Greeley Report has agreed to publish District 6 school board member Brett Reese's statements unedited. Despite repeated attempts to work with the Lib Trib, they have repeatedly skewed their reporting. Therefore, Reese uses Pirate 104.7, his blog and Greeley Report to share the truth. The following article contains Reeses' experiences this past weekend in Colorado Springs, at an event held for school board members from across the state of Colorado.
"After $20k of in kind advertising
which blatantly pushed the huge property tax hike 3A, the Greeley tribune lost miserably by
2 votes to 1. What do you suppose a
local newspaper, in touch with local sentiment and anxious to “serve” the local
community would do? Yeah, me
too. But not Bart Smith, Randy
Bangert and the gang.
In spite of their community
speaking loudly and clearly for our school system to become less wasteful, the Greeley Tribune
is holding to their liberalism with a death grasp.
Their latest article follows
their traditional pattern in that
the reporter interviews people who are in agreement with them. Draws example after example of school
districts who are allegedly doing so much better than we are because of their
community’s cooperation in raising its own taxes. The Tribune proclaims the merits of multiple attempts at raising our taxes
and finishes with several statements from a supposed expert (on their side of
course), Glenn Gustafson, who I happened to have just had a conversation with
last weekend.
What a reporter can do with the
subtlety of words is nauseating.
For example, Did American forces “invade
Iraq” or did our
young men “liberate”
Iraq?
So the huge article was all about
how Greeley is nearly alone in
raising more taxes. All the
districts around us have had at least one tax increase. Sarah McQuiddy, big wig down at
the chamber of commerce would love nothing more than to increase taxes on every
chamber member. Many chamber
members I’ve talked with personally are readya for her to move on. I wonder though, before she goes away,
if she would be good enough to proclaim to all of
Colorado that since we haven’t
raised our property taxes, we now have one of the lowest costs of doing business
in the state!!?? Nice huh? Remember what I said about subtlety of
words? Still, if Sarah Mcquiddy,
chamber prez would start thinking positively, this would be nice selling point!
So the Tribune believes we need
to revamp and try again. More taxes
dagnabbit!! There’s an old quote that goes
something like this, “a liberal is a man who believes he owes a debt to society,
which he proposes to pay for with his neighbor’s money”. Or in the Tribune’s case, with
their advertiser’s money. Or
in Sarah McQuiddy’s case, with her chamber member’s money. If they want the money to go to
the general fund of district 6, why don’t they get Bob Tointon and Dick Monfort
to write a couple of $10 million checks directed toward the problem, not a
campaign to make us working class folks pay for it.
Here though I have to let you all
in on a little secret. I just spent
nearly a week sipping the finest wines. Eating caviar, venison and
veal. Plates of desserts and long
beautiful walks along the hotel lake bridge. I walked the marble winding
staircase to one of many elegant fireplaces.
Garth
Brooks and
U.S. presidents
slept where I slept. Julia Roberts
and Jerry Seinfeld had shared my
banquet facility. I stayed at the
Broadmoor hotel. I was attending my
first CASB convention.
I hated the fact that our district
was in deep financial trouble and all the school board members and top
administrators from 2/3 of the districts in the state were spending over $200k
for 5 days in Colorado springs’
Broadmoor hotel. I learned an
inestimable amount about how districts should work and how to change them. But I couldn’t help but wonder if I
couldn’t have learned it for less than $2 or $300k? To be sure, event leaders made
sure to address the exploitation of public dollars by explaining that we
couldn’t get such great speakers to come if it weren’t for the broadmoor’s name,
and there were virtually no other facilities that could house all the
workshops. Bull butter.
We could do it all for almost
nothing. How? Well, let’s all get used to
thinking outside the box. How could
we. Let’s think about
what facility could provide all those workshops and ballrooms. Another word for workshop is class
right? See where I’m going? Another word for ballroom is
auditorium!! …why not use our own darn facilities? Let’s clear a big 5a school in
Denver for a Thursday and Friday and
use all their classrooms. Oh, and
the nationally known speakers that wouldn’t come unless it was the
Broadmoor? Maybe we aren’t
interested in what those speakers have to say anyhow.
I needed to attend this session of
CASB.
I will fight to move the convention to a much more reasonable venue. We need the public to know about this.
The rest will happen… I don’t know
what I will do next year if it is not moved. But about the most nauseating
thing was the continual push of how to raise taxes for schools. It was a consistent, persistent drum
beat. How to manipulate
levers. There was even a
workshop about how to frame your plea for taxes and strategies for changing your
community’s thinking. I even asked
the CEO of the place the president of CASB,
“why is there not a single word said about using our current millions of
tax dollars more efficiently?” I’m
a businessman. If we can’t increase
income—we cut costs!!
Believe
me when I report to you citizens of
Greeley and district 6…there is not
an appreciation of how hard your life is or how tight your budget is. And it’s true for most districts in the
state. No recognition at all. I was laughed at and
metaphorically patted on the head as a “newbie” board member. I know there are an awful lot of
people here in Greeley who have their hopes pinned on me. No worries; I won’t be drinking the kool-aid.
We have made an important first
step in denying 3A and the heaping of our hard –earned tax dollars into the
general fund accounts of our schools.
As I said during my campaign, don’t worry, it will be back next year,
whether it passed or not. As you know I have taken on the
responsibility of a school board member.
And still I have very little access to financial information. My meetings with teachers are even being
resisted. Don’t worry, I will get
the information, either through an open records request, or litigation. I am working with the current board
and we can improve our schools significantly, but it will be through openness,
caring, trust and business, parental and pastoral involvement. I realize I may be just one
member, but my cause is right and together with you, the people of this
community, we will overcome.
Eventually, with the contacts I’ve made and the resolve I possess, you
and I will show the rest of the state, both fiscally and academically how
success can happen in their district, without crippling the community.
Since the Tribune have proven
themselves powerless to report objectively, I will begin interviewing with Amy Oliver
Cooke on a competing radio station, KFKA the Tuesday morning after each Monday
school board meeting. Of course I
will be producing a quick commentary here first.
Thomas
Jefferson said, "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than
the man who reads nothing but newspapers." So much wisdom…
I hope that soon other community leaders
begin boycotting both the Tribune and their sponsors until they begin reporting
the facts as they are, not the subtle spin of the radical left. I have made contact with the
editors at www.greeleyreport.com and for now, thouogh they remain
anonymous, they seem to report the truth, albeit with too much aggression. That’s greeleyreport.com
So until my next board meeting report, I’m Brett
Reese
