Passes & Canyons Blog

One of the biggest questions I’ve had since this whole brouhaha about ABATE’s financial crisis erupted was simply, “How the heck did we ever get to this point?”

Based on some information posted over on The Dandooligan blog and some materials Terry Howard sent me after the second of two charges against her were dropped, I feel like that question has an answer: No one was properly minding the store and when it could no longer be ignored it was too late to get a reasonable financial lifeline, so an unreasonable one was accepted. Terry arranged for the loan but she did so with the express thanks from the board of directors.

I think it’s really that simple. And by no one, I mean the board of directors and the officers. I largely exempt the general membership because we simply had no idea this was even going on, even those of us who attend meetings regularly. In fact, one of the documents Terry sent me was an email in which she told the board members, “Please keep this within the Board. We don’t need members panicking at this point.” I have no doubt her intentions at the time were good, and readily admit that hindsight is always 20-20, but gosh, maybe if the members had been made aware of the problem some other solution might have been found. There’s a saying I strongly believe in: All of us are smarter than any of us.

OK, so what’s done is done and can’t be undone. Now we need to move ahead, because Colorado motorcyclists still need some sort of lobbying group, a motorcycle rights organization (MRO) as they are known, standing up for our interests in matters of the law.

Clearly ABATE’s State Coordinator Bruce Downs believes ABATE should be that MRO. Not everyone agrees, however. Some believe ABATE needs to go away and a new MRO arise in its place. Making that happen would be a challenge, to say the least.

Anyway, backtracking just a bit, I want to refer you to The Dandooligan because Matt Wessels over there has put out some extensive information about this whole affair. I wasn’t even aware, because I hadn’t been following him closely, but that link above is to a piece written by Deb Craig giving a pretty deep inside look at ABATE’s inner workings. Supporters of Terry Howard–and I know there are a lot of them out there–will not like some of what she says because she does not paint a pretty picture of Terry, but at the very least the straight-out factual information she presents is quite interesting. Frankly, it doesn’t paint a very pretty picture of ABATE.

And that is the one thing that seems universal. There are the former rider training folks who dislike Terry Howard and ABATE for wrongs they feel were done to them. There are the Terry Howard supporters who don’t like ABATE because they feel the organization threw Terry under the bus. And there are the continuing ABATE members and supporters who nevertheless feel that the leadership has been, to use a very, very kind word, remiss in its duties. It makes it easy to understand the thinking of those who think ABATE needs to just go away.

I suspect that’s not going to happen. Let’s see what does happen. It’s going to be interesting.

Biker Quote for Today

Education is important, but racing is importanter.

I just came from the ABATE District 10 meeting and once again it seems everyone else already knew what I only learned in an off-handed reference: The Denver District Attorney has decided to drop the one remaining charge against Terry Howard, ABATE’s former state coordinator. Although Bruce Downs, the new state coordinator, made the point that it should be stated in the terms that the DA “will not pursue” the charges any further. I’m not really clear on the semantic difference. Either way, Terry is no longer being prosecuted for theft.

As Bruce explained, ABATE was asked to provide a “victim’s statement,” which it did, and later the DA’s office got back to Bruce to inform him of its decision to call it off. He said the call had come on Wednesday or Thursday.

“That’s where it ends,” said Bruce.

At least that’s where the criminal aspect of the situation ends. Of course both ABATE and Terry Howard remain on the hook for this high-interest loan that the group has defaulted on and for which Terry co-signed. It’s probably going to be a long time before that business comes to an end.

Biker Quote for Today

Careful maintenance and preparation is critical to making sure your dirt bike is reliable enough to tow your buddy’s bike back to the truck.

I want to start off by quoting this to you:

Whether you support ABATE or not, they represent you legislatively, in state policy making, and as a face of Colorado riders. It reflects directly on you whether you acknowledge it or not. At the very least, care about your reputation…

I’ve wondered in recent weeks if readers here groan when they see ABATE in the titles of these posts. If you’re not a member, why should you care. That statement, from a thread on the Colorado Sportbike Club forum, is the reason. So, proceeding . . .

So, I went to the ABATE state board meeting on Saturday as I said I would, and found both reason for reassurance and for doubts. State Coordinator Bruce Downs stressed one point he has made before, which is that lax practices of conducting business in the past make it hard now to reconstruct the events that led to the group’s current financial crisis. That laxity has been banished as of right now, he noted, and he proceeded to run the meeting by the book. This is definitely a good thing.

The end of the year balance sheet was discussed, which shows the group in the black for 2014, and members present made a point of asking that the monthly reports be made available to all along with other related information. That members are paying attention is also a good thing.

Of course then there’s that issue of that towering load of debt with usurious interest rates, and ABATE has simply defaulted on that. There’s still only one way to characterize that and that’s very bad. The lender will not be going away.

Gary Davis, the representative from District 5, asked if discussion of this whole thing was on the agenda, and when Bruce said it was not he asked if it could be added. That discussion ensued immediately. Gary proposed that ABATE contact the lender, Quick Bridge Funding, to see if any sort of accommodation can be worked out. Another member who has experience as a loan officer agreed that it is far better to be in communication than to not be. As a motion to that effect seemed to be moving to a vote, Bruce said he felt it would be best to consult with an attorney with experience in this sort of thing first. Motions for both those proposals were passed.

That’s the bare bones of it; what was interesting was the discussion.

Early on, Bruce said that the loan was in default and, as for the lender, “they’re gonna play their hand.”

In what I thought was a very perceptive question, D-10 rep Rocky Wood asked if that meant that the group was just sitting back waiting to see if perhaps the lender would pursue Terry Howard, the former state coordinator, rather than ABATE, with the expectation that they would have a better shot at getting their money from Terry. Terry, of course, personally co-signed on this load and thus is liable if the group defaults.

The former loan officer spoke up at this point saying that considering the loan was to ABATE, and Terry was only the co-signer, they would definitely be coming after the group, and probably Terry as well. But no hope that all eyes would be turned toward Terry. So if the answer to Rocky’s question was yes, well, too bad. Ain’t gonna happen.

Several board members asked questions about how all this came about and I was struck with two thoughts. First, it’s extremely interesting to see board members, who were presumably there when this all occurred, asking the same questions I’ve been asking. Maybe that means those questions will eventually get answered. Second, however, is the disturbing thought that the people who were there when this all happened were apparently not paying enough attention to know what was going on. That seriously tempers the confidence the first point starts to build. What were you guys doing?

In the meantime, support for ABATE is diminishing, largely because a significant portion of membership feels Terry Howard has been thrown under the bus while another officer who would seem to have been every bit as much involved in the situation has felt no repercussions. Rocky’s question about ABATE waiting to see if the lender would go after Terry instead of the group goes straight to the heart of that thinking.

So I return to that quote I started with: “Whether you support ABATE or not, they represent you legislatively, in state policy making, and as a face of Colorado riders.” Can this group be saved? Does this group deserve to be saved? There are a lot of people asking these questions and they’re not finding any easy answers. I’m not finding any easy answers. I did just renew my membership but I know others who have not. ABATE of Colorado is facing a tough road going forward.

Biker Quote for Today

Never spit at a competitor when you’re wearing a full-face helmet.

I was asked by a contact with the Colorado Sportbike Club about my thoughts regarding ABATE of Colorado going forward.

Do you think ABATE should continue/survive? If so, do you think the changes that need to happen could be executed? Where do we go from here?

I didn’t answer right away because I had to do some serious thinking. When I did reply, this is what I said.

Tough questions, which is why I didn’t reply immediately.

I do think we need some sort of lobbying group down at the capitol. And at this moment, ABATE is it. I heard from Terry that the legislators have made it clear that if ABATE ever got too chummy with the Confederation of Clubs that ABATE’s credibility would plummet and our voice would not be heard as welcome. So it’s not as if we could expect the COC to pick up the slack. An organization such as the Sportbike Club might be able to build a favorable presence down there but that would take time and I’m not aware of any such effort as of yet. So ABATE is what we have.

I just renewed my membership with ABATE. I joined years ago at the Last Brass Monkey Run so I’m always up for renewal at this time of year. I wondered about it because there are so many questions I, as a member, want answers to and haven’t gotten yet. But for only $30 I figured I’d go ahead. If dues were $100 I’m not sure I would have made the same decision.

I believe that Bruce Downs, as the new state coordinator, is sincerely interested in resolving a lot of the issues that lead to the group being where it is today. Bruce strikes me as a competent, intelligent person and I agree with him that looking forward is more important than looking back, though we definitely need to do some looking back.

I really don’t know the other people on the board and some of the negative things I’ve heard leave me less than totally confident about what we’ll see from there. I absolutely think ABATE needs to broaden its outreach beyond just the Harley crowd and I always applauded Terry’s work with the Sportbike Club and the MRA. From what I hear, some of the board members have a very different opinion in that regard. If that’s true I think those people need to ask themselves the question, do we represent all motorcyclists or just a certain group? And what are they, themselves, doing to bring in more members?

At the very least, it is my intention to get more involved either until I conclude it’s hopeless or–preferably–on an ongoing basis. I’ve always been moderately active and involved. That is, I at least come to meetings regularly and to some events. This coming Saturday (Jan. 17) I intend to go to the state board meeting, which will be at 11 a.m. at Mickey’s Steakhouse up at 72nd and Broadway. My impressions from that may have a significant influence on my hopes and expectations.

So we’ll see.

And so we will see. I’ll have more to say after the meeting, obviously.

Biker Quote for Today

If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is deadly.

The legislative update at our ABATE of Colorado D-10 meeting on Sunday brought news of a bill possibly in the offing that would reinstitute a helmet law here.

According to State Coordinator Bruce Downs, Rep. Paul Rosenthal had first stated that he would definitely such a bill in the upcoming session. Rosenthal then apparently backed off from that, indicating that he might work on developing a base with an eye toward introducing such a bill in the 2016 session.

ABATE has been cooperating with two other major motorcycle groups in the state, the Colorado Confederation of Clubs and the US Defenders, preparing to fight any such bill.

The groups have put together a letter that will be made available at numerous motorcycle events, such as ABATE’s Last Brass Monkey Run this week and the Colorado Motorcycle Expo (formerly Colorado Motorcycle Show and Swap). Riders will be asked to sign the letter and provide their address, and then the letters will be sorted by the signer’s representative. Should a bill be introduced at any point the letters will be hand delivered to the appropriate representative.

The idea is to be ready, and hopefully to have thousands of signed letters in hand to be delivered.

“There’s no way this is going away,” said Bruce of the attempt to reinstate the helmet law.

According to Bruce, the organizations sought a meeting with Rosenthal to discuss the issue but the representative made it clear he would not be swayed by their arguments.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, 35

Biker Quote for Today

Full Throttle – solves the problem or ends the suspense.

I had a discussion recently with Bruce Downs, the new state coordinator for ABATE of Colorado, in regard to the financial issues the organization is facing. It was not a particularly satisfying conversation.

That’s not, in large part, Bruce’s fault. A lot of the questions I asked had to do with events that took place before Bruce stepped in as the new state coordinator. He has no desire to comment on matters that he had no knowledge of, and no one can blame him for that. In many cases he said that he was asking the same questions himself and so far had not been able to come up with solid answers.

I have to admit, too, that I had an erroneous understanding going into this discussion. With all the stories and rumors going around, Bruce had issued a statement to the membership denying/refuting specific claims and offering . . .

This is where I didn’t read carefully enough. I had the idea in my head that he was offering to speak to anyone who had questions about the matter. If I had really focused on his words I would have had a different take. Here’s what he said:

I would like to state right now that I am interested in getting to the truth about the rumors circulating about ABATE and its operation. I am willing to meet with anyone who can provide me with justifiable documentation as to the rumors.

And then this:

Again, I ask that anyone with justifiable documentation please come forward and show me the proof. I and others have dug deep and can find no evidence to support any of the rumors. I am willing to be corrected and will say so. If no justification can be provided any statements made are based on hearsay and innuendo and will be treated as an effort to defame ABATE and will be dealt with as such.

Not at all what I was thinking, is it? Bruce was not offering to answer questions, he was asking anyone with information to help answer his questions. So I soon got frustrated asking questions to which Bruce would respond that he didn’t know the answer. That was my own fault. But it had been my intention to speak with him even before he sent that note out, so my questions were the same as they would have been.

With that said, what did we discuss, and what did I learn? A little; not much.

My first question was broad: Considering how flush the organization was a few years ago, how did we get to the point where someone decided borrowing money at a high rate of interest was a good idea?

Because most of the money flowing through ABATE comes from rider training, this is inevitably where this question leads. Bruce walked me through the introduction of new competition and changes in the Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program that reduced revenue per student. While a relatively stable number of trainees signed up for classes, trainers proliferated and ABATE, which at one time was training more than 5,000 per year, last year trained around 2,700. Meanwhile, the amount paid to training organizations by the MOST program in order to reduce the cost to the students, thereby encouraging more students to get trained, fell from $100-$125 apiece to about $35 now.

OK, I knew the generalities of all that, if not the particulars. So what did the board do, and when, to address this declining revenue?

“I cannot answer that question for you.”

Bruce was on the board in the early 2000s as Northeast Regional Coordinator but left the board before the downturn. So he was not there to be privy to the discussions that may have gone on.

Let’s move on to the stories about a $45,000 ad campaign that reportedly went nowhere.

I have no idea where that figure came from and to hear Bruce discuss it, he doesn’t either. In his message to the members he had said as much:

As to the rumor that ABATE spent $45,000.00 on advertising I can find no documentation or evidence that that claim is true. We did spend a lot (in my opinion) of money on advertising but nowhere close to the amount claimed. Please prove the claim or quit using false information.

He told me, “I have dug into the 2014 financials and there was nowhere close to $45,000 being spent on advertising, much less $45,000 over budget. It has come to my attention that this did not even occur this year. If that is the case, I’m still going to look into it, but if this is something in the past, it’s something in the past.”

Let’s move on to the loans that are crushing ABATE now. Who made the decisions to take out those loans?

Bruce doesn’t know. He wasn’t there when the decision was made and apparently conversations that seem crucial now were not seen to be significant at the time, so memories are vague.

Why were the loans taken?

“As I understand, it was because we were short money and needed to pay bills.”

That about sums things up. That’s about all Bruce was able to provide.

I want to make the point here that Bruce’s focus since he took over as state coordinator is primarily on the future, not the past. His primary focus is on accomplishing whatever is necessary for the organization to survive, and not so much on how we came to be in this spot in the first place. After survival is assured perhaps you can go back and look into how the problems came to be in the first place.

“I’m trying to give you as much information as I can. I don’t know that we’re ever going to . . . I think there’s way too many things that went on that we’re never going to be able to say, ‘This is the cause.’ I think it was a multitude of factors and hopefully we will learn from that. Hopefully the members will say, ‘Yes, I have a responsibility for this organization, and I am going to hold those more accountable in the future’ and go from there.”

I don’t argue with that priority. But as a member I’d still like to know how we came to take on these scandalous loans. I think it was Larry Montgomery who said at the first D-10 meeting where this was all announced, that “doing absolutely nothing would have been better than taking out these loans.” How the hell did that decision get made? I think we have a right to know.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Former ABATE of Colorado officer faces theft charge

Biker Quote for Today

The more complete your on-board tool-kit, the more likely it is that all your trail riding buddies will expect you to fix everything that breaks on their bikes.

A lot of people have had a lot to say about what has been happening within ABATE of Colorado since the news broke that Terry Howard had been fired as state coordinator and the organization is in deep financial trouble due to a loan taken out at an apparently loan-shark-level interest rate. I’ve been trying to sift the truth out from the hyperbole.

First though, let me provide an update on Terry. She was in court again on Friday for “second advisement” and a preliminary hearing was set for February 3 at 8:30 a.m. She is facing one charge: theft. A second original charge of forgery has been dropped. What she is alleged to have stolen, however, seems to be an issue.

I asked her, because I had absolutely no further information than that it was a charge of theft, what exactly it was that she was charged with having done. Not surprisingly, she declined to discuss it as her attorney had advised her not to. It soon came out, though, in the proceeding, that she could hardly have answered the question. Her attorney, Wade Eldridge, told the judge that the defense had never received any information on just what exactly Terry is alleged to have done. It’s hard to prepare a defense without knowing what the charge is, he said (my paraphrase). The judge agreed that the defense was due a “bill of particulars” and the district attorney in the case said that would be provided right away. So that’s where things sit at this point.

In the meantime, some members–or perhaps at this time former members–of ABATE are not at all happy with how this whole matter has been handled. Some of Terry’s most vocal supporters are members of the Colorado Sportbike Club (CSC), which is a group Terry reached out to and drew into alliance with ABATE. I said when I first reported on this whole affair that I hoped the relationship weathers this storm. I’m not sure it is going to.

There have been a number of posts on the CSC forum and elsewhere that take the ABATE board to task and point fingers at persons other than Terry as perhaps responsible for whatever money seems to have gone missing. You can check these out if you’re interested:
http://www.cosportbikeclub.org/forums/showthread.php?53440-ABATE-of-Colorado-Rotten-from-the-Inside!!!
http://www.cosportbikeclub.org/forums/showthread.php?53434-ABATE-of-Colorado-WTF
http://thedandooligan.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/letter-from-ann-layson-on-11132014/

Trying to stamp out some of the smoldering fires, Bruce Downs, the new ABATE state coordinator, issued a letter to the membership denying a number of charges and saying that, “I ask that anyone with justifiable documentation please come forward and show me the proof. I and others have dug deep and can find no evidence to support any of the rumors. I am willing to be corrected and will say so. If no justification can be provided any statements made are based on hearsay and innuendo and will be treated as an effort to defame ABATE and will be dealt with as such.”

I had been intending to approach Bruce with questions as soon as I felt I had enough background to even know what I wanted to discuss. This email came right at the point when I felt I was ready, so I immediately replied that I would like to take Bruce up on his offer to discuss things that was also part of his note. A couple days later we spoke. This post is already getting long so I’ll go over what came out of that discussion in a follow-up post.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Former ABATE of Colorado officer faces theft charge

Biker Quote for Today

Do not ignore fear – outride it.

I spoke to people from the Denver Police Fraud Unit and the Denver District Court Wednesday and got a few things clarified regarding the charge against former ABATE of Colorado State Coordinator Terry Howard. She definitely has been charged, but only on one count of theft. I had been told previously, and reported with caveats, that there were charges of forgery and theft. (I have updated that post with this new, solid information.)

There still isn’t much official information available yet but I did learn that there will be a “second advisement” at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19 in Room 2100 at the Denver City and County Building. The case is #CR146265 in case anyone wants to pursue it. I will definitely be there.

While this case is crucially important for Terry Howard, not at all meaning to be dismissive toward her, it is really small potatoes for ABATE. ABATE has a much bigger issue, which is this crushing debt that threatens to wipe out the organization. I’ll be following the case but I’m going to be spending a lot more time trying to get answers to the questions regarding how ABATE ever got here in the first place.

I want to spell out the questions I’m going to be pursuing, both to let you know where I’m headed and also to organize my own thoughts on what I want to do. I’ll include a little history along the way.

There was a time not long ago when ABATE was flush. Revenues from the rider training program were in excess of $1 million a year, providing the group the cash to put the state coordinator on salary along with the rider training program manager (already being paid, I believe) and two folks to work in the office. Ben Hochberg was the rider training head and it was largely through his efforts that the program was doing so well.

Personalities were conflicting in the office, however. One thing led to another and Ben got fired. One thing I want to understand is how–and if–Ben’s departure ties in with the decline in the program and the revenue it brought in. Was there already a major decline in proceeds when Ben left? Or did the program nosedive after he left? I do know there were some issues before Ben left that he tried to warn the board about but I’m not clear if they were financial.

So Ben left and then what happened? I do know the state MOST program (Motorcycle Operator Safety Training) went through some changes, and I’ve talked about them here. Was that change in MOST all by itself the cause of ABATE’s financial crash? Or was firing Ben a decision that really should have been avoided at all costs? Or what other factors came into play?

Either way, it is my understanding–and I want to know a lot more about this–that ABATE launched an advertising campaign to the tune of about $45,000 and apparently was not very successful. I’m an active member. I go to meetings. I have never heard about this ad campaign. I want to know what it was for, what it entailed, what the results were, and who made the decision to do it, and why.

And then this expense apparently led to a need to take out a loan just to meet expenses. And ABATE apparently didn’t have the credit standing to qualify for a bank loan so Terry personally signed or co-signed for it. How did we fall so far so quickly? Why was this loan even necessary?

And after that came another loan, I guess intended to cover the first one. Who made that decision? What discussion went into that? And this is the one that is killing ABATE. I saw an article about exactly this kind of loan-sharking in the Nov. 17-23, 2014, issue of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Discussing this field of finance, the magazine says, “It’s a high-risk market, and interest rates can exceed 500 percent a year.”

And they quote someone who lost her company because of falling for this loan come-on: “It’s the worst possible decision you can ever make, because they own you. It’s crack for a business. You can’t get off it.”

I repeat: how did we ever get to this point? I want details and I want names. Not to blame and point fingers, but if the same people who made these decisions are calling the shots today then I’m going to have some serious issues about trust. And I know I’m not the only one. I was all prepared to write a check to do my part to help bail the organization out but when I started learning about all this I put down my check book. I’m going to need answers before I reach for that check book again.

Biker Quote for Today

I know there’s money in motocross. I put it there!