by George Gramlich
News and Commentary
Another wild one at the August 31, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting in their throne room in the old VSO office. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp. The meeting started at 9 a.m.
The last agenda item was the severance pay for the terminated County Manager (CM), Braden Wilson, who was on the job for five days (he only showed up for four, took one vacation day) before the newly constituted BOCC (with Epp replacing the recalled Tom Flower) voted to rescind the resolution that created the CM the week before, therefore terminating Wilson.

Remember that Kevin Day inserted a six-month salary and benefits severance pay package into the CM contract, triggered if the CM position is eliminated or the CM is fired. This is unheard of in Custer County and frowned upon as bad public policy as it basically holds a financial penalty over future commissioners if they decide to eliminate the CM. Canda had vigorously fought against it. (Day put that in to do just exactly that. Make it financially risky to get rid of his CM dream for Custer County. He did this knowing that there was a very good possibility that Flower would get recalled, and Epp would get in. And Epp would vote to get rid of the CM. Dirty politics by Day.)
Let’s review the severance pay item first and get to the other Agenda Items later as the severance pay topic surfaced early in the meeting in the initial Public Comment section right after the Commissioner Items.
Immediately following Com-missioner Items, Day opened the meeting to Public Comments. (There were about a dozen peasants in the gallery.) First up was the failed left-wing candidate for county commissioner, Deb Adams, with a prepared speech. In her harmonically challenged voice, Adams goes through the usual lib admonishment routine saying she’s, “glad the pi**ing match is over”, talks about ethics, warns Epp he better be a good boy, knocked Canda (Canda bad), thanked Day for being the second coming, blah, blah, blah, warned the pesky commissioners they better “follow the law”, (that was precious), and told the three men how to govern, surprisingly by telling them to “follow the spirit and the letter of the law.”
(A few minutes later, the Chair of the Custer County Democrat Party, James Gilbert gave a similar speech. What was not lost on most of the audience (and Canda and Epp) was on what moral or ethical basis was Adams, Gilbert and the rest of the lefties using to criticize Canda, Day and Epp (and The Sentinel)? Or for that matter, any conservative person? What do these dems believe in to give them a moral/ethical foundation to knock anybody?
Well, let’s list some of the core beliefs of today’s democrats: Killing babies (and some even advocate killing them after they are “born”), taxing us working and retired people to death, defund the police, legalize drugs including heroin, fentanyl etc., no jail or bail for criminals, open borders (why don’t Adams and Gilbert volunteer their very nice digs for some MS-13 “immigrants”), give homeless drug addicts money to buy drugs, eliminate natural gas and propane as heat/energy sources for our homes in the country, mandate electric vehicles that won’t last ten minutes on dirt roads, allow boys and men to play in girls and women’s sports and go in their locker rooms for the sake of “equity” and “tolerance”, take our tax money and give it to other people to get their votes and create a dependent block, legalize pedophilia, and on and on and on. Plus the deal breaker: The Libs’ God is not God; it is government and control. They literally worship big government. This is their moral and ethical foundation. Folks, libs have NO foundation to criticize ANY conservative, much less good Christian men like Canda, Day and Epp. NONE. Oh, and let’s talk about patriotism and lefties. Where was Deb Adams two Independence Days ago when she was running for commissioner? At an ANTI-AMERICAN July 4th party with anti-American, obscene cookies and talk of burning an American flag. That made international news when it was published in the Business Insider magazine (an international news service out of London, England). Look at their actions, folks, not their BS rhetoric.)
Next up was a male citizen who gave a short speech on how Day was a disaster for Custer County, and he should resign. Then a lady spoke and said she was a grant writer for the landfill and recycling who complained that working with different commissioners all the time was hard and a CM would cure that. She then knocked Canda and said his CM “Tiger Team” never came to be and then criticized him again for voting to give the county’s legal notice contract to The Sentinel.
Another citizen got up and asked Epp if he could rule if he was angry. He then said he thought Epp was a Canda “puppet”. They then, of course, segued into how bad The Sentinel and its readers are. (Sentinel bad.)
We were then treated to another sanctimonious, self absorbed, lecture by the head lib in town, James Gilbert, chair of the Custer County Democrat Party. He said, unbelievably, that the commissioners should “not be running the county” but should be flitting around the state and country attending meetings with other elected officials and corrupt, mindless bureaucrates where they can beg for money like cheap prostitutes and create a “vision” for our county. (Vomit bags are in the pocket in the seat in front of you, fellow passengers.) He finished with Canda should resign. (Canda bad.)
Jimmy “The Plumber” McMahon then rose and addressed Day, “Did you run as a republican, a Christian man?” Day answered, “Yes I did.” Jimmy then commented on the belief system of some of the attendees versus the belief system of the other attendees saying, “it is interesting to see the difference”, looking at Day.
Citizen Len Arrigo then Zoomed in and asked why such a “rush job” to get a CM? He wanted to know the facts.
Matt Miles, a Florida attorney who owns a big ranch in the valley then chimed in first criticizing the County Clerk for an error she made during the recall, (The local Judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the Recall Committee that the Clerk had made a boo boo and the recall did indeed have enough signatures for a vote to be called.) He said the BOCC did NOT follow Colorado statutory law regarding the creation of the CM and thus it was nullified. He went into detail on what portions of the law were not followed.
And that was the end of Public Comments.
On the regular agenda, our new Finance Director Lisa Bivins was up first. She gave a superb report on how she was getting trained and getting things organized. She announced the county’s budget approval process timeline. With regards to making out the severance package check for Wilson the day he was fired, she said it was standard practice for the county to pay a terminated employee immediately. The subject of the Human Resources job then came up. (Right now, she is doing it.) Lisa said that due to the workload, she is now requiring an appointment to be made for HR complaints and a written complaint submitted. Canda then spoke up saying we should take a look at the Finance Director doing the HR job and maybe hire a part time or full time HR person who knows the subject and has some real experience (although Lisa does have some good HR experience). (The commissioners will discuss this in future meetings.)
The Road & Bridge Director, Vince Koch, then gave his report. He said he has a “good crew” and with the cost of living skyrocketing it is hard on the employees and difficult to retain them as the salary structure is so low. He said he has some extra salary money in the budget and would like to give every employee a $2 per hour raise. Canda noted that the starting salary at R&B is only $17.40 per hour. The commissioners ok’d the raise. (R&B has been doing a great job the last five or so years. Thanks from all of us.)
Strangely, the editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune, Jordy Hedberg, then called in commenting on the property tax disaster coming early 2024. (The revaluation has caused monster revaluations of all the real estate property in Colorado which caused a 30% to 50% hike for many.) He does “not want the mill levy to be lowered.” He said, with this new money, the county can do all things that need to be done that were not done. (Nice. Classic socialist. Always other people’s money. I don’t believe Hedberg owns a house. Nor any land. In other words, I don’t believe he pays any property taxes. Hmmmm… He says he is a “republican”. If so, why does he want to drastically increase our already high tax burden and increase the size of our local government? Sounds a bit like Day.)
An example of failed governance was then given. By Kevin Day. Day is responsible for the TV transmission repeaters on top of a local mountain. They were maintained by R&B for years but then the person maintaining them moved on and they have been off and on for years. There are two stations, 11 and 13. 13 is running after some repairs but 11 is down and Day has been trying to get the 11 people out of the Springs to fix it. (Canda said it is a federal law requirement that the TV stations maintain them.) Day goes on and on about how he is trying to contact them with limited success, and he needs to have a meeting with their “VPs” to get things going but they are ignoring him. He then said a line that summarized his whole two plus years here as commissioner commenting on trying to work with the TV people, saying it seems like it is always, “One step forward, then two steps back.” (YUP.) He talked some more but he really wanted to give the project to one of the other commissioners as he can’t get it done. Canda volunteered to do it.
Finally, the Braden Wilson Severance Pay Agenda Item was up. Canda was first up. Canda noted that he put it on the agenda as follow-up because there had been a lot of questions from the public. He went on a long speech about how Wilson should not have gotten severance basing his conclusion on two major items: 1) The commissioners never rescinded two prior BOCC Resolutions regarding how the county is run, and 2.) that the BOCC did not follow Colorado law regarding how to set up a CM and the hiring of a CM. He then elaborated on these issues.
Out of nowhere, Day interrupts and says he is calling the County Attorney, Dan Slater, at his office, and he wants Slater to be in on this. He does this as Canda is talking.
(After Canda found out that Wilson had been given the severance paycheck after the meeting when he was canned (August 23rd), he went to the bank and filled out the paperwork for the check to be stopped.) Canda said he went to the bank and stopped the check. Day gets all huffy and says only the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer can stop the check. Day, defending his $50k gift to Wilson, said we have a “binding contract” with Wilson and we must pay him. Canda again said the contract is invalid and there is no time threshold to pay Wilson the money and let’s talk about it as it is a huge amount of money. Day gets ruffled and insisted we pay Wilson now.
Canda again said we have two county resolutions that have not been rescinded and that makes the contract invalid. Day asked Slater about that. Slater said Commissioner Canda is wrong about that and he should stop saying that because Canda knows “it is not true.” (Folks, as Slater was saying this, Day looked down at his lap, and a big smile crossed his face as Slater was telling Canda he was wrong. Day also chuckled at the line, and muttered, “yea”. It was a telling moment about Day. And sad.)
This ended with no one knowing if the check was stopped. It will be discussed again at the next meeting.
The Human Resources job then came up again. After a lot of back and forth, the commissioners will schedule a workshop on that.
The final Public Comments was next.
Matt Miles spoke about how the board has a “fiduciary duty to us” and the entire CM procedure was tainted. He said we should review what was done before we pay Wilson.
Harald Frank then asked Day if any other employee in the county has a severance package and Day answered, “no.” Frank went on to slam Day and labeled him “unethical and immoral.”
A Ms. Anderson then spoke saying she would like to see the check stopped until we “hear from the lawyer.”
Jimmy The Plumber then popped up. He again attacked Day saying his behavior was “bizarre”. He then went on to criticize the whole CM process that Day orchestrated. He said to Day, “You blow sixty grand when you could have waited,” a few days. He said Day’s “moral and ethical decision making was not acceptable.” Day finally cut Jimmy off.
Jordy Hedberg then called in again. He said he had, “just read the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel e-edition” and now knows what is going on and what Canda is doing. Hedberg said Canda is trying to “find holes in the contract” to get the money back. (Notice no nick name for Hedberg this week, folks. He was a good boy at the meeting. He knows to read The Sentinel to learn what is really going on at the BOCC. Thanks for being a loyal reader, Jordy. Much appreciated.)
Amy Peterson then asked Day if he would form a citizen committee to find out the facts about this whole CM disaster. Day said he wouldn’t, but she could if she wanted.
Finally, Joanie Wilcox said to Day, “stop the check, figure out what is going on, and then cut a check.” No comment from Day.
(Bottom Line of the Severance abomination: Canda is trying to find a way out of paying Wilson the FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS or so, FOR FIVE DAYS ON THE JOB!!! Day, has NO PROBLEM with the full severance pay package and is actively trying to make sure it happens. Day is beyond wrong. And, if it happens, it should come out of his pay not our tax money. A man, when he knows he did wrong, admits to it and tries to fix it. Obviously, this is not happening here. Plus, Wilson, should have not accepted the check. It is a flat out rip off of the county and an honorable man would have sat down with the commissioners to come out with something reasonable. Elections have consequences, citizens, 2024 is coming up. We need some fixing.)