In Jefferson County, local democracy dies in darkness.

That’s the inescapable conclusion from the shady business between Jefferson County Schools, Lakewood and a homeless-services nonprofit.

This April, Lakewood authorized City Manager Kathy Hodgson to negotiate a $4 million below-market purchase of the shuttered 17-acre Emory Elementary. The plan? Flip 10 acres to the Jeffco Action Center for just $1 million — a sweetheart deal costing taxpayers $3 million.

Here’s the scheme: In January 2024, Jeffco Schools quietly gave municipalities first dibs on closed schools through a new “Municipal Interest” process, dodging competitive bidding. A consultant told the board they could skip community feedback using this path.

The Action Center can’t open this municipal backdoor itself, so Lakewood did it for them — avoiding market rates, scoring a bargain, flipping the property for a fraction of what the city will pay for it, and eluding private developers who might build housing or preserve open space.

When Lakewood’s City Council authorized the purchase of two acres at Vivian Elementary for $596,720, they went through Jeffco Schools’ public bidding process. Why not this time? Were they afraid private developers might outbid Lakewood or hoping to dodge community input?

Jeffco denied my request for Emory’s appraisal, citing the deal isn’t closed. But Lakewood’s Hodgson has bragged the “appraised price was much, much higher” than $4 million.

Jeffco’s county assessor puts Emory’s 2024 market value near $12 million. The land itself was worth $860,000. Seven acres of surrounding fields will stay in the city’s hands. That leaves taxpayers eating some $7 million, including $2.6 million in building upgrades before the 2023 closure.

Lakewood development chief Travis Parker boasted City Hall is snagging Emory for “significantly under the market rate.” No kidding.

“I understand building community relationships,” former school board member Susan Miller said. “However, as board members, your goal is fiduciary duty to your citizens — making sure children have safe, warm spaces to learn and quality curriculum in a fiscally responsible way.”

The district faces a $60 million structural deficit. The Evergreen High School shooting exposed serious lapses in campus safety, including a failure to fund full-time school resource officers. But they’re giving steep discounts so Lakewood can pull a fast one on taxpayers.

“How can you sit there in good faith and claim that you don’t have the resources to keep children from getting shot at — and you’re giving away real estate?” asked attorney Anita Springsteen.

Springsteen, a former Lakewood City Council member, has filed notice she’s suing Jeffco Schools for illegally using taxpayer funds in the below-market sale.

Meanwhile, the giveaways keep coming. City Hall plans to buy the Action Center’s current properties at 14th and Colfax, then lease them back “for several years.” Their combined 2024 market value is assessed at $1,894,500. If Lakewood pays even $1 million, taxpayers will be subsidizing both sides of the deal. Maybe even the lease, too.

The real scandal, though, isn’t the sweetheart deals. It’s the backroom machinations making them happen.

In February 2024, Lakewood spokesperson Stacie Oulton insisted they had no “direct interest” in buying Emory — just “a larger conversation” with Jeffco and the Action Center. Yet the plan was already in motion.

Rumors swirled by January 2024, but the public didn’t learn anything until April 2025, when council unanimously authorized the purchase with little public comment.

That secrecy was deliberate. Last September, they illegally held two closed-door executive sessions to discuss Emory — confirmed in an affidavit by former council member Richard Olver, “an active participant in that discussion.” Public notices referenced “issues subject to negotiation” — but none of the specifics required by Colorado’s open meetings law.

Springsteen, who’s suing over the transparency violations, calls it “fruit of the poisonous tree” because “it started with a violation of the people’s rights.” She said in May: “The city knows they’re required to announce the particular matter to be discussed in as much detail as possible.”

Olver agrees. “Negotiations,” he wrote, is “wildly broad” — so broad, even he didn’t know the purpose, so he voted against executive session. “(W)hen its purpose was revealed, I realized I had been completely wrong with my guess.”

It recalls December 2022, when then-Denver school board member Scott Baldermann opposed an executive session because he had “no idea what is gonna be discussed.” As media attorney Steve Zansberg told me, if one member doesn’t know what will be discussed, “then certainly the public doesn’t either.”

On Oct. 13 and 27, the Lakewood City Council will vote to sell Emory to the Action Center — even though they won’t own the property until December. Jeffco’s school board isn’t even set to examine the deal until Nov. 5. What’s the rush to put the cart before the horse?

I emailed Lakewood City Hall asking how they can sell property they don’t own yet and why so far in advance. Oulton dodged — simply explaining the process and timeline with reference materials.

The timing is fishy, too: Lakewood’s final vote on the resale comes Oct. 27 — one day before the Oct. 28 trial where they’ll defend those backroom meetings in court. Coincidence?

Helping the homeless is a worthy cause. But the facts are inescapable: secret meetings, shady deals and taxpayers holding the bag. Why are Lakewood and the school district so bent on pushing this through at any cost?

“They haven’t been transparent about this,” one Emory-area resident told me. “I think the attitude is, ‘Who’s gonna stop us?’ By the time people figure it out, it’ll be too late to do anything.”

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.