09-26-25 *INTERVIEW* Jimmy Sengenberger Investigates Lakewood and the JeffCo School District

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
But I want to take just a few minutes and
talk with my pal Jimmy Sangenberger, who, in addition to
being an occasional fill in host here on koa for
me for May and on kay how across the hall.
Jimmy is an investigative reporter who writes for the Gazette
and the Denver Gazette and wrote a very interesting note

(00:20):
entitled Lakewood's shady school deal gets even shadier and Jimmy,
I am going to ask you to give us the
details of this in three minutes or less, so get started.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
There are a lot of different aspects of this ross,
but I think I can do it. Thanks for having
me brother. So we have seen in recent years, last
several years, different school districts, including Jefferson County schools fell
different clothes are well, rather close schools. In this case,
we're talking about a school that Jesfco intends Jessco School

(00:58):
Districts intends to and specifically to sell to Lakewood. It
is called Emery Elementary School. It was closed in twenty
twenty three after two point six million dollars worth of
upgrades to the building, and in early twenty twenty four

(01:18):
the school district created the pathway. Normally, when they would
sell property, they put out for competitive bidding. Well, in
this case, they cut out private developers by creating a
process called municipal interest, which basically in this case means
that Lakewood City Hall can say we'd like to purchase

(01:39):
this property and then they are the only buyer that
they're going to negotiate with. Those negotiations have been ongoing,
and even though the school property is valued at twelve
million dollars in estimate, they're going to buy it in
Lakewood for just four million dollars. Been the City of Lakewood,

(02:01):
after closing on the deal, intends to turn that around
to flip it and sell it to a nonprofit called
the Jeffco Action Center that primarily provides things like homeless
services for just one million dollars. So again, twelve million
dollar value property sold to the city and then the

(02:25):
city selling the building and the parking lot ten of
the seventeen acres for just one million dollars, even though
taxpayers are putting up four million dollars. And the thing
that's so striking about this is not just the sweetheart deal,
but also a lot of the behind the scenes machinations

(02:47):
that have been going on the fact that this has
been hardly out of the public, not that it hasn't been.
Rumors started swirling in January of twenty twenty four, and
the city council voted to authorize the purchase of this
property in April of this year, but that was with

(03:07):
very little notice to the public that it was happening,
and people in Lakewood are very much unaware of the
fact that this deal is happening in any way, shape
or form, let alone the ways in which it is
being done.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay, so it works rock, Yeah, Yeah, that was very good.
That was very good. So, I mean, on the surface,
it looks like Lakewood is intentionally setting itself up to lose,
you know, three million dollars minus whatever the value is
of the land that they're going to continue to hold,
so maybe a million or two or something. But it
looks like the enormous loser here is the Jefferson County

(03:45):
School District. If they're selling a twelve a property that's
worth twelve million for four million. So I have two
questions for you. What you know, why why do you
think the school district is willing to lose money at all?
And how are you in the twelve million dollar valuation.
Is it possible that it's actually worth a lot less

(04:05):
than that.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, you never know in terms of the way in
which a market value may end up going in a negotiation.
I couldn't say. I don't think anybody can say with certainty,
but I definitely believe it is closer to that ten
million mark. And the fact of the matter is ross
that by going through this municipal interest process, they are

(04:28):
preventing private developers from even bidding. Let's say that Lakewood
is willing to pay four million dollars and a private
developer is only willing to pay three million dollars because
they want to tear down the building and do stuff
with the land and what have you. They're not even
getting the shock for it, which raises a question to me,

(04:49):
is it in fact valued significantly more than four million
dollars in what it potentially could be to a developer?
Which justifies or explained why the school district would say
let's cut out private developers. Which is real quick that
Jefferson County Schools has a sixty million dollar structural deficit

(05:09):
and they are giving this kind of a deal without
any private bidding. I don't know how that really can work.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, I don't either. I'm just about out of time here, Jimmy,
But do you have any inkling, any rumor, or anybody
whispering in your ear about why Jefferson County would be
willing to sell a property for so much less than
it's worth. Assuming the rest of your research is correct,
and I assume that it is, why would they be
willing to do that?

Speaker 2 (05:36):
That is the eight million dollar question here, and I
don't have a definitive answer on that. I am going
to tell you I'm looking into that more bullsh for
the Jeffco School side and on the Lakewood side, because
in both cases, I think it raises a ton of
red flags and tax players need to be aware of

(05:57):
what's happening and get a more reasonable explace nation than
the non explanations that have been presented.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Jimmy Sangenberger's new article just went up this morning. It's
at Denver Gazette dot com entitled Lakewood's shady school deal
gets even shadier. Jimmy, Thanks for your time, Thanks for
the interesting reporting. We'll keep up on this issue.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Thanks Ross always, pleasure