CU, fundraising arm to open documents on donor events
The University of Colorado and its fundraising arm will open financial documents today related to an account that paid for dinners and parties for CU donors.
The university and the CU Foundation will disclose the records after a hearing by the state legislative audit committee centering on the university’s donations.
Former CU president Betsy Hoffman requested the audit a year ago and ordered the closure of the “advancement account,” which is expected to be the focus of the audit. The account existed for more than 10 years and closed July 1, CU spokeswoman Michele Mc Kinney said.
The $600,000 fund was interest the university earned on its cash accounts. The foundation was in charge of the account and dispensed money to the CU president’s office to fund donor events, including receptions before football games, holiday parties for deans and a million-dollar donor party.
The problem with the account was that the foundation did not have to follow state fiscal rules when dispensing the money.
CU president Hank Brown recently announced a new agreement between CU and the foundation that will hold the foundation to stricter accounting rules and require the university to handle reimbursements to its employees.
In a move toward more transparency, the foundation announced Monday that it will post all requests under the Colorado Open Records Act on its website, www.cufund.org.
WHEAT RIDGE
Cop impersonator pulls over student
A Wheat Ridge High School senior was pulled over on her way to school Monday by a man impersonating a police officer, said Wheat Ridge police spokeswoman Lisa Stigall.
The girl was stopped on West 38th Avenue near Kipling Street about 8:15 a.m. by a man in a dark-blue Dodge Intrepid with red and blue flashing lights on the dashboard.
He told her she had run a red light and asked to see her driver’s license.
She told him she wanted to call her parents but he said, “You don’t need to cop an attitude with a police officer,” Stigall said.
The girl then said she wanted to call 911, according to Stigall. The man handed back her driver’s license and left. Stigall said there haven’t been any similar incidents recently in Wheat Ridge.
BOULDER
Jamestown, residents sue Xcel over slides
Less than two months after Xcel Energy confirmed it settled a lawsuit with Jamestown residents over damage from a wildfire sparked by a power line, the power company is being sued again, this time over mudslides.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 1 in state District Court in Boulder and made public Monday, 18 families and Jamestown claim the company is responsible for loss of homes, views and access, while the town claims instability of the James Canyon walls.
“The town of Jamestown has entered into this reluctantly,” Mayor Ken Lenarcic said Monday. “We have no other resource for dealing with the mudslides. We don’t know how many more there will be and how long it will go on.”
An Xcel spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
At least three slides hit the town this summer, including one that buried a parked car, as rains fell on canyon walls denuded of vegetation by the October 2003 fire.
BROOMFIELD
Northwest Parkway interchange opens
Officials of the Northwest Parkway toll road opened the highway’s Sheridan Parkway interchange Monday, and as an introductory offer, motorists will not have to pay tolls through the end of the month.
Users of electronic EXpressToll transponders will not have to pay tolls at Sheridan through the end of the year, said parkway spokeswoman Kerri Weaver.
The new interchange offers increased access to the toll road for residents of Broomfield, Erie and Lafayette,tollway officials say.
DENVER
Bank robber ordered to prison for 6 years
A bank robber nicknamed “Mr. Magoo” by law enforcement officials because of the thick glasses he wore during robberies was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in federal prison.
Tyler Hamilton, 43, also was ordered to pay $49,279 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel.
Hamilton pleaded guilty to six bank robberies in the Denver metro area and agreed to be liable for restitution in 17 additional uncharged robberies. Hamilton was arrested by the FBI in March.
LARIMER COUNTY
Alzheimer’s patient found dead in car
The Larimer County coroner said Monday that the man found dead in a car Sunday north of Fossil Creek Reservoir was 89-year-old Arthur Wright of Loveland.
Wright, who had Alzheimer’s disease, was the subject of a countywide search since Thursday when he did not return home as expected.
Wright died from hypothermia, the coroner said.
DENVER
Fugitive’s brother posts bond, is freed
The brother of a fugitive polygamist sect leader was released Monday from federal custody after posting a $25,000 property bond.
Seth Jeffs was charged Oct. 31 with concealing a wanted person – his brother Warren Jeffs – from arrest. Seth Jeffs was pulled over by Pueblo County sheriff’s deputies, who found his sport utility vehicle full of letters addressed to Warren Jeffs, tax records for the fugitive, $142,000 in cash and prepaid credit cards and cellphones.
Warren Jeffs is the “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which broke away from mainstream Mormonism in 1890. Authorities have been searching for Warren Jeffs, accused of sex with a minor, since June.
DENVER
Teachers line up for ProComp pay plan
Four Denver teachers had opted into Denver Public Schools’ pay-for-performance plan by Monday, and another 140 were in the queue to be enrolled, officials said.
Monday was the first day to opt into ProComp, a first-of- its-kind salary plan that rewards teachers for how well students do in class and removes them from the traditional union-negotiated step system. Denver voters last week approved a $25 million tax increase to fund the plan.
