by Tracy Ballard
with Laura Vass

June 29, 2020

The Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) met on June 29, 2020, where they tackled a rather lengthy agenda. Interested persons were also on the teleconference. The commissioners met in person. There were no Amendments to the Agenda.
Commissioner Reports:
Jay Printz: Reported he had attended the following: Two Board of Health meetings, Pre-Waterline meeting, CES, Economic Recovery, Upper Ark (UACOG, Attainable Housing. Printz also stated that he had been contacted by Board of Education board member, Newell Woodbury regarding the school grant.
Bill Canda: Met with the Airport board concerning the AWAS grant and the county is to be reimbursed in the amount of $12,000, for the first trench. The Airport board also presented a $5,000 invoice that needs to be paid. The taxi lane was discussed and Road and Bridge will be scraping it and applying road base. The damaged concrete needs to be fixed prior to the Airport picnic, now that there will be more employees back to work. Canda also talked with CenturyLink about the fiber program between the County and two Towns. Letters have been sent out to subscribers concerning a plan to repair the phone lines in Wetmore that were damaged. He also reported that Troy Bomgardner was very instrumental in getting the
Botvin Life Skills grant. Canda alsoinformed the BOCC that a special Board of Education meeting had been called for that same day and he wished the commissioners would have been able to attend. He had also spoken with Charles Bogle of the Economic Recovery Board. They will be assisting the Board of Health as soon as orders from the state are released, and what modifications may need to be reviewed from the BOH’s point-of-view.
Tom Flower: Reported he had attended the June CCI District Conference with 13 counties, to discuss recovery status and the impact of the pandemic. “We certainly haven’t been as impacted by the effects on the tourist industry. When they rely so heavily
on tourism — the shutdown completely, — the impacts are
brutal,” stated Flower. Also attended CES, and the Water Project meeting. Flower also commented that, “we had committed $30,000 to the water project, the Fire Department committed $10,000. It’s not going to cost as much. The county share will probably be $4,000 or so, and we need to discuss what fund we are going to take it out of.” Printz preferred that it be taken from the Capital Improvement Fund since that is what it is. Canda agreed.
Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District: Nothing to report.
Attorney Items:
Clint Smith has been working with Planning and Zoning Director, Jackie Hobby and has written several letters for zoning violations and an SUP application.
He also reported that he is working with Sheriff Byerly on SB-20-217 which he said, “is a nightmare for law enforcement around the state, and county attorneys around the state are scrambling to try and understand it, and inform their respective law enforcement agencies of what needs to be done.” Smith requested that Byerly be able to attend in person, to which the BOCC agreed.
Administrative Assistant: None.
Public Comment:
John Genovese, Chair of All Aboard Westcliffe reported that their non-profit has lost a lot of revenue due to the shutdown. “We have not been able to open yet and may not at all this summer.” They will not be holding a July 4 pancake breakfast and
haven’t been able to sell merchandise. He was inquiring whether the County would be able to help them. Printz stated that the CARES Act may be the way to go, although the money
is not available yet. Flower suggested that All Aboard Westcliffe compose a letter to request some help and explain their need. Flower also commented that when he spoke with The Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the agency in charge of the grant process, it was asked if nonprofits are eligible to apply. No one was able to answer the question. He also stated that there are variances that have been approved and Genovese should speak with Charles Bogle of the Economic Recovery Task Force about that option. Genovese commented that there are folks that volunteer that are “high-risk” and it is difficult to get enough volunteers to hold a fundraising event.
Old Business:
The BOCC voted to approve the vouchers for the month of June.
EMP Grant: Flower announced that he had signed the EMP Grant for the Board between meetings. The BOCC approved the signing. Printz stated that the grant comes in a timely manner and doesn’t understand why it cannot be signed by all at a meeting and he felt it was inappropriate. Flower said he couldn’t answer why there was a delay. Canda suggested that maybe it should be emailed to all three commissioners so they can be made privy to what is in it. Printz clarified that the BOCC just needs to tighten up the process. The signature was ratified by the commissioners on the grant paperwork.
County Maintenance on the Buildings: The High Altitude Garden Club, which maintains three garden areas at the Courthouse, sent a seven-page proposal to the BOCC. They would like to return some of the watering and maintenance to the county maintenance team. They would also like to eliminate some of the area to non-blooming, more appropriate drought-resistant plants, while continuing to maintain the garden with blooming plants, leading up to the front door. The third garden in the south lawn is extremely dry and they would like access to water from May to September, for planting and cleanup. They also request that county maintenance would water regularly when they water the lawn. They also requested reimbursement for mulch, which is about $200 each year. After further discussion, Printz stated he would like to add a sprinkler system and a freeze-resistant outside spigot, to the agenda sometime in July. The BOCC also decided to add an agenda item so they can further consider the Garden Club’s proposal.
SB20-217– Smith commented that a major concern with the bill is the need to keep all law enforcement contacts. Sheriff Byerly created a one-page form to which Smith informed him should meet the requirements. The forms must be sent to the State of Colorado, but there is no uniform policy and is not yet set up for submissions. At this point, agencies will just need to store them. Another major concern Smith voiced is how law enforcement is expected to respond if a contact escalates to a heightened situation. “It’s almost like they have to whip out a checklist to see what they can and cannot do, and it’s going to be very discouraging for new law enforcement officers to take any action,” stated Smith. “If there is some kind of protest, that could escalate, they are prohibited from using the usual means of trying to control the people without jumping through a bunch of hoops…there’s just a lot of restrictions I think it’s gonna have a lot of people say ‘I don’t want to go into law enforcement anymore,’ and they are going to lose qualified immunity.”

Byerly spoke on body cameras and the concern with cost due to Posse members’ status as non-certified law enforcement officers. “When [Posse] are acting in a law enforcement capacity, which to me includes directing traffic and providing security, they would also have to wear body cameras.” The state is not providing funding for this, but suggested agencies apply for grants through the Department of Homeland Security.
Byerly stated that the deputies will keep the one-page form in their cruisers for now. One of the problems with the data requirement is that it asks the deputy to infer the race/ethnicity of the individual he/she comes in contact. Byerly said he will not instruct the deputies to fill that out, and neither would he for several reasons. The first, it is racial profiling and the second, it asks the officer to infer what a person’s ethnicity is.
Finally, he is afraid that it would be a tool for government agencies to determine whether anyone is racial profiling even when that is not the case, based merely on the number of tickets or arrests of any category, other than white, in comparison to Custer County’s 98 percent Caucasian population.

The BOCC inquired as to what the process was like prior to SB20-217. “The Colorado Records Retention Schedule currently recommends you keep track of stops for 90 days and the deputies have an app for that. If they issue a ticket, now the video will be stored for six-months and it depends on the category-for example…” The problem with body cameras is the possibility of operator error and another is if there is a glitch. Due to stipulations in SB20-217, if the law enforcement officer did not activate the bodycam, and there is an altercation, it is an automatic assumption that he
acted inappropriately and the officer would be assumed guilty. Byerly hopes that much will be ironed out before all items are in place in 2023. Printz asked if there will be a significant attrition of officers. Byerly stated he thinks it will affect the next generation of
officers.