Current Watch: "GSCRA President admits under oath to more public funds use for personal gain"

This update post is brought to you today by ‘guyinathinsuit’, co-founder of ‘smalltown7'.

"From August 6 2012, on through her own testimony admission under oath on August 13, 2012, the President and CEO of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association was named by fourteen sworn under oath individuals as the primary leader of a vigilante group of three women who sought to take the law into their own hands over a period of five years.

With the now publicly documented power and assistance of the 9^th Judicial District Office of the District Attorney Martin Beeson.

With the now publicly stated cooperation in local media by Virgili herself, and by the publicly documented through her own testimony:  apathy of GSCRA, the City of Glenwood Springs City Council, COGS administration and city tourism boards (past and present). With the Glenwood Springs Police Department and Garfield County Sheriff’s cooperation due to their now publicly documented through the district attorney's office own sworn admissions;  absence of enforcing and protecting the law over the five year period in question; these fourteen individuals spoke in different ways regarding Marianne Virgili’s leadership of this vigilante effort.

What is especially noteworthy in each of these individual testimonies is that none of them retracted in any way how significant and involved Virgili was as she gathered them in her effort. Most gave detail and were not reluctant in doing so.

One of Virgili’s cohorts was named repeatedly by the majority of testimony; with the third woman involved being made the obvious scapegoat by Virgili herself under oath as the trial heated up and pressure on the prosecution increased. Locals recognize that pattern of Marianne in shifting blame and dirtying of others hands any time she is put into an unfavorable public eye. ‘smalltown7' does not condone the actions of the third woman of this group but does recognize her vulnerability to that unbridled power now.

What is ironically noteworthy in further testimony by Virgili on 13 August, are her admissions under oath of her use of GSCRA credit for personal use and her justification of her actions once again being accepted as a proper use of public funds by the GSCRA Board of Directors.

Locals can think back to the year 2005 and the ‘odd’ use (still not fully accounted for in 2012) of $86,000 plus change of public funds within GSCRA and accused by former whistles as inappropriate use of public funds and reimbursements.

Locals can now add on an admitted on 13 August 2012, by Virgili, of nearly $11,000 (spent in 2008) for personal use that was "paid back" by John and Marianne Virgili on an undisclosed by the District Attorney date in 2009 and only after still yet another exposure by a whistle blower.

All local business owners can continue to watch Marianne, as spokesperson on behalf of this one 501C-6 organization, rob them of their voice and proclaim through local print media that they can rest safely in their beds at night as long as she and her vigilantism is at the helm of our business community.

One of my co-founders of ‘smalltown7' coined a phrase a few years back that I am going to borrow part of now:

"The irony does not escape me.." that any resident of 81601, who blindly follows the power of a few in our business community that are headed by such individuals as Virgili and GSCRA, can also rest easy in their beds at night knowing that the full, totalitarian power of the state is behind GSCRA and such people as Marianne no matter how unethical, unlawful and presumptuous their actions may be.

Roughly a year or so ago, ‘smalltown7' announced here on safeplace that we pulled more than a decade of CORA and FOIA records on tourism board contracts, funds spent and various other information. We then took that information and laid it out side by side with hard and dated evidence of Virgili’s now admitted under oath vigilante efforts, what the court and public have had held back from their view by the power of the state over the past three years  in hard evidence of wrongdoing by Virgili and the actual production of viable tourism gain against accommodations revenue in 81601.

Last week, after realizing that the testimony of Virgili herself gives now more publicly documented proof of ‘odd’ handling of public funds by Virgili and the decision making by GSCRA to justify all that Marianne does; we logged that information into a detailed time line spanning from 2004 through to present day.

The trail of swift and near immediate social and business retaliation to anyone, whistle or otherwise that dares to speak up in either question or protest of any abuse by GSCRA or Virgili, is documented from 2004 so very clearly in our time line we all had to step back and triple check the data.

Between city records, public revenue records, hard data from all who have suffered over the years at that hand of vengeance and the now sworn admissions by others and Virgili herself as to specific dates; there is no denying that the City of Glenwood Springs, all related city, county, federal law enforcement and the 9^th Judicial District have turned their eyes and backs on investigating valid complaints over the years.

‘smalltown7' has seen nothing in the outcome of the vigilante efforts of Marianne Virgili to sway us from our support of the latest whistle. In fact, after now seeing the catastrophic abuse of the power of the state and the near rape of law and ethics by the state in its blind support of Virgili and cohorts; we stand more firmly than ever behind the latest whistle as she moves through the appellate process.

The outpouring of email to us since Virgli’s testimony and the testimony of 14 others naming Marianne has been tremendous.

We agree with you that the supporting of Randi Lowenthal’s newest efforts to boost small business within 81601 is to be supported heavily and we encourage you to throw monetary support to Randi’s resource. We thank COGS City Council for finally recognizing Randi’s efforts are the best for our business community.

Coming up in early September at city council is a request for COGS to release to the current tourism marketing vendor of GSCRA, the additional funds left over from the accommodations tax collections.  JUST SAY NO.  Until the day comes when the City of Glenwood Springs takes full stewardship and responsibility for every questionable  decision made by the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association; JUST SAY NO to the release of more public funds into that non-profit entity's hands. 

We agree with you that there is no place within our business community for any organization, but especially one in a position of the trust of a non-profit, that abuses their power to such an extent it brings harm of any kind to a business or individual within our community. Boycott and speak up against in whatever way you can safely do so.  The depth of overwhelming arrogance and self-righteous declaration of being above the law was so pronounced as I sat in the gallery and watched this trial; I was ashamed to be a member of the bar here in the 9^th. Our legal communities within our district are currently filled with similar feeling members.

As strong and dare we say, now powerful conservative voices within our community, we urge you to vote for Democrat Sherry Caloia for District Attorney of the 9^th and completely clean house on every available seat upcoming within our BOCC and City Council. For the first time in my life, I am voting blue instead of red on a number of those upcoming seats.  You should too.

Out of consideration for the appellate efforts of the latest whistle, comment ability on this post is blocked.

‘smalltown7' once again turns the volume back on, turns it up and keeps talking."

Current Watch: "The price paid to have the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Assoc. as our tourism marketing vendor"

‘glenwoodsprings22’, founder ‘smalltown7’ has this one today.

“Coming up on July 14, the new tourism board under Ordinance #12 Series of 2010, chooses the 2012—2013 tourism marketing vendor.

Hill Aevium, who created our logo brand of “Soak it all in” and gave us the baseline for what we’ve marketed Glenwood as for over 6 yrs. now, is one of two bids left standing.

Don’t be fooled by the spin-off of city council.  Don’t be fooled by the ‘Tourism Lions’ that have a vested interest in not awarding anyone but GSCRA.  There were other bidders.  One of them didn’t quite get in under the time-gun.  Unlike the blatant bending of ethical rules when city council let GSCRA board member and ‘Tourism Lion’ Ken Murphy shove Jon Z. out of the tourism board seat earlier this year; council, tourism board and Kate Collins decided to not give that firm the benefit of doubt.  That’s their power to do. I’m just not letting the double standard get lost in the spin-machine shuffle. Count on it that double standard is going to play over and over on the commentary if Hill Aevium is not awarded.   

The obvious point is that we don’t really have rules in 81601.  We have whatever a few who get away with it let us have.

There was also a firm that had to back out due to a conflict of interest.  No, it wasn't GSCRA, who has raging conflicts of interest.

All in all, there were 4 out of 5 possible that left us with just Hill Aevium and the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Assoc.

smalltown7 and  the dozens of businesses out here in the shadows support Hill Aevium.

Here’s why:

• We’ve been in the tank for three years. Every resort around us has proven for two of those three years that it is not “because of the recession”.  That makes 81601 circling the drain for half of the six years we’ve been marketing under “Soak it all in”.

• It’s so in the tank, we’re still over 60% down.  Millions of dollars down is what that translates out to.  Our hotels haven’t been overflowing and turning away for years.  Most nights, there’s no light on in the bulk of their buildings.  Our restaurants rely on a couple good nights a week and can’t rely on boom nights, if they come, they’re a bonus.  Our retail is so down we’ve still got empty buildings everywhere and not just downtown.  They can’t stock their stores.  They’ve got weeks where they only make a few sales. In fact, because of hyped-up numbers out of GSCRA vendor for all of those 6 years of this brand, we’ve never even seen reality in comparisons between sales revenues and lodging revenues.  We have no idea how it’s all really measured up.  Forget construction in 81601. The only given that’s building is the money we don’t have, being burned by city council for trails, repairs that could wait and added infrastructure.  In the case of concrete on  Grand Ave and the WWP, they gave that away to out of town contractors.  Our hungry have grown 4 times what they were three years ago.  We have families living in cars.  We have young professionals that cannot afford rent.  Even our grocery stores are not stocked like they were.  We’ve now had 3 Strawberry Days in a row that are down by 30% to 50% what they used to be. And still don’t have a clue where that civic event money is disappearing off to.  Christmas shopping’s been on its knees for the past three years.  Biggest snow year in recent history and they went to Vail or Aspen.  Vail Resorts has never dropped during the recession.  They’ve posted a $35 million dollar profit this past year, booming in events year round.  Aspen dropped, then held steady with small growth.  This year, even under major scandal, Aspen still saw an increase.  The only town in the area that’s almost as bad as we are is Basalt.  No comparison there when you look at the towns and what they offer.

• We don’t need ladies sitting at computer keywords playing on social networks or pumping out viral marketing advertising.  We don’t need regurgitated gimmicks.  We did get, from GSCRA, an internet full of scandal with a bragging and boasting top employee in GSCRA linking our city website to her Google Blogger profile she used to become a self-declared vigilante. Then, beating all the odds and finding hundreds more social networks to glorify herself on while allegedly committing crime. Every one of them attaches our city website to them in links.   When anyone breaks off from the canned PR out of GSCRA and the City of Glenwood Springs and surfs through blogs, real news media and comments all over the nation on all search engines, they find 81601 so slammed with talking heads spouting off on the low ethics and how bad our downfall is; most of us don’t see how we’ll ever recover.  We did get all that out of GSCRA’s past two years of marketing efforts.  And they wonder why we’re still in the tank.

• The only way to get out, is to clean house and stand up for accountability.  Tell the truth.  We need a marketing firm that will deal with our reality.  Not the Pollyanna view from rose-colored glasses that does exist.  The RFP for this contract bid did not even have the guts to tell the bidders (except the chamber that knows) what our reality is.  ‘smalltown7’ sent the links to Hill Aevium so that they could at least have a level playing field and so the folks could stand a chance with what will be close to a million bucks of public money awarded over two years.

• We need a marketing firm that will build us a future while maintaining what we have without losing any more ground.  We need a legitimate firm that has integrity, ethics, values and standards.  That if they were faced with either doing a cover-up or what’s in the best interests of the folks they ultimately service, they would choose the folks.  That firm is not the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Assoc. 

Here’s where reality is on the problem of GSCRA:

• There is an investigation.  Your city council and D.A. (9^th Judicial elected with likely a re-up attempt coming up in 2012, be sure to vote) have just kept it swept under the rug and that rug shoved in the basement cellar closet under triple deadbolt.

• That investigation has gone so far there’s admission by those authorities that victims have tort power.  The problem there is not that major action against all parties is coming.  That’s a really big problem.  But the real problem 81601 faces is how long that is going to take.  We’re looking at minimum of a year on one part of that mess in the system and likely another year for a total of two plus before it all resolves. That’s the entire life of the next marketing contract award.  So far, our gutless local news media has burned every credibility and ethical bridge they could ever hope to have in not reporting.   Since when have you ever heard of stalkarazzi style reporters who didn’t jump on fresh blood no matter whose it is?  That tide on raw meat is getting ready to turn.  Finally the real whistle is opening her mouth to speak up on the other side of the story. All those linked to city glorifications of that one person at the chamber are likely to be as historic as the sinking of the Titanic.  Remember that when certain members of city council, who attached us to that kite-tail going down come up for re-elect over the next two years.  Remember that when city admin contracts come up again in 2013.  The only reason we’re still headed for the iceberg is thanks to their failed stewardship to the oaths they took.  

• There’s also the reality of the problem that thanks to the super-fine viral marketing efforts of one individual at GSCRA; that turned tide is going to rage through the stratosphere of 24/7 news.  It wasn’t enough for our council, city admin and D.A. to force a community to kow-tow to ‘VirgZilla’ and her will.  The folks, thanks to our city and district attorney blessing Marianne Virgili to the point of ignoring crime, are now forced to stay on their knees while everything surrounding our integrity as a community is questioned.  We cannot financially handle, as a community, another day of being attached to the mass liability the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Assoc. represents.

The city rolls out financial records for 2010 this upcoming council meeting tomorrow night. 

Read those and see how poorly the decision making over the past year alone has been.  When financials for a number of years are held up to us not even being able to collect money we know has ‘slipped’ through the cracks of the accommodations tax and Strawberry Days; it’s not an option any longer to just have wishful thinking  over whether or not we get fireworks.  The barn’s ready to burn, folks.  It’s been empty for a long time.

Here’s what a nationally known figure in the construction industry had to say when he turned down area contractors awhile back for bringing his event to 81601:

“For me to schedule my event in Glenwood is to say I support the community leaders and their choices. After watching with you the city council meeting’s videos that declare a nearly undying devotion to an organization that has not only authorized its President and CEO to engage in unlawful activity that also is vigilante activity, but has blessed and publically supported that activity and years of allegations of crime with city money;  I am appalled. That they have allowed this to happen in the middle of the worst construction recession in history and with your sinking sales revenues tells me they have no control. The devotion to the chamber of commerce when they cannot keep their own house in order over this public tax also tells me it would be an uphill climb to get these officials even in the ball park of normal business.  They strike me as bent on personal games and social gain rather than stewards. That they would allow the obvious at the same time they’re making constrictions on construction even tighter is also a sign that they do not care for pro-growth.  If I could even get past the wondering if your authorities have lost their collective mind, I still have my own standard of ethics in responsibility for what we’re trying to bring together here to get past. Glenwood Springs and Garfield County have some of the least friendly to construction ordinances in the state.  How can we go before a BOCC and council that lack the foresight to even police their ethical standard to their community?  No, I am sorry, but we must decline.”  

smalltown7 keeps talking.