The City of Montrose’s Minister of Propaganda

Yes, We live in that Kind of World!

By David White

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, the City of Montrose’s long of tooth City Manager, Bill Bell, crowned himself as the City government’s “Arbiter of Truth.” This position, for the sake of simplicity, is more commonly known as the “Propaganda Minister” in most totalitarian regimes and in this case, for the City of Montrose. That’s gotta be worth another $100 grand in salary on top of his quarter million-dollar annual paycheck and with all of the freebies he gets at taxpayer expense thrown in for good measure!

Taking a direct shot at anyone who criticizes his and the City’s use of tax dollars as well as any number of other things that affect our personal lives and checkbooks as taxpaying citizens, here’s what Mr. Bell had to say about such criticism regarding the affairs of the City of Montrose as has been pointed out by others and myself:

Really Bill? Let’s touch on the key points he made in this Facebook post:

“…Are you tired of negativity? Are the lies and misinformation getting you frustrated when you read attack ads and hateful statements in the Mirror and in social media? Are you tired of hearing from the same 5-7 hateful people who write hate speech and political propaganda under the guise of "editorial/opinion" stories? It is time to take a stand. Stop reading that stuff and get over to MONTROSELIFESTYLE.COM for the truth.

There is only one place to get True & Accurate information regarding the City of Montrose and its activities, projects, budgets, etc. Before you vote in this upcoming April election...PLEASE go to MONTROSELIFESTYLE.COM and sign up for the Montrose Lifestyle newsletter.

MONTROSELIFESTYLE.COM is the only place you can read direct statements from the City of Montrose and its employees with actual facts about our community.

Our Montrose community comes together to make our futures better by creating fun and vibrant downtowns, restaurants, businesses, amphitheaters, and other gathering spaces where people from all walks of life can come together to enjoy life!”

The truth of the matter is that the City, under Mr. Bell’s direction and with the input of key current and former employees, created, roughly two years ago, what we’ll call the “Manager’s Office of Propaganda and Disinformation” (Lord only knows that he and they want you to know only what they want you to know!) to CONTROL the narrative coming from the bowels of City Hall.

To facilitate his need for control of all information related to his perceived “good works” for the citizens, he saw that there had to be a better way to drive the narrative outside of the City’s Public Information Officer, the monthly City Beat Newsletter and the Montrose Press. Hence a broader look at how to communicate the City’s “true and accurate information” was needed.

Mr. Bell took to strategizing a way to make that happen, that, if by osmosis, (picking up knowledge accidentally, without actually seeking that particular knowledge) this would be the way to get the “truth” to the citizenry by spoon feeding them his “truth.” What came about as a result of this exercise was the creation of MontroseLifestyle.com.

So, what or who is MontroseLifestyle.com and where did it come from? And who did our City Manager turn to for help with this project to disseminate his truth? None other than his former Assistant City Manager, Rob Joseph who left his job with the City in June of 2018 to supposedly “focus on family.” Follow this link to the press release that announced Mr. Joseph’s departure from the City at that time:

(https://www.cityofmontrose.org/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message/61679)

In addition, on the Montrose Lifestyle website, one finds the following information as presented by Mr. Joseph:

“Your Publisher:  Hello, I’m Rob Joseph, the former assistant city manager and founding director of the Office of Business and Tourism for the City of Montrose. Now, the City and I have partnered to bring you the Montrose Lifestyle!”

What does this “partnership” look like? Is it an arm’s length partnership? Is it subscriber driven? Are news stories organically created? The answer to all of these questions and more is simple…MontroseLifestyle.com is paid for by you and your tax dollars (along with some paid advertising) through the “partnership” created by Mr. Bell and Mr. Joseph and lists the registered address for the business (Montrose Lifestyle, LLC) as 107 South Cascade Avenue, Montrose, CO. Guess whose address that is? I’ll save you the trouble…it’s the City of Montrose’s Visitor Center and City Council Chambers building!

The partnership of Bell and Joseph formally registered their business on September 23, 2025, with the Colorado Secretary of State after months of Mr. Joseph as the sole independent contractor. (See below)

In 2024, over $50,000 in City of Montrose checks were written to Mr. Joseph in payment of his monthly retainer for his services and work at the then rate of $4,000 per month. In 2025, that number increased to $71,000 (or more) with his monthly retainer increasing to $5,000 per month. In both years, Mr. Joseph received “commission” checks for selling advertising on the website. Included in the 2025 total was a payment to him for $11,385.20 to consult with the City and to sell advertising in the annual Visitor’s Guide – another component in Mr. Bell’s propaganda quiver. Mr. Bell and Mr. Joseph met and are continuing to meet for coffee, lunch, etc. to strategize on the website – all at taxpayer expense on the City credit card.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. There are two (2) more players in Mr. Bell’s propaganda campaign that are worth mentioning and of course, they are funded with your tax dollars in support of and in addition to MontroseLifestyle.com.

An entity known as The Creative Department, LLC has a “design contract” with the City of Montrose for multiple numbers of marketing efforts on the part of the City for City operations & events such as The Pavilion, Black Canyon Golf Course, 4th of July celebrations, FUNC Fest, Mudder events, Earth Day & Week, etc.). Included in this contract for services is design and layout work for the Montrose Lifestyle website. While I don’t see an issue with the marketing component of what they’re doing for the golf course and others, I do have an issue with the thousands of dollars that are spent with them annually on Messrs. Bell & Joseph’s website and newsletter for the very reasons stated above.

On top of this, the City’s Administrative budget has a line item for an annual contract for $1,200.00 to sponsor local media company Meridian 105 Media’s podcast “The Bell Curve” which is marketed under the moniker WKRP Montrose (a knock off of the old ‘70’s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati) and features City Manager Bell feeding the few viewers of this podcast the “truth” of what is going on within City Hall.

Clearly, Mr. Bell has a need to literally beg you to subscribe to the MontroseLifestyle.com online newsletter in order to get the information HE wants you to read and believe ahead of any other information you might garner from reading The Montrose Mirror or other publications such as this. Not even his surrogate news outlet, the Montrose Daily Press, was serving his propaganda needs well enough prompting the need to up the ante with the start of the MontroseLifestyle.com publication and information source.

And to think that he is literally pleading with the public to subscribe to the Montrose Lifestyle Newsletter BEFORE THE APRIL 7th Municipal Election! Why? What does he plan to feed the public? It really doesn’t matter. This is clearly a case of election interference! He’s obviously trying to influence the outcome of an election. Don’t worry, he’ll be talking to folks that might not cater to him doing so.

And since when is it, according to Mr. Bell’s Facebook post, the City’s job to bring our community together to …”make our futures better by creating fun and vibrant downtowns, restaurants, businesses, amphitheaters, and other gathering spaces where people from all walks of life can come together to enjoy life!” Government driving the private sector? Government dictating what restaurants we need and what a “vibrant downtown” looks like? This pattern has been going on for years with millions of your tax dollars going toward such ends. “Lipstick on a pig” as I’ve called it, has made some folks a lot of money with very mixed results.

When you take a step back and look at what’s going on, it really sounds like Fascism, Mr. Bell. As defined, “Fascism is a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fascism) Outside of the racism, component, it seems that there’s a scary similarity to what is happening in Montrose given Mr. Bell’s public post on the matter.

To wrap this opinion piece up, I was reminded of the following story from a few years ago:

“When a reporter asked actor Denzel Washington about what he thought about “fake news” (i.e. mainstream or legacy media) in a December 2016 interview, Washington replied, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed.” “So, what do you do?” the reporter asked.

“That’s a great question. What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore.”

“So, what responsibility do you all have?” Denzel asked before answering his own question. “To tell the truth. Not just to be first. But to tell the truth.”

(https://www.yahoo.com/news/denzel-washington-blasts-mainstream-media-182505896.html)

So, Mr. Bell, tell the truth. The real truth. Not your version of the truth which you’ve paid for with our tax dollars. Stop trying to influence elections. Stop spinning your City Council members up into believing your so-called truth. Stop labeling unpaid citizens doing the research to bring your propaganda campaign into the light of day as malevolent human beings. Just stop!

The real truth of the matter is that after 15 years, Mr. Bell has built for himself a small-town empire with a City Council of go along to get along oldsters more concerned with their image as opposed to working for us, the citizens. It really is time for a change at the top. A recent $10,000 pay raise and a $10,000 bonus for Mr. Bell (thanks to Mayor Frank and Company) will be a thing of the past.

Mr. Bell might get what he doesn’t want on April 7th. Time will tell.

Mr. White is an active citizen & community leader as well as a business owner, entrepreneur, former Colorado Springs City Councilor and Montrose City Councilor as well as Montrose Mayor. He was a two-term Montrose County Commissioner and has served on many boards and commissions during his career. He was most recently the Interim Montrose County Manager. He & his wife are the parents of six children and have 10 grandchildren & a great grandchild.