Fuhrman and Edwards - Ethical? You decide
By David Breed - Silverton Resident.
In February of 2020 I was given a copy of the Selwyn Prospectus, a 23 page document detailing Shane Fuhrman’s plans to enrich investors by turning Silverton into the next Aspen / Telluride style resort. Having lived in both Aspen and Telluride along with visiting Jackson Hole and many other ski resort towns, having seen how developers and outside investors profit by altering the heart, soul, history and future of these towns in grotesque ways, I was quite interested in learning more about this person Fuhrman and his plans for Silverton.
Then I spotted this in the prospectus:
Easy enough to find out more, I know Anthony Edwards personally, had used his services to buy a house, set up an LLC and was currently using his services to purchase a mining claim.
So I reached out to Anthony with the following text message:
No response. I reached out again:
Still no response from Anthony yet I had seen him about town in his truck, talking on his phone several times that day. So it is easy to infer he had received both messages, and unlike in the past 5 years instead of him getting right back to me, he was clearly ignoring me.
Later on March 8th I was pulled over on Greene Street heading south by the Triangle by a Sheriff’s Deputy driving patrol car. The Deputy informed me that Anthony Edwards had instructed him to tell me to not contact Shane Fuhrman or Anthony Edwards or I would risk loosing my right to have firearms. This is a clear abuse of Edward’s authority as an elected judge and officer of the court to instruct a sworn police officer to pull me over and issues this extra-judicial quasi “no contact” order. Asking your lawyer to have a discussion about this Selwyn Prospectus with his name on it does not constitute harassment in any form. I had not been making contact with Fuhrman during these exchanges in any form.
My next contact with Edwards was on 26 May 2020 when I received this from his law firm (with redactions only relative to protect the other party involved):
Mr. Breed,
Our records indicate Sholler Edwards, LLC provided transfer services in this matter and we did not serve as counsel for either party. Furthermore, our involvement in this matter ended at the point the documentation was executed and monies were transferred. Any future involvement in the matter would be subject to a separate agreement and at the mutual direction of both parties. (Redacted portion relative to the other party int eh transaction) As originally requested, all financial account information was properly destroyed as directed after the transfer.
Anthony D. Edwards
Sholler Edwards, LLC
1099 Main Avenue, #409
Durango, CO 81433
(855) 649-5884
I did not request, not did the other party to have the records destroyed. Why would anyone request that and why would a lawyer comply with such a request? Who ever heard of such a thing anyway?
Let’s forward to July 2020. I was in New Hampshire when I got a call from Barbra Renowden. Anthony Edward’s had told Barbra and Ron that there was an investigation underway of Sheriff Conrad for failing to investigate David Breed for flying a drone over Anthony’s house, harassing and stalking Anthony, his wife and children. Several things to note here.
1. It is nearly impossible to fly a drone in Silverton, CO when you are in New London, New Hampshire.
2. Jimmy Keene, who lived right down the street from Anthony had just gotten a drone and was posting drone footage on Facebook from that neighborhood.
3. There was no investigation by the CBI, they had not been contacted by Edwards and there was no investigation. It was all fabrication on Edward’s part.
It is this kind of mis-use of power, bullying, outright fabrication and lying that has made me increasingly more concerned about the lack of ethics, the intentional misleading nature of the way Fuhrman and Edwards have conducted themselves both in their public elected roles, Edwards as an officer of the court and in their business dealings.
The nature of this wonderful and unique Town of Silverton is under assault. We will have change, nothing is so certain in life, growth is inevitable. But when you have people this ethically challenged involved in elected positions of power who have hidden agenda’s, who use their positions of influence to change ordinances, zoning and the trajectory of our future - that is completely unacceptable.
Vote YES to recall Shane Fuhrman.
Open letter from a contractor upset with Fuhrman...
This was distributed at the post office several days ago.
Yet another example of Shane Fuhrman bullying a "citizen".
An exchange between Fuhrman and Doug Close
Doug Close sent this exchange between Shane Fuhrman and himself to me. This text back and forth was initiated by Fuhrman because Close has posted a "Thumbs up" on a Facebook Post post by someone that simply said "You get what you vote for".
Fuhrman:
I don’t appreciate your support of aggressive and negative comments on Facebook. If something is bothering you and you want to have a conversation, you have my number.
Close:
You better learn how to toughen that skin of yours a little bit more if your worried about what social media has to say about you, and the job your doing, or not doing. Be careful. And your right, I have your number.
I’m plenty tough. I’m not worried about what social media has to say about me.
Fuhrman:
I’m disappointed that people I know and have enjoyed being social with choose to act with malice and indecency on social media rather than address their issues in an effective and appropriate manner.
Be an upstanding citizen. Act as you want others to act. Address your concerns directly.
Close:
Always do. But thx for the advice. D
BREED: Anyone want to say this is not arrogant bullying? And what is up with "upstanding citizen". Vote YES to recall Fuhrman. He is not fit for office.
From the silverton porcupine
Why Did Town Attorney Kosnik Vanish?
Unless the Town or Attorney Kosnik fess up, we may never know for sure, but if you observe attorney Kosnik at the February 8th meeting, you may discover a few clues.
Kosnik has been under increasing pressure to represent the Town rather than individual officials since the Porcupine first showed its quills this past January.
The February 8th meeting became especially contentious near the end after Mr. Breed presented his bombshell public comment. Until that point, it is our opinion that both Kosnik and Judge Edwards, who are both Officers of the Court, had ‘plausible deniability’, that is, they could maintain they were not aware Town officials were holding parallel meetings via text messaging during Board meetings.
Following Mr. Breed’s public comment, such deniability could no longer be maintained, which meant, as officers of the court, they were duty bound to report this activity to proper authorities for investigation and possible prosecution.
When Kosnik asked Mayor Fuhrman if he wanted him (Kosnik) to answer Mr. Breed’s question, it became apparent he was attempting to prevent either the Mayor or Trustees from saying anything they might later regret. When Trustees stared into the headlights rather than deny employing illegal methods to conduct private meetings, it was all too apparent what had been going on.
It is our opinion that at his moment Kosnik knew it wouldn’t be long before the Mayor and Trustees did something really stupid and ended up in federal court, and he decided he didn’t want to end up there with them.
Carpetbagger
Affordable Housing
Affordable Housing
car·pet·bag·ger/ˈkärpətˌbaɡər
- a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections.
- HISTORICAL(in the US) a person from the northern states who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction.
- a person perceived as an unscrupulous opportunist."the organization is rife with carpetbaggers"
Affordable Housing
Affordable Housing
Affordable Housing
Affordable housing is housing that is appropriate for the needs of a range of very low to moderate income households and priced so that these households are also able to meet other basic living costs such as food, clothing, transport, medical care and education.
Shane and his investors bought with owner financing the largest affordable housing complex in Silverton, the Highlander. Not coincidentally that building is zoned for VRBO and AIR B&B short term rentals.
BUYER’S REMORSE
Dear Fellow Silvertonians,
Let me begin by saying that I voted for Shane Fuhrman for Mayor and I have since changed my support. I am writing this letter regarding the upcoming ballot on October 12th. Some members of this community are trying to make this a recall regarding OHVs. The matters on the October 12th ballot are completely unrelated.
As I see it, people who are interested in recalling Shane as Mayor and voting for Bill Fries do so for personal reasons. My wife and I and a friend of ours, met with Shane on 4 separate occasions both privately and in group settings and asked him pointed questions regarding his views on many different subjects:
- His views on town expansion
- His views on tourism
- His views on the proposed large scale ski area
- His views on curbing the proliferation of Silverton VRBOs
- His views on OHVs
- His views on slowly creating a well-considered and thought-out year-round economy without destroying current businesses to do so
On each of these four occasions he lied to our faces and to the faces of many others regarding these issues, simply to get our votes. We wrote letters to the Newspaper in support of Shane and helped to get him elected all based upon his answers to us.
I will be voting to recall Mayor Fuhrman not because I want or don’t want OHVs in town. I will be voting to recall Mayor Fuhrman based on character.
- Did you know he and his investment group have recently purchased a significant portion of land on the hillside behind the grocery store and out to the entrance of town again under the guise of an LLC?
- Did you know when Shane’s investment group purchased the Highlander he issued eviction notices and then when the recall petition was pulled he rescinded the eviction notices?
- Have any of you read the Selwyn prospectus? Shane will tell you those are not his views any more, but if you look at his actions and don’t listen to his words, you will see that he is quietly seeking to do everything that prospectus states.
- Shane has created multiple LLCs to purchase land since he has become Mayor. I do not have a problem with a private citizen doing this. I DO have a problem with the Mayor doing this and with his lack of transparency and the appearance of a conflict of interest. Is this illegal - probably not, but unethical clearly.
- If you truly care, check out www.silvertonissues.com. It has opened my eyes even more than they were before. I think you will find, actions speak louder than words.
I personally don’t care whether we have OHVs in town or not. I do care that Shane and his supporters voted to ban them from town ten days before the tourist season started without providing any sort of plan for staging, and thereby knocking the knees out from under businesses in town with no time to come up with alternative options. I also do care that Shane and three Trustees felt it was ok to ban OHVs when the town voted on three separate occasions to allow them. This should be an issue decided by town constituents not the Trustees.
Bruce Raine
Dear Silverton, I am writing you to ask that you set aside all differences for a moment and please look at what is happening to our town. Shane Fuhrman initially claimed that the Selwyn Prospectus did not exist. Then he claimed it was confidential. Then when the Prospectus leaked to anyone in town who cared to dig deeper, Fuhrman claimed that this was not his plan anymore. Fuhrman has claimed a lot of things to many Silvertonians over the past few years. That’s because he is a master at telling you what you want to hear-myself included. All I ask is that you set aside politics for the minute, stop listening to what Fuhrman says and truly LOOK at what he is quietly doing. You will see Fuhrman is surreptitiously doing everything the Selwyn Prospectus sets out to do. As Mayor, buying properties while you sit on the Master Plan Committee so that you can rezone properties as you get them, may not be illegal but it is certainly unethical. Equally unethical, is to use your mayoral email address to have the Selwyn Prospectus removed from www.silvertonissues.com in order to influence GoDaddy of your government position, when the Selwyn Prospectus has nothing at all to do with you job as Mayor. Gigi Raine
Read for yourself and decide who and what fuhrman really is.
Shane trying to hook investors in his own words.
This interview is very telling about the "real" Shane and his intentions for our town.
https://shnyentrepreneurship.home.blog/2019/06/04/spotlight-shane-fuhrman/
The real Shane again in his own words...
Yet another interview that is very telling about the "real" Shane.
Shane is not "all in" for Silverton... Bait and Switch
During the election meet and greets Shane claimed he was and always will be all about Silverton. He stated repeatedly he had no other business aspirations. That was disingenuous at best given what you can see in the articles linked on this page. And then came the purchase of the of a hotel in Durnago.
https://www.the-journal.com/articles/historic-rochester-hotel-in-durango-sells-for-nearly-3-million/
Shane in his own words - you decide...
2019 business goals?
Launch at least two more real estate/hospitality projects and create the framework to launch an international project.
How could fellow Entrepreneurship club members help you out?
If anyone in the club has first hand experience structuring and raising funds for an international project, I’d love to connect. Extra credit for Canada or the Netherlands. The potential Canada project is a heli skiing lodge…
Is there a skill, service or area of expertise that Club members could reach out to you for?Absolutely. I’m always happy to talk strategy on real estate development, hospitality, and epic ski adventures.
Absolutely. I’m always happy to talk strategy on real estate development, hospitality and epic ski adventures.
I also run The Shht Company, which consults on organizational and transactional structuring, capital management, financial and operating model development, real estate/hospitality management, and opportunity sourcing. Basically, there is this tough moment when you know what to do but not how to do it, and we solve for that. Get in touch if there is anything we can help with.
The straw has landed.
Another take on Fuhrman's misuse of office
Wednesday September 15th, 2021 an e-mail went out from the Town Clerk to the 6 Trustees less the Mayor as well as manager level Town employees demanding the Trustees disclose from their personal cell phones (not work cell phones) any and all text or e-mail communications pertaining to the following search strings:
• Shane Fuhrman
• Mayor
• Sultan Development
• Selwyn
This was characterized as a legal CORA request blessed by the Town Attorney with a demand to produce any reference to the Mayor in 3 days by an Attorney working for Mayor Fuhrman. Why would the Mayor be requesting topics related to his personal business and not public servant business be discoverable? Bullying, harassment, an intimidation tactic and or creating insecurity around the staff to not talk about him outside their work lives?
As a graduate of Brooklyn Law School he should have had to take and pass ethics classes that would have covered basic common sense ethical requirements of the NY Bar Association.
Demanding Trustees and Town of Silverton employees search their personal phones for these topics of personal interest to Mayor Fuhrman and not Town business is in itself an intimidation tactic! Do we really want him “Lawyering” his way through his Mayorship? He has intimidated and harassed citizens through his personal lawyers and now it is fellow Trustees and Town of Silverton employees. Is this really the leadership that we as a community are OK with and deserve? Seriously? This is an intimidation tactic and illegal bullying tactic without any basis on law of elected servants and our paid civil government staff and yet Shane Fuhrman decries bullying on his own website, and in our local newspaper.
This is one of the best examples to date of why Fuhrman must be recalled. We are desperate for REAL leadership for not only our community but our dedicated town staff. Is this really creating an environment for progressive and productive work from the board of electives and the staff that actually run this town?
The reason the trustees and employees have official Town of Silverton e-mail accounts and or work cell phones, as with other government employees, is to facilitate CORA requests as well as to track and curate the information exchanges that pertain to public business only. Disregarding their right to privacy and private opinions outside of the workplace creates a hostile work environment and will never bring this board or town staff together.
Could you imagine working for a Mayor who constantly threatens and harasses staff and electives with CORA requests, micromanaging e-mails and text messages?
Do you know how much time, energy and money it costs our community, your community? What about their peace of mind in job security, or workplace harassment? What about Freedom of thought and speech? None of that matters to our current Mayor and THAT IS WHY WE NEED TO HIT THE RESTART BUTTON with new leadership.
The Mayor is trying to lawyer his way to the helm of the Ship that is Silverton. Faced with a massive affordable housing shortage, businesses going thru rolling blackouts because of a lack of available labor, quality of life issues from the environment to the future growth of OUR town...
Clearly, Selwyn Capital and Sultan Development are NOT in any way the business of Trustees and or the Town staff. This is a blatant tactic to silence and intimidate our Trustees and Town Staff.
FOURTH AMENDMENT
Search and Seizure
Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791. The first 10 amendments form the Bill of RightsThe right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/amendment-iv/interps/121
In China or Iraq, Mayor Fuhrman's request would not be problematic. However, here in the United States of America you would need a search warrant or Court ordered subpoena to obtain this data off a personal phone. Period. This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of Constitutional Law. As an attorney, Mayor Fuhrman should know this.
Absent the overturning of the 4th Amendment, this is just not legal in America. The request would go to the data service provider for a complete record unalterable by the phone owner. Any search of an individual(s) device would be considered incomplete at best; people erase / modify data on their personal phones at will.
Everything legitimately covered by CORA, the "business fo the people" should be going thru the official Government e-mail addresses provided to both Trustees and employees of the Town anyway. If someone felt there was inappropriate communication / conduct being communicated outside of the official e-mail addresses, their relief would be to go to State agencies / the court system to get search warrants or subpoenas depending on the type of communication / actions that were under suspicion, one is criminal the other is civil.
This was confirmed by a Colorado Attorney specializing in Government Law, an attorney in private practice as well as a law enforcement prosecutor yesterday, September 16th. Unequivocally all three said this was absolutely illegal, not appropriate and likely also a violation of employment law for any and all Town of Silverton employees.
It certainly fits the well established pattern of behavior on the part of our disingenuous Mayor Fuhrman. Manipulative bullying, misuse of power for personal gain, harassment of fellow trustees and employees. WOW. Does his depravity have no end?
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” — US Supreme Court Justice Brandeis
Below is the link for the Colorado Statutes pertaining to CORA requests.
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/laws/Title24/Title24Article72Part2.html
