Dvorak... An Explanation for all seasons.
Honesty / Integrity / values... These words I am SO used to seeing on campaign signs. The people want these values in folks they vote into office, I mean, wouldn't you ?
Conversely, Bill Dvorak is not campaigning on the honesty platform, he's campaigning on Leadership. Alright, Bill claims to be a leader. But to be an effective leader, one needs to have followers. Followers tend to flock to honesty, however Dvorak isn't campaigning on that platform.
True leadership is not just about starting something. It is about putting the pieces in place to ensure that the initiative continues to function and grow long after one is gone. When a project evolves from being a personal quest to a recognized and adopted societal good, then you’ve been a leader. Then you’ve created a legacy.
Integrity, there's another strong platform, but Dvorak is campaigning on Experience instead? What experience does Dvorak possess as a County Commissioner ? That's right, none. And he's not publicly claiming to have any integrity either, at least not that I have witnessed.
Results. Okay, so not campaigning on values, which is evidenced by being in trouble for trespass, poaching, tax evasion, numerous and flagrant violations of the AHRA Special Use agreement his rafting company holds. And that's all we're aware of, how many other skeletons are in the closet ? Not the sort of values I'd embrace in a County Commissioner, his "results" thing isn't what I'd look for either.
Here's the results from Dvorak's perspective. Wild claims about broadband, the boat ramp, reinventing the Chaffee County economy, being one of the very first outfitters on the Arkansas, coining the phrase “Now This Is Chaffee County”, instituting the county lodging tax and visitors bureau, creating the AHRA, etc…
When did Paul Bunyan change his name to Bill Dvorak ?!?!?! From letters to the editor supporting Dvorak, most are from career politicians, very few local folk have seen fit to extol Bill in the papers and when they do, all they do is parrot the half truths and rhetoric that comes from Bill.
He DID effectively assist a questionable end run around Congress in order to have a National Monument formed thru executive fiat, instead of following the rules and processes in place to prevent abuses of the law. Sidestepped it entirely. And now that we have the designation, what's changed other than a bright new level of bureaucracy has come to the valley?
At this point, the Chaffee County Democrats seem desperate to discredit Greg Felt in any way they can. It truly seems that they have become an entity that exists solely to perpetuate itself. They don’t really listen to what is being said, much less to themselves. And they see no irony in attacking Greg Felt for accepting a completely legal campaign contribution while explaining away the documented fact that Dvorak stole $80,000 in employee social security, medicare, and federal income tax withholding payments.
Sure, he paid it back (though it sounds like he still owes penalties and interest), but only after he got caught. He always has an explanation for everything, but when do people wake up and wonder why so many explanations are necessary? And now they want the unaffiliated candidate to return the large legal contribution he received because it’s unfair to the major party candidates?
The Democrats desperation comes from the issue that there simply isn't any negative "dirt" to be dug up on Greg. That should tell you something right there.
Vote for Greg Felt, he IS campaigning on Integrity, respect, and wants to work toward strengthening the community and protecting the resources that make Chaffee County the gem it is.
Comments
Marshall,
As a volunteer on Bill's campaign, I can tell you Bill made a conscious decision to not look for dirt to discredit his opponents. He chose to focus on providing clarity about what he wants to do as a County Commissioner and how to address the serious issues our County faces. If there is an issue you care about, you should have been able to get a clear response on where Bill stands. Perhaps there is no dirt on Greg. Or maybe there is. The point is Bill chose TO NOT EVEN GO LOOK FOR IT.
In contrast, the opposition has tried to discredit him since this campaign started using official CORA requests, providing misleading information about his financial hardships and company record keeping , and opinion piece after opinion piece offering a character assassination like this one. Perhaps he has "an excuse for everything" because "the facts" being presented are being so distorted by the opposition to ensure a win at any cost.
Webster's defines integrity two ways. One, a person having strong moral principals and moral uprightness. The other, maintaining a state of being whole and undivided. Bill has demonstrated that he is willing to put our County first by choosing to not run a negative campaign in order to ensure we remain a community. To me that is exactly the type of leadership we need.
As a volunteer, I've found the increasingly negative tone of this local race disheartening. So has Bill. I presume so have many in the community. I hope we can all make a conscious effort, like Bill has, to put the County's integrity and interest above personal gain. Let's spend the remainder of the election cycle discussing what matters: what we want for the future of our County and how the different candidates think they will get us there.
Sincerely,
Marjo Curgus
The fact of the matter is both Greg and Bill are good people. I know both of them and like both of them. I am not alone, as both are well liked personally and both are respected by their peers and the larger community. We are lucky to have two good candidates to chose from. Maybe the reason we so often must vote for the lessor of two evils in national elections is because not many good people want to run because of nasty posts like the one above.
I'm voting for Bill because he has spent years accomplishing hard goals in public policy. I think Greg has potential but far less experience. I think housing is our biggest problem Solving it will involve public private partnerships and hopefully state or federal money and I know Bill has much experience in this area that Greg does not have. Bill did engineer a public/private partnership deal with Coors and the city to make the boat ramp a reality. Bill used his contacts in state and Federal government to make Browns canyon a reality. I am hopeful he can do the same for our housing crisis. In listening to him speak on this subject I know he is passionate about it and has specific plans and ideas to implement. I wish both men well and my vote will be for Bill Dvorak.
"I think housing is our biggest problem Solving it will involve public private partnerships and hopefully state or federal money ..... "
Hopefully, hopefully ....
Perhaps let's start with some development code changes at both the municipal and county levels? Housing is expensive because square footage is expensive. Smaller units (200 - 300 ft2 / individual) with "Tokyo" design elements for raft guides and ski lift operators, more flexibility of use of space in backyard ADUs (instead of just one unit up to 700 ft2 maybe 750 ft2 w/ up to 3 units?), LOWER tap fees for small units, easing of off-street parking requirements in city, and maybe similar in the county, plus mobile home parks (?).
Just start googling. Solutions are there. Draft codes are there.
We might also put a ballot initiative at city or county level to allocate some of our tax revenues into a down-payment assistance pool, for families and such. We have the intellect in this community to craft the details of such a program, and other cities have done so. We will have a waiting list, but we will also have a start, and the program could grow to help more and more people. Here's a discussion of such a proposal in Eagle County: Eagle County ballot initiative 1A.
In other resort towns, private employers have made their own solutions, also. I remember Vail's 20-unit or so trailer park in Edwards in the 79/80 season, sitting all by itself, a 15-mile long distance phone call from Vail. There's a lot more trailers there now.
Here's an interesting perspective. Town of Vail broke ground in 2014 on a 133 unit "affordable housing" development in 2014 to replace the old "Timber Ridge." Another 70-unit project was approved for west Edwards in 2015, but it only had 18 "affordable" units. At that time, Eagle County figured it only needed another 4,853 "affordable" units. Id. Seriously. This is the problem we're dealing with.
We can have years and years of meetings of well-intentioned people chasing federal dollars, or we can start NOW crafting development code changes and creating programs that will incentivize private dollars to address the problem through multiple points of attack. This is pretty much the approach suggested by the consultant hired by City of Salida a few months back, I think.
Will locally-crafted solutions solve the whole problem? Probably not. Will a multi-unit building or two eventually constructed with the help of federal dollars solve the whole problem? Probably not, either. But the former is faster with less cost than the latter.
Plus our nation is $20 trillion in debt. Let's address local problems locally, as much as possible, without relying on scarce and difficult federal grant dollars. And I wondered in 5th grade civics class why they were teaching us about government grants...
Finally, whosoever amongst you wants to meld "Vandaveer" and "affordable housing" into the same sentence, please show at least a "back of the envelope" calculation how that's going to work, given the lack of infrastructure as well as the horrendous level of debt with which some former board members of the NRCDC encumbered the whole property. Haven't ever seen one yet, even during discussion of the LCI deal. "Affordable housing on Vandaveer" is pollyanna fantasy without somebody laying out a plan, and the facts on the ground make a workable plan very difficult to construct.
Marjo,
While you rightly point out that there's no "dirt" to be dug up on Greg Felt, the facts about Dvorak are indisputable, and they are well documented. I'm attaching the DOW report again, here's the link to debunk his "explanation" about his lies about drought years forcing him to steal money from the feds.
http://bit.ly/2eK60f9. These are real documented facts, Not Dvorak's version of events.
There's a huge difference there. They aren't distorted or changed in any way. Neither is the data here, http://dvorakriverviolations.com. Law enforcement reports, AHRA records, Federal tax liens, vs. Dvorak's version of events. Poor Bill, so wrongly done to, so many times. One would think that all these independent agencies have it out for poor Bill.
Is it unfortunate for Bill that his past is so checkered and colorful, Bill made his bed over the years, and now he has to sleep in it. While you gave us Websters definition of integrity, you never did tie it to Bill past saying that there wasn't any dirt for him to dig up on his opponents, defacto integrity? What a concept.
Is this the same line of thought where Greg should give back the completely legal contribution he received as it was perceived by Dvorak to be unfair to poor Dvorak, the major party candidate? Funny that none of the other candidates are upset about this development.
How about the irony of Dvorak championing the creation of Browns National Monument, ostensibly to protect the area, all the while lobbying for Christo to be allowed to virtually destroy the very same river canyon 15 miles downstream? More integrity ? Or would that be leadership and results ?
Bill figured he'd reap the profits from both endeavors, so without any thought to the underlying consequences, he backed both protection and destruction of the very same river valley 15 miles apart, as he thought he would profit from both. Thankfully that ridiculous project has been shut down for now.
In the many years I have known Bill, I've personally never known him to undertake anything that he didn't think would directly benefit him, and as we all can see from the facts, he has never worried himself about taking the "Moral High Road" in his endeavors, and when caught with his fingers in the proverbial cookie jar, massaged, "mis-spoke" and embellished the facts to suit HIS version of events, replete with explanation after explanation. As I said, one should wonder why everything related to Bill needs an explanation.
The other candidates aren't explaining everything away. That should tell you something right there.
I'll end with a quote from Albert Einstein which fits Dvorak well.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts. -- Albert Einstein
Marshall,
You clarify my point exactly. Clearly there has been a dedicated effort by those in or associated with the Felt campaign to use opposition research. Opposition research is the the "investigation into the dealings of political opponents, typically in order to discredit them publicly." CORA requests were filed, websites created, letters to the editors written. These take time, money, and energy. The desired outcome being to frame the other candidates as more trustworthy. There is no doubt it is an effective strategy to cast a shadow of doubt on a person. Bill's campaign deliberately chose NOT to use this strategy. Integrity is demonstrated in how you choose to run your campaign - the tactics you chose to employ and how you fund the campaign.
It would be better for our community if the campaigns had all focused on the differences between candidates policy positions, approaches to problem solving, values about the role of government, etc. There are clear differences on all these matters among all the five candidates. That is what matters to most of us.
Sincerely,
Marjo Curgus
Ok, you can choose to look at it like that, but there was very little research needed, most of what Dvorak has done, has hit the front page of the paper, just like Ray Kitson getting into a fight in his bar.
Had Dvorak not been so much in the public eye, and in the public arena, by his own doing, folks likely would have a much harder time finding things about his character that were unsuitable for one running for public office.
I have not, and will not drag someone down, simply to "Frame the other candidates as trustworthy". I have not written anything which isn't true to the VERY best of my knowledge, and backed it all up with cold, hard documented facts.
The other candidates don't seem to have had a past filled with questionable acts, illegal actions, and just a general disregard of what I think most folk believe to be right and wrong. Bombastic rhetoric, a general pompous air, self serving actions, arrests, liens and fines, they all add up.
Now it's come to bite him in the butt, and you accuse me of wrongfully taking him to task for what he's done, and rightfully extrapolating, in my mind anyway, the actions he would take, in MY opinion which would most certainly be detrimental to Chaffee County as a whole, should he gain office. And you find it odd that I spend time writing letters in public forums ?
While I read a full color ad in today's Mountain Mail where Dvorak is insinuating Greg Felt can be bought. This is ludicrous, based in nothing other than the desperate fears of Dvorak, no basis in fact at all, but yet your beloved Bill has stooped every bit as low as I'd expect him to go in an attempt to discredit his opponent thru little more than vicious innuendo.
No fact, nothing to back any of it up. Rumor and innuendo, the signs of desperation. You consider this running a campaign with integrity ?
You sir have proved MY point exactly.
Marshall - I just learned your last name is Nicolls. I am wondering if you are any relation to the Bob Nicolls who donated the $13,000 to Greg Felt's campaign and who put up the website for the specific purpose of throwing dirt at Bill Dvorak?
My last name is Nichols, not Nicolls, no relation , not even a distant one, I actually have never met the man, and I gave up coding websites 15 years ago as I suck at it.
From where I and many I know stand, nobody is "throwing dirt", by bringing to light well documented actions that I believe should disqualify Dvorak.
Bill Dvorak brought all of this on himself when he chose to break the law, steal from the federal government, on and on ad infinitum and then try to lie his way out of it thru the numerous "Explanations" that don't even come close to fitting in with the facts.
Had Dvorak thought about the consequences of his past actions BEFORE taking them, perhaps his background would be as clean as the other candidates running.
And for what it's worth, I haven't donated anything past my literary talents to Greg Felt's campaign. I do have a bumper sticker on my car though.
I don't know Marshall either
As to throwing dirt. I would not have had to create a website with PARTIAL FACTS on Dvorak had he come clean and self reported pertinent information to the public.
We still do not know how many violations he has incurred on other rivers, though we'll get that info after the election. And, we don't know the full extent of his liens from other businesses in the county whom he did not pay. Lastly, we don't know if he has paid his FAIR share of taxes to the government. We know he did not pay his REQUIRED share of employer taxes. Remember, I was only alerted to these FACTS by other concerned citizens and have done no research on Dvorak myself.
The true and full extent of his garbage will be known at a later date
Bob Nicolls