BOCC: Ruh, Roh! County Employees Paid Twice,
Now It’s Payback Time
by George Gramlich,
News and Notations
A big surprise for us peasants in this meeting: Do we have our own “Paygate” or is it just a procedural issue? We will find out.
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners June 30, 2021 board meeting had the full complement of our valiant musketeers, Chair Bill Canda and muskies Tom Flower and Kevin Day. They all appeared coherent in the internet broadcast.
Under Commissioner Items, Canda said he talked to the reclusive mayor of Westcliffe, Paul Wenke, about Westcliffe’s annual annexation plan state filing as people were freaking out lately when news of this plan was made public. Colorado’s annexation laws are pretty complex but basically a town like Westcliffe can annex areas up to THREE MILES from its borders, and this, obviously, has its rural neighbors in a tizzy as Westcliffe is not the easiest town to live in due to a variety of issues. Canda noted that Wenke said they were only interested in areas south of the town and not agricultural land. (Excuse me, but there is basically nothing but Ag zoned land south of the town. Sounds like Biden talking about the border.)
Attorney Items: County Attorney, Clint (“Perry Mason”) Smith, said the NY Times CORA request for Board of Health records from BoH Director, the good Doctor Clifford Brown, was a mess as they only want to pay $75 for the data and Smith said it would cost around $1,000. Smith said they are now willing to reduce the amount of
information they want but the thing is still in flux.
Attorney Smith went on to say that the Westcliffe Meats Special Use Permit land ownership issue was settled now as WM provided documentation that owner Hank Miller is indeed on the new deed. So that minor drama is now put to bed. He also said that WM is getting the OK from the state health department to buy and distribute boxed meat products.
The proposed New Justice Center polling disaster again reared its ugly head as the musketeers said they will not pay the polling company the final $7,500 contract payment as they did a horrendous job. Good move.
New Business commenced with the announcement that local resident Doctor Ann Willson donated her deceased daughter’s wheelchair accessible van to the county. Many thanks from all the muskies.
Andrew Zeller was up next with a request for a subdivision waver (re Senate Bill 35) for a piece of land he has so he can put in a well.
After some discussion, the muskies blessed his request.
The new Short Term Rental
application deadline was then the subject of discussion. Planning and Zoning’s Royal Highness, Jackie Hobby, said the deadline is
November 11th. There was a LONG discussion about notifying all the STR owners.
Selling Land: Much pain was then encountered for a LONG time as the muskies and Smith had to open bids for some county land that is up for sale. There was all kinds of confusion over actually what lots the county owns. What lots were actually up for sale. Boundary line issues. On and on. (You wonder why this wasn’t settled before the meeting.) It was ugly. In the end, some bids were accepted, and one lot would be put up for bid for sale at a future date.
Custer County Treasurer Virginia Trujillo was the next on the agenda with a request for a $10,000 pay raise for the Treasury Office as the new computer system has created a whole bunch of work for them that they didn’t have before. This was a major triggering statement as the whole room just lit up with comments on this. (It almost had an opera type feeling to it.) Finance guy Braden Wilson tried to explain what was going on. IT guru Vernon Roth chimed in. All three muskies were in their glory with analysis and comments. On and on. Virginia said her office was doing 30% more work because of the new system and some coin better be rolling in to compensate for that (or language to that effect). Finally, the muskies said the system is new and let’s wait a bit before we start doling out money.
Happy Valley’s “Paygate” was then revealed: Finance/Payroll honcho Wilson then appeared. He said that in April, when they moved over to the new finance/payroll system, that due to the way the employees used to be paid and how the new system worked, county employees received a double, two week pay! (I think we watched every BOCC meeting this year and didn’t see ANY news of this until now. What is all that about?) Wilson went into a detailed, somewhat complex explanation of why this happened which caused the muskies to furrow their brows in muddled thought on this mathematical/time/space conundrum. After a bit, some low wattage, LED light bulbs went on and things got a little smoother. Apparently, a solution had been worked out in a prior meeting about whether the county employees had to pay this back or not. (At prior meeting a solution was determined.) Wilson said the county will “absorb” half of the overpay (the total overpay was $123,880) and the employees and/or their departments will pay the rest. (So the county employees got a $61,900 “bonus” from the county. God Bless them.) So that was it for Paygate. (Where is Gordon Liddy when we need him.)
The meeting was mercifully adjourned after THREE HOURS AND EIGHT MINUTES.