Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: Denver mayoral candidate Don Bain called the newly-formed Denver Environmental Coalition “a sham and transparent attempt to provide the mayor with another endorsement.”

The DEC was headed by Tim Atkeson who also happened to be the chairman of Mayor Federico Peña’s Task Force on Environmental Affairs, and had been formed following a meeting of the Mayor’s Task Force where it had been noted that TFEA members showed little support for Peña.

Following its formation, the DEC sent a letter and questionnaire to all mayoral candidates. Atkeson told The Colorado Statesman that the questionnaire was “intended to provide the fledgling group with information that will allow it to endorse a mayoral candidate.”

TFEA members told reporters that Atkeson had asked them to volunteer to respond to a recent Sierra Club letter that was critical of Peña’s stance on the proposed Two Forks Dam, but only Tony Massaro, Denver Director of Environmental Affairs, had volunteered to do so.

“The current mayor is a master at media manipulation,” said Bain’s Strategic Coordinator Bill Kenyon. “And this supposedly objective group is clearly a sham intended to provide an endorsement for the mayor.”

Kenyon also noted that long-established environmental groups were critical of Peña and his policies and that the new Task Force was far from objective.

Kenyon said that Peña had used similar tactics to garner media support as was the case when the mayor was forced to pay for a highly controversial poll regarding airport changes, after strong criticism that the poll was nothing more than a campaign tool.

“Don Bain will not respond to the [DEC] environmental questionnaire,” Kenyon said bluntly.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Colorado Senate Minority Leader Mike Feeley, D-Lakewood, a candidate for governor, shocked members of both parties when he called for a “major overhaul in the operation of the Colorado legislature.”

Feeley’s announcement was timed to coincide with the 1997 budget bill up in the General Assembly (the Long Bill). Feeley derided the method in which the six members of the Joint Budget Committee set the state budget’s priorities, giving these few members far more power than other members of the General Assembly.

“Right now, only six people really know and understand what’s in Colorado’s $9 million budget,” Feeley said. “The other 94 members of the legislature only have one week to review the proposed budget, suggest changes to meet the needs of their constituents and hope for the best. That’s not representative government.”

Feeley argued for a much different plan; abolishing the JBC and have the legislature plan state finances only in odd-numbered years.

“Another advantage,” Feeley pointed out, “would be that the odd-year budget session could be pared down to 60 days instead of the current 120, since legislators would work on nothing but the state’s finances. Sessions in even-numbered years would remain at 120 days, and legislators could introduce bills on any subject, just as they do now. Hopefully only half the number of frivolous bills would be introduced.”

An enormous amount of time and money was wasted every year, Feeley argued, on the passing of unnecessary bills like, “designating a state fish or the official square dance.” Oregon and Texas, he said, managed just fine meeting every other year.

Feeley said that he’d proposed the plan because of the loss of expertise and institutional memory when veteran legislators came up against constitutional term limits.

“The lack of experience of the many rookie legislators,” he said, “would make them ever-more dependent upon the unelected staff and – even worse – lobbyists. Under my plan, all legislators would be required to examine the budget in depth, and would have 60 days every two years, instead of one week per year, to do just that.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.