Bring In the Clowns
Flower, Printz Delusional – Want to Praise Failure
Plus: Elected Board Wants Secret Meetings

Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—April 21, 2020
WESTCLIFFE, Colo.
by Jackie (Muddy) Bubis
This meeting was conducted entirely by teleconference. Present at the beginning of the meeting were Chairman Flower, Commissioner Canda, Commissioner Printz, Attorney Smith, and Clerk Camper.
Attorney Items
Attorney Smith prepared a resolution for the Board of Health – not on today’s agenda.
Commissioner Items
Commissioner Canda spoke with the Chaffee County economic recovery team leader, Wendell Prior who is the director of Chaffee County Economic Development. He sent their packet to our commissioners for their information. Mr. Canda was not able to attend the Policy Group meeting yesterday. (The Policy Group is meeting to give direction to the Unified Command – Director of Public Health and Emergency Manager. This group is now meeting twice a week during the emergency.) Mr. Canda mentioned the broadband strategy meeting and this sparked a discussion.
Since this involves strategy, this meeting will be an executive session to be held in person at the Westcliffe Town Hall and the public is not invited. There will be from nine to eleven people attending and Mr. Canda assured the Board that there was room to social distance in the room. Mr. Printz initially balked, saying he didn’t want to have a face-to-face meeting unless Director of Public Health Livengood gave the okay. Mr. Flower said this meeting needed to be face-to-face, that an executive session could not be done securely over the phone. Ms. Livengood stated that she didn’t feel comfortable with eleven people but that she’d go by and check the room. Mr. Flower urged that the meeting be limited to nine: the three commissioners, the county attorney, the clerk to the Board, the two town mayors, and two people from the Carmel Group. A firm date wasn’t set.
Commissioner Printz reported several meetings, including the Policy Group and Senator Bennet’s meeting.
Chairman Flower reported sitting in a number of meetings, getting many emails and phone calls.
The Board then moved to the agenda item: Consideration of Amending the Justice Center RFP. As the discussion went on for nearly twenty minutes, discussing insurance, bonding and liquidated damages, it was clear that the commissioners were not on the same page. Some were obviously talking about the Landfill RFP. But there was no chance to interrupt over the phone. There were motions made and voted on before Clerk Camper asked for clarification. Mr. Flower apologized and said the agenda was obviously wrong. But since the discussion and voting was “out of order,” it will have to be put on a future agenda.
Next up was consideration of putting the recent teleconference workshop recordings up on the website. The Board has never recorded workshops but since the teleconference meetings started, they are recorded automatically. Mrs. Flower was on the line and stated that if people don’t have the technology to participate, then they wouldn’t have the technology to listen to the recording. Even after a citizen reminded the Board that there were people in the county that didn’t have phone service, and by another citizen that, in a meeting last week, the commissioners talked about transparency,
the Board voted down putting up these recordings. That means the only way for citizens to know what happens in these workshops is to be on the teleconference.
The Board next discussed setting up an economic recovery task force. They decided that the CCEDC (Custer County Economic Development Corporation) would make recommendations on who should be on this task force and their goals and mission. The Board would then create the task force. A special meeting was set up for April 27th at 9 a.m. A citizen asked that the local churches have a seat at the table as well. Mr. Flower then asked this citizen if he considered the church a business or a non-profit organization. The citizen answered “both.” Mr. Printz jumped in to say this topic was way beyond the scope of the discussion. The Motion to proceed with setting up the task force passed unanimously. Mr. Flower assured Ms. Livengood that “Public Health will have a seat at the table too.”
The Board was then asked to consider a letter drafted by Mr. Flower as a Letter of Support for the Director of Public Health and the Emergency Manager. Mr. Canda was in favor of tweaking the letter. The letter expressed the commissioners “full support” of both ladies, stating that they alone had the skills to do what is best for our county. It stated that the first priority is the health and safety of the community, that we all need to come together to support them and that it is “vital to follow state and local public health orders.” “We must be unified.” Mr. Printz liked it just the way it was written. Mr. Canda brought up that the unalienable rights of the citizens under the Constitution cannot be superseded and that these rights need to be considered when sending out orders.
Mr. Flower then expressed that he was not interested in getting any citizen input on this letter, that it is not a public document. “This is a letter on behalf of the county commissioners. I don’t see how a letter commending these two people has anything to do with the First and Second Amendment.” Mr. Printz expressed that public safety has to trump the Constitution. Mr. Canda interjected that churches must be protected and Mr. Printz insisted that the state and not the local order shut down the churches. (Rptr/JB:Which is not true.) Mr. Flower, as Chairman, stepped in and called the question which put an end to any debate and public comment, even though there hadn’t been any. Mr. Printz and Mr. Canda voted No, Mr. Flower voted Yes. So the motion to publish the letter died. However, the Board will submit changes to the letter and it will again come up, either at the meeting on the 27th or the 30th.
The Board went into recess and reconvened as the Board of Health in order to set up a meeting for April 22nd at 3 p.m.
In this meeting the Board of Health will need to select officers and make Elisa Livengood’s position as Director of Public Health official. They will consider a resolution written by Mr. Smith as well. Then they will hear the plans for the phased reopening of businesses from Ms. Livengood and Ms. Nichols.
Mr. Flower asked Attorney Smith if the BOCC could appoint people other than themselves as the Board of Health. Mr. Smith said yes, like other county boards, the commissioners could ask for interested parties to fill out letters of interest, the Board could then interview them if they wanted to, and select three they believed the most qualified.
The Board of Health adjourned and the Board of County
Commissioners reconvened.
Public Comment:
Elliot Jackson asked Mr. Printz to summarize the Governor’s press conference from yesterday, which he did. She is concerned about opening the Westcliffe Center for the Performing Arts, stating that “we won’t open without protocols in place that the governor has passed down. She then asked if local churches or the theater want to reopen, if they will have to submit a plan to local health authorities. Ms. Livengood answered that they have plans already made that will be presented at the Board of Health meeting. She expects to look at every business on a case -by-case basis and give out certificates stating they had “passed” to reopen their business.
Another citizen asked if these phased plans were available to the public to review prior to tomorrow’s meeting. The answer was that those plans are not public until they are voted on.
This reporter expressed concern about Mr. Flower’s assertion that the letter from the Board in support of Ms. Livengood and Ms. Nichols was not public. I stated that everything the Board does is public and wondered if he thought he was representing his constituents with that letter. His response was that the letter was not public until it was voted on and stood by his opinion that the public had no input. “I drafted that letter to be from the county commissioners” and “it has nothing to do with the public.” Mr. Canda stated that he always considers his constituents on every action he takes. “An elected official in a republic, we represent them.” Mr. Flower’s response, “Now this is your perspective, right?” (Rptr/JB: No, Mr. Flower, that is the way a representative republic works. You are elected to represent the people.)
Then I expressed concern about Mr. Printz’s comment that public health always trumped the Constitution, pointing out that nowhere in the Constitution did it say that public health trumped the God-given rights of the people. Mr. Printz said that my comment was “reasonable” but that there were instances in history, and specific emergencies could curtail rights. He explained that, in law school, his forte was Constitutional Law. (Rptr/JB: That’s what Nobama said, too. Look how he treated it.)
Mr. Flower then returned to the discussion of the letter of support stating that “we all respond to our constituents, that’s why there are three of us.” If a commissioner feels it doesn’t reflect his constituents, Mr. Flower urged him to vote against it.
A citizen asked how many positive cases we had in Custer County. Ms. Livengood answered that we had two – one recovered and one still in ICU. We’ve had 12 negative tests. The citizen did the math: .0004 of the 4,954 residents. Mr. Printz expressed that our low number reflects the health orders put in place and encouraged “let’s keep going with what’s working at the moment.” Mr. Flower pointed out that the county would definitely be moving forward on economic relief.
The meeting adjourned at 12:22 p.m.