It’s an odd state of affairs when a newly elected county treasurer, who ran on a platform of helping people get out of foreclosure, is about to lose his own home.
We’re talking about Arapahoe County, of course, and just-elected Democratic Treasurer Doug Milliken, whose financially troubling history doesn’t stop with just foreclosure.
Milliken racked up more than $81,000 in debt, most of it on credit cards, before declaring bankruptcy in 1993.
He conveyed a disturbing lack of understanding about mortgage insurance when he said his would cover what he owed before his house was auctioned.
And even as Milliken was missing house payments, he spent more than $12,000 on his campaign.
Milliken’s track record as part-time treasurer in Centennial doesn’t inspire confidence either.
Officials there say he was stripped of some money-handling duties because he showed himself incapable of doing them. He has brushed aside such criticism as inaccurate and politically motivated.
One of the other unfortunate aspects of this situation is why Milliken’s opponent in the race for county treasurer, Republican Sue Sandstrom, didn’t go public with Milliken’s performance in Centennial. She said she didn’t want to engage in negative campaigning.
Sometimes negative information about a candidate is relevant, and the voters deserves to hear it.
There seem to be few avenues of recourse for concerned county residents. If he were to resign, Arapahoe County commissioners would appoint a replacement. (The commissioners already have voted to increase insurance on the treasurer from $10,000 to $500,000.) Citizens could organize a recall, but they’d have to wait until after Milliken has served six months and then collect 40,000 signatures.
That leaves the uncomfortable coincidence that Milliken will have his house sold out from under him just as he begins managing $1 billion a year for Arapahoe County, for which he’ll earn $87,000 a year.
As Milliken prepares to take office, he should make plans to get right with his debtors. And he should carefully consider whether his being in the treasurer’s job is in the public’s best interest or even his own. Milliken is entering office with a very public set of strikes against him, a handicap for any official.
