Thread: Greeley mayor underestimated rancor

My note to the fine mayor:

Mayor Selders,

You lost and I am so happy to hear the news that I could burst. You blame the DA and your opponent, but it's all your fault. You supported law breakers who have no respect for our laws, our language or our customs. That was your downfall. You should have sided with law abiding Americans.

Legal immigrants, bring them on all day long. Illegal immigrants, America has had more than enough of them.

So while you are whining that you needed to be nasty and a horse's (behind) to win, you should know that you would have lost to a poodle or a trained chimp. Your calculated decision to embrace illegal aliens is what cost you the election, not your opponent.

The good news is, we're taking down the politicans who don't listen to their constituents about illegal immigration, one mayor at a time. Today Greeley, tomorrow Portland and San Fran.

Enjoy your retirement

Great letter jecg_97030
I applaud you.........

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
Abraham Lincoln

Good to see these pro-ILLEGAL politicians getting VOTED OUT. let us keep spreading the word to friends, family, co-workers that have common sense that things need to change at the local, state and federal level!

As a New Yorker, we are FIGHTING hard against our Dictator Governor who is trying to reward illegals with licenses. At my local level, our county executive was just re-elected...he is anti-ILLEGAL alien and REFUSED to staunchly those who wanted to put a 'hiring site' in our county at the cost of tax payers. He REFUSED, and those at the state were pressuring him to back down, he REFUSED!!

one by one, day by day we will take back our country!!

A perfect waffle answer from Clark, at this stage of the game is who knows what his actual plans are, but we will be sure to keep him honest. Take note of the bolded parts:

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2007 ... /111100183

A Q&A with Greeley's new mayor
Andrew Villegas, (Bio) avillegas@greeleytribune.com
November 11, 2007


To hear the interview with Clark, click on the Web Extras link to the right
Greeley's new mayor Ed Clark says a clear mandate of the people elected him and he's ready to install some new ideas to make Greeley a greater place to live.

Clark sat down with the Tribune on Thursday afternoon at The Buzz Coffee and Gelato shop, 1923 59th Ave., to talk about a vision for his next two years in office.

Clark talked about being a political newcomer, how he'll bring an oft-divided Greeley City Council together and his vision to improve Greeley's business climate, as well as providing some insight into the illegal immigration issue that dominated this year's election.

To read the Q & A ...

Tribune -- Why do you think you were elected to this office?

Clark -- I think it was a clear mandate of the people that they're ready for some change in Greeley, and I think they like my message of quality economic growth, taking care of businesses that are here, putting money in families' pockets so that they'll spend money in our economy so we can increase our police and our level of safety in Greeley, help our education system and begin to work on our infrastructure needs.

Tribune -- It's pretty unusual for a relative newcomer to the political scene to beat an incumbent. Why do you think it was so easy for you to defeat him?

Clark -- It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy to defeat Tom Selders. I've always had a winner attitude and I know the only way you win is that you gotta put yourself in a position to win. From the very beginning of my campaign, from the people I surrounded myself with, to my message. I felt like I was doing everything I could to put myself in a position to win. I walked thousands of homes, I went all over Greeley to talk to everybody about the issues and I've been here over 20 years and I know a lot of people. So I think those are all things that enabled me to put myself in a great position to be successful in the election and I was.

Tribune -- A lot of people think Mayor Selders' trip to Washington spelled the end of his political career. If you were criticized publicly for something that you did, a policy decision you made or any action, how would you handle the situation?

Clark -- I guess I would say I own my actions. I've always been accountable for my actions from a young kid as to my father to people throughout my life. If I do something I'm going to tell you why I did it and I'm going to own my actions. Part of the problem with the mayor was that he did it and then he began to, I don't know the word to say or any other word, but flip-flop back and forth over what he had done. I think that's ultimately what hurt him.

Tribune -- How do you plan on uniting Greeley into making it a more cohesive whole and winning those people over that may have supported Selders?

Clark -- I think the same way I ran my campaign. I went and talked to all the groups, and got my message out there. There were clearly people that told me they were supporting the mayor, or who didn't tell me but then I found out they were supporting the mayor, and I told them. For example, I told Mr. (Bob) Tointon at a meeting one day, at the end of our meeting he was very honest with me and he told me that he would not support me. I told him, "Sir, when I win on Nov. 7, I hope you feel like you can come to me and I feel like I can come to you and ask you what we can do to make Greeley a better place." And that's my attitude. I'm not going to hold anything against anybody for supporting the mayor. I've got to be the one to work with everyone. As far as I'm concerned the race is over and now it's time to come together and try to make Greeley the best place we can make it.

Tribune -- There's also been some divisiveness on Greeley City Council in the past. One of the most important parts of being mayor is making sure council works together. Do you have any plans to deal with that and make city council work more smoothly?

Clark -- One of my first, early on political lessons was I don't really think there's anything called non-partisan. But, we have had problems with moving in the same direction. I've said over and over that I think there was a shotgun approach to municipal government, meaning that you have seven different people going in seven different directions. I think that if we're all on city council for the reasons we should be, and the only reason we should be on city council is to make this place the best place we can make it, we should agree more than we disagree. I'm going to do everything I can to build a consensus on that council because I think we had a clear mandate of the people. They like my message, and my message is one of quality economic growth. We've got to do a better job of taking care of the businesses we have here and bringing in some new stuff, and putting money in families' pockets. If we can do that, a lot of the other things will fall into place. We'll be able to protect ourselves more, we'll be able to educate our kids, and we'll be able to start addressing our infrastructure concerns. As mayor I think that's one of my biggest challenges is uniting that council and moving us together in a direction that's going to make Greeley a better place.

Tribune -- The community is divided over a lot of issues. The chief issue for many people is the immigration debate. How do you plan on uniting Latinos and the Anglo population here and anybody else who might live in Greeley?

Clark -- Over the last 10 or 15 years, that's been my mission in the neighborhoods. My mission is not about color, it's about opportunity. I've worked in the neighborhoods to give everybody opportunities, especially with the youth. I'm well-known for that in Greeley: Working with the youth of our community to enfranchise them in education, because we all know education is the No. 1 predictor to whether you're going to be involved in delinquent or criminal activity, or lack of education. We've got to do a better job with that. I know the leaders in the Latino community and I sure hope they feel that they can come to me because I know I'm going to come to them and ask for their help. I mean, my overarching desire for Greeley is to make it the best place we can make it. I can't say that through my leadership we're all going to love each other, but you know what? I think we can do a better job working together, seeing that all our kids get opportunities and our quality of life is impacted in a positive way.

Tribune -- Part of the Latino community here is the Realizing Our Community group that created some controversy before with some of the comments they made. Do you plan on being in support and a participant of the group?

Clark -- I think the premise of the Realizing Our Community is a good premise, but I think we have to be very careful when we bring people to the table in who's leading the discussions. I think it's a good premise and if we have dialogue out there getting ready to occur with our city in regards to unifying our city, I would absolutely come to the table for it.

Tribune -- Do you think the idea that was kicked around by the group, asking for an apology from the white community in Greeley, is constructive or that it serves to divide our community further?

Clark -- I believe making a statement like that serves to divide our community further. I'm not in support of asking anyone to apologize with regards to the Realizing Our Community.

Tribune -- Some communities around America have taken steps to restrict services to undocumented workers by passing laws that require identification before a landlord can rent a house to somebody or before they provide any kind of services to that person. Is part of your plan passing any such ordinances?

Clark -- I haven't thought about that.

Tribune -- Is it something you would consider doing?

Clark -- I guess I would look at all the options to make the citizens of Greeley safe, and laws to be enforced.

Tribune -- So it's not something that you can rule out?

Clark -- No.

Tribune -- One of the main tenets of your candidacy is economic development. We have a weird reputation. We have a reputation of being a stinky town and being a sanctuary city for undocumented workers. What will you do to help better that reputation?

Clark -- I think we gotta diversify our economy. We clearly are lucky to have a company like JBS-Swift here. But we're also lucky to have a State Farm here and a variety of other companies, but we need more. We need more quality economic growth jobs that are going to allow us to keep some of these (University of Northern Colorado) kids. We do a fantastic job in Greeley and UNC in particular, and Aims college does a good job as well. We do a great job of educating Colorado and then they leave. We need to get some jobs here that people will stay around with, maybe diversify our economy a little bit and maybe get some other businesses in here to keep those families or keep those kids around because those kids will have great families and when they have great families, and they've got money in their pockets, they're going to spend it in Greeley.

Tribune -- What do you think you can do differently than some of your predecessors have done to help remedy our business climate here?

Clark -- I respected a guy who used to be our mayor, and it's before your time, his name is Willie Morton and he was a fantastic mayor. He respected everybody in town; he kind of watched out for me like a second dad. He owned the Conditioning Spa down on 11th Avenue. He had an advisory committee to the mayor and that's something that I'm going to do. Unfortunately, Willie passed away from cancer, but I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going to have an advisory committee of businessmen and women in Greeley and a variety of other people on that committee and we're going to tackle these issues together. A great leader knows where he's strong and where he's not strong he surrounds himself with quality people that can provide him with the information he needs to make informed decisions and I'm going to do that. That's paramount to me. I'm going to call my committee the 2010 committee though ... because in 2010 hopefully Greeley's a better place than it is today or I'm not getting re-elected.

Tribune -- You've told me before that we need 20 new police officers on the ground today. Do you have any strategy for getting that in place by amending the budget?

Clark -- We are. We're going to look at the budget, and see what we can do. The budget clearly does not have the room to put 20 new officers on. I'm going to look at other options to doing what we need to do to make our city safe. So, that's one of the things the 2010 committee will begin to address.

Tribune -- Do you think the three officers the previous city council approved in the 2008 budget goes far enough?

Clark -- We need 20 new officers on the street today, absolutely. I think that the mayor and others in the city tried to -- I don't know whether it was semantics or if it was give a false impression -- when they said the (police) was at full-staff I think they need to tell people what that means. Full staff might lead you to believe that we have enough officers to make everybody safe, that is not the case. We need more officers in Greeley to enhance our level of safety and we have the International Association of Chiefs of Police who are the gurus of law enforcement, they came up with how many officers you should have per 1,000 people and we're under that. Until we're even with that, I don't believe we are where we should be.

Tribune -- What's the first priority for you in changing the 2008 budget if you want to change it at all?

Clark -- I think since both taxes didn't pass, I'm interested to see what the budget looks like, and if there's any fat in the budget to begin the process of beginning to fix these roads. But I want to make a good informed decision and I haven't really sat down and chewed that budget yet.

Tribune -- How do you think that you can work with other cities to promote northern Colorado as an attractive place to do business and to live?

Clark -- I just went to a meeting just now with the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce, the Greeley Chamber of Commerce, representatives of what you're just talking about, the northern Colorado business community, and they were addressing a variety of issues. One of the first things we need to do is I need to know who the mayor of Fort Collins is. I know his name is (Doug) Hutchinson, but I've never seen him, I just missed him at this meeting or I would have gotten a face-to-face but I'm going to have a face to face with the Fort Collins mayor and the Fort Collins city council and I'd like to have a face-to-face with the Loveland City Council and have relationships.

To be effective in life, I'm a true believer in collaboration and having relationships because if you have those relationships already formed before you have an issue, it'd be easier to chew through the issue. I think that's what we need to do. We need to be able to work together to market Northern Colorado from a business perspective and a regional transportation perspective.

Tribune -- A lot was made of the regional transportation authority after Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland dropped out. Is that something that you think will be available in the future to help remedy Greeley's road woes?

Clark -- I think the problem with the RTA was (there were) three or four different proposals. If we did what you just said we should do, which is looking at something from a northern Colorado perspective, we should really only have one proposal. And I truly believe it's all about relationships and I would like to meet more regularly with the (Weld) County commissioners as a city council ... I would like to talk to (Fort Collins or Loveland) at least once a year or maybe twice a year so we know who each other are and can support each other so when we have these issues we'll be able to come to the table and we'll have that relationship already established and it'll be easier to work.

Tribune -- Some people think you're a little too close to Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck. One of Selders' criticisms was that Buck wants someone who is going to answer to him in office. What do you have to say about that?

Clark -- I've been in this community over 20 years, and I've always been my own man in this community and I think those people that really know me know I'm a man of integrity, and they'll tell you that I would never do the wrong thing for Greeley, not on purpose. Wouldn't do it. I respect Ken Buck absolutely, consider him a friend absolutely. I got to know him through the juvenile assessment center and the work we did with the kids and have seen the impact that his leadership in the district attorney's office has done to crime in Greeley. Truly it's a one-two punch. We need more police. We have six gang detectives now as opposed to when I was in and we had two, and now the gang members are saying to each other, "Hey, if Greeley catches us, the DA's office is going to hammer us." And that's the message I want them to have. I want them to know that I'm going to do everything I can as the mayor of Greeley to get the police the resources they need to make gang members unwelcome here. If you're a gang member in Greeley, you're not welcome, and I believe Ken Buck has that similar message. I think at some point, maybe Ken Buck will leave Greeley for a bigger position. Ed Clark is not leaving Greeley. Ed Clark's going to be here long after he's mayor and Ed Clark understands that he just wants to do the best he can do to lead Greeley into a new direction. I'm not his lackey or anything else anyone would like to say. I'm definitely my own person.

Tribune -- What do people not know about you?

Clark -- I'm a Catholic Christian. I'm a family man. I'm a softball player.

Tribune -- What's your favorite movie?

Clark -- Before I went into the army I like the movie "Delta Force" with Chuck Norris.

Tribune -- Favorite food?

Clark -- I like steak. Prime rib medium

Hopefully the politicians will start to acknowledge that we are not against
LEGAL immmigrants but that we are tired of supporting ILLEGAL invaders
with all their demands and feelings of entitlements.

Connie (a LEGAL immigrant)[[/b]

Originally Posted by ConstanceHingert

Hopefully the politicians will start to acknowledge that we are not against
LEGAL immmigrants but that we are tired of supporting ILLEGAL invaders
with all their demands and feelings of entitlements.

Connie (a LEGAL immigrant)[[/b]

Welcome to Alipac Connie

Agree with your post 100%! I wish politicians and the mainstream media would recognize this.