{"id":34880,"date":"2019-11-08T09:04:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61289"},"modified":"2019-11-13T09:08:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T16:08:39","slug":"granby-resident-calls-out-elected-officials-mexico-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/granby-resident-calls-out-elected-officials-mexico-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Granby resident calls out elected official\u2019s \u2018Mexico\u2019 comment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Granby resident condemned comments made by an elected official, describing the comment as &#8220;offensive and borderline racist&#8221; at a town meeting last month.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew O\u2019Neil approached the Granby Board of Trustees with a prepared statement at the Oct. 22 board meeting. He did not explicitly name the trustee who made the comment but said it was made in front of Grand County Commissioners in reference to code enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is abundantly clear that certain trustees do not regard all Granby residents with equal respect,\u201d O\u2019Neil told the board. \u201c\u2026 I believe this trustee was aware of the offensive and borderline racist nature of the comment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The comment O\u2019Neil was referring to was made by Trustee Becky Johnson at the Oct. 8 board meeting. Sky-Hi News reached out to Johnson via email to discuss O\u2019Neil\u2019s criticism, but Johnson declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>During an update from the Board of County Commissioners during the Oct. 8 meeting, Johnson brought up concerns about what she saw as a lack of action by the county\u2019s code enforcement officer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI see him driving through town and down 4<sup>th<\/sup> Street, but I don\u2019t see that 4<sup>th<\/sup> Street changing one bit,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIn fact the other day I thought I was in Mexico because people\u2019s laundry was across their whole fence, pinned up on east 4<sup>th<\/sup> Street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Johnson went on to outline her concerns. While this area technically belongs to the county, Johnson believed visitors would see it as part of Granby. Even with the code enforcement officer around, this section has yet to be cleaned up, Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was appalled that for the second time since I began attending these meetings that this trustee made an ignorant comment without consideration for those residents or the people they represent,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cDespite this lack of consideration and any future attempt to curtail the meaning of her statement, the message was glaring: If you cannot meet this trustee\u2019s standard for property ownership, you ought to be sanctioned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neil said he had attended the past few town board meetings out of interest in the town government. O\u2019Neil works for the county, but he said his comments were his opinion and not a reflection of his employer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is with respect that I address the board personally,<br \/>\nbypassing public statement in the media, and express my disappoint with this<br \/>\ntrustee\u2019s comments,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cI ask that each of you consider the words<br \/>\nyou choose and the character you portray when commenting on board matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Paul Chavoustie responded to O\u2019Neil\u2019s comment at the<br \/>\nOct. 22 meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know all of us take every comment seriously and<br \/>\neverything\u2019s important to us, so thank you,\u201d Chavoustie said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Granby resident condemned comments made by an elected official, describing the comment as &#8220;offensive and borderline racist&#8221; at a town meeting last month. Andrew O\u2019Neil approached the Granby Board of Trustees with a prepared statement at the Oct. 22 board meeting. He did not explicitly name the trustee who made the comment but said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-04 01:16:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35215,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34880\/revisions\/35215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}