An open letter and exchange to Bill Patterson, Democratic
commissioner for
Montrose County from Clyde Stephens.
Updated November 3, 2005
I forwarded the industrial alerts
page about sawmills and the forest products industry in light of your
allegations that there wasn't enough industry business to support Powell
Manufacturing. Now, I want you to explain to me how you go from not
enough business to support $3.4 million in projected sales in 1992 to $800
million in capital spending twelve years later. I reckon you and MEDC
and the county folks and your good ole boy buddies had better figure out a way
to deal with that business interference and slander among the other things I'm
going to sue Montrose County for after you get in office. Are you aware
of the new evidence I have associated with Cindy Bowen? Do you know the
part that the State of Colorado employee Neil Shurts played in the fraud?
Do you know how Region 10 fits in with Cindy Bowen regarding false inducement
and fraud? Do you know how Walter Burke fits in?? How about Tyler
Erickson? Do you know what breach of federal constitutional rights will
do for you?
It was so nice of you to parrot
the lies you all have been using to damage me for 12 years or so.
Did you notice how close the election was even though I backed off two months
before the election??
Bill, I'm going to give y'all one
last chance to make amends for what y'all ganged up and did to
me.....otherwise I'm going to sue for $30 million and some will be named
individually. Since you personally were so closely and so often involved
in fixing me up, so to speak, I'm going to let you be the point man with
regard to the action I take so you can have important personal responsibility
right from the very start. Still think it's all unjustified bile, Bill?
Oh, and what do you intend to do about the lies you told the Region 10 folks
about me and for which I have a signed, sworn statement from the individual
you voiced them to. There are other witnesses also Bill.
Anyway, enough for now. And
my very best wishes for y'all getting everything y'all
deserve in the new year.
Regards,
Dear Mr. Patterson:
You have indicated a desire to have people contact you
with regard to your position on any issues they might have with you or Montrose
County. I am taking you at your word and am presenting you with my issues. There
will be more to follow.
You should take notice that this is an open letter and has
and will be widely aired throughout Montrose County, as will your answers to my
questions. I have a document file that extends back twenty years which is quite
detailed and which I am using to construct my questions, so please feel free to
answer in any manner you choose. Please submit your answers by return e-mail.
You are aware, I’m sure, that I strongly believe that
people should be held accountable for their actions, especially people in
positions of public trust. I am especially pleased by your invitation and
therefore your commitment to address these matters. I look forward to receiving
your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Clyde
E. Steffens
Bill Patterson Open Letter:
Bill, you were on the Montrose County Airport
Authority Board. On your watch, $13 million in public funds were expended;
the expenditure of which has not been audited or even accounted for to this day.
Even though I have made formal demand for the production of all the records
which are necessary to do an audit of these funds, an audit which I have offered
to have conducted at my own expense, access to part of the involved documents
has been repeatedly refused, even though the demand to view them was formally
and legally made under the CORA ( Colorado Open Records Act). An audit cannot be
conducted without the missing records. As a taxpayer and citizen of Montrose
County, State of Colorado, I am entitled, by law, to view these records, yet the
public entity responsible for the retention and safekeeping of these documents
refuses to obey the law and produce them for my viewing . I believe that you are
just as responsible for the proper disbursement of these funds as anyone else
involved. Further, I believe the same is true for the supporting records. Why
aren’t we taxpayers allowed to see where the money went, Bill?? Since you were
on the board that had the responsibility for the use of these federal public
funds, I’d like you to tell me how to reconcile the expenditure of those
funds. Some of us are wondering where $1.2 million of this money went. Of
course, you could just see to it that all these records are produced as required
by law, and then none of us would need to wonder any more..would we, Bill?? Will
you accept your responsibility and have these public records made available for
my viewing as required by law?? It was on your watch, you know.
Bill, you say you advocate preserving our
rural way of life, yet you are a prior real estate developer and an
advocate of the growth of the City of Montrose, an advocate that voted for every
annexation while in office. How
do these views come together without conflict, Bill??
Bill, you were on the Montrose Economic Development
Council, yet you went to great lengths to help ruin an economic development
project that I undertook that would have provided 22 jobs immediately, paying
$18 to $22/hour at a time when the local unemployment rate was 26%.
Ultimately, 65 jobs of this caliber were lost. On top of this, another 22
existing local, good paying jobs were eliminated due to associated damages,
with a net loss of cash flow within this community to date of around $120
million. The result cost me personally $6 million cash and another $26 million
in damages due to false inducements and other fraudulent acts. So far, I have
been allowed no recourse whatsoever, having been left holding the bag, so to
speak. Why, Bill, did you work so hard to ruin the
chance to retain the community youth by providing them with real opportunity??
Why did you work to help eliminate a higher wage scale in the community and
skilled labor and technical jobs? Did
you need some cheap labor for your company, or was it
something else?? Why did you misrepresent this project, one you knew next to
nothing about??
Bill, you have been advised, by an attorney, to
refrain from spreading falsehoods (lying) about my business or otherwise
engaging in business interference. Bill, if you will lie
about me and interfere with my business, won’t you do it to my neighbors as
well?? What did you gain by this conduct?
Bill, you criticized a former opponent for not
using our Constitutional Rights as a bargaining
chip in negotiations. Those Rights are compliments of
the spilled blood of thousands of our forefathers, Bill. How could you
possibly conclude that they are negotiable??
Bill, you stated, in the press, that you are
against American citizens being able to defend their own personal well being
or property with lethal force, because the "majority" has taken that
position. With all due respect to the law enforcement
community, can you really conceive of a cop being within 1 or 2 minutes from
you at all times of the day and night. If you can, is that an environment you
want to live in, comrade Bill? As for the
"majority", a large number of your "majority"
went out and purchased guns shortly after 9/11. Remember when we
Americans sent our personal weapons to the disarmed British during World War
ll? Probably not. Remember the Holocaust?? Probably not. Please
comment on this position, Bill. Are you a gun grabber or not?
Bill. you say you're a property rights
advocate, yet when the City of Montrose illegally infringed property rights, not
a peep of objection was heard from...you guessed it...Bill Patterson.
Please reconcile this for me, Bill. I can't seem to make it work.
Some time ago, I believe I watched some 55 gallon
drums being buried on your business property. Recently, some gravel trucks
hauled off a bunch of materials from the same area. This same property drains
into a city pond that I was once accused of contaminating with waste normally
associated with the extraction of precious metals from ore. I have never had
such materials in my possession. Further, the City of Montrose once accused my
company of discharging similar wastes into the city sewer system. After a
battle, the city finally agreed to randomly sample my company’s effluent and
split the sample with me. My company’s effluent proved to be cleaner than
many households with absolutely not a trace of the claimed contaminates. Mr.
Patterson, your company deals with mining and is on the same sewer line
as my company. Did your decision to remove truck loads
of material from your business property have anything to do with your decision
to run for county commissioner, Bill?? And...could you tell us
again....what is your real position with regard to environmental issues?? Since
I know it wasn’t me, and the city knows it wasn’t me, where do you reckon
the contamination I was blamed for came from?? Huh, Bill?? Did the city hassle
me and protect you, Bill?? What was in those drums, Bill, and where were they
taken??
Bill, you have stated that private aircraft (you
say you have a private pilots license) should be completely exempt from
any involvement of the National Security Administration, on the grounds that a
private aircraft is incapable of carrying weapons of mass destruction.
I know this to be untrue from personal experience involved with manufacturing
nuclear weapons of mass destruction for the United States government. Is
inspection of your aircraft, in the interest of the safety of the general
public, just an inconvenience you’re trying to avoid at public risk,
or....is there a problem with a third party learning the contents of the cargo
in your plane?? Since you are so sure there is no risk
from weapons of mass destruction being delivered by private planes, possibly
you can explain to us poor, underprivileged and ignorant non pilots
.............. Why did Las Vegas restrict such aircraft to 10 miles from the
city on New Years eve last?? I guess it was due to all the hotel rooms
being already booked, huh ?.....since a light private aircraft doesn’t carry
enough fuel to knock down a casino, ala the twin towers. Or, was Las Vegas
secretly covering up a booze shortage?.....since it is obviously your opinion
that a light aircraft cannot be used for spraying a city with biological
agents either.
For these and further yet unstated reasons, it is
my opinion that you, Bill Patterson, are
morally and ethically unfit to hold a public office of any kind.
I wish to make it very clear that I am not running
for any public office nor do I have any desire or aspirations to do so. I look
forward to receiving and disbursing your personal responses to the preceding
issues. I reserve the right to comment on your responses, which I trust will
come from you and not from Mr. Mathis.
I wish to hold you, Mr. Patterson, accountable for
your own actions. The content herein is intended to express my considered
opinion, an opinion which I have expressed as an entitlement under the
Constitution of the United States of America.
Sincerely,
Clyde
E. Steffens
Local businessman and
importer of community cash flow
since 1977, a cash flow aggregate
in excess of $70 million, all from outside
the community, creator of good jobs, advocate
of the accountability of public officials and
substantial exporter..
Thank you for allowing me to express my opinions
and for soliciting my questions.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
BILL'S RESPONSE:
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 4:41 AM
Subject: Re: Open Letter and Questions
Well Clyde, it would seem that you have already
sent these accusations out without my reply. Oh well, I should expect no
better. Anyway, here is my response.
!. Montrose County Airport Authority Board:
Thank you for asking this question. As you should recall, I was
fired from the Airport Board in 1993 for asking these very questions.
Seems that I was on the ball then. Where were you?
2. City annexations: Absolutely.
Since the county has no plan for urban development, it is better to
accommodate growth in the city. This will help to preserve our
rural community.
3. Montrose Economic Development Corporation:
Your business plan was flawed in four areas. Even with the tax
money you were receiving from local and state governments, your capital
expenditure was not sufficient to fund the "100-150 high tech
jobs" you were promising.
Powell Manufacturing had received economic development funds from the Province
of British Columbia and could not be moved without repaying these funds.
The used equipment at Powell Manufacturing would have required a high import
duty to be paid thanks to U.S. Congressional actions to protect Japanese
businesses that export to the U.S. Finally,based on U.S. Dept. of
Commerce data, the sales projections of saw mill equipment you submitted
were larger than the total U.S. sales. In short, you were basing your
company expansion on projected sales larger than the U.S. market. You
still received $250,000 from MEDC. Where is your company?
4. What lies? These are just the
facts. No one has contacted me about your accusations.
5. What are you talking about?
6. I received an A- from the NRA for
my gun position. The only issue was local control of concealed weapons.
I still feel that each community in our country is different and should be
allowed to make up their own minds on how to handle concealed weapons.
You want national and state control of our rights?
7. When did the city "illegally
infringe on private property rights"?
8. The only 55 gallon drums on our property
were left by Brazier Asphalt and contained crusher parts. TEI donated
these parts to the city and the city hauled them off.
9. Since when is a private aircraft
with a payload of less than 500 pounds more of a threat than a truck which can
carry thousands of pounds with no inspection or oversight? Or a
private car that can easily carry at least a thousand pounds. Get real.
Since you choose to spread your bile in secret, I
will not respond to future letters unless you agree to let me answer to
everyone you have contacted.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
CLYDE'S REPLY:
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 10:57 AM
Subject: Open Letter and Questions
Bill, since you asked for questions regarding your
position on issues, I have constructed the attached open letter as a current
and future forum for questions for you. I look forward to receiving your
response.
Well Bill, I'm so glad to have received your
reply. I have a few comments to make that are associated with your
flawed answers. Be assured that your answers, along with my comments,
will be aired throughout the same distribution as the open letter. My
comments to your responses below, in the listed order.
1) I recall a somewhat different scenario of
your leaving the Airport Authority Board, that being that you have
always had a problem with your mouth being engaged before your few braincells
were able to assimilate any facts with regard to what you were talking about.
If you were so much on the ball then, where are the documents I am demanding
under CORA??? Where was I?? I was in the audience at the meetings,
watching the funds getting set up to have a loss of records, which I duly
predicted and has proven to be true. I wasn't on the board, remember??
So, are you going to get these CORA records for me now, Bill?
2) I agree that this answer illustrates
exactly where you are coming from with regard to population growth....and what
you intend to do with Montrose County should you be elected to the board of
commissioners. With you involved, the county will be held subservient to
the whims of the city, no provisions will be made to deal with the growth in
the county, which will happen regardless, unless the city manages to annex the
county.....then you can have the growth all in the city. I have also
been told that you are a strong proponent of the new regulations affecting
home businesses in the county, which also fits right in with your anti
property rights agenda.
3) Bill, you are going to be asked to prove
what you have said in item three. If you saw the Powell business plan at
all, it is obvious that you were incapable of understanding it. The
employee numbers you quote were not startup numbers....the startup number of
employees was 22, exactly what we hired. Over a 10 year period,
projected growth in BOTH companies would have easily reached 100
employees.....We had 52 at the onset....I believe doubling in ten years was a
conservative projection. You are ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT POWELL RECEIVING
FUNDING FROM THE PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA OR THAT IT COULD NOT BE MOVED
WITHOUT REPAYING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FUNDS FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA, OR FOR THAT
FACT, ANY CANADIAN ENTITY. That, sir, is a downright misrepresentation
of fact (lie). I hereby formally demand that you substantiate this
accusation that I know you have spread about my company in the past.
Your allegation about excessive duties involved in
moving the equipment across the border is a further downright fabrication.
The very same equipment was moved across the border after I had to sell it due
to having been defrauded by Montrose County.
And last but not least, I'm so very glad you
brought up the market projection because this is also a blatant
misrepresentation of fact that you have repeatedly spread and will also be
asked to substantiate....this should not be difficult for you to do,
since after all, it comes from government records.....Bill, your arrogance is
only outshined by your total ignorance.....does it seem logical to you that a
North American market of around 1600 sawmills would buy less than $3 million
in equipment annually. Our figures were based on a 6% market capture,
but since you know so much more about this business than I, you having spent a
few minutes trying to do some background and me with 30 years experience,
I hereby formally demand that you produce this document that supports the
allegation that our projected sales were more than the whole US market.....You
had better be able to support this because you have used it over and
over.....if wrong, it IS business interference and slander, Bill, that you
were previously told not to engage in by my attorney. You do realize
that many of the charts made of this type have a little footnote that
says......thousands or millions.....that means, Bill, that you multiply the
listed numbers by one thousand or by one million. I could help you read
these charts, Bill. Problem, nobody asked me or questioned
me.....ever...just spread vicious, nasty lies.
I'm also glad you brought up MEDC. MEDC was
given $250,000 from the City of Montrose to be transferred to me to try to
save the Powell economic development project after the Montrose County fraud
and false inducement. I have new evidence that I believe proves this
beyond any doubt, Bill.....and within the statute of limitations to
boot....the venue will not be the 7th Judicial district, either, for this or
RICO crimes. Now, do you remember that MEDC was simply to act as a
conduit to transfer these funds to Powell??? Do you also remember that
MEDC drug their feet for over a year to do this simple task??? Do you
know, that due to that delay, I lost $900,000.00 in trade credit??? Do
you know that MEDC extorted my signature on an agreement not to sue Cindy
Bowen or Montrose County for their illegal acts as a requirement to receiving
those funds after a year delay??? Do you know that conflict of interest
David Reed missed one detail in that agreement, allowing me to sue if I repaid
the loan?? Do you know that I repaid the loan just so I could sue Cindy
Bowen and Montrose County?? Where did that money go, Bill?? To
You?? As to where Powell is, you know as well as I do that I had to
bankrupt it and sell off the assets.....due to the fraud and false inducement
by Cindy Bowen and Montrose County.......and the years delay by you and your
buddies in MEDC. Your smug bunch cost this community a lot of good jobs
and millions of dollars through the local merchants coffers. Wanta try
another round, Bill?? Got any more vicious lies you'd like to put forth
in writing?? By the way, thanks a lot for doing that for me, Bill.
4) Your selective memory is working again,
Bill. You know, the letter you received from my attorney after you
slandered me to one of my employees and he signed an affidavit attesting
to that. You probably threw your copy away...I didn't throw mine away.
It was only slander and business interference, different case than above,
though.
5) You dearly chastised Ray Rose for not
using our Second Amendment rights as a bargaining chip in.....you guessed it,
the good ole Montrose Daily Press......I'll bet they'd let you copy that if
you need a refresher.
6) The Second Amendment provides for the
citizenry to bear arms, period. There is no qualification of geographic
location or that some appointed bureaucrat can decide who can exercise their
constitutional rights, or what kind of arms they may bear. I intend to
address your rating with the NRA, of which I am proudly a member of many, many
years.....helping to protect our right to protect ourselves.
7) Bill, oh Bill.....you know as well as I
do that the anti smoking "ordinance" is illegal as hell, number 1,
and that its retroactive enforcement on the restaurant owners is a breach of
property rights.....I'm truly surprised one of them hasn't sued the hell out
of the city, but then, maybe they have just as much faith in the 7th Judicial
District as I do. Wanta hear about the rape suit they tried to cover
up??
8) I'm not talking about those
drums.....does this mean that the ones that went in the hole the backhoe dug
out back are still there?? I could swear one of my employees said he saw
drums come out of the hole you recently dug out back....I'd also swear he said
they went in the gravel trucks that left loaded.....but then, maybe I'm wrong
or he was.
9) Bill, do you have any knowledge about
nuclear weapons at all?? Do you know why they are detonated at
substantial elevations....elevations that a truck or car or other land
conveyance can't fly to?? They are detonated at specific elevations such
that the maximum effect from the thermonuclear shockwave will be realized.
They are five to ten times as effective, or more when detonated at elevation
than when detonated on the ground. A Cessna with a 500lb payload,
triggered by a suicide terrorist could flatten Denver.....Did you ever see Fat
Boys' brother?? They're much smaller and much, much more powerful now
and Fat Boy wasn't all that big. Also, in the case of chemical or
biological weapons, how effective do you think the delivery from a truck or
car is when compared to spraying them over a city from a light aircraft.
Do you still not know why Las Vegas restricted light aircraft to ten miles
from the city, Bill?? It was because they had a tip, Bill and it wasn't
because all the hotel rooms were full, either.
As for your allegation of my spreading
"bile" secretly....that is not true, Bill. I emailed the open
letter to you along with a cover letter telling you what I was going to do
with it. How secret is that?? As far as "bile" goes, I
believe everything I have set forth to be true to the best of my
knowledge......the truth may hurt, Bill.....but "bile".....I think
not.
You are certainly welcome to respond to my
letters, which I will be forwarding to you as time allows...you are not giving
orders here, I do not care whether you respond or not. As far as the
election goes, it is probably in my personal best interest that you be
elected......I do not believe this to be true with regard to the general
populace.
Sincerely,
Clyde E. Steffens
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 5:18 AM
Subject: Substantiation
Bill:
Over two weeks ago, I made demand of you to
provide documents that would substantiate your vicious, slanderous lies about
me. Since there has been no response whatsoever from you, I can only
conclude that you cannot support your lies with documents that should be
easily obtained. Therefore, I believe that my opinion of you, that
being that you are a vicious, slanderous liar is true and has been proven to
be true. Or does your mouth just run constantly without your two brain
cells connected to it?
If you'll do that to me for no obvious reason
other than to parrot your good ole boy friends and to try to pass yourself off
as a knowledgeable bigshot of some kind, what for God sakes will you do to the
taxpayers if you are elected? Oh well, they deserve what they
get....reckon you believe that too. What was it the guy said about the
guy that carried the snake to the bottom of the mountain?? Oh yeah....he
knew he was a snake when he voted.....er, picked him up.
So, Bill, should you be able to come up with
documents that support your vicious accusations (which I know no bona fide
ones exist), I'll sure post them right along with the rest of my questions
(coming up ) for you.
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