BOCC: Flower Gets Political at Public Meeting
Attacks His “Teammates” Again

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
It took a while, but Ole’ Tom Flower couldn’t hold back anymore and got real angry and vindictive again at the September 6, 2022 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting held in their mighty throne room. All three royal musketeers were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Tom Flower.
First thing on the agenda was, as usual, “Commissioner Items” where they regale us peasants with all the hard work the muskies put in since the last tribal gathering. Canda and Day had a few morsels and then came, yet again, the Tom Flower Power Hour.
Flower is visibly upset. He starts off with talking about the recall that is being done by a “small minority” of “dissidents” and that a “bunch of people signed”. (Like around 800 citizens out of a voting population of around 4200. Plus they didn’t have a lot of signature gatherers and they were under a very short time frame. So, a pretty big deal.) He said the recall “committee bullied” and “coerced” people to sign as they were “desperate” to get people to sign. (Out of around 800 signatures, there was only a handful of complaints made to the County Clerk.) But, he ‘sagely’ adds, all of this was told “to me as hearsay”. He then angrily states that the petitioners put a cardboard sign on a state highway and that is bad. (It is called a campaign sign on a public road on the grass curb area. Waaaaaaa….)
Flower then says “people have asked me to set the record straight on the allegations made against him. (Supposedly made by the petition gatherers.) He then goes over several allegations, which we will get to in a bit. (Flower is an elected public official and they are in a recorded BOCC public meeting on the public dime and time. This is NOT the forum for a campaign speech by an elected official while on the public clock. Not only is it WRONG, self-absorbed and self-serving, it is very possibly illegal to use a public, government, official meeting venue to make a political speech about yourself. Apparently there are two sets of rules here in Happy Valley, One for ….)
He then goes over the public health pay for his wife that he voted for during the wuflu crisis. (When she was working there.) Flower says something like “everybody knew she was my wife” when the muskies voted to give overtime pay to several public health workers. (Strange, based on a complaint by local Jimmy McMahon, the Colorado State Board of Ethics convicted wonder boy Tommy of TWO ethics violations for this and even fined him. Note that convictions by this board are rare. These violations were one of the basis for the recall petition being
authorized to proceed.)
Flower then gets into a story allegedly told by one or some petitioners about him breaking a boy’s arm when he was the industrial arts teacher at the school. He said something fell on the boy at a work site while he was the “teacher responsible”. This goes on for a bit. He says it is bad for these people to “resort to those kind of tactics”. (Folks, you should have heard some of the stories that the petition gatherers were told by people who signed including several people who cried when they were signing the petitions. But hey, that’s just hearsay. UPDATE 9/14/22: Finally, several of Flower’s former students just posted their tales of abuse by Flower on Facebook. It is BAD. Like real BAD. We will keep you posted as
this develops.)
He says there will be an “official protest” at the County Clerk’s office and “if that is true” it will cause a special election “which will triple the cost of the election”. (It is tight, but the recall committee submitted the signatures within the window of getting it on the November ballot. If someone protests the recall, it could cause adjusted deadlines beyond the November ballot and then it would involve a special election. Note that the “protest” is causing the special election, not the recall people.)
Done with using county time for a political speech, the angry man then turns on to his two fellow muskies with a vengeance. (Flower is a great team player. Always the first guy picked when choosing sides for a basketball game.)
Flower brings up the lawsuit recently filed by the Wet Mountain Tribune against the BOCC and Day and Canda personally, whining that the muskies voted to give the legal notice contract to the Sentinel this year even though the Sentinel was the higher bidder. Day and Canda voted for the Sentinel and Flower voted no.
The muskies were advised by the attorney NOT to discuss the pending case with anyone and now Flower is bringing it up in a BOCC meeting. Flower then actually tells his teammates that, “we are in a freaking federal lawsuit because of the ignorant statements made by you two gentlemen” over the legal bids contract. He then says, “If you hadn’t interjected your personal comments we wouldn’t be in this lawsuit”. (No “I” in Team, Tommy.)
Somehow, in Flower’s angry mind, this triggers a flashback to the Jackie Hobby incident. That is, our ex Planning & Zoning Director’s complaint against Flower that triggered a couple of big muskie meetings where Flower sadly apologized to Jackie for using the “F” word in her presence. There were also allegations that Flower was creating a “hostile” work environment in some areas of the courthouse which Canda had talked about in those meetings. The result was that Flower was removed as the “contact point” from several departments for a brief spell. (Bad boy!) If you recall, after a “reeducation camp training” period, Flower had an unbelievable epic, melt-down/temper tantrum at Canda and Day at a BOCC meeting.  So with visions of Jackie Hobby dancing in his head, Flower now attacks Canda with “Canda, you lied to the public that I created a hostile work environment. That is not true. You threw me to the wolves in public —- and now we can’t talk about the lawsuit?” (Now we see what is going on. Flower is getting revenge on Canda with this lawsuit talk because Canda criticized wonder boy’s behavior at those meetings. Vengeance. This is sick.)
Flower then turns to County Attorney Clint Smith about Executive Sessions (with regards to the Trib lawsuit) and what has to be kept secret. Basically trying to get Smith to say Tommy can bury Canda and Day with some kind of exception. Smith reiterates that the CTSI Attorney representing the BOCC and Canda and Day personally said not to talk about it.
Unbelievably, Flower then tries to hurt Day and Canda personally when he asks Smith should the same attorney representing the county also represent Day and Canda. Smith responds that the CTSI attorney “does not feel doing all three is a conflict”. (Flower is trying to make Day and Canda hire their own attorney’s at great cost. Nice.)
Flower then goes full victimhood, moaning, “I was laid out and flayed out in the public eye” re the ethics convictions and the Hobby debacle. (There are some interesting visuals there.) Mercifully he ends with, “I was on the record for not giving the contract to the Sentinel.”
And that was the end of Commissioner Comments.
Next up was a bunch of Staff Reports. Nothing real big here but are a few tidbits that might be of interest:
Dorothy Carsten, the new Planning & Zoning Director said she was spending most of her time on zoning violations and there were “not a lot” of septic installation inspections lately.
Road and Bridge reported that they will be chip sealing soon.
Human Services said that they are still doing full food assistance (SNAP) and that LEAF will start again November 1st.
The Airport Board reported that they have finally found an electrician to finish the new fuel tank install and after that all they need is a state inspection.
After the Staff Reports there is General Comment period. Nobody spoke up except one person – who else, The Flowers, directly attacking his “teammates” again, he brings up the days the muskies assigned themselves to be in the throne room for us serfs. Canda has Mondays, Flower Tuesdays and Day Wednesdays. Flower beats around the bush implying Day and Canda are missing days and wonder boy only missed two or three days since January. Canda responds that he is in Mondays unless some other county business is up and that everybody has his phone number to call if he isn’t there. He also states that his wife has medical issues and he often has to take her up to Denver and that might cause him to miss a day but he always answers the phone. Day says he is there most of the time but things come up. (His family has some medical issues too.) They then all agree to keep this setup going forward.
Another harmonious day in Happy Valley….