Time for perhaps recounting what must have been the most embarrassing moment for the City in the four day trial. I am going to skip ahead because it really was a complete shock. Denver called Adrian Benepe of the Trust for the Public Lands (TPL) as an expert yesterday to testify on the City Park Golf Course proposal. I want you to hold on to your hats, because you are going to have trouble believing this. I want to take great pains to acknowledge up front that many of us hold the Trust for the Public Lands (TPL) in high regard for its work to "keep public lands in public hands." TPL's site says "Our public lands should be saved, not sold." Indeed a fundraising pitch just arrived this morning! Adrian Benepe -- who served for years as New York City parks commissioner -- is a senior VP and Director of city park development for TPL. It quickly became clear in his testimony that he knew very little about the project itself, and had done no homework to prepare to testify as an expert except talk to various Denver officials and staffers whom he could not name. I say "could not name" because he said he couldn't recall any names. Note that Denver Parks & Recreation Director Happy Haynes chairs the Colorado Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land. Mr. Benepe had not read the RFP (Request for Proposal) issued by the City on the CPGC project. He had not read the City Park Master Plan (which calls for PRESERVATION), so Aaron Goldhamer could not even inquire if he thought the project was consistent with the Master Plan. When Aaron Goldhamer commended him on his Olmsted medal (Frederick Law Olmsted known as father of modern landscape architecture), and asked him if he knew if City Park was designed as part of Olmsted's efforts, he did not know. He did not know if CPGC was on the National Register of Historic Places. He did not know the acreage of the area of the golf course to be used for detention. He took awhile to answer a question about the typography of the golf course. He said he was unaware of ANY problems that currently exist at City Park Golf Course! (This is part of plaintiffs' case.) He was "not sure" and "not aware" of many details, and kept coming back to his general extensive experience informing his testimony. I hope others will jump in here because I can't recall all the faux pas of his testimony. It certainly was an "ah hah" moment for people in attendance, hearing Mr. Benepe talk about his experience in "green infrastructure," drop anecdotes about the Nederlands' attempt to use public space (below sea level) to design "storm capture," and numerous other examples not comparable or applicable to CPGC. Most uncomfortable for me was the moment Mr. Benepe stated that it would be "civic malpractice" for Denver to not use CPGC for this "green infrastructure" project. HE KEPT TOUTING THE BENEFITS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: CAPTURE RAINWATER WHERE IT FALLS, CLEAN IT AND STORE It FOR FUTURE USE. He missed the point that Denver was going to install an industrial drain in CPGC , that was going to dump filthy stormwater directly into the park as it sped through the park to a pipe on the opposite side of the park.This is not green infrastructure; it is a job of GREENWASHING. The implication made many times is our City must know no limits in using its parks for any and every conceivable use. He new nothing about the 2014 Storm Drainage Plan, knew nothing about I70, knew nothing about how much soil testing had been done on existing 138 acres of golf course. MR BENEPE DID NOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT DENVER WAS GOING TO KILL OFF ITS BEST EXAMPLE OF NATURAL, GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: CITY PARK GOLF COURSE.