Man pushes creation of panel to prepare city for space aliens

eff Peckman is back at it, and this time he is bringing little green men along for the ride.

The Denver man, who sponsored an offbeat ballot initiative that would have required the city to implement stress-reduction techniques, now wants to ask voters to create a commission dealing with space aliens.

"It is important because if you're driving down the highway and you saw a crash of a small spaceship and a car or a bus full of kids, you really wouldn't know what to do," Peckman said Thursday. "Do you wait for the hazardous materials experts to show up because of potential contaminants from another solar system? What do you do? People really don't know."

Peckman, 54, who is single and lives with his parents, has submitted to the city a draft of the proposed ordinance, which would require the creation of an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission.

As required, the city is holding a "review and comment" meeting on the proposed ballot initiative with Peckman on Thursday.

"I don't know what we're going to ask him yet," said David Broadwell, an assistant city attorney.

Peckman hopes to collect enough signatures - he needs about 4,000 - to get the proposed initiative on the November ballot.

According to the proposal, the 18-member ET commission would "create a responsible, common-sense strategy for dealing with issues related to the presence of extraterrestrial beings on Earth," among other tasks.

Peckman said the proposed initiative is "a shortcut to disclosure of the knowledge of extraterrestrial beings on Earth and interacting with people on Earth." He said he has never seen an space alien, but that he has seen evidence proving that they exist.

"I certainly believe that they visit somewhat frequently," he said. "I don't know that they're walking around the streets of LoDo - others might disagree with that. But they do seem to have made their presence known all over the world to a lot of people."

Councilman Charlie Brown was an outspoken critic of Peckman's 2003 "Safety through Peace" initiative, which failed but garnered a healthy 32 percent in support. Brown called the 2003 initiative "looney-tooney" and Peckman's latest proposal "even loonier." - rm