BOCC: Finally Some Common Sense
Lowers Westcliffe Meats Fine from
$81k to $10k
Printz Not a Happy Camper

by George Gramlich
More drama on the Westcliffe Meats illegal dumping saga was the highlight of this November 30, 2020 Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting. Attendees: Commissioners Flowers, Printz and Canda; County Attorney Clint Smith and back from quarantine, County Clerk Kelly Camper. The stage is set.
Commissioner Items:
Not much happening but Canda was working on the Public Information Officer job description.
Attorney Items:
Mr. Smith stated that the light on the communications tower next to the Sheriff’s Office will be deactivated shortly. However, in order to do this, they will also have to turn off the IFR beacon (that is used by helicopters to land and also to avoid hitting the tower). Smith said they are working on a way to keep the IFR beacon on. Smith also reported that he had done extensive legal research on a mysterious topic and had delivered that to the commissioners.
New Business:
Vouchers and Checks: The commissioners ok’d $572,857
in disbursements for November.Westcliffe Meats’ (WM) Special Use Permit Violations Reconsideration:
The Printz kicked off the main event with the opening statement that the BOCC had made an error in the previous meeting regarding the civil penalty ($81,000) they imposed on Hank Miller’s Westcliffe Meats company for the illegal dumping of slaughter house offal, bones, etc on the Livengood Ranch. Apparently basing his argument on Smith’s secret squirrel legal research, Printz said they should not have used the Planning & Zoning Resolution penalty provisions but should have brought the penalty under Colorado’s Solid Waste Act, Title 30, Section 20. (Editor/GG: This Solid Waste Act I believe was never mentioned prior to this and it appears Smith recently discovered it.)  So Printz made a motion to rescind the entire penalty resolution the commissioners made last meeting and to start over, using the Solid Waste Act as the civil penalty vehicle.
Flower agrees. Then out of nowhere, Flower starts waffling on his vote last meeting to hit WM with the somewhat huge penalty amount of $81k. He says he doesn’t want to put them out of business, etc. (Editor/GG: Flower’s phone line must have been lit up all week.) Canda then chimes in and says the amount voted on last time might have been excessive. (Editor/GG: Dittos on the phone line.)
You can see the Printz start to get animated as he was the one who wanted to severely punish WM last week and it was Printz who arrived at the magically derived civil penalty amount of $81k. So Printz makes his opening move with a motion to assess the civil penalty under the Solid Waste Act and keep the civil penalty amount at $81k but spread it over ten years rather than the five years previously agreed to. Plus keep all the other conditions they had agreed to (i.e., monthly payments, give legal dumping receipts to Planning & Zoning, etc.) but added that if they were shut down due to the Chi-com virus, they could skip payments until they were back up running.
There was no second to Printz’s $81k motion so it died. The Printz was not happy. Again.
Note that Hank Miller, the owner of WM, was present during the whole discussion.
There was more talk of what if WM does it again and it was agreed that the BOCC could suspend, revoke or modify WM’s SUP if they were bad again. Much manly-like “chest puffing” was observed of the commissioners over the Zoom broadcast during this part of the discussion.
Then Flowers follows up his previous waffling with the bombshell statement that he thinks the WM penalty should be only $10k rather than the $81k payable over the proposed three year probation period. (Editor/GG: Good on Flowers.)
Predictably, the Printz launches a now familiar self-righteous meltdown saying that this is a total lack of responsibility if this is approved. Visibly angry (which is required at this point), Printz regurgitates all the points he made last meeting, ad nauseam: it was an environmental disaster, WM and Hank Miller are dishonest, we’re lucky it didn’t get into the “water supply”, WM is making a ton of money so it is ok to beat them to death, etc, etc. Printz somehow omitted his statement from the last meeting that the poor carnivorous deer unique to Custer County would be harmed by the bounty of meaty offal on the Livengood ranch.
He then stated that WM saved a ton of money with the illegal dumping although the exact amount is in question. Hank Miller chimed in saying, based on the various sized loads and timing, the total saving for WM was around $31k. Printz also added that a severe penalty would make WM think twice about doing it again.
The merciful Printz then made his move with a proposed motion that WM still pay a $81 civil penalty but instead of paying it out over five years, they would have ten years to do it.
Apparently sensing resistance, the Printz punts on $81k and places his bet on $31k instead with a 72 month payback period (being a former pawn shop owner.) Printz graciously tells us that is “only” $430 per month. (Remember the word “only” coming from a politician means they are attempting to pretend to be merciful to us peasants as they steal our money.)
Printz repeats his same points again. And again.
Finally they vote on Printz’s motion and it fails (Flower and Canda voting no).
Flower then brings the $10k motion to the floor and it passes with Printz voting no.
Bottom Line: WM must pay $10K over a five-year probation period. (Editor/GG: Sanity at the BOCC, for a change, has prevailed.)
Public Information Officer/Part-time Information Technology (IT) Position, BOCC Administration Assistant Position:
Prior to this meeting, the BOCC authorized IT Director Vernon Roth to hire a part time IT assistant. He has somebody lined up but has not hired that person yet. So the position is still open.
For some mysterious reason, all three commissioners think the tiny, little Custer County government needs a part-time Public Information Officer (PIO) to interface with the public and the press. (Editor/GG: This is a complete and I mean complete waste of money and it shows how even these small government entities expand for no coherent reason. Somehow, we have survived without a PIO and not much has changed lately folks.)
There was a LONG and somewhat disjointed discussion on how the BOCC could somehow combine two or even all three of these part-time positions into one or one and a half. They also discussed making the PIO and/or the BOCC Admin position full time. This went on and on.
Finally, it was decided that Roth can hire for the part-time IT position and that the BOCC would advertise for a part-time PIO position and a full-time BOCC Admin Assistant job. (Kara Evans has resigned.)
County Employee’s Christmas Party:
Flower said the county department that was going to hold the county employee’s Christmas party (for all departments) decided that it was stupid to do this due to the Rona plague.The commissioners agreed and left it up to the individual departments to do what they want.
And that was it. Two and a half hours.
Virtue Signaling Update: They all started with masks, however, dropped them a LOT repeatedly to drink, eat, talk and sneeze. Circus level sanctimonious self-righteousness.