NOREEN: Cherokee's coup followed by a recall
The boat keeps rocking in the troubled Cherokee Metropolitan District, where it appears a recall effort aimed at the chairman of the board will be added to the ballot in November.
In a four-day period recently, critics of Cherokee board chairman Robert Lovato gathered 693 signatures for a recall petition and submitted them to the El Paso County Clerk’s office. Only about 300 signatures are needed, so it’s a good bet that by the end of this week, the recall measure will be added to the ballot.
The recall effort comes less than two months after Lovato and some newly elected board members decided to take the district in a new direction. They fired the district’s law firm, so a new firm now must take over in settlement talks involving a malpractice lawsuit the district filed against a third law firm that represented Cherokee several years ago.
Cherokee’s former manager, Kip Peterson, will be paid $145,000 in severance pay for an 18-month period that began June 23.
Those two actions, plus the perception that Lovato is trying to make water deals without informing all board members, has some Cherokee residents fuming.
“He has betrayed the public trust by violating every tenet of the sunshine law and not keeping the full board apprised of what’s going on,” charged Gayle Jones, a former board member. Jones also says it is a conflict of interest for Lovato to serve on two water boards -- he also is a member of the Woodmen Hills board, which until recently was represented by the same law firm being sued by Cherokee.
“It is legal for him to be on both boards, but it is not ethical,” she said.
Lovato, who owns property in Cherokee but is not a resident, denied there is any conflict and responded: “I have never violated the law. I would love for them to prove that... They were the people who made the bad decisions that put Cherokee in this situation.”
Cherokee wants to find a cheap, reliable source of water. But the district, which serves Cimarron Hills and some other area east of Colorado Springs, has had a severe shortage for several years and has been forced to raise rates dramatically while allowing residents to water just twice a week.
Lovato and the newest board members haven’t been able to change that.
Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, a onetime attorney and law school professor, used to crack wryly that America’s decline began in the 1950s, when the nation began graduating more attorneys than civil engineers. Funny stuff, but it’s a fact that Cherokee is spending money and energy on a severance package and litigation that won’t add a drop of water for its thirsty customers.
Whatever the outcome of the recall, they’ll still be praying for rain.
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