Monument's Angels and Demons

Do We Have an Illegal Rogue Town Council?

Today, I received a comprehensive write up on the last few weeks from what I can only assume to be a concerned citizen of Monument. The e-mail to my personal e-mail merely contained a PDF file that I am sharing here with you. If you think the events of the last two weeks are concerning, please share this dispatch widely with your friends, family and neighbors. The PDF file, simply named “article on council investigation 12.28.22” begins below the line:

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Is this “urgent” investigation really about signs? You decide.

This is likely the biggest corruption story regarding our local representatives in the history of Monument. This article will take you through the steps the former Board of Trustees are taking to disrupt Town government and the chaos they are creating for personal political reasons and revenge, specifically Kelly Elliott, Ron Stephens, Jim Romenello, and Darcy Schoening.

They have also brought in their friends, Amy Stephens, former house majority leader and wife of Ron Stephens, and Rob O’Regan, owner of The Strategy Firm, LLC, a political consulting company that was highly involved with the “No on 2A” smear campaign, per campaign finance reports. This company also advised Darcy Schoening’s campaign, also per campaign finance reports.

Let’s start with their reluctance to relinquish power and control and provide a smooth transition of power.

Questioning the legitimacy of the current Council:

The following is an obtained email created by an attorney secured by Mitch LaKind, the current Mayor-elect of Monument. It confirms the claim that the current board is sitting illegitimately and needs to not take any further action, especially action that damages the town and the town’s citizens and staff. This rogue council is aware of this claim and our sources inform us that there is no attorney letter stating otherwise. Monument is currently acting without a Town attorney.

Attorney Letter Cont’d:

Attorney Letter Pg 3

The following is an email from Darcy Schoening . Town staff recognized that the board was replaced after the regular election on November 8th and listed the new council on the Town’s website.

The interim Monument Town Attorney resigned over the chaos that the current illegitimate board has created. And since there is no Town attorney to file an injunction against this rogue board, they are taking over Monument and writing their own rules as they go. Did the interim Town attorney advise the current board that they have sole authority to extend their terms? If so, where is that document?

Kind of ironic since these people stated that voting for 2A would allow Steve King and Sana Abbott to “take over Monument.”

We should have had a smooth transition of power:

The current illegitimate council canceled all meetings for December at the Dec 5th meeting, which would have allowed for a smooth transition, but since that time, they have held a series of special meetings to investigate a campaign finance violation, for which no complaint is currently pending as required by state law.

Think about this, there is no FCPA campaign finance violation filed for the electioneering claim that they hired an investigator for, as required by law to pursue this claim.

The resolution that was passed to hire an investigator and spend an estimated $20,000 of taxpayer money, which isn’t much of a resolution, and has no structure as all other resolutions possess, is as follows:

This resolution ONLY grants power to interview Town staff, applicable personnel, and elected officials, and no one else. The vote was 4-2, not 6-0 as shown in this photo, and has since been corrected. LaKind and Ramos were the opposing votes.

Since that time, the interim Town attorney resigned due to threats from the outgoing board. They stated that they were going to investigate her, yet that is clearly outside of their scope, just like investigating the public, yet they appeared to have done that as well, as noted in this following section in an email from Mr. Van der Jagt:

To date, no one has ever requested a statement from the Home Rule Charter Commission, except for a request for who approved the use of the “governmental seal” from one former Commissioner, in which case, the “governmental seal” was never used. No other questions were asked of any former commissioner as best we can tell.

Is it proper for a person to submit evidence anonymously to an investigator that has no authority to investigate citizens? Wouldn’t it be prudent to investiaget the Commission? Is that standard protocol? Or are they making up rules as they go?

The start of the Witch Hunt:

Councilmember Ron Stephens stated at the special meeting on Friday, Dec. 16 that “We aren’t looking for a witch hunt”, yet the facts speak differently. They have stated publicly that they are pursuing Sana Abbott, which is, by definition, a “witch hunt”. Lately we have obtained information that they may also be pursuing the Town manager. That will be discussed later in this article.

Ron’s wife, Amy Stephens, a former House Majority leader, along with Council members Kelly Elliott, and Jim Romanello, funded the “no on 2A” smear campaign primarily directed at Steve King and Sana Abbott. Amy Stephens was also spreading misinformation on the Jeff Crank podcast. Kelly Elliott is the registered agent.

Former house majority leader Amy Stephens was overheard telling Mayor elect Mitch LaKind at the GOP assembly for HD20, when Councilmember Darcy Schoening lost the bid to be placed on the ballot, that no Democrat can ever be elected to the Board of Trustees.

Sana Abbott is a Democrat, running in a nonpartisan election, and the vast majority of the “No on 2A” campaign was directed at the prevention of any Democrat winning an election in the Town of Monument.

With slogans such as:

• “Rigs the election for progressives”,

• “Sana Abbott tried to hide the fact that she is really a Democrat”.

• “Democrats have used redistricting in Colorado to take over at the state level”.

• “Democrats Try to dismantle TABOR”.

• “Steve King and Sana Abbott tried to rig our Home Rule charter”

• “They are running as Trustees to take over Monument”,

• “Extreme Democrat policies” and

• “Gerrymandering districts to give progressive candidates and advantage”

• “Raise taxes and fees 1000%”

All lies as the charter has no power to do any of these false claims.

The following are mailing pieces put out by “No on 2A”, with input from Rob O’Regan and the funding provided by Amy Stephens, Kelly Elliott, Jim Romenello, including the Willow Springs developer and a Denver PAC.

These ads appear to clearly violate Colorado statute CRS 1-13-109:

(2) (a) No person shall recklessly make, publish, broadcast, or circulate or cause to be made, published, broadcasted, or circulated in any letter, circular, advertisement, or poster or in any other communication any false statement designed to affect the vote on any issue submitted to the electors at any election or relating to any candidate for election to public office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of this subsection (2), a person acts "recklessly" when he or she acts in conscious disregard of the truth or falsity of the statement made, published, broadcasted, or circulated.

(b) Any person who violates any provision of paragraph (a) of this subsection (2) commits a class 2 misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in section 18-1.3-501, C.R.S.

Voting for Democrats, and especially immigrants is not permitted:

Darcy Schoening has stated publicly for Monument residents to not vote for Democrats in a nonpartisan election, with nonpartisan positions. Kelly Elliott, Amy Stephens, and Jim Romanello have stated the same thing publicly through their funding of the “No on 2A” smear campaign. Remember that Amy Stephens allegedly told Mitch LaKind, no Democrats are allowed to sit on the board.

Darcy Schoening’s position on Immigrants to this country and their potential political biases is even more troubling. Sana Abbott’s family immigrated to this country when she was a small child.

Is Darcy Schoening claiming in this statement that immigrants are inferior to this country and are more likely to vote in such a way that is unfavorable to her? Is she really stating in a public forum that immigrants take votes away from her perferred choices? Does she not realize that we have non partisan elections in Monument?

This statement coming from a sitting Council member claiming to represent all people of Monument is unbelievable.

The conflict of interest unfolds:

The attorney hired to perform this investigation has a bias toward Darcy and toward the Republican party, being a district Captain in Douglas County. But the bias toward Darcy, who has a criminal record of multiple DUIs and theft is astounding, especially considering the conflict of interest as attorney/investigator Grant Van Der Jagt participated in fundraising activities for Darcy.

It’s clear that there is a conflict of interest by hiring this investigator when Darcy has made the statements publicly against Sana Abbott. There were 4 CIRSA recommended attorneys that were never interviewed. CIRSA is the municipality’s insurance carrier, and typically their recommendations are used. Mr. Van Der Jagt appears to be a real estate attorney that does not specialize in municipal law. Was there ever a time he investigated anything remotely similar? Is it normal for real estate attorneys to investigate campaign finance violations?

How could this investigator be hired so quickly given the circumstances? This is the 2nd attorney considered in 3 days. Remember that the first one was was found guilty of misappropriating taxpayer funds, the very charge that these 4 council members are hiring an attorney to investigate. None of the recommended CIRSA attorneys were ever interviewed. Is there collusion amongst the 4 council members who are in alignment? Did they pick him ahead of time, as it appeared they did with the first one, violating open meetings laws? It certainly appears that way.

Mr. Van Der Jagt “independently” defended Ms. Schoening’s felony record which has been made public multiple times, stating at the special meeting on Dec 16th that he is searching for the “truth”.

Unfortunately, the truth that Mr Van Der Jagt looks for doesn’t include other serious criminal convictions, such as DUIs, theft, and illegal drug posession, so is he really looking for the truth? Certainly this was done to help out a friend who wanted to run for higher office, or it would have been objective and listed the following convictions:

The collusion starts to take shape:

In the special Council meeting on December 14th, Amy Stephens, one of the campaign funders of the “No on 2A” smear campaign, sitting behind one of the Home Rule Charter Commissioners, stood up, made an obscene hand gesture at this former commission member, stated, “fuck you” and left.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Emails that were obtained provided the most damning information of all.

The investigator, attorney Grant Van Der Jagt, a friend of Darcy Schoening and others on the board, stated at the special hearing on December 16th when asked about providing updates to the investigation, “Quite honestly, I don’t think the updates would be appropriate, given the timeline. It would give particular people special access and I think that would be unfair.”

And also stated, “My personal opinion is that I should be doing the investigation and then presenting to everybody the findings without anybody having special access to me or anything else. If I’m hired, I would come and I would do my interviews. I would ask that anybody, staff or otherwise, respect the process, allow me to do my job, not try to prevent me from getting access to documents or whatever records are necessary, and then just let me have the time. I’m going to have to honestly push pretty hard given my own family schedule and my own current client load. 15 days is probably going to be more like eight days that I can give to the board, or the town council. And in that eight days, I just have to push through it. I don’t want to be doing updates.”

But afterwards, Mr. Van der Jagt set up a Dropbox to compile answers to questions from town staff and others, who were most likely unaware of the additional granted access and granted special access to chosen Councilmembers using their private email addresses.

In addition, special access was granted to the same people who funded and contributed to the “No on 2A” campaign, former House Majority leader Amy Stephens and Rob O’Regan, owner of “the Strategy Firm, LLC” a political consulting agency who contributed to the “No on 2A” smear campaign.

Even more concerning is that he granted them all “editor” status, as noted in this email screenshot:

The question is why do certain hostile council members need access to private information?

Were the people who placed items in that Dropbox aware?

Why are certain council members using personal emails instead of Town emails?

Why did the investigator misinform the public about access at the special meeting on Dec 16TH when he claimed it was unfair to grant special access?

How is it possible that Amy Stephens and Rob O’Regan be allowed access to an official Town investigation when they have no standing, and have proven their hostility toward certain new council members? Is that illegal? Certainly it’s unethical, especially since the contributors probably were unaware, and granting the EDITOR status?

Remember, we currently have no Town Attorney, and hiring one takes some time, especially around a major holiday, but Kelly Elliott doesn’t care if she potentially opens the town for lawsuits as stated in this email:

Clearly, the Town Manager is concerned about how this investigation is proceeding:

And now Darcy Schoening has taken it upon herself to play a prosecution attorney using threats and intimidation to coerce the Town Manager into providing information without a Town attorney. This is an “investigation”. This investigator has no police power, and neither does Ms. Schoening, and now they are attempting to violate Mr. Foreman’s 5th and 6th amendments rights:

It appears that Darcy has a predetermined outcome with that statement in the first paragraph. Did she just state that it “will not change the outcome?” Sounds like more collusion with other council members.

What she doesn’t state is that there is a process to hire an attorney, that consists of Council review, and takes time to complete. This email is simply more intimidation and threats directed at the Town Manager. This investigation is not urgent. The legitimate mayor, Mitch LaKind already stated that he would pursue an investigation.

And thankfully, Mitch LaKind points out the obvious.

Grant VanDer Jagt along with Darcy Schoening and Kelly Elliott coerced the Town manager, Mike Foreman, into signing an open-ended contract for the hiring of this investigator with threats and intimidation tactics that may harm the town financially. The Town Manager signing this contract without the opportunity for legal review appears to be signed under duress.

Mike Foreman, the Town manager, was named “Town manager of the year” for the entire state of Colorado, yet he is treated as though he is a criminal by these rogue, illegitimate council members and their investigator, and presumed guilty.

The investigator’s email is more concerning since he is an attorney using scare tactics. His own contract states that:

Yet is clear that he wishes to threaten criminal action on our Town Manager who was hired to protect the Town for economic loses as part of his employment contract, which includes obtaining the proper legal counsel, especially in matters like this one. The following email clearly violates the terms of Mr. Van Der Jagt’s contract:

Remember that there is no pending FCPA complaint for violating Campaign Finance laws. The one complaint that was filed against the issue committee was dismissed, as noted in the following:

Conclusion:

Keep in mind that this investigation is supposed to be about campaign finance violations, for which no complaint is filed. The complaint is that the Home Rule Charter Commission illegally ordered signs that were not “informational” but stated to “vote Yes”. Adding the word “yes” is the only violation.

Darcy Schoening stated that there would be a detailed scope the investigator would need to follow, and to date, there is not one. The resolution is more of a “title” and less of a resolution.

Brandy Turner admitted on Facebook that it was a mistake to order signs with the word “yes” included, and that she wasn’t aware asking for a vote violated campaign finance law. So, she took it upon herself to pay for the signs in full.

Of the nine members on the Home Rule Charter Commission, only one we know of was asked a question regarding this issue, and the only question asked was concerning the use of the “governmental seal”, which was not used. No other known Commission members were asked any questions in this “investigation.”

In other words, all their “evidence” came from outside sources.

The investigator is a friend of at least one Councilmember. He is a real estate attorney. He does not specialize in Campaign finance law and has potentially violated numerous ethical standards in this investigation. He stated at the special meeting that he would be giving no special access yet has given certain individuals access and that most certainly taints the investigation.

There is obvious collusion, 3 of the council members arrived together to the first special meeting where they attempted to hire an investigator that didn’t even show up to be interviewed. During the entire meeting, multiple “we” statements were used to suggest possible collusion.

This investigator was obviously chosen beforehand, and no CIRSA recommended attorney was asked to apply.

Council members are using their own personal emails to avoid detection with a CORA request, again potentially violating sunshine laws.

The interim Town attorney was threatened, and therefore resigned, so the town is operating without a town attorney. The current illegitimate council is writing rules and laws “on the fly” without any legal sources approving these actions.

No FCPA complaint regarding electioneering has been filed to date.

There is no official mayor, and no one has been appointed to fill that position. A mayor pro tem can only serve in the capacity as mayor when the official mayor is absent. Our former mayor resigned; he is not absent. No vacancy has been proclaimed, and no resolution has been drafted to seek a replacement.

They are threatening Town staff and our Town manager with false claims of potential “illegal” activity if he doesn’t comply, yet they have no police power.

And most egregious of all, was the access to Dropboxes by select council members using personal email addresses and those who were major contributors of the “No on 2A” campaign. That alone should invalidate the “unbiased” outcome of this investigation and should require that the report be discarded until an unbiased investigation can be performed.

This is a witch hunt for political purposes and nothing else.

We ask you, the public, how it would be possible with this obvious agenda directed at Ms. Abbott to receive a fair investigation given the vendetta against her for having the nerve to run as a Trustee and be a Democrat?

We ask you how our Town Manager could get a fair investigation, or anyone associated with this investigation when it appears to have been orchestrated from the beginning? Are they planning to fire the Town Manager on their way out?

What is their end game, to force Sana Abbott to resign? To attempt to remove the Town manager? With the expectation that anyone who gets in the way will be collateral damage?

No decent person would put the town through this during a holiday season, and especially Christmas.

Only this time, they will be burning through your tax dollars on a “witch hunt”, forcing staff to cancel holiday events and time with their families, especially since Mitch LaKind stated publicly on record he would continue with an investigation.

Ron Stephens alluded to the real reason in his opening statement, pretending he was not looking for a witch hunt when everyone knows otherwise.

We can no longer stand by and allow this group to waste taxpayer money, create chaos within our Town staff and government, potentially open the Town for lawsuits, lose Town staff, and harm people in the process.

The time to act is now.

The following is the agenda for the Wednesday, Dec 28th special meeting.

Notice the wording: “Misappropriation of funds by the Town of Monument persons”. Who wrote this agenda? This appears to be a predetermined conclusion. The appearance of collusion in this document is astounding.

Item 3. Discussion on the contents of the investigative report? How is it that there is a report, when there were no open meetings since the last meeting? They cannot read the report in the executive session, as only specific legal questions can be asked in that meeting. More collusion? Certainly appears that way.

Everyone with an interest in this town needs to be present at this meeting. Never has there been such an outrageous attempt at harming the town and others. Everyone must demand that this circus stop immediately and let Mitch LaKind assume this investigation to eliminate the hostile actions of a group who lost the last election.