Before you call me naïve for thinking that City Council would do the right thing and investigate Mayor Michael Hancock, let me explain. Over the past weeks I was in touch with Councilman Kevin Flynn about the mayor’s salacious texts to a police detective, and Flynn intimated that the Council would be hiring an outside expert to advise them how to proceed. In the end, the council held a series of closed-door meetings with their attorney and then informed the public they would not be investigating.
For a council that says it values transparency, the cognitive dissonance is mind-boggling. Among the issues to unpack:
•Why closed doors? Council has invoked attorney-client privilege, yet a client can waive that privilege. Don’t the people of Denver have the right to know what their representatives are discussing?
• Why is the city’s executive not being held to the same standard we all are at our places of business?
• Why is the council not calling for a formal reprimand of the mayor and forcing him to take sexual harassment training?
The ultimate in cognitive dissonance came on March 27, when the council passed a proclamation recognizing and honoring female first responders before excusing itself into an attorney-client privileged closed-door meeting where they conferred on how they weren’t going to support a female first responder, Det. Leslie Branch-Wise.
Actions speak louder than words — that’s a lesson every Jewish day school student learns through the story of Abraham, who tells the visiting angels he will get them a bit of bread, but then returns with an entire feast.
In the case of the council, the lack of action is deafening.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com
Copyright © 2018 by the Intermountain Jewish News
