At its meeting on June 14, the South Suburban Parks and Recreation District Board of Directors unanimously — and with no discussion — voted for former Centennial City Councilmember Keith Gardner to fill the vacant board seat left by the sudden death of Dave Lawful.
The lack of discussion about the selection meant the board of directors gave no reasons to explain why they selected Gardner and rejected Alexis Barrere, Michelle Cutter and Thomas Rundell, the other three applicants for the role.
Several audience members walked out to protest the board’s handling of Gardner’s selection.
The reasons for no reasons
When asked why no reasons regarding the selection of Gardner were shared publicly at the meeting, board chair Susan Pye said the board followed the rules from their attorney and the guidance of their executive director, Rob Hanna.
“It wasn’t anything that we needed to share,” she said.
In response, The Littleton Independent asked whether the community deserves to see the resume of the appointee — whose application had not been made public at the time of the meeting — and to know who’s representing them.
“Our attorney says no,” Pye responded. “We followed all the rules that he told us to do.”
Pye later asked to retract the statement about their attorney.
Board member Pam Eller later stated that the attorney never said there was anything specific about the application process that they had to keep from public view. However, as of the time of the meeting, South Suburban had kept the candidates’ application information confidential.
Eller pointed out that the names of all the candidates were posted publicly.
“It’s not a secret who people are,” she said. “I Googled everybody. Everybody can Google.”
Eller also said that there was some assumption on the parts of the candidates that their applications were confidential.
“So if Mr. Gardner wants to release his application, he’s more than welcome to do that,” she said.
“That’s not really our place,” Pye added.
When The Littleton Independent asked why more information on the selection was not given as a courtesy, even if it wasn’t required, Pye said that would be a better question for the executive director, Hanna, or their legal counsel, Jim Collins.
“I think that if you need to know that, you need to either talk to Rob Hanna, or (Jim Collins),” she said. “I think we’re overstepping, giving you that information.”
Before the board voted, Collins said the only legal requirements of the process were that the board would vote on the appointment and that they would not discuss their decision in executive session.
“I’m here to affirm you have not done that,” he said. “All the law requires is a motion. You’ve gone well beyond that with your reaching out. And I’ve been at this now, this year, (for) 50 years, and have served hundreds of districts and I’ve not seen a more comprehensive effort to get candidates to apply.”
Walkout
After Gardner was sworn in at the meeting, several community members walked out in opposition to the way the decision was made.
“Based on this board’s disregard of public input, I’m going to leave this meeting,” Elizabeth Watson, who led the walkout, said to the board.
Watson came in third place in South Suburban’s election to fill two seats on May 2 — which was just eight days before Lawful’s death. During public comment periods at the board’s May 24 and June 14 meetings, several individuals asked the board to appoint her to the vacant seat.
“There is no one more qualified than Elizabeth to succeed Dave, according to the voters,” South Suburban resident Amy Conklin said on June 14. “We don’t always like what voters say, but we have to live with it — that’s how democracy works.”
Considering that Watson did not apply for the seat during the application process set out by the board, Conklin and others urged the board to select Alexis Barrere, who came in only five votes behind Watson in the May 2 election.
“The board just showed that they do not represent their in-district community,” Watson told The Littleton Independent after they chose Gardner over Barrere. “They are elected officials. Their job is supposed to represent the in-district community, not making these choices on their individual personal biases.”
During Collins’ presentation of the legal requirements of the appointment process, he said the board did not have to consider the election results, as the law only requires that the board members vote on an appointee.
Barrere, who did not join the walkout but left later in the meeting, said she wishes Gardner the best of luck in the role and hopes he brings new energy and new ideas to the board.
She also said she was disappointed there was no discussion about why the board chose him.
“I feel like there was no discussion on the candidate and there was no objection to the candidate, which does not show transparency to me,” she said. “I know they don’t owe us that. But it would have been nice to hear, you know, a few reasons from his application … As a candidate who had to lay out a lot of reasons why I was running for the seat, it feels hard to not know, as a voter, why someone was appointed to that seat.”
Littleton resident John Zeck was also frustrated by the lack of explanation.
“It doesn’t even occur to them to read his qualifications at this meeting,” he said. “With opposition from the public in terms of not following the ballot, then they make a different appointment, take a different direction — OK, that’s within their purview, you know, I’m sure the lawyer’s right. But to not read his qualifications is just … that is no public accountability.”
Gardner’s view
Gardner, who served previously for two terms on Centennial City Council and also the Littleton Fire Protection District Board, said he wants to help repair the board’s relationship with the residents.
He said that, going into the meeting, he was also hoping to learn some more information about who else applied.
“(There might be) some things I would want to ask the board to look at, in the event of something else like this, making it a little bit more transparent,” he said. “I totally hear everybody’s concern, and that’s why one of the things I’m going to do is reach out to some of the folks and try to give them a level of confidence — vent if they need to — because I know they’re not happy with the process.”
He also said he hopes to take steps toward making meetings available virtually, which several commenters asked for during the meeting.
Garder said he thought his experience in public service made him a great candidate for the role and he felt fortunate to be selected for the seat.