As two sheriff’s deputies sat at the ready for a possible threat from a member of the public, the newly formed Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority did away with reading the rules of decorum as one of its first official votes Wednesday.
“It’s a new board, it’s a new time,” said APCHA board member George Newman, who suggested that the rules regarding public comment no longer be read at the beginning of the meeting.
Tom Smith, attorney for APCHA, said there is no requirement to read rules of decorum and it’s entirely discretionary.
“It was adopted by the board as a way to provide explicit guidance to the public about conduct in the public comment section of the meeting,” he said.
For the past two years, an APCHA board member has read the rules of decorum at the start of meetings to inform those who want to make public comment that they do so without “intimidation, profanity, personal affronts and threats of violence …
“Warnings may be given by the chair at any time that a speaker does not conduct himself or herself in a professional and respectful manner and anyone whose loud, defiant, threatening, personal, vulgar, uncivil or abusive language or behavior impedes the orderly conduct of an APCHA board meeting shall, at the discretion of the presiding officer, be barred from speaking further and may be ejected from the meeting,” reads the statement.
Lee Mulcahy, who is in a bitter legal battle with APCHA and is being evicted from his Burlingame Ranch home for not complying with the deed restriction rules, nearly got himself ejected when he shouted from the back of the room that Mike Kosdrosky, the executive director of the tax-subsidized program, was lying.
Deputies rushed over to Mulcahy and told him to settle down, which he did.
There has been a police presence at APCHA board meetings for more than a year, in order to make staff feel safe from those who have grievances with the agency.
Mulcahy claimed on Wednesday in public comment that APCHA did not follow its own rules when it issued a notice of violation to him for not showing evidence that he works in Pitkin County a minimum of 1,500 hours a year.
He then attempted to video his mother, Sandy, making her public comment by walking behind elected officials at the dais, to which he was told to go back to the public sitting area.
Sandy Mulcahy, 83, told the board she is not budging from the home despite that it has been put in receivership to be sold.
“We feel like our constitutional rights have been violated,” she said. “If you send the SWAT team, I hope it makes national news.”
After the Mulcahys’ comments, Kosdrosky told the board that he personally called Lee Mulcahy the day before the deadline to comply with the notice of violation, suggesting that he make a formal appeal to the board but he declined, suggesting corruption among city officials and the owners of Aspen Skiing Co.
“No, he did not!” Mulcahy screamed from the back of the room. “He’s lying.”
That was the first taste to new board members of what an APCHA meeting can be.
After months of controversy, the newly formed APCHA board met for the first time, with elected officials now casting votes to make decisions final.
It’s a departure from the seven-member board made up of all citizen volunteers who made recommendations on policy matters to elected city and county officials.
The new board is comprised of three former members, along with Aspen City Councilman Skippy Mesirow and Pitkin County Commissioner George Newman.
APCHA board members in their opening comments of Wednesday’s meeting said they are looking forward to working on the myriad issues facing the program.
Two of the largest issues facing APCHA, which was established in the late 1970s and early ’80s, is the aging inventory of units and sweeping deficits in the capital reserves of most homeowners associations.
Pete Louras, a local volunteer who was one of 32 people who applied to be on the new board but did not get appointed, said he would like to be part of a working group to chip away at the big issues facing APCHA.
Kelly McNicholas Kury, who is a county commissioner and serves as an alternate on the APCHA board, said all of the candidates had good ideas to build on.
“There is a lot that is ripe to work on,” she said.