Experience, not
conflict of interest

I wanted to take the opportunity to clarify the misapprehension that appeared in a recent editorial concerning legislation I have drafted and my relationship with Mesa State College. The draft legislation is still quite new, which may explain the difficulty, since the editor did not have the opportunity to review it.

As was reported, I am assisting the college in auditing security and its emergency preparedness plan as part of my private-sector employment.
This legislative session, I am sponsoring a bill that requires school districts and centers of higher education to have in place some minimal life-saving plans, should a violent emergency take place on campus.

There appeared to be some speculation that there was linkage between this legislation and my private employment. This is not the case. The bill proposed is a very basic approach that simply requires school districts and other educational institutions over a two-year period to have in place some lifesaving drills to deal with emergency situations other than following a typical fire-drill evacuation, which conceivably might only increase the danger to students.

The bill I’m sponsoring does not require any school district to hire a consultant or anyone else, but simply to have several types of drills in place and perform them so that there is some practice process to allow flexibility in the response options available to a school.
School District 51 already has such plans in effect and is a state leader in this process.

While such minimal requirements certainly should be in place at institutions such as Mesa State, my work there is far beyond these basic principles.

It has been and continues to be my intention to bring my 28 years of experiences as a police officer, violent-crime investigator and school-resource officer to the Colorado Legislature. Therefore, there will always be situations where my work will have some relationship to the legislation I might propose.

Just as a farmer or rancher brings special knowledge and experience to the representative body, I bring mine.

I am mindful of the possibility for conflict, however, I cannot unring the bell and disengage a lifetime of work and experience from what I believe to be in my constituents’ best interest.

A part-time citizen Legislature does and should require outside employment, so those seeking new laws understand what it’s like to live under them. You can also create the opportunity for conflict no matter how unintentional. None exists in this situation.

REP. STEVE KING
House District 54
Grand Junction

Column was not
reasonable nor civil

While I consider myself to be basically conservative in my views regarding politics and the governing of our country, I have made an effort to listen to and read the views of my fellow citizens who are of the liberal persuasion, so long as they express themselves in a reasonable, logical and civil manner.

Which brings me to the article titled, “For many, the real New Year begins on January 20,” written by columnist Bill Grant and printed in The Daily Sentinel on Dec. 30. Unfortunately, this article does not meet any of my criteria, thus I shall ignore any further articles written by Mr. Grant.

This person appears to be so filled with hate, intolerance and exaggeration that he may be incapable of expressing himself in a reasonable, logical and civil manner. Too bad.

PETE ROSS
Montrose

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 3:17 pm and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.