Here are my comments for the City Council today:
Good afternoon,
I will again bring to your attention questions surrounding the land swap.
At the public meeting on February 24th 2016 the City mentioned erosion damage and drainage problems on the section of the Barr Trail that the City was seeking to acquire.
After that night the City removed all mention of these issues from its presentations.
Sources tell me that Timberline Landscaping told the City that the trail should be closed because the repairs would be too expensive, and the drainage could never be right. I am also told that Karen Palus took this information to Mayor Suthers and he told her not to disclose any of it to the public. If this is true, the Mayor committed a serious crime.
Have members of this Council learned the truth, but decided to hope that it will go away, or are we to believe that not one of you have sought the answers to these questions?
Why has the media also refused to say one word about these questions? Have you found that City officials have discouraged or obstructed the media from covering this story?
Often the original crime can be forgiven, but when elected officials commit obstruction or try to cover things up, they end up being removed from office or indicted.
Do you have evidence that the Mayor has told City officials to play along because his contacts in the Attorney General's office say that they are not ready to indict anyone yet? Exactly how long should we wait before we cooperate? Until our leaders become national news?
We seem to have a culture that says that because we can keep the media quiet about the land swap, everything is just fine. That would be the death of the American form of governance. When our leaders stop acting on conscience and the will of the people, the entire system breaks down. Elected officials may not keep dirty little secrets from the people who elected them. We must clean out our closet and clear the air.
Washington is funny. I know for a fact that things are changing these days, and many people there are watching us, and they are not pleased at all.
What do you think they do to people who follow a scofflaw like john Suthers blindly? They give them every opportunity to cooperate, and then one day, without warning, they surprise them. Please do not let the national media have a field day with the indictment of our top City officials.
Thank you, Carl Strow