From The Complete Colorado: CompleteColorado.com has obtained sworn testimony in trial audio in which one Lakewood City Council member alleges that the city’s Mayor and councilors make decisions in private, and in advance of actual city council meetings. City Councilman David Wiechman (pronounced WICK-man) said in his testimony that the city council meetings would include “pre-meetings” at which “scripts” would be discussed so the script could be acted out the final public meeting.

According to Wiechman:

“The way it works is, uh, you know, there’s an agenda, which the following actions are supposed to happen. And, uh, in the public meeting, you know, we’re supposed to look like we’re discussing it and uh encompassing all the conclusions that we’ve reached. And, it’s kind of a, you know, PR (public relations) show, it’s like, uh, who’s gonna ask, you know, what questions, what will the answers be, and uh, you know, back and forth, and it’s (unintelligible) like a script for a show.” (Quote at 4:44 in audio clip.)

The so-called “PR show” is meant to allow citizens in attendance to arrive at the conclusion that the city council members and the mayor had given the issue diligent consideration, and were therefore justified in whatever conclusion they reached. Wiechman went on to say that the key decisions taken up by the council were usually decided upon well before the pre-meetings, although he could not say exactly how those decisions were reached.

In the same audio clip above at mark 7:37, Wiechman says, “All I know is when I finally get to the pre-meeting, um, you know, the decision is, is evident, as to what it is. Now, how they reach that conclusion, I don’t know, that’s, that’s somewhat beyond me. I’m not involved.”

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