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Chris Leppek,
Reliving the glory days, Intermountain Jewish News. Oct. 1, 2009.
Article on the successful campaign by Colorado legislators Jerry Kopel and
Tilman Bishop to free the Leningrad Three.
Hinda Mandell,
Cry of liberty. Foundation will honor refuseniks whose 1970 attempted
hijacking drew world attention to the Soviet Union’s oppression of Jews. Boston
Globe, Oct. 8, 2009.
Jerry Kopel,
Freeing
the Leningrad Three.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver). Remarks in the Congressional
Record, "Celebrating 80th Birthday Of Gerald (Jerry) Kopel And 56th
Anniversary of Jerry And Dolores Kopel." June 12, 2008 (pages E1229-30).
Text.
PDF.
 Recent
Articles
Update on legislative bills (and also about me). Roofing, private
investigators, mental health workers.
Adultery Law in
Colorado.
Roofing Contractors.
Private Investigators.
The push for occupational licensing.
Mental Health Board.
As tax
times nears, there's rallying for RALS. (refund anticipation loan
facilitators).
Can
Unlicensed Psychotherapists Claim They're Registered by the State?
Advice for New Legislators.
Statistics: Legislatures with an opposite-party Governor; Bills and
Resolutions.
Lottery Data.
Archive
Full list of Jerry's articles.
Colorado Statesman
archive of
Jerry Kopel columns from 2008 to 2012. (In reverse chronological
order. The columns as published in the Statesman may have
slight differences from the versions here on this website.)
Subject areas:
Biography
Colorado History
Colorado Legislature
Colorado Politics & elections,
including Denver.
Constitutional
Amendments
and other Ballot issues
Consumer and Tort Issues
Criminal Law
Gambling
Sunrise/Sunset
(occupational licensing)
Jerry News
Jerry
wins First Place in the Colorado Press Association's 2006 Public Service
writing category, for his column in the Colorado Statesman.
University of Colorado School of Journalism. Alumni article on
Jerry -- a "C" student in the J-school, who was told he should try
another field.
Jerry parties with the
Denver Bar Association.
The Gerald Kopel Papers, which cover Kopel's entire legislative
career from 1964 to 1992, are housed in the Denver Public Library's
Western History Collection. The papers are perhaps the most
extensive archive of the public career of any American state
legislator from the 20th century. For more information on the
collection, and a link to an HTML table of contents,
click here. For the Denver Public Library's online Table of
Contents and information,
click here.
Jerry Kopel's Report. Jerry's
newsletter to constituents, from 1967 to 1998.
Available in the Denver Public Library.
The Dolores Kopel Papers, cover
the life and career of Jerry's wife Dolores, who was one of the
first female lawyers in Colorado. She served as United States
Bankruptcy Trustee for Colorado and Kansas. Table of Contents
here.
Short
biography of
Dolores Kopel.
Reported legal cases of
Gerald and Dolores Kopel.
Most of the articles on this website
were originally published in the Colorado Statesman, a weekly
newspaper for which Jerry Kopel has been an award-winning columnist
since 1992.
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Jerry Kopel, 1928-2012
Jerry Kopel passed away peacefully on
January 21, 2012. He had been seriously ill for a while, and was
definitely ready to move onward. While our family misses him, we are
happy that his spirit has been liberated from the maladies of his
body.
There will be a public Celebration of his
Life on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 1 p.m, at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
909 York Street, Denver. (Directions
here. There is free parking in the garage on the east side of
York Street, across from the Gardens.)
Persons who would like to make a gift in
Jerry's memory are encouraged to
donate to the
Denver Public Library. Page 2 of the online donation form will
give you the opportunity in the Comments field to make the donation
a Memorial for Jerry Kopel. The funds will be used to support the
Western History Collection at the Library, which is the repository
of Jerry's papers.
David Kopel
Former Colorado lawmaker Gerald Kopel
remembered for love of state.
Denver Post. By Tim McGhee. Jan. 23, 2012.
Former state Rep. Jerry Kopel passes away.
Colorado Statesman. Jan. 23, 2012.
Denver Public Library Exhibit on the Soviet
Refuseniks and Kopel's efforts to free them
Slide show
in Powerpoint format
Jerry Kopel, the Legislator’s Legislator
By Morgan Smith, Colorado Statesman.
Sept. 27, 2011
Article is
here.
Jerry's penultimate article
"We need to be regulated," concedes
the Colorado Roofing Association in their application to the
Dept. of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) for licensing of Roofing
Contractors.
Of course one
reason to seek regulation is to cut down the number of possible
fly-by unqualified operators presently making bids for roofing
construction and ending up in a Better Business Bureau (BBB)
file of complaints. Regulation may be the only way for honest
roofing contractors to regain credibility with homeowners and
business owners in Colorado.
On page 14 of
DORA's report you will read the following:
"While scams
and outright fraud dominate the evidence of harm to the citizens
of Colorado by roofers, enough evidence of harm resulting from
incompetence exists to support state intervention. Specifically,
instances of carbon monoxide problems are almost certainly due
to poor workmanship if not incompetence." And further on
"evidence of physical harm resulting from faulty work is also
present in Colorado."
On page 11
DORA reports 736 complaints against roofing contractors between
March 8, 2007 through March 8, 2010 claimed by the
Denver-Boulder BBB office. From 39 locations there were six
cities with the largest total: Aurora, Arvada, Denver, Englewood
, Lakewood, and Littleton with 435 complaints. The figure "736"
complaints were only the ones reported to that BBB office. There
were likely many not reported.
On page 12 of
the report the Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado
reported that contractors were the subject of more consumer
inquiries than any other business. This BBB office received 271
complaints against roofing contractors from April 2007 through
April 2010.
Thirty states
and Washington, D.C., provide some regulation of roofing
contractors according to Roof Assn. But the Colorado area and
bordering states are among the weakest for regulation. Seven
states have some large or small boundary contact: Utah, Wyoming,
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Wyoming,
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado have no state
regulation. New Mexico has a little regulation. Arizona and Utah
have workable regulations. In any draft for Colorado those two
state laws should be reviewed. Any Colorado county or city
regulation will need to be amended or repealed.
Material
complaints allege incomplete work, poor work quality, additional
property damage, payment disputes, and overcharging insurance
companies.
Incompetents
blossom often as follow-ups called "storm chasers" or
"travelers." DORA reports a Lakewood Police Dept. representative
said the "scam artists leave victims with additional repairs and
clean-up costs that far exceed the cost of the needed repairs."
The Attorney General's office listed roofing and gutter
complaints as the third largest number of complaints from
January 2009 through February 2010.
Roofing Assn.
would follow the approach used in many states of exempting
roofing work of $1,000 or less from state regulation.
Should
Colorado require roofing contractors to have taken and passed
educational classes and passing a competency exam before
practice? At least fifteen states require passing such a
competency test.
Surety bonding
and liability insurance is recommended by DORA. But how much?
Amounts should be based on reviewing actual losses on known
damage cases, allowing modest profit to the insurance companies
selling roof damage protection.
Presently
advertisements state "Our company is bonded, insured, licensed
and dependable, with highly trained team members to help
customers every step of the way." The consumer should demand
verification of the advertisement as there is not yet any state
regulation.
Chief sponsor
of the roofing contractor regulation measure, SB 207, is Sen.
Lois Tochtrop (D). The bill does exempt contracts of $1,000 or
less. To be valid, contractors have to be registered as working
on residences or commercial property, or a combination of the
two.
Registration requires passage of a
national test relating to the subject matter. The test is chosen
by DORA. The contractor must have general liability coverage of
$500,000 as a residential roofer and one million dollars if both
residential and commercial roofing. Contractors must post a
surety bond of $25,000 for residential roofing and $100,000 for
commercial roofing.
All clients
may cancel contracts within 72 hours after signing. And
residential property owners may also cancel with 72 hours after
being turned down by the residential roofing insurer.
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Update on legislative bills (and also about me)
June 17, 2011
There were two sunrise bills and one sunset
bill that you read about in my previous columns, and now you have the
final read on what happened in those three regulatory attempts.
Senate Bill 207 by Sen. Lois Tochtrop,
D-Thornton, and Rep. Kevin Priola, R-Brighton, would have regulated
roofers. The bill passed Business Affairs and Appropriations with
moderate amendments. A number of bills were laid over to a date after
the Legislature adjourned. But SB 207 was defeated on second reading
April 27, the only Senate bill I found to be so treated.
I thought the amount of insurance the bill
required for roofing companies would have put many out of business
unless the cost was reduced. I think a lot of voters may be angry at
getting no response to the yearly complaints about roofers. Perhaps
this bill was only a first step and a bill introduced in 2012 will
have heavy lobbying in its favor.
Normally there is an amendment to the “report
of the committee of the whole” which would have listed the votes for
and against the measure. There was no amendment offered.
• • •
The 1-page House Bill 1195 by Rep.
Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton,
passed on the last day of the 2011 assembly. It sets up a voluntary
licensure of private investigators (PI).
The big difference is the term “license.” You
don’t want to get caught using that word on your calling card unless
you are licensed by convincing the director that you have 4,000 hours
of verifiable experience or 2,000 hours plus sufficient education. You
need knowledge of statutes dealing with investigation whether you have
4,000 or 2,000 hours of verifiable experience.
CRS 12-58.5-104 (1) (b) states, “Nothing in
this article requires private investigators engaging in private
investigation in this state to obtain a licensure under this article.”
It costs you money and subjects you to
disciplinary action as a licensed PI. It is voluntary now, but knowing
what is coming after a majority of the PIs become licensed (LPIs)...
that is when the amended law will (I believe) be changed to also cover
ALL the non-LPIs, doing away with unlicensed PIs.
• • •
One new law, Senate Bill 187 by Sen.
Linda Newe, D-Littleton, and Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, amends
regulation for 18,000 to 19,000 persons working in mental health
occupations. By fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012, the fiscal note
expects new authority for mental health boards to level
administrative-type fines will produce greater than $2 million dollars
annually.
It covers psychologists, social workers,
marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors,
registered psychotherapists (formerly the grievance board) and an
addiction counselors’ board.
The most diverse group within mental health
occupations are the unlicensed psychotherapists who will now be
“registered” instead of just being in the database. There is no
minimum education requirement for the registered, so the amount of
education varies from high school to a Ph.D.
The “registered” are “regulated” and those who
are registered can use the term “regulated” and “registered” along
with “psychotherapists” since they are required to know the statutes
related to their occupation. They are regulated under many of the same
disciplines as the licensed psychologists.
Psychotherapists have to tell patients the
difference between licensing, registration, and certification
including the educational experience and training required. As more
information is required from registered persons, the more open the
regulated unlicensed persons can be to punishment for failure to
supply what the statute requires.
Presently the mental health boards have four
public members on the board unconnected to the profession and three
members who are from the profession covered. That changes and SB 187
gives the professional members four seats to three seats for public
members. Legislators should study the number of complaints filed after
July 1, 2011. How many of the complaints resulted in disciplinary
hearings.
• • •
The age of 80 is an unwelcome
boundary. Today 70 is almost as good as 60. But 80 is more like 90 on
some days. I passed 80 a few years ago and don’t enjoy the daily “If I
get up what is going to go wrong today?”
Jody contacted me in December of 1992 as I was
retiring from the Legislature. She asked if I would like to be a
columnist for The Statesman. My first column appeared in December of
1992. More than 700 columns later, I am still writing but not on a
given schedule or a promise of being printed.
Depending on my health at a particular time, I
will present information you might not get otherwise.
June is a good month to do this. June is my
83rd birthday month and my 59th anniversary of marriage to Dolores.
The nice thing about the several decades since
I began these columns is the response from readers of The Statesman
wherever I travel in Colorado. These are strangers and our one
connection is “I write and they read.”
They read and come
up with a hand out to shake. And I am so grateful that they care to do
that.
(Jerry Kopel served
22 years in the Colorado House.)
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