Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—April 15, 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.
There were a few minor adjustments to the agenda.
The Board approved the minutes from February 28, March 5th and 6th meetings.
Commissioner Items:
Commissioner Canda reported a number of meetings he attended by phone: Policy group meeting with Director of Public Health and OEM (Unified Command), BOCC workshop on the 9th to clean up authority of the Board of Health, and the Chaffee County Board of Health meeting.  Chaffee County Board of Health is meeting daily with elected officials, economic development officials, mayors, etc and are putting together a work group for economic recovery. Mr. Canda also reported that the airport is moving forward on the AWOS (Automated weather observing system) project and considering the Armstrong Engineering contract. He commended Elisa Livengood and Meredith Nichols on their status meeting.
Commissioner Printz attended a number of meetings as well: EOC meeting (assuming that’s the policy group meeting, conference call with DOLA, Senator Bennet’s call, phone conference with the clinic (who has a proposed solution for the ambulance service in the Eastern part of the county), the Chaffee County BoH meeting and has talked to a number of citizens regarding current issues.
Chairman Flower listed meetings as well: DOLA economic recovery, policy group, CTI conference, met with Dawna Hobby and signed checks, and has been getting emails and calls from citizens. He built a counter extension in the clerk’s office. He brought up the issue of requests to post the recording of the April 9th workshop, stating that the board doesn’t normally record workshops. There is a recording of this workshop because the teleconference was recorded. There was much back and forth about whether to post it or not. After the commissioners all said they didn’t see a reason not to, Mr. Flower said he’d talk to the IT department about doing so. But a bit later in the meeting, the commissioners decided to put the item on a special meeting agenda for Friday the 17th.
The discussion of whether the landfill RFP needed wording about liquidated damages and bonds was also put on the agenda for the 17th as was dealing with awarding the bid for the RFP for the justice center funding project. Also on that agenda will be a discussion on putting in place an economic recovery task force.
The minutes from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District blue line committee have Mr. Canda listed as Custer County Commissioner. Mr. Flower and Mr. Printz asked that the minutes be revised to show Mr. Canda’s participation as not official.

Attorney Items:
Mr. Smith produced a final version of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the BOCC and the CCEDC (Custer County Economic Development Corporation.) He also prepared a brief legal memo to the commissioners regarding citizens’ right to speak at BOCC meetings; stating that his research showed that citizens only have a right to speak if they get on the agenda, but saying that the commissioners generally encouraged citizens’ input. He prepared a resolution for the Board of Health for later in the agenda and a proposed ordinance for the Model Traffic Code revision. He also wrote up guidelines for a future executive session with the mayors and the fiber optics company.
Mr. Flower encouraged citizens to sign up for EverBridge, the replacement for Code Red – which can be done at the county website or by calling the Office of Emergency Management. He also wants citizens to be sure to fill out the census.
The letter from clinic board to the commissioners regarding ambulance service will be addressed at the April 30th meeting.
Mr. Printz reported that the grocery voucher program is officially over. Some left over vouchers were given to Care and Share to hand out.
New Business
After discussion with Brian Lockhart and Rusty Christensen it was decided that there would be no waiving of landfill fees. The landfill has to report everything that comes in to the landfill and it would have been onerous to keep track of a free program. Mr. Flower expressed that he hasn’t gotten even one request for waiving fees. Mr. Printz commended Mr. Canda for his attempt to help the citizens of the county. Before leaving the landfill portion of the agenda, the Board approved waiving landfill fees for the May 16th town of Westcliffe clean-up day, of course within the parameters set out by the Director of Public Health for gloves, masks and social distancing. Tires will not be included in the clean-up pick up. Silver Cliff has postponed their clean-up day indefinitely.
Resolution 20-09 (posted on the county website and printed here on the right), a resolution expanding on the 2009 resolution concerning the establishment of a public health agency and local board of health was passed unanimously. This resolution simply established that the Board of Health oversees the Director of Public Health. It also states that the Public Health Agency is made up of the Board of Health, the Public Health Director and her staff. When the County Board of Health meets with the Public Health Director, these meetings will constitute CC Public Health Agency meetings. (They must be advertised just like other public meetings and will be recorded.)
The Board ratified the chairman’s signing the Emergency Fire Fund Agreement.
The owner of ROI Energy has requested to meet with the commissioners regarding upgrading the lighting in the county building. After discussion, the Board took no action.
The Board scheduled a workshop for Friday, April 24th (teleconference) at 9 a.m. with the CCEDC regarding the MOU between the County and the CCEDC.
The Board ratified publication of the notice of hearing for the Model Traffic Code (MTC). This state code needs to be updated. All 216 pages are available for citizens to peruse. The first reading of the ordinance pertaining to the MTC will be on May 5th, the second reading on May 20th. The BOCC meeting for May 6th was cancelled. The lot line adjustment on lots 5 and 6 at the airport was approved.
Mr. Printz asked if Road & Bridge was back to work. The answer was yes. He also asked about a letter Mr. Flower had floated to the other commissioners complimenting the Director of Public Health and the OEM for their work. He stated that he highly approves the letter. Mr. Flower said he thought the matter was on this agenda but it wasn’t. So it was added to the agenda for the Friday meeting.
Public Comment:
When asked if the local public health orders are enforceable, County Attorney Smith clarified that he’s the attorney for the Board not for the public. He went on to say that there is a lot of disagreement on that topic. So far, Ms. Livengood has not had to resort to
legal punishment for non-
compliance and he hopes she doesn’t have to, though some counties have.
Ultimately, if there is legal action taken, he stated the legality of that action would be sorted out later. If Ms. Livengood feels she must take legal action, Mr. Smith stated she should present that to the Board of Health and he would give his legal opinion in executive session.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:01.
Note: Further clarification to the question of enforcement of public health orders came in the form of an email, stating:
I want to clarify my response to the question you asked at the end of this morning’s meeting.
While I think there are questions regarding the statewide PHO and the Custer County PHO with respect to whether the criminal provisions can be enforced, I want to make it clear that the Custer County Public Health Agency will enforce our local PHO if necessary. So far our Public Health Director has done a terrific job of getting the residents of this county to comply through education and persuasion, but if a person persists in conduct that violates the PHO I have told Elisa she has the authority to issue a citation at her discretion. She does not need to seek prior
approval from the Board of Health.
Any citation issued for violating the PHO will direct the alleged violator to appear in court at a future date. Even though a violation is classified as a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and/or a jail sentence, Custer County will be seeking a fine only, not a jail sentence. Challenges to the PHO can be raised in court.
Clint Smith,
County Attorney