ver’s license. And the bill specifies that themoney we save by ending the taxpayersubsidy of background checks should go tofund our mental health programs.

The overwhelming majority of firearmsowners in Colorado are honest, law-abid-ing and well-balanced. I do not want themto feel stigmatized just because they areexercising their constitutionally guaran-teed rights under the Second Amendment.

But horrific episodes like Columbine andAurora, and more recently the slaughter ofchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, tendto arouse suspicions against all gun own-ers. It’s unfair to all the law-abiding gunowners, but with each new outrage thatcloud of suspicion grows.

National Rifle Association card-carryingresidents of my legislative district havecontacted me to ask what they can do to bepart of the solution to the gun violence thathas had such a deep impact on Americaand especially on Colorado.

I have asked these constituents, and Iask all who read this editorial, to join mein supporting common-sense measures toreduce gun violence.

I expect to see a variety of such bills in-troduced in the Colorado legislature thissession. But at a minimum we should sup-port closing loopholes that make it easierfor felons, domestic abusers and those withdangerous mental illnesses to obtain weap-ons. And we should take the expense ofbackground checks off the backs of all tax-payers and shift it to those who are pur-chasing the guns.

February 2013 Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle 3Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle

Founded 1996P. O. Box 460429, Glendale, CO 80246

e-mail: newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com303-312-1808

Production Facility:2110 S. Ash St., Suite 22, Denver, CO 80222

“So the people may know”Publisher: Charles C. Bonniwell

www.glendalecherrycreek.com

Editor in Chief: Ed ThomasExecutive Editor: Glen RichardsonContent Editor/Feature Reporter: Laura LieffNeighborhood Reporters:

Rebecca Allen, James Bowie and Courtni Vecchiarelli

Staff Photographer: Debbie FordProduction: Southeast Denver Graphics

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Steve Mast and Lynda Allyne WatkinsOwner: Cherokee Trail, L.L.C.

by Lois Court (D)House District 6 Representative

in east-central Denver In 1999, after the massacre at Columbine

High School left an indelible stain on Col-orado’s history, voters in our state over-whelmingly approved a change in our lawsclosing a loophole in the state backgroundcheck system for firearms purchases. Theloophole had allowed people who boughtguns at gun shows to avoid the requiredbackground check performed by the Col-orado Bureau of Investigation.

In 2013, after the massacre at the Century16 Theater in Aurora seared another scaron our collective memory, it is time to closean even larger loophole in our backgroundcheck system — the one that exempts gunbuyers who make their purchases from pri-vate sellers, not licensed gun dealers. TheUnited States Department of Justice esti-mates that 40 percent of all gun purchasesfall into this category.

My colleague, Rep. Rhonda Fields, willintroduce a bill this session to close the pri-vate sellers’ loophole. I will be a co-spon-sor of this legislation, which I believe willbe one of the most effective things we cando to help Colorado turn the tide on gunviolence.

But closing this loophole comes with aprice. Under current law, Colorado taxpay-ers foot the entire bill for the CBI “insta-check” system, which screens for convict-ed felons, domestic abusers and those withmental illnesses that make them a dangerto themselves or others. The CBI says thecost for each background check is onlyabout $10. But if we continue to subsidizegun buyers’ background checks, Rep.Fields’ bill will cost us $750,000 on top ofthe $1 million we taxpayers already pay forbackground checks for gun shop and gunshow purchases.

We taxpayers shouldn’t be in the busi-ness of paying for gun owners to pass back-ground checks. That’s why the legislativeJoint Budget Committee recently refused arequest from the Department of PublicSafety for an additional $500,000 to helpeliminate a backlog of background checkrequests.

I will sponsor a companion bill to Rep.Fields’ measure that would require gunpurchasers to pick up the cost of undergo-ing a background check. The cost will coverthe CBI’s actual “instacheck” expenses andwill be less than the cost of obtaining a dri-

Lois Court

EditorialDPS Superintendent Boasberg— Losing Public Support One

Neighborhood At A TimeThis editorial page has been a fervent supporter of the four-person majority on the

Denver Public Schools Board of Education who are reforming the public schools byproviding educational opportunity for all of Denver’s kids. The majority has donethis work notwithstanding the, at times, adamant opposition of the teachers’ union(Denver Classroom Teachers Association). We have provided editorial space forBoard President Nate Easley to explain the necessity for the reforms. The publisherof this paper had Mr. Easley on his radio program to explain why the public shouldsupport what the majority of members of the Board of Education are trying to accom-plish. We also printed an editorial that strongly supported DPS’srequest of the voters for a large increase in the mill levy in thelast election which passed overwhelmingly despite the opposi-tion of the teachers’ union.

It is therefore extremely painful to have to note that what weview the administration of DPS, under Superintendent TomBoasberg, to be acting increasing unethically with respect toneighborhoods across the City and County of Denver. Boasberg’slack of a moral compass is perhaps a result of being involved toolong in the take-no-prisoners trench warfare with the Denverteachers’ union on virtually every reform undertaken. Unionrepresentatives regularly seek media contacts to point out whatthey believe is unethical conduct by the DPS administration and some in the unionbelieve that criminal investigations may now be warranted.

Unfortunately, citizens in various neighborhoods in the Cherry Creek Valley havebegun to believe that the teachers’ union may have a point after all, at least regardingBoasberg and his underlings. As reported last month in the Chronicle, the residents ofthe Lynwood neighborhood woke up one morning to find a massive industrial solarfarm being constructed by DPS on the open space next to Place Bridge Academy.Apparently DPS felt it could simply ignore zoning and public notice requirements inorder to avoid any possible neighborhood opposition. While DPS’s COO DavidSuppes grudgingly acknowledged the lack of notice and outreach, the residents foundtheir concerns roundly ignored by DPS as the building of the solar farm went on unabat-ed with just some minor window dressing and a ham-handed PR campaign.

Channel 7, in a follow-up investigation on the solar farm scandal, reported thatBoasberg had already signed a contract for the project with massive termination penal-ties two months prior to any effort to involve the public. According to the report anoperating phrase for the Boasberg’s DPS administration is, “Act now, ask for forgive-ness later,’’ a fact confirmed by Board of Education member Jeannie Kaplan.

In mid-December Historic Denver caught Boasberg and DPS filing for a “Certificateof Non-Historic Status” for the hundred-year-old Emily Griffith Opportunity Schoolin downtown Denver. The certificate would have given DPS a five-year window tosimply tear down the historic school without further historical review. Historic Den-ver’s Executive Director Annie Levinsky also ferreted out that Boasberg had attempt-ed, without Board permission, to get a permit to demolish the landmark school.Historic Denver accused Boasberg and DPS of once again demonstrating a “lack oftransparency” as well as violating DPS’s preservation policy.

Boasberg, caught red-handed, attempted to backtrack and promised to take backthe certificate, but citizens, noting the solar farm fiasco, wondered whether this wasonce again simply window dressing to cover up questionable activities without anyreal intent of changing DPS’s intended action.

Chronicle readers are also well aware of Boasberg and DPS’s disgraceful conductregarding de-designating a significant part of Hentzell Park in order to develop theproperty. Mayor Hancock created a spot on the Denver Parks and Recreation Boardfilled by the dubious character, J.T. Allen, who heads DPS’s Bond Program and Con-struction Services. Boasberg’s first action was trying to seize Hentzell Park’s openspace by demanding Dannemiller de-designate nine acres of the park as “natural habi-tat.” Few knew that the real purpose of putting a DPS representative on the ParksBoard was apparently to seize open space for DPS. The entire Hentzell Park swaphas a strong odor to it and few would be totally surprised at the end of the day ifsome of Mayor Hancock’s developer friends don’t end up the primary beneficiariesof all the complicated machinations.

In many ways J.T. Allen has become the poster child for all that is wrong with theDPS administration under Boasberg. Notwithstanding an ethics complaint alreadybeing filed against him for attempting to influence a Board decision where he hadan admitted conflict, Allen openly lobbied for the DPS swap at a public Parks Boardmeeting. His conduct was so egregious that a packed audience groaned and booedhim and the Board chair demanded he cease his unethical conduct.

Allen gives the impression, as a DPS representative, that he is above the normalethical constraints of all other Parks Board members. It is noted that the citizens fight-ing DPS’s actions regarding the Emily Griffith Opportunity School have charged thatBoasberg violated board policy regarding debt management by undertaking a halfbillion dollar bond sale without consulting with the audit and finance committees.We assume Allen, as Senior Director of DPS’s Bond Program, was also right in themiddle of this debacle.

Citizen advocates have noted the cavalier way that Allen seems to treat his ethi-cal obligations as a Parks Board member. If mirrored in his role as Senior Director ofthe Bond Program, his behavior could have far more serious implications and somebelieve that a full investigation of Allen in his Bond Program role needs to be scrupu-lously undertaken.

Nate Easley, the former president of the DPS Board, announced in early Januarythat he had had enough fun sitting on the DPS Board and was resigning at the endof the month. Given the animosity between the remaining six Board members, whonow split evenly between teacher union advocates and the reformers, no consensusreplacement candidate is likely to arise. Under the applicable Colorado statute, if noreplacement can be agreed upon within 60 days of the vacancy, the president of theBoard (Mary Seawell, a reformer) would appoint the newest member.

The first thing the new DPS Board member should do is lead the fight to fire Boas-berg as superintendent as well as, most assuredly, J.T. Allen. The reform members ofthe DPS Board need to regain the public’s trust that Boasberg and his underlings haveso promiscuously thrown away one neighborhood at a time. If they don’t the publicmay decide, in the next election, to side with the teacher union advocates on the prem-ises that they will at least fire Boasberg and shake up the DPS administrative staffshould they ever be given the chance. — Editorial Board

Guest Editorial

Close The PrivateGun Sale Loophole

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SuperintendentTom Boasberg

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