by Fred Hernandez
“My only obligation is to the people in this county.” With that statement Lucas Epp eliminated all doubts about his intention to run for the office of County Commissioner. His opportunity came with the successful campaign to have a recall election for the current commissioner of District 3, Tom Flower. The election on August 8th has two parts: first, the question whether voters want the incumbent out of office. And second: if they do, they must indicate their choice for his replacement. In this case, there is only one candidate on the ballot, as of this report: Lucas Epp.
It was in 1976, on a soybean and corn farm in Nebraska where
Lucas was born and raised, the eldest son of four siblings. He lived and worked on the farm through his high school education after which he went to Iowa for one year of college. He then signed up as an apprentice electrician for four years and today holds a Master license in the following states: Colorado,
Wyoming, Utah, Missouri, Washington, New Mexico and Idaho. Two more licenses are pending approval in the states of Nevada and Texas. After marrying his wife Jolie in Nebraska, they moved to Colorado and Wyoming and finally decided to settle in Custer County where Mrs. Epp had family. Blending quickly into the community they started their
businesses in the town of Westcliffe; Sugarlump and Lollipop both on Main Street.
In a recent interview with Lucas, he stated his simple three point platform: Communication, Transparency and Ethics. In this issue we will present his views on Communication and the other two points will be presented in following articles.
Lucas firmly believes that ninety nine percent of most problems are caused by either the lack of communication or due to miscommunication. Moreover, ninety percent of effective communication is listening attentively and talking less. As a public official it is imperative that one communicates with the public clearly and honestly about issues which affect their lives, their work, their families. It is the duty of the public official to maintain a consistent dialogue with the community in order to build
trust and confidence that the issues that affect them are being addressed by those who they elected into office.
Candidly explaining this core belief, Lucas, in recognizing that people in the community are busy with their obligations and interests, do not have the time to dwell into the details of the issues t hand. It therefore becomes the responsibility of the elected official to condense the issues at hand into “bite sized”, readily understandable and clearly explained pieces of information regarding the issues that the community is interested in. Because people are fully occupied with their own obligations, they cannot attend lengthy meetings at which time the issues are discussed and decided upon. It is therefore the duty of the people’s representative to make it known what took place at these meetings. Communication is one of the most important elements of a good relationship between the elected official and his constituents. Lucas is committed to be the most consistent at communicating to the Custer community all the relevant issues affecting the county.
(Editor/GG: There will be two more articles in the coming weeks on
Mr. Epps’ background and his other two platform planks: transparency and ethics.)