Email by Marilyn Marks to Aspen City Council 10/27/09

Mayor Ireland, Council members Johnson, Romero, Skadron and Torre:

I want to go on public record by emphatically objecting to Jack Johnson’s false allegations and implications suggesting that any inappropriate meetings or communications took place between myself and the Election Commission. I will be brief here and make no attempt to answer his many tawdry allegations, although I would be happy to answer in detail any questions you have.

Thanks to the Mayor for giving me a chance to respond last night in public comment. And thank you Mick for reminding me to respond to the false allegation that I had private meetings with Chris and Elizabeth together. Despite Johnson’s claims to the contrary, to the best of my recollection, I have only had one conversation with the two of them (outside of the public meetings of the EC and the City Council.) That was in the Sister Cities Room with the press present while we were awaiting the EC item on the agenda of City Council in September. Our conversation was all social as I recall, and certainly not private. The set of separate conversations that took place in that room, adjacent to the City Council meeting wouldn’t be construed as a meeting of the Election Commission.

I did however, on at least three occasions (possibly more), visit Kathryn Koch’s office along with Elizabeth to informally discuss the IRV process, election process and voter education on IRV. Some of those discussions were before I was a candidate, and some after, but my recollection is vague on the details of what was discussed at which meeting. I don’t believe I retained any written records from those meetings. But if asked, I will go through old notebooks to check.