News and Commentary
The 10.3.23 BOCC:
The October 3, 2023 meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) started at 1 p.m. in their royal throne room. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Comments, Canda gave an update on our local “rabbit ears” two TV channels that broadcast from a local mountain to the peasants in Happy Valley. He said he met with chief engineers of both stations and that there is no written contract between them and the county and also there is no law forcing them to maintain broadcast translators for us. Canda says they are both looking around for used equipment that they would give us or we would have to buy our own. He is scheduling a meeting with the stations general managers to further explore options.
Canda is also going to schedule a meeting with a property tax expert and our assessor to discuss options and strategies on reducing our property tax mill levies due to the astronomical increase in property valuations.
Len Arrigo was first up in Public Comments. He wanted to know what controls were in place to monitor out-of-cycle (OOC) checks as it appears Finance cut a check for the fired County Manager for $30k (severance pay per contract which Day had inserted into the contract) and it was not reviewed or ok’d by a commissioner. He said he is going to do a CORA request to get a copy of the check.
In New Business, Day introduced a resolution to release the audio of the BOCC Executive Session (ES) on August 31, 2023 where the commissioners discussed the few resumes that were submitted for the County Manager position. (Remember Day restricted the resume submission period to only five days to minimize anybody decent submitting a resume so News and Commentary
The 10.3.23 BOCC:
The October 3, 2023 meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) started at 1 p.m. in their royal throne room. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Comments, Canda gave an update on our local “rabbit ears” two TV channels that broadcast from a local mountain to the peasants in Happy Valley. He said he met with chief engineers of both stations and that there is no written contract between them and the county and also there is no law forcing them to maintain broadcast translators for us. Canda says they are both looking around for used equipment that they would give us or we would have to buy our own. He is scheduling a meeting with the stations general managers to further explore options.
Canda is also going to schedule a meeting with a property tax expert and our assessor to discuss options and strategies on reducing our property tax mill levies due to the astronomical increase in property valuations.
Len Arrigo was first up in Public Comments. He wanted to know what controls were in place to monitor out-of-cycle (OOC) checks as it appears Finance cut a check for the fired County Manager for $30k (severance pay per contract which Day had inserted into the contract) and it was not reviewed or ok’d by a commissioner. He said he is going to do a CORA request to get a copy of the check.
In New Business, Day introduced a resolution to release the audio of the BOCC Executive Session (ES) on August 31, 2023 where the commissioners discussed the few resumes that were submitted for the County Manager position. (Remember Day restricted the resume submission period to only five days to minimize anybody decent submitting a resume so  the job. Even with his weak resume.) Day said that since the meeting discussed resumes from people who were not a “finalist”, then the law says the recording can’t get released. (Remember, Day and Flower only chose Wilson as the only finalist so no other resumes could be released. Canda wanted “Candidate G” as a finalist but Day and Flower shot it down.)
After much commissioner and County Attorney gabbing, citizen Nadine Peterson spoke up and suggested that the BOCC have the meeting transcribed and leave out any resume info. Citizen Bill Parker then spoke up against the three minute time limit Day is imposing on us citizens’ comments.
Canda then spoke up and said this was the first time he saw a three minute time limit on the Agenda itself and said, “Kevin, you put that there. We didn’t vote on it. The people have a right to make their case, especially for a small county like us.” He also said we should release a copy today of the blood money check that Wilson got. Later on, citizen Steven Wilcox said the commissioner should vote on having a three minute comment limit and he wants that on as an agenda item for the next meeting.
There then was a big discussion on the controls and protocols for OCC checks with citizens demanding answers from Day. Epp said he would look into that and Canda noted that it was his understanding that big OOC checks needed approval.
And that was that.

The 10.4.23 BOCC:
The October 4th BOCC meeting started at 9 a.m. in their throne room. In Commissioner Items, Canda continued the local TV transmitting issue stating that a new VFR translator costs around $13k and we would need two of them. He is going to meet with the two TV station chief engineers about them installing and maintaining them.
Public Comment was next and guess who was baaaaaaaaack? Yup, ol’ Jordy “Red Bug” Hedberg, self proclaimed “journalist” and editor of the local lefty newspaper, the Tribune, called in on Zoom and exploded with quivering rage, arrogance and indignation against Commissioner Canda. Obviously emotionally unhinged, Red Bug, doing his best “Screaming Karen” told Canda that he was “more than disturbed about what is happening at the commissioner meetings, especially yesterday.” He yells at Canda for “not stopping” and then said, “Bill Canda has the opportunity to end this nonsense.” Unhinged, Red Bug yells that Canda “allows the public to come in there and crucify Kevin Day.” (Note: In RB’s world, only libs are allowed to make public comments.

And note this, after yesterday’s (10/3/23) BOCC meeting, a bunch of citizens who were there were outside the BOCC Building when it was over. Well guess who was driving by? Red Bug. He slams on his brakes, jumps out of his ‘Surrender’ Yellow P/U Truck and starts yelling like a mad man at the citizens. Several citizens told us that at one point they thought he was going to physically assault them! I guess this is “journalism”.) Then, raging, he said Canda “doesn’t follow the law” and “it is on Canda to stop this witch hunt against Braden Wilson.” Then, “And stop trying to get that check back from him.”

(Ah ha, it is all about the money! Red Bug hates Canda. RB rages on Foolbook against Canda and even his wife. And this whitest of white boys calls poor GG on Foolbook, a “racist”, a “homophobe”, and an “anti-semite.” We could have a real good conversation about that, RB.) RB is fully onboard with Wilson scamming the county out of $45k for his Kevin Day “severance package” gift. Why? Well, we have two peas in a pod here, folks. RB and Wilson both slammed the county wrongfully with Red Bug’s totally frivolous lawsuit against the county with regards to the legal notice saga where he ripped us for $50k in a settlement and Wilson’s grand theft auto move ripping us off for $45k for five days work. Free money from Custer County for the gold digging twins. Between the two of them, the county is out almost $100k. Basically, RB is defending his own actions as reflected in Wilson’s money grab. (Some pretty sick stuff, folks.)
In Executive Reports, Sheriff Rich Smith was up first. He said crime was up 4% over the last quarter but arrests were down 14% as more of the frequent flyers are in jail. Smith noted that around $4k has been donated for rifle rated vests for the deputies. He said the posse members have donated around 800 hours of their time last month.
In Staff Reports, Linda Bivins, Finance and Human Resources Director said she had five applicants for the assistant Finance/HR position (which she once held). She is also working with the county auditor about the new leasing regulations that the county has to follow.
Planning & Zoning reported that overall permits for septic and dwellings are down from last year as things are definitely “slowing down.”
The Veterans Service Office honcho, Dominic Edginton, reported that he had 53 scheduled appointments in 11 days. He said the new VSO Facebook page is up and that the monthly coffee meetings he is having with veterans at the library are going well.
In New Business, Canda talked about creating three more voting precincts for the county. (We currently have three.) He reads from a Colorado Revised Statute that he got from CTSI that sounds like the commissioners can make this happen. (The County Clerk does the actual work, though.) He said this needs to be done by February 5th, 2024 for the November 2024 election. He stated that citizen Jack Canterbury wants to make a presentation to the commissioners on this.
County Clerk and Recorder, Kelley Camper spoke up and said the precinct stuff is solely her domain and she redid the districts in 2022 and they are fine. She said according to statute, she doesn’t have to do it until the voting population in the three districts doubles. Canda responded with the statute says the precincts should have around 650 voters each in them and he wants a workshop to discuss this. Day said it looks like Canda is reading from one statute and Mrs. Camper is reading from another one. Mrs. Camper says her statute is from the 2023 state session. Day says Canda’s is from 2022. Canda still wants a workshop, though.
At the end of the meeting, Epp says he wants a meeting with all of the county employees and the three commissioners. They all agree. It will be in September.
Another day in Happy Valley….