by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) had two meetings on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. A workshop in the morning on reviewing the proposed Custer County Board of County Commissioners and County Manager Policy Manual and a second one at 2:39 p.m. to approve it. All three commissioners were at each meeting: Chair Kevin Day, and members Bill Canda and “Traitor” Tom Flower.
The morning meeting started at 9 a.m. It was a workshop for reviewing and amending the proposed CCBOCC/CM Policy Manual (the “Manual”). Finance and Human Resources (HR) Director, Braden Wilson, created the manual. He used Fremont County’s Manual as a starting point and then spent
a lot of time modifying it.
(Remember, Wilson is also applying for the job.)
The Manual was then reviewed, page by page with the com-missioners making a fair amount of changes. (IT did a good job of actually placing the pages on the Youtube screen as they were reviewing it.) It was apparent from some of the questions and changes that this could have used a lot more initial review and perhaps input from a third party familiar with this type of manual.
Also, it would have been nice for the proposed Manual to be posted on the county’s website so the public could view and review also. (But that would have slowed up the rushed process.)
(Again, folks, this is a rush job and it should not be a rush job. This is the biggest structural change in county management in living memory and Day and Flower are ramming this through before
the August 8th Recall Election happens. The County Manager’s (CM) Job Description and the Manual, which will define how this county government functions, both were done at warp speed and authored by one person, Wilson. A prudent and wise approach would have been to hire a consultant who specializes in this area and have him write the items and assist the commissioners in reviewing it. Having a person with no experience as a commissioner or a CM write it is troubling. An alternate approach would create a small committee of local, knowledgeable citizens, with Wilson leading, write them. But with the artificial deadline imposed by Day and Flower, those options were not available.)
The afternoon meeting was interesting. After dispensing with some U.S. Forest Service grant money business the commissioner got into the approval of the Manual.
Canda started the talkfest with some comments on the morning’s workshop. He said there was an “expert” in the audience that morning, one Carol Vayhinger (who was actually a county commissioner in a different county) who could have helped with the review but since Day made the workshop a “no public comment until the end” she couldn’t speak. He also said the county’s insurance carrier, Colorado Technical Services, Inc. (CTSI) advised that the Manual “should have full public disclosure.” (It did not.)
Flower then piped up saying, “I agree with a lot of what you said” and went on to say that maybe the commissioners could invite local “experts” to the meeting and ask them to comment when needed. Canda agreed with the concept. Flower then waxed eloquent, on and on, about what a workshop should be.
After some more talk, Day asked for the vote to approve the Manual. Day and Flower voted “aye” and Canda “nay”. Canda noted that the document could have had more “meat” to it. He, of course, was not pleased on how it was rushed through the creation and review process.
We were then treated to a perfect example of poor leadership as the commissioners spent an enormous amount of time trying to jam in all the things that had to get done to hire a CM before Day’s artificial deadline. Remember, Day and Flower only allowed FIVE days for people to submit their applications for the CM job. (This is flat out malfeasance. This is intentionally trying to limit the number of applicants so Day and Flower’s favorite, Wilson, can get the job. It should be posted for at least 30 days. We want the best candidate for the job not two guys favorite. It is flat out wrong to limit it to five days. Dirty politics, folks.)
The discussion centered around how to select the finalists for review, when to schedule it, and in general, how to proceed. This went on and on. The County Attorney, who was present, was frequently asked questions. Because Day had scheduled the actual candidate section for August 1, the commissioners had to really rush to attempt to interview the candidates. They finally decided to schedule the interviews in between other meetings on July 26 and 27. (This gives virtually no notice to the applicants who might have jobs or be distant. Again, it favors Wilson. This again is very dirty politics in making it difficult for the candidates other than Wilson to attend the interviews.) This short time interval was protested by Canda, “So no time warning for the interviews.”
And that was that. Another UnHappy Day in Happy Valley.
(This whole rush CM job creation and candidate selection is so wrong for our county. And dirty. Day openly admitted he is rushing it because of the Recall. He is doing that in spite of massive objections from the public. Rushed job description, rushed policy manual, rushed job application period —only five days, rushed interviews, and rushed selection: Does that sound like good governing to you, fellow citizens? Especially since it will be the most powerful position in county government. This is flat-out bad governing. And not right.)