Colo. governor’s salary
Re: “Colorado’s low-paid governor; Only 6 states pay a lower salary,” Feb. 19 Perspective article.
When I got to the Perspective section of last Sunday’s Denver Post, who should I see pictured on the cover but Lakewood’s city manager, Mike Rock. As I read Dan Haley’s article regarding salaries, I was astonished to find out that Rock is paid considerably more ($214,000) than the governors of New York, Michigan, California, New Jersey and Illinois. As a resident of Lakewood, I am at a loss why my city has seen fit to compensate Rock this amount of money.
Marty Sorensen, Lakewood
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The Colorado governor is probably underpaid at $90,000, but what The Post’s article more specifically reveals is how scandalously overpaid other “public servants” – county administrators, city managers and the Denver Water manager – are. How can these salaries be justified and by whom?
Dennis Hammond, Lakewood
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After reviewing the listed responsibilities outlined, and considering that Gov. Bill Owens has advocated pay-for-performance policies, the $90,000 salary which he is paid is far greater than what he deserves for his accomplishments. Should he be paid just for being governor? He certainly has not earned the amount he is paid based on his performance in office.
Morris W. Price, Denver
Post series: Teen crime, adult time
Re: “Teen crime, adult time,” Feb. 19-22 news series.
I want to thank The Denver Post for the series about the many children sentenced to adult prison without the possibility of parole. You have done a tremendous job of bringing this issue to light. I was shocked to read about the many men who are serving life without parole and saddened that they were not given an opportunity to be rehabilitated. It is very sad that they were thrown away at such young ages. It doesn’t lessen the sadness I have for the victims of the crimes, but I do believe that each one of the young men, who were minors when they committed their crimes, were salvageable and were victims as well.
I think no further hesitation should be given to changing a law that would sanction these children not being given an opportunity to get out of prison and become productive, law-abiding citizens. There are treatment programs available to these men if they just receive a chance to lead normal lives.
Thank you for bringing this most serious issue to light. It is important for our legislators to be aware of this problem and to do whatever is necessary to ensure that this injustice ceases immediately.
Marilyn Webb, Denver
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The Denver Post’s series on youth who committed crimes and are doing adult time has been long overdue. Independent researchers, examining brain development for evidence of schizophrenia prior to its late adolescent onset, have coincidentally discovered that human brains undergo dramatic changes during adolescence.
The average annual cost to keep a youth in a correctional facility is approximately $56,000. Each youth who spends 60 years in incarceration costs Colorado taxpayers $3.4 million in 2006 dollars. Those who work with troubled and at-risk adolescents know the value and importance of providing an intensive, pervasive, structured, consistent rehabilitative environment if youth are to become successful at diminishing dysfunctional behaviors and increasing appropriate behaviors. No adolescent who has committed a crime should be denied the opportunity to benefit from rehabilitative measures.
Peg Long, Executive Director, Colorado Association of Family & Children’s Agencies Inc., Denver
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I guess The Post’s series is supposed to make readers feel sorry for those killers. I refuse. They knew just what they were doing when they did it; they got just what they deserved. The people they killed will never draw another breath. These killers have free room and board for the rest of their lives. If they think I enjoy paying for their keep, they are wrong. I have better things to do with my money.
Frank Tice, Westminster
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Reporters Miles Moffeit and Kevin Simpson have done an excellent job informing the public concerning the Colorado law that allows teens to be sentenced as adults and be given life without parole. The law is necessary, and when the teen population is made more aware that they could serve life without parole, it should be a valuable deterrent to crimes of bodily harm.
But I believe there should be an additional check in the sentencing procedure to alleviate the questions of evidence, arrest procedures, interrogation, defense and general courtroom procedures that these reporters found in their research. Like, was Sam Mandez’s fingerprint on the victim’s window substantiated by two or more additional fingerprint experts? Was it explained how only one print could have been on the glass and nothing else attributed to the defendant? Was there sufficient other evidence along with the fingerprint to warrant the sentence imposed? Was the defense adequate?
I believe there should be a mandatory judicial review for all juveniles sentenced to life without parole. Not an appeals process to provide another method for lawyers to line their pockets at the state’s expense, but a three- judge panel, possibly comprised of former state Supreme Court justices, who would have the knowledge and experience to make such reviews. If the justice panel found errors or omissions, the case would be returned to the sentencing court for explanations or corrections.
Such an addition to the law should also retroactively include the same judicial review process for those currently in prison who were sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed as a teen. This would remove the questions these reporters have found that exist today concerning at least several of these convictions.
Clyde C. Slonaker, Canon City
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While I commend you for this series, I do question your decision to place it on the front page.
The front page is typically reserved for stories of major national impact, and while this series is of great interest to the general public, your highlighting of these teens in such a prominent place would send the wrong message to the readers. I refer specifically to Tuesday’s story, headlined “Scars of abuse concealed,” where the former teen killer in question, Nathan Ybanez, who is being incarcerated for killing his mother, is shown in an obviously posed photo that spreads over half the page. You are, in effect, according him the status of an icon. You are actually telling our young people that it is all right to kill your parents if conditions at home become unbearable.
An emotive series like this would be better served if you ran it in the inside pages, with a front-page blurb as highlight; and if you think Ybanez is photogenic, his picture should not be more than a “mug shot.”
Jane P. Chew, Littleton
Bill Ritter’s abortion stance
Re: “Ritter not rigid in his abortion views,” Feb. 19 Susan Barnes-Gelt column.
I was astonished to read that Susan Barnes-Gelt values Bill Ritter’s principles as a Democrat, despite his obvious anti-choice views on women’s reproductive rights. Barnes-Gelt mentioned that Ritter’s devout faith in Catholicism took him to Africa to feed the hungry. This good deed, however, does not correlate with whether he is a viable Democratic candidate for governor. Furthermore, her claim that Ritter is “not rigid” on abortion laws is neither a good nor well-founded reason why Democrats should support him. Colorado Democrats have yet to find a suitable candidate for governor, and she/he will be one committed to both protecting health care alternatives for women and helping find programs to reduce unintended pregnancies, without being afraid to categorize herself/himself as pro-choice.
Courtney Hibbard, Denver
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For years I have encouraged my Republican friends to not be single-topic voters. I ask them to vote not just on abortion, but also consider all a candidate has to offer. Consider not just the “unborn” children, but the ones who are currently not receiving adequate health care, education, clean water, air and food. Now I find myself needing to make the same request of my Democratic friends. When considering whom to support for governor, it is time to look beyond the pro-this-anti-that abortion question. It is time to elevate the discussion to the health and welfare of all the children of our state. The man to lead this discussion is Bill Ritter. Thank you to Susan Barnes-Gelt for helping to get this discussion started.
Paul T. Deger, Denver
Election worries
Re: “Counties support all-mail election; Vote machines still not certified,” Feb. 19 news story.
There is clear evidence that mail elections are currently the method of choice for election fraud. As The Post’s article notes, mail-in elections were defeated on the ballot in 2002, and mail-in elections are currently prohibited by Colorado law in a general election. How much more clearly can the will of the people be expressed?
Yet Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle, and other unnamed Chicken Little county clerks, would have us believe the sky is falling because voting machines for handicapped voters have not yet been certified. What Doyle disingenuously neglects to mention is that in a mail-in election the ballots will be counted by the same non-certified machines. The only difference is that the ballots will then be counted on those machines in a back room, out of public view, in stark contrast with the scrutiny inherent in precinct voting.
Perhaps the sky isn’t falling and we should stick with the will of the people rather than the hysteria of a few county clerks. Elections in 2006 should be conducted in polling places as mandated by law.
Charles E. Corry, President, Equal Justice Foundation, Colorado Springs
Reforming Denver’s Manual High School
I want to commend the Denver School Board and Superintendent Michael Bennet for making some tough decisions regarding the future of Manual High School. One just needs to look at the statistics of where this school and its students have been going the past four years to determine that the school and educational process are broken and need to be fixed. Only 28 percent of the incoming 2002 freshmen are still enrolled. As much as the students and families in this school claim this to be a neighborhood school, a clear 54 percent of their neighbors are not in agreement and are opting to attend other high schools outside the neighborhood.
Sadly, these kids’ educational needs are not being met by this school. The school board needs to be commended for calling it like it is: broke. The challenge for Bennett and the board now is to fix this and in doing so create a real miracle for these kids. Find educators who are as vested in educating these kids as they are in collecting their paychecks. Challenge these kids to harness and re-channel the energy that they demonstrated in their walkout to be part of the solution. This could be such an exciting opportunity to really make a difference in so many lives and the futures of these kids. Let’s give them a chance.
Vicki Turner, Centennial
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The closing of Manual High School is one more example of the Denver pattern of failed school “reform.” There are consistent factors present in every attempted and subsequent failed “reform” in Denver Public Schools. First, the “reform” is initiated from outside the district. At Manual, the Gates Foundation and the Colorado Children’s Campaign persuaded the district to adopt the “small-school model.” Second, parents/guardians of the students enrolled in the school are prohibited from voting, directly, on the proposed change.
The exclusion of parents from voting occurred at Manual, even though there was a district policy in effect at the time requiring such polling. Third, there is no transitional planning. Fourth, there is no independent, objective monitoring of the process of the reform to evaluate its effectiveness or its impact on students. Fifth, the reform fails. Sixth, the elected school board is not held accountable for the failure. Lucia Guzman and Kevin Patterson, the Denver Board of Education members who oversaw the “small-schools” experiment at Manual, were both recently re-elected without opposition. Finally, the failure becomes the rationale for a new “reform,” which repeats the pattern. What is not so easy to categorize is the anguish of students.
Joanne Marie Roll, Denver
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As a part-time substitute for Denver Public Schools, I have had firsthand experience with all three of the Manual High School academies. Most of this was in longer-term assignments in math and science. My expectations are simple: Students should come to class on time with an open mind, prepared with pencil and paper, take your seat quietly while roll is taken, and await instructions; and when instructions are given, do your best to follow them. I am always available to those who have problems with assignments. After two weeks of consistent effort in both subjects, I was not able to overcome resistance to these simple requirements.
Teachers are blamed for poor student performance, but when students come to class armed with cellphones, music players and sullen resentment of any and all requirements, this is not the teacher’s fault.
There is no doubt as to the basic intelligence of these students. They are adept at figuring out how to program a cellphone or an iPod and getting multimedia content on the Internet, but when given class time to complete assignments in a specific subject area, they will invariably break up into their cliques and goof off the rest of the period. When held accountable, they complain about time constraints and poor instruction.
The full-time teachers I have met are dedicated professionals whose motivation goes above and beyond the rewards they receive. It is time that students and parents own up to their part of the educational bargain.
Larry Marquardt, Lakewood
TO THE POINT: Short takes from readers
What a comfort it is to know that the security at our nation’s ports may soon be managed by the United Arab Emirates. I suppose next we will hire al-Qaeda to run the Pentagon.
Ray Yedinak, Highlands Ranch
My confidential sources tell me that, because of recent happenings, the Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn will be canceled this year. Apparently, there have been more than 100,000 requests from journalists to be the first to report on the secret hiding places of the eggs.
Daryl E. Carroll, Arvada
Instead of selling scenic lands in the West, as the federal government is suggesting, why don’t we sell off Washington, D.C.? That way we could kill two birds with one sale: pay down the national debt and get rid of this disastrous government that we have in Washington.
David Luck, Denver
The president’s wiretapping literally negates that famous American sentiment: “Let freedom ring.”
Susan Steinway, Lakewood
Using the term “insurgents” to refer to the troublemakers in Iraq is improper. Since they are so successfully preventing us from attaining our goals there, shouldn’t they be referred to as “detergents”?
Bob Potter, Denver
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