EXCLUSIVE: Former Palmer Lake Mayor discusses resignation after harassment & controversial texts

Editor's note: The full interview with Havenar is at the bottom of this article.

PALMER LAKE, Colo. (KRDO) -- The now-former Mayor of Palmer Lake Glant Havenar is sharing why she handed in her resignation this week, and answered questions about leaked private text messages which raised questions about her ethics and behaviors while in office.

KRDO13 was the first to report that the now-former mayor of Palmer Lake has resigned amid the ongoing Buc-ee's controversy, and the release of private text messages this week.

On Thursday, she sat down with KRDO13's Tyler Cunnington to discuss the decision and more.

Glant Havenar says she leaves with no regrets.

"I'm done. I'm done. I'm complete. I feel really at peace with this. It's time to do something creative. It's time to spend time with my family. It's time to spend time with my elderly parents." said the former Mayor.

She explains that she has suffered from harassment and threats for the last 10 months due to high emotions within the community, over a proposed annexation for a Buc-ee's that is attempting to be built along I-25 and County Line Road.

"I haven't felt safe for quite some time. We're having escorts out of our town council meetings, being police escort," said Havenar, who added that she also feared for her family's safety, and even claimed to have nails put behind her car tires at a grocery store.

"I traded in my car ... my car was really lime green and was really noticeable. And I wasn't being able to go out, go grocery shopping or go to places in the community without having somebody say, this is where she is right now," she explained.

Havenar says it is what drove her to her resignation. In addition, she says that she didn't want to create more noise and trouble this summer through a recall effort that she said she knew was coming, to have her removed as Mayor, considering there are already three trustee members in the recall process.

"What I didn't want to have happen in our community, a town like Palmer Lake, like that, that relies on Summer, that relies on people coming to paddleboard and coming to visit our restaurants", explained Havenar. "I didn't want petitioners outside all summer long trying to get signatures for me with their posters and their banners and their signs disrupting the peace of Palmer Lake," she added.

Hanevar says that she wants the town to support the remaining three Board of Trustees members who are not being recalled, and has plenty of confidence in whoever the next Mayor will be.

The Palmer Lake Board of Trustees will begin the process to appoint a new mayor at their upcoming June 12th meeting. That person will serve through November 2026.

However, her announcement on Wednesday night comes just days after private text messages between her and a friend were submitted as evidence to an ongoing lawsuit. That suit is between Integrity Matters, a 501c4 based in Colorado Springs, along with several other plaintiffs and members of the Palmer Lake government, including Hanevar.

The texts from Havenar's private cell phone, with former top State GOP Staffer Darcy Schoening, show the then-mayor typing out insults and expletives towards constituents who posted online, questioning, contesting, or challenging the Buc-ees annexation or other town policies.

Two examples are seen below:

You can view the entire court document with all 55 text message screenshots below:

KRDO13 Investigates asked about these messages, amongst others, to which Hanever repeatedly argued they were not sent in her capacity as a mayor, but as a private citizen with another private friend of hers.

KRDO13: "Some of these screenshots even show your own NextDoor account replying to somebody to which you then say, 'This guy is a F-ing jack A-s-s.'"

HANEVAR: "Okay."

KRDO13: "So is that not you referencing a situation that involves you as a mayor?"

HANEVAR: "It does not reference a situation involving me as a mayor, and I don't know what text you're talking about, and I'm not going to speak to the texts."

Another screenshot also shows that Hanevar reportedly created a fake account to reply to people online, as seen below:

KRDO13: "So these, these exchanges with this person where you say, 'Accept my friend request, Sent a friend request from Samantha Stewart. I got a fake next door as well' was not you?"

HANEVAR: "That's not what, I'm, I'm not, I haven't read through the text messages. I'm not going to read through the text messages."

She later conceded that she may have said disparaging things about people, however, that was due to the fact she was being harassed by many online.

HANEVAR: "But I have been harassed by people and said unkind things to a private personal friend, who then turned around and released them into the community."

KRDO13: "I can show you some of (the texts) just right here."

HANEVAR: "I don't want to see them. I don't care.  I don't care. I'm done."

Hanevar says she had been considering resigning for several weeks, and stated that the text messages were not a driving factor in her resignation, and instead cited the earlier reasons she provided. She claims the texts were intentionally released to disparage her, and acted as a final straw to hand in her letter.

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