by George Gramlich,
News & Commentary

By any measure, the Director of Custer County’s Public Health Agency, Dr. Clifford Brown, has done an exemplary job since being hired last year. Through a very, very difficult year with the covid craziness, Dr. Brown has been a steady hand at the helm. He has maintained good communication channels with Denver and, with the help of Custer County’s Office of Emergency Management, planned and executed a professional vaccination structure that has gotten wide-spread praise.
So it has been a bit strange to see the editor of the Wet Mountain Valley Tribune, Jordan Hedberg, start last year and continue to wage an obsessive campaign to discredit this man. Last year, in a series of articles, Hedberg alleged that one of the items on Brown’s resume was fake: a Master’s Degree in Public Health granted to Brown by Dartley University.
According to Brown, Hedberg filed a criminal complaint against Brown in December 2020 with the Custer County Sheriff’s Office accusing Brown with the crime of forgery regarding his transcript and diploma from Dartley University. Strange indeed. (See Brown’s response to the ethics complaint below for the sordid details.)
In addition, Hedberg filed another complaint against Brown with the Independent Ethics Commission of the State of Colorado (also in December 2020). That complaint states:

“On September 30, 2020 Clifford Brown, Public Health Director for Custer County, presented to the Custer County Board of Health fake transcripts and a fake Diploma from a criminal and illegal online diploma mill called “Dartley University.” Dartley University is a known Diploma Mill and has been subject to FBI investigation in the past.
When Brown knowingly presented his fake academic credentials for a Master in Public Health, he committed a class-two forgery which is a class-one misdemeanor in Colorado.”

In Dr. Brown’s response to the ethics complaint he explains again as he had done in at least one BoH meeting, that he was desirous of getting a Master’s in Public Health degree and had been accepted at a couple of well-known universities. However, his employer would not grant him a leave of absence, so he decided to get one via an online program somewhere. The place turned out to be Dartley University. He completed the online course work, complete with academic transcripts and got his diploma.

Nobody is saying Dartley is Yale, nor did Brown ever misrepresent the credentials of Dartley. One can allege it is a “diploma mill” but if Brown did the required work as required by the university and received a diploma from them, who cares? One can argue, based on the current collegiate academic standards around the country, that these online universities might not be too far removed academically from our more well know entities. And, is it wrong to get educated at a second-tier school? Or a third-tier school? Not everybody has the time and money to educate themselves at the top tier schools. Brown did the work required by Dartley and got his diploma. If Dartley is a third-rate school who cares?

Brown’s resume  is incredible. We are beyond lucky to have a guy of his experience here.
I think when you read Dr. Brown’s  response you will see the whole story. These attacks should never have happened. The only remaining question is why the overboard obsession by the accuser?