By JIM SPEHAR
During 18 years of inflicting my opinions on you in over 1,000 columns, I’ve learned this. Some pieces are easy to write. Some are fun, at least for the columnist. Some columns bring a tear to the eye, some a smile.
Others are hard, more so when the subject involves people you know, have respected and worked with — especially at times when their actions are at odds with perceptions you’ve developed over the years. This will be one of those difficult columns.
This far into your Sunday paper, you’ve already seen Dennis Webb’s deeper dive into an initial Denver Post story republished in the Sentinel a week ago. To cut to the chase, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Northwest Regional Manager JT Romatzke was reinstated to his job after investigation of a whistleblower complaint filed by former regional Public Information Officer Randy Hampton, who, it’s claimed, “voluntarily” resigned after the probe concluded with a finding that “some” of his complaints were justified.
The allegations, backed up by a couple of recordings, accused Romatzke of encouraging staff actions to circumvent wolf reintroductions approved by voters, including targeting a couple of pro-wolf Parks and Wildlife commissioners. Another staff member, Deputy Regional Manager Garrett Watson, is recorded suggesting “we expose the (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) Commission, the governor, the AG’s (Attorney General’s) office directly to the public…”
Hampton, who opposes forced reintroduction and “ballot box biology,” is heard sympathizing with the sentiments but warning such activities are “not our job” and cautioning that if such tactics are adopted “”we’ll get whacked.”
Hampton said that after talking with a couple of higher ups, he received a January weekend phone call from Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Dan Gibbs. According to Hampton, Gibbs said “you need to file a complaint” and “we’ll take care of you.” After first receiving frequent updates on the probe, Hampton said there was “radio silence” about halfway through the process.
“If they’d have told me anything (during the remaining investigation),” he told me, “You never would have heard this story.”
He’s not the only one left in the dark; we all are. Folks at CPW, DNR and the commission are all “bunkered up.” We’re left with “it’s a personnel issue” no comments, likely on the advice of the same attorney general’s office recommended for targeting in the recording. No one will say which allegations were substantiated or what “appropriate action” was taken.
An offer to Romatzke to comment for this column prompted a referral to Assistant CPW Director Lauren Truitt, who provided the standard prepared language and word there’d be no further comment. CPW Director Dan Prenzlow later provided that same language coupled with pledges to fulfill the agency’s parks and wildlife missions and fully implement wolf reintroduction. The same offer to DNR‘s Gibbs prompted the boilerplate response from his PIO Chris Arend, one of the folks Hampton initially contacted. Newly elected Commission chair Carrie Besnette Hauser, president of Colorado Mountain College, also referred me to Arend.
She also offered this: “…pieces of information or recordings may or may not tell the full story.” Carrie is, of course, absolutely right. But there’s an easy solution which should be just as obvious to her as well as Romatzke, Prenzlow, Gibbs, Attorney General Phil Weiser and Gov. Jared Polis. Just provide the information necessary to fill in any blanks. The public and the media would be equally anxious to consider any challenges to information already reported — and to hear details of what allegations against Romatzke were proven and what consequences he bore. As citizens and taxpayers, we deserve nothing less.
I’ve known Hampton since his days as a news director at a local radio station and his time working at Colorado Mesa University. I’ve known JT at least since his arrival in Grand Junction in 2008.
It would have been easy to avoid writing about all this. It gives me no pleasure. There are certainly other issues, too many really, that deserve attention on the editorial page of the Sentinel’s Sunday edition. Two decades in local and state government, my time as owner and manager of businesses and as a manager and employee for others, service as a member of the Parks and Wildlife Commission and my role as a concerned Coloradan … all made it feel necessary, a responsibility even.
Someone wiser than me once said “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.” That’s a bar I’ll admit to having difficulty clearing myself at times over my soon-to-be 75 years.
JT Romatzke knew he was surreptitiously doing wrong, admitted as much to impressionable subordinates, and encouraged them to join him in his wrongdoing. His “punishment” was time off with pay and a return to his management position. His whistleblower subordinate was forced to “voluntarily” resign after first being encouraged to file the complaint and told he’d be “taken care of.” He was later informed he’d have to return under Romatzke and, Hampton says, denied the opportunity to work remotely for a time to test just how that obviously ticklish situation might work out.
That puzzling and still unexplained outcome leaves a deep stain on everyone involved from Gov. Polis, who appointed those responsible for the outcome, DNR Executive Director Gibbs, CPW Director Prenzlow, their advisers in the attorney general’s office and CPW commissioners.
Most importantly it sends an unmistakable hard-to-miss message to staff members at CPW (and other state agencies) who might understandably be left wondering about consequences of trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. And leaves all of us, as constituents of CPW and DNR, questioning the culture and integrity of vital state agencies and the leaders up and down the political and administrative chain involved in this unfortunate situation.
This is not at all about wolves and politics. At its core, it’s not even about JT and Randy. It’s about respect for the will of voters, about confidence in our government, about respecting authority, about ethical public service and about demonstrating, not giving after-the-fact lip service to, the ideals of character and credibility, professionalism and integrity.
And about being honest and transparent with the public those in government are supposed to serve.
Jim Spehar, a fourth-generation Coloradan, is a hunter, angler and outdoor enthusiast who also enjoys camping and off-roading. A former member of CPW’s Sportsmen’s (now Sportsperson’s) Roundtable, he served briefly on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission before a Republican-dominated state Senate refused to confirm his gubernatorial appointment. Comments welcome to speharjim@gmail.com.
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