The following letter was submitted to the journal yesterday. They strike me as a friend of the status quo, and I'm not. Cortez is sinking. Letter.  Honest question:  Did the people of Cortez decide that the rec center, the ball fields, the park and other amenities are expendable? That City Hall is doing a great job while these are going deeper and deeper into disrepair, with no end in sight? That they are outside of the purview of City hall? That the sole measure of City Hall is that they don't go into the red? Because the state of Cortez address in the council chamber on March 10th suggests just that. In that same address it was stated that all of us have to live within our means. [My credit rating is 770 something. It lowered recently when a loan company at my direction contacted a credit agency. I need a $9,000 loan because my pipes are more than 30 years old and they're crumbling. Point being, I live within my means.]  Earlier in my life I decided I needed more means...

  City Council: Half of our residents are invisible in this chamber. 4/14/26. Version 2. No, I will never self-censor to avoid hurting your feelings. Not now. Not then, not ever. A citizen on or off council should not be here to please you with what they say. Constitutionally I am unable, and intellectually too limited to try and see and speak the truth as best I can and figure out how to avoid hurting the feelings of an otherwise overprivileged adult. To try and resolve differences two council people, a senior City executive and myself met for an hour and 15 minutes last week. Although maybe they were simply extending me the courtesy of the opportunity to mend my ways. Toward that end I accepted some homework assignments gladly, they accepted none. A one way street. One of those homework assignments was to get more knowledgeable in the history of City Council actions. It had long been on my agenda but now it was time. My first stop was articles in the journal covering city co...

 We're dying from willful blindness. [By the way, it continues to be true that the police force in Cortez so far, are going to have a major portion of heaven. They are freaking saints. Incredible discipline, humanity, decency, courage, moral clarity. A maggot just tried to run over a crossing guard. Police in the other lane did a UE to stop the individual.]  ........ A mile from here I waved to a fella on the street, f*** you! That's what he said. As I arrived at the Welcome Center Parking lot, I said hi to a fella, f*** you, he replied. And all these clueless sanctimonious middle and upper class folks, rich in their education and Resources by every comparison, don't have a fricking clue. Why? They don't need to have a fricking clue. They don't want to have a fricking clue. If they did have a fricking clue they'd have to stand up and face that they need to roll up their sleeves and help the 90% that their presence and lifestyle have pushed off of the dock into s...

[Don't tell me we're draining the swamp. Don't.  Show me, explain it to me like I'm a 3-year-old.  Show me the life or death passion.  I'll wait.] It could be deliberate, it could be just lazy habit. Who has the time and resources internal and external, to entice city council and the city manager, or to make their life uncomfortable? Those in the middle and upper income brackets, the top 10%. What do they care if the swamp fills? They're up on dry land. They are not going to be eaten. The 90% are being eaten, and they lack the means to fight for the swamp being drained. No? This is wrong? The middle and income bracket folks aren't stupid. They aren't blind. They don't have to care. Fact is, if the 90% get eaten, driven out of the city, it opens up land for the middle and upper income brackets to bring in more like them, Rising real estate values, real estate and contractor revenues from tearing down crumbling houses and replacing it with more expensi...

Impossible for me:  1. To be against anyone.  2. To not fight for those most suffering. And that sets up the likelihood of major collisions. If I'm pitting my very life for the thriving of the least fortunate half of our population of 9,000, and some of the most fortunate put themselves in the way of that, there's going to be a collisions. As many as it takes.  Until I'm stopped, or the bottom 4,500, and the top 4,500, are thriving.

 Pt 1. City Council meeting, 4/14. 1st draft. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18DV3GD3cR/ Why for goodness sake with any citizen bother engaging with City hall? https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17RhT6y82F/

The new Council must reinvent itself as the leader we're dying for. 3/26 Cortez Community Final Chance. City council tonight, draft 4.  The new Council coming in and making of itself the leader we have been dying for is our last best chance.  Just because I do it a lot, doesn't mean I like to stand up here as the fool. I don't. But I suspect it will continue. On or off the council.  I got my MBA at Syracuse University in marketing, and I spent the next 27 years in high tech industry causing floundering organizations to thrive, and starting up new ones. New products, new businesses, new markets. I hurl myself in to the point of drowning, because the answers, solutions, are to be found nowhere else. Not in time.  I don't have time for blaming, complaining. And there's no time to be quiet or to wait until you're sure.  Whoever comes in in the new council,  it's Cortez one final last best chance. To dig ourselves out of many decades of decaying, deep in a bubbl...

"James, I may have to leave due to rising taxes. We can't afford it here anymore." This from someone that does magnificent Blue Collar labor in the city. Moments before, an elder gentleman came where I was parked, and double parked in the street, I was concerned. I had just come through neighborhoods for several hours respectfully taping the card on hand railings Etc introducing what I'm concerned about. Yesterday, for the first time, someone called the police, when the officer found me, we know each other, oh, james, what you're doing is perfectly legal. I just had to come and check. So I thought, this older gentleman is going to chew me out for taping a card.  He said, do you have a yard sign so I can put it in my yard? I replied with a laugh, sir, not one person has come alongside me in this campaign. Not one. Zero.  So no I don't have any yard signs. He saw a bunch of cards in my hand. May I have some please? I'll tape them all over my mailbox. And I g...

I am not against the 5%, but I am for the 100%. Gloom and doom James. Where's this coming from? It's not coming from the 95% of the citizens with crumbling sidewalks, crumbling streets, paint chipping houses, broken water infrastructure, taxes driving them out of cortez. That leaves the upper economic strata, and those that serve them on the council, probably the city manager, and various support businesses like the media and radio station. Real estate, contractors, big landowners. Not bad or mean people I'm sure. But with their resources however they think of it, they can Harvest from Cortez and get out of town. And or bury their head in the sand, or both. But the 95% don't have that sort of cushion. Most politicians would be of the 5% and working for the 5%. I am for the 5%, and I'm also for the 95%. That won't make me very popular with those in the power structure here in Cortez. I demand a Cortez for 100%, not just the 5% favored few. I wasn't seeing thi...

This is what's on my mind. If it's already in process, wonderful! I'd love to know. If it's impossible, because we've exhausted every avenue, I'd like to know! If the current situation is Rosy, and I'm being negative, I'd like to know! I'm not kidding. I'm not looking for something to do.  Nor am I willing to turn away from a difficult opportunity.    https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HmdWTKjao/

[Last updated February 3rd.]  Some religious nut? The opposite. Unless you consider a serious student of einstein, or a great athlete, or a great business person... a religious nut. After a lifelong search I discovered that all of my answers are found in one historical figure, Gospel jesus, Matthew Mark Luke and john. I don't prefer that. I discovered it. When I discover differently, I'll find a different Rock to stand on, but for now that's it, for the last 5 years, for the last 25 years, that's it. If you want to know what I stand for, and or if I'm a hypocrite, compare me to Matthew Mark Luke and john. Immediate concerns as a citizen, which would continue if you put me on City council: [My soul awakened me this morning to begin thinking about what I need to tell City Council a week from today, the 10th of February. I am circulating it to various people whose judgment and experience in Cortez I respect, for their input, and the following will be adjusted as I Pon...

10,000% my fault. The Fabulous Montezuma County League of Women Voters sent the questions to me several weeks ago. But I didn't see them until about 7:30 this morning. Here goes. Luckily I've been working on this stuff my entire adulthood. Thoughts and prayers would be great. 2 min introduction 1. Philosophy of government 2. Budget: 3. City’s strengths? 4. One Challenge 5. Economic development 6.  7th St Park 7. Affordable housing in Cortez 8. Cortez in 3 years 9. Minimum wage laws 10. External activities 11. Water 12 Aging Infrastructure 13. City preferred employer 14 Promote tourism 15. Childcare closing remarks. 2 min introduction My written answers to all these questions is at the fb group People for a Thriving, Prosperous Cortez.  Please, all candidates, post yours there as well? Also at the website. Take a card. 1. Work experience, • For 50 years I have been a heart surgeon of communities. 27 years as an executive and high-tech turning around far flung Nationwide dying ...