The Infamous June 29, 2023
BOCC Executive Session
A Window Into Corrupt Government
by George Gramlich, News and Commentary
Sangre de Cristo Sentinel
Some background: Earlier this year Custer County Commissioners Kevin Day and Tom Flower pushed to dramatically change the structure of our county government by adding a whole new, all powerful, layer of government to our small structure: That is creating the position of a County Manager (CM) who basically would run the whole show. Apparently, Day and Flower thought that the job they were elected to do was overwhelming and they didn’t have enough time to attend meetings around the state with our bureaucrats and elected officials begging for money. So, they wanted somebody to do their work for them.
Well, that didn’t go well with the citizens of Happy Valley and they made a huge stink. Day called a workshop meeting, and the citizens flattened him and Flower. Commissioner Canda volunteered to form a study group on that idea and to also review the entire county government structure and function. Day and Flower then backed off waiting until Canda’s study group gave their report.
We were waiting for the report when in June, our County Finance Director and Human Resources Director Braden Wilson requested a secret Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Executive Session (ES). The official agenda item was “Consideration of Employee Promotion.”
It was not for “Consideration of Employee Promotion”, it was a proposal to radically change the structure of the county government by creating the County Manager position, and, for Wilson to propose that he, and only he, would be that County Manager.
All in secret.
These subjects are clearly not fit for an Executive Session. They should have been made in public. Wilson knew it and as you will see, tried to hide the fact that he knew it was improper.
It was a totally illegal power grab attempt, aided and abetted by Day and Flower.
So how do we know what went on in that ES? A group of local concerned citizens repeatedly confronted Day and Flower at several BOCC meetings about this but with no effect. Finally, after the recall of Flower and the sitting of his replacement, Lucas Epp, a vote was called, and the audio recording was released. (Day, of course, voted no on releasing the recording.)
This group had the recording professionally transcribed and then audited the transcript. (The Sentinel has the transcript posted on our website: sdcsentinel.com. Read the entire transcript on a page dedicated the group “Submissions from Concerned Citizens of Custer County”.)
It is 14,882 words long so impossible to print. What we will do, however, is review it for you below and highlight some of the points that came up to give you a general sense of what went on.
The first part of the ES is mostly Wilson whining about how tough his job is especially the Human Resource side. Wilson said he has had 17 HR complaints in the two years he has been here and somehow that is too much. This goes on and on.
Wilson then noted:
“I had 17 incidents since I’ve started here, which is, I think, a pretty good clip for a little county. I certainly wasn’t expecting that coming in. And of those 17, 16, I believe, could have been addressed solely by that manager or were caused by the manager. And that would be an elected official, that would be a department head, anybody that would serve in that supervisory capacity. So only one, only one HR issue that I think truly was just an HR issue that wasn’t caused by a manager in some way or had a relation to a manager in some way.”
Wilson then continued to complain about how hard his job was. Then after a bit, he said the answer is creating the County Manager position, and yes, making him the County Manager, “So, my suggestion for a solution to all of this is the creation of, and my promotion to, county manager.”
This is a flat-out improper subject for an ES. Totally improper. Wilson then goes on for a long time rehashing all the points about why the county needs a CM. On and on and on. (All the points that were debunked earlier this year.)
In addition, this would have been a newly created, executive level position which means it should be POSTED for people to apply. Including other county employees and outside qualified people.
Wilson didn’t want anybody to compete for the position, which is WRONG. Remember he is the Human Resources chief and he is supposed to be Mr. Ethical and look out for our county employees. Doesn’t look like that here. He knows once a CM is in, he is in for good so he didn’t want to take any chances that somebody else would take the plum job. This is an ethical and a character issue.
Not good.
Wilson then said something that needs to be parsed a bit:
“And currently, I perform most of the essential job functions that are listed on the county manager job description that we went over in November and created.”
Wilson said that he is doing most of the jobs that a CM would do! So why would we need a $200,000 CM if he is already doing most of the work now? Because Wilson wants more power and control, and of course, the big bucks. Out of control ambition, folks.
And don’t forget, somehow Wilson had the time to write his own CM Job Description and his own CM Policy Manual. So, he not only created his own job, he defined it. Not a peep from Day or Flower.
He then continues to sell himself to the receptive Day and Flower. He spends an enormous amount of secret squirrel time trying to defeat the various issues that could be brought up against a CM. “Excessive government”: No problem said Wilson. The “County Manager doesn’t answer directly to the public”: Wilson said it was not a problem and the Commissioners can handle that. “Commissioners could be doing the work instead”: Wilson said the CM should be doing those jobs the Commissioners were hired to do to free up there time to think about “strategy”. On and on.
Wilson then addresses the salary and expense figures around a CM. He falsely claims that there is a DOLA grant available that will pay 75% of the CM salary for a couple of years. That had already been debunked by Canda as he had talked to DOLA about that and found out that a county only gets one CM DOLA grant and the county had received one a long time ago when they tried the CM thing and it didn’t work out. So, Wilson’s head fake on what it is going to cost the county is a no go. (Bottom line: Wilson tried to say it would only cost the county around $35k more to have him as a CM as he is making something around $60k now. Note that the Finance/HR department has an assistant who does a lot the work. He thinks that somehow the new Finance Director? HR head (he was pushing for the current assistant to become the head) won’t need an assistant. The fact is the Finance/HR department will need an assistant thus the department’s salary cost will remain the same. So, it isn’t a $35k differential, it is a $120k salary jump plus Wilson was insisting on a highly paid Executive Administrative Assistant that would answer to HIM and that would cost at least another $60 with bennies.)
Shamelessly, Wilson then talks about what other CM’s are making trying to get the $80k figure that has been bouncing around for the job pushed up to $100k+!
Canda then went on a long rant about we need to actually study the situation before we jump into it. During his talk, Canda insisted that if this happens, that the position be posted for all to apply, “you think for an instant we can’t, we’re going to get off not competing in this position.”
Canda also nailed the core issue in his talk:
“And the amount of employees that are directly under us are very … even fewer. And all we have to do is do what we should be doing, is letting our people that work for us do their job.”
Canda, apparently was the only one worried about the legality of the subject matter of this:
CANDA: A little worried about this executive session, you know.
Is this a …
DAY: This was ran by, I think, Braden ran it by Dan before we …
CANDA: By who?
WILSON: Dan.
CANDA: Dan. Good. I was hoping that you did. Be careful.
The problem is Wilson didn’t tell the County Attorney, Dan Slater, what the real subject matter was.
Day and Flower then spend a lot of time attacking Canda for not having his county government study team make their presentation. They basically say it is too late for that and they are going to go ahead with this no matter what. Flower commented:
“I support this. If this comes before the commission today or next week or next month, I will vote to support it. I’m a little concerned about the money end of it. The optics of starting a new county manager at 100 grand could be a little dicey politically. Has nothing to do with whether I believe you’re worth it or not. It’s how big of balls I have to do, as a county commissioner, and deal with the political fallout.”
The discussion went on and on. Flower and Day supporting Wilson and Canda trying to slow things down and do it right. Canda noted:
CANDA: But what you just brought, you got to [be] careful here. This is an executive session. We’re not voting. And if we’re coming out of this executive session, I’m gonna put this on the table and vote, to … with no public hearing on it … if we’re … and you guys can out vote me all you want, and live with that consequence and put a guy in here that … and without competing the position, and going along with this … it’s suicide.
Flower then tried to defend the proportion that the county didn’t need to post the job and they could just flat out “promote” Wilson, his boy, into it. Canda vehemently opposed this and wanted it posted so the county would get the best candidate.
Flower got triggered a bit and said:
“This community knows exactly what we were trying to do. Right? It’s not news to them. It’s going to be a shocker to your bunch if, in fact, this goes on an agenda and we promote Braden to be our County Administrator. That’s going to be a shock to their system. Absolutely. But they don’t have any say so in the matter. The say so sits right here in these three chairs. And I know you’re saying, yeah, but we have to be accountable. I’ll be accountable.”
Day and Canda then get into it with Canda saying he wasn’t properly informed about the subjects of the ES and Day insisting
he was.
After that, Wilson again goes into full sales mode on why he is the only one qualified for the job at one point saying, “I suggest that I would be good for this job.”
This goes on for long time. Wilson then makes a shameless plea that there was a “promise” here and that the Commissioners should vote on this right away (so nobody else can apply for the job):
WILSON: Right, and that was my intention. Is this … is not something that I thought needed to be voted on or anything like that. It was just, I guess, a promise that this was something that I believe needed to happen, to fully fulfill the picture. I do believe that with the job description, that it’s possible to move forward right away. But this would just fill in some of those gaps that …(overtalking)
CANDA: So, what’s your expectation that we come out of this and we vote to have a County Manager and you are the guy?
WILSON: That was what I asked, was … fully knowing…
CANDA: That we need a County Manager and we would figure out how to go about it.
Flower then danced around the idea of coming out of a 1.5 hour ES, with no public present, and voting to create the CM and hire Wilson:
FLOWER: Well, here’s where I shake out. I’m saying this straight up. I’m a little concerned about the money. I certainly want to give Bill the opportunity to rally his troops to come in and politically strong arm us. It would be a little chicken shit to come out of this meeting and do it this afternoon. OK. I can handle that political pressure. They can squall all they want. I’ve proven that.
The discussion went on and on. Wilson, Day and Flower against Canda. Most of the end time was spent with Wilson repeating that it was perfectly fine not posting the job and just hiring him right away. (Totally shameless.)
Here are some interesting quotes from the end of the ES:
WILSON: No, I just … I appreciate the time to be able to bring it forward and certainly isn’t me trying to run the county in any way or take personal gain…
CANDA: Yes, it is.
FLOWER: Good. If this initiative moves forward, Bill, do you think we should post it within the county? Do you think we should … I’m not saying you’re going to agree with doing it, I’m just asking you – this job?
CANDA: Has to be posted. I think it would … I think it has to be competed.
WILSON: And I could speak to that. I did talk to CTSI in a different capacity a few months ago. And we don’t need to post anything that’s a promotion. If it’s … even if it’s a new position. If we were … if we had to fill it to begin with, we have to post it. But to promote, it doesn’t require any sort of posting.
CANDA: Did you tell them we were restructuring the county?
WILSON: No, I said that was in a different situation. But that’s …
CANDA: I don’t believe that.
The whole ES was wrong. It should have been totally in the public. The only guy there protesting it was Canda and he should have been firmer about it. But he got totally sandbagged by Wilson, Day and Flower.
This is what dirty, unethical, insider politics look like, citizens. Thank goodness Flower got recalled and Epp got in and Epp and Canda killed this.
Read the entire transcript on a page dedicated the group of’ Concerned Citizens of Custer County’ .on our website. https://sangredecristosentinel.com/concerned-citizens-of-custer-county/ It is an eye opener.