The mayor abused her authority when she withheld CFD's Buckin' A liquor permit in police revenue talks

BY RICHARD JOHNSON

Remember in junior high when the two toughest bullies decided to fight? You really didn’t care who won; it was just a pleasure to see two people you didn’t like beat the crap out of each other. Then you kinda felt bad for the loser, but not really. 

That’s how I felt in July when rumors were flying that Cheyenne Frontier Days was bent over a barrel on their Buckin’ A liquor permit unless they agreed to pay the city $50,000 for the police to be there. 

At the Nov. 25

Did the mayor abuse her authority re CFD's Buckin' A liquor license?

City Council meeting, the former attorney general stated it best, “User fees shouldn’t be used as a contingency on a liquor permit approval.” 

That’s are hard sentence to digest. I’ve always supported CFD paying something to the City of Cheyenne for police services during the 10-day event. But I thought a negotiation would take place, not this. This isn't a negotiation at all. 

It’s disheartening when the police chief emails me back that there were no hard numbers for 2018 staff overtime during CFD and no meeting minutes from the CFD conversation. The best I’ve been able to get out of CFD is, “It’s a crazy town we live in.”

Knowing that this discussion had taken place I watched the media outlets to see what Cheyenne Police said about involvement at CFD 2019. This was the press release:

“Now that Frontier Days is wrapped up, our mounted officers can continue their regular details of making traffic stops on horseback and the horses can moonlight for Sidewalk Dolphin™.  For anyone wondering what our department was up to during this year's CFD, here's this year's CFD report:

“Between July 19 and July 28, officers with the Cheyenne Police Department were occupied with Cheyenne Frontier Days, ensuring that visitors and participants had a safe event. Throughout the 10 days of CFD, all CPD officers were tasked with working the various CFD activities, including the parades, pancake breakfasts, Thunderbirds Airshow, rodeos and night shows. 

“A total of 58 vehicles were towed for unlawful parking, most of which were in the Avenues neighborhood. At Frontier Park, CFD security handled the majority of incidents. However, CPD officers still responded to 65 calls for service. Of those calls, there were 8 fights, 3 accidents, 4 cases involving counterfeit bills, and two counts of sexual battery.

“Overall, it was a relatively quiet year in large-scale incidents," said Officer Kevin Malatesta.

Police also dealt with numerous reports of underage drinking, making 289 age verification contacts and issuing 14 citations for underage drinking.

I’m not very good at ratios, but 14 out of 289 seems like harassment or profiling at best. 

Do I really want to go back to the City Council meeting of Nov. 25, 2019 where the mayor basically blamed Frontier Days for the Coin Shop murder from July 20, 2015?  An open case, rumors of ransomware and promotions, the grieving family and friends still without answers, and more. 

Why would the mayor scratch off the scab of this barely healed wound? The former attorney general did his absolute best not to throw the Cheyenne Police Department under the bus at the podium. The fact he had to tell the mayor he wasn’t there to argue but to give her a brief rundown on how law enforcement works, and even how Cheyenne has many law enforcement agencies to assist Cheyenne Police in times of need. I can only speculate what this man could’ve said.

Hell, the item on the agenda he was speaking to focused on revenues collected through user fees. The ordinance change during the summer to publish revenues collected over $35,000 was adopted because of lack of transparency on this CFD negotiation. Of course, your city councilmen will say there were other facets in the decision, but let’s be honest: Important people in Cheyenne were pissed and changes had to be made without drawing too much attention. 

I believe the ends should justify the means. If there truly are data, as the mayor stated in the Nov. 25th meeting, then why couldn’t the chief send it to me?  

The fact that council members encouraged me to pursue data collection on this topic meant something was there. Granted, this was before the Bloomberg fiasco (in which the mayor misused grant funds designed to help downtown for personal items). And everyone is getting so sick of the mayor's scandals and spending that its basically become a blond woman screaming at a cat now. 

Maybe CFD is right after all. “It’s a crazy town we live in.”

Richard Johnson is a former City Council member from Cheyenne’s east side.