards and very good at  telling folks what they want to hear.

But he is also the chief lobbyist for the development community in Lakewood and Rooney Valley.

So, when it comes to making decisions and taking action on the big issues – who is going to define growth and high density development in Lakewood – he chooses his friends and financial supporters – the development community – not the citizens.

A vote for Adam Paul is a vote to have the development community, not the citizens, control growth and development in Lakewood.

Just like with 200, it is time for a change.

1.  I met Adam Paul for the first time in 2017 as we began the recall campaign to remove the Brookfield employees from the special district board for Solterra.  He volunteered to host negotiations with Brookfield.  Several folks including two lawyers and a project manager from Brookfield along with two representatives from the recall campaign met for about two hours on three separate occasions.  It quickly became clear the “negotiations” were an effort to persuade our group to withdraw the recall petition so Brookfield could issue more bond debt for the residents.  And it also became clear that Adam Paul supported Brookfield’s position – Brookfield would resign from the board only if the residents agreed to pay another $30 million in bond debt.  Before and after the sessions, Mr. Paul would huddle up with the project manager for Brookfield to talk privately.  He clearly was paying more attention to what Brookfield had to say than what the residents had to say.

2. In the course of researching the Green Mountain Water and Sanitation District issues with Big Sky (actually just one person – Tom Morton – a Solterra director during the period of special district abuse and a financial supporter of Paul) I learned that Adam Paul was on the Green Mountain board during the time Solterra was being planned.  Adam Paul later boasted about how he supported the  Green Mountain intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Solterra.  As it turns out, Green Mountain then and now did not have authority from its Service Plan to enter into IGA’s to provide service outside its territory – to either Solterra or Big Sky.  And the Solterra IGA – providing sewer to Solterra – that Adam Paul is so proud of – expires in 2023.  And under the Solterra IGA, the residents have no right to vote since they are not residents of the Green Mountain sanitation district.  Both the temporary sewer service and no right to vote by Solterra homeowners are part of Paul’s legacy and idea of a “good agreement” for the residents.

3.  When the new Green Mountain Board members began to question the Big Sky IGA – creating a new, private profit making, developer run sanitation district unaccountable to the public for all of the new development in Rooney Valley – Adam Paul attacked the new Green Mountain board members on facebook and worked behind the scenes to sabotage the new members’ work.  He supported the collusion between the City Attorney and the Big Sky attorneys to write an “objective” memo concluding that Big Sky already had authority to create a new sanitation district.  According to the emails from Cox, he even went so far as to have the original memo re-written to support Big Sky.  Paul was doing everything in his power to support Tom Morton and Big Sky and oppose the new Green Mountain board.

4.  When citizens made presentations to City Council on their concerns regarding overdevelopment, special district abuse and more citizen involvement, Adam Paul consistently minimized and patronized the residents, concluding on more than one occasion at the end of council sessions that the citizens were just complainers.  The developers always had more time to speak and of course greater access to Paul and other Councilmembers “over lunch” than the residents.  The developers’ voices counted, not the residents.

5.  When citizens spoke out on Next Door or other sites, Adam Paul was quick to again minimize that information and was dismissive of those voices.  Instead, he said people should only read what he and his supporters wrote in the “official” publications.

6.  When the 200 citizen initiative arose, he did everything in his power to stop it.  He rallied his supporters and of course the development community.  He supported the lawsuit against the citizen who started the initiative.  He aggressively campaigned against 200 this summer.  His development “clients” lined up one after another at the first council meeting after the 200 vote with their hands out for special exceptions.

And he has made clear he will do what he can to sabotage and undermine  200 if he is re-elected.

7.  Adam Paul also opposed taking any action to obtain repayment of the Lakewood taxpayer loan to the Three Dinos to build the c-470/Alameda Interchange.  The Three Dinos are also big contributors to Adam Paul. Paul was happy to giveaway those taxpayer funds with no effort to have the Three Dinos pay it back.

8.  Adam Paul also opposes stricter controls on special districts.  He supports the current special district abuse and when the issue comes up passes the buck to the state legislature saying it is their problem, not the city’s problem.  This despite the abundance of evidence that the state gave considerable power to the city to police special district abuse.  Adam Paul simply looks the other way.

9.  Ramey Johnson has listened to the citizens and will represent the citizens.  She does not represent our District, but she has listened, asked questions and been prepared to fight for the citizens.  She is not dismissive of the residents.  She investigates their concerns and responds.  She listens.  She actively engages with residents to understand the issues.   I believe she will act and lead to represent the residents where Adam Paul acts to represent and lobby for the private interests of the development community.

10.  Ramey Johnson has experience.  She knows how to get things done given the opportunity, public support and clarity of the choices.

To be sure, Adam Paul is friendly, and a gifted salesperson.  If he wants your support he will tell you what you want to hear and is very smooth.  Those are qualities that will make him very successful as a lobbyist for his clients, likely the development community he now represents.

But it is time for him to pursue that work out in the open, not as our Mayor.  He will flourish and be a financial success and we wish him well.   As a registered lobbyist for private developer interests.  Not as our Mayor.

John Henderson