BOCC: Planning & Zoning:
Things Are Slowing Down,
Day, Epp Attack Canda Over
the Election Integrity Meeting

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

In the May 8, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting the libs attempted a rather pathetic counterattack against Commissioner Bill Canda just for having had the BOCC Election Integrity meeting last week. It was almost comedic but Commissioners Lucas Epp (Republican) and Kevin Day (now an “Unaffiliated” after he was elected as a Republican) went along with the attack to appease these cancel culture devotees. We will unravel this episode of Light vs. Darkness, but let’s first get through the regular meeting stuff.
The meeting started at 9 a.m. All three Commissioners were present. In Commissioner Items, Epp noted that the County has acquired a new vehicle for Planning & Zoning and the Assessor’s Office to use. Canda said the contractor is still working on getting the second TV channel working on the mountain.
Elected Officials Reports were next. Sheriff Rich Smith was first up. Smith said the Sheriff’s Office (SO) is still getting a ton of miss-dialed 911 calls, some 30+ in the first quarter. They take up a lot of time. He mentioned that the SO had a dead livestock call where there were multiple dead animals on the property. The Health Department declared the site a public health hazard. Smith said that the County had six motor vehicle thefts in the last quarter which was a bit high. He noted that they are almost done with implementing the new Frecom/Tyler computer system and that Undersheriff Susan Barnes had been working on that difficult project for a year.
Smith said the SO is fully staffed at the moment. A Deputy pay raise should be anticipated for next year to stay competitive. Smith said they had four mental health calls recently. The new local counseling crisis team was working well. Vehicle maintenance is a continuing problem, Smith related. The two new patrol cars ordered last year should be delivered by the end of the summer. He said the town and county wide vehicle patrols by the Posse are working well. He noted they weren’t getting enough donations to keep the mounted posse going and the unit might have to be disbanded.
Road & Bridge reported that asphalt patching must wait a bit as it is still too cold to apply the patches properly.
Dorothy Carsten from Planning & Zoning said things were slowing down big time compared to last year. They only had three septic permit applications last month versus twelve last year. Zoning permits were down to eight compared to 33 last year. P&Z YTD income was only $53k against $133k last year.
Interim Finance Director Vernon Roth gave the Finance report. (Vernon is the IT Director and is helping out in Finance until we get a new Director.) He said Finance, along with Redmond Accounting, are getting ready for the audit and have been feeding our auditor data ahead of the actual audit. Canda asked how much we have spent on the consultant, Redmond, and Epp said $21k to date.
Roth also gave the IT Department report saying he had been spending a ton of time on the SO’s Tyler computer system installation and it has been a “nightmare”.
Dominic Edginton gave the Veterans Service Office report. He said they had 56 appointments scheduled for last month with 26 walk-ins. He stated that the total compensation he has been able to get for our veterans since he started last year was a staggering $1,010,000! (He is doing a GREAT job.)
The Office of Emergency Management report was about (guess what)? Grants, grants, grants and more grants.
The first New Business Agenda Item was, surprise, surprise, a citizen request made to Epp and Epp put it on the Agenda: Consideration of the Consequences or Sanctions on Commissioner Canda for allegedly violating the BOCC’s Code of Conduct Resolution 22-17.
Epp started by dancing around what 22-17 can and cannot do, saying that the Resolution was “not legally binding” over actions against a fellow commissioner. Then he mentioned Canda’s “special meeting” (i.e., the Election Integrity meeting) and “the way we called the special meeting.” County Attorney Dan Slater then piped up about 22-17 and said that there is “no enforcement mechanism” in the resolution and the best you can probably do to “punish” a fellow commissioner was, maybe, you can “publicly reprimand” him.
Canda, and the viewers, still did not know what this was all about, so Canda asked, “What is the complaint?” Epp answered, “failure to adhere to the Code of Conduct”. Epp didn’t say anything specific. Canda finally said, “How?”
Epp said he couldn’t “speak for the citizen” who made the complaint and then said, “loyalty to citizens as opposed to advocacy groups.” (Later on in the meeting, in Public Comments, James “Dr. Doom” Gilbert (former head of the Custer County Democrat Party, and maybe still the head) informed us that he had submitted the complaint. Gilbert is a hyper partisan dem and if he submitted the complaint against Republican Canda that is ALL you need to know about the validity of it.)
Epp said it was not right to bring “something forth not vetted through the Board but vetted solely by Bill Canda.” (So why did you vote to have the meeting?)
(Let’s get this straight right now. And Canda gets into it in a minute: Due to time constraints, Canda had called Epp and Day via phone to ask them to have a Special Meeting about Election Integrity as he had a bunch of “national experts” lined up to speak on it. So Epp and Day both knew about the subject and they BOTH gave their ok to have the meeting. The local libs had a meltdown over their election holy grail and fought the meeting tooth and nail. Gilbert’s attack against Canda with his complaint was an attempt to say how Canda got the meeting together was wrong (but it was totally correct and legal). A Totally bogus complaint. What Gilbert is trying to do is punish Canda for the SUBJECT of the meeting, Election Integrity. As you will see, Day, of course, went along with this infantile ruse and tried to besmirch Canda, and regrettably, Republican Epp, joined in (but not as much as Day). But they were both wrong.)
Canda answered with the facts: “It takes two commissioners to call a meeting. I called each one of you to have the meeting and you both agreed.” He went on to say he called CTSI and one Fremont Commissioner to verify that one can set up a BOCC meeting via phone calls, and they all agree. (So does our County Attorney.)
Day then mumbled something about how the special meeting should have gone before the Board to discuss it. (Then Day should NOT have given his ok to have the meeting. Day is blaming Canda for Day giving his ok for the meeting. Plus, they DID discuss the meeting in the mornings regular BOCC. Pathetic.)
Epp, pandering to the left, said “we didn’t discuss it in an open meeting who was going to be in the meeting.” (Yes, you did, Epp. In the morning’s regular BOCC meeting. Plus Canda said that some of the proposed speakers weren’t locked down yet. Remember you previously ok’d the meeting in the phone call without knowing all the details. Plus, you and Day could have cancelled the meeting that morning when you were discussing it.)
Canda answered that the Board discussed that evening’s special meeting that same morning in the regular BOCC meeting. Somehow this fact escaped Epp and he actually said, “We didn’t discuss it in public.” (But they did discuss it in public even though it was not required to do so. Note also folks, hypocrites Day and Epp could have cancelled the Special Meeting that morning but did not. Now they are blaming Canda for it?) Epp continued a bit with his disingenuous “not discussed in public” nonsense.
Day then goes all wonky and comes out with this bit of high wisdom, “I would love to see us as individuals of the Board to follow the Code of Conduct.” (Day has yet to say exactly what Canda did was wrong. Day is again attacking Canda via a bogus Agenda Item put on by a partisan democrat. Day is trying to punish Canda for showing INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP, something Day obviously lacks.) Day goes on doing blah, blah, blah about working together. (Day wasn’t into “working together” when he was pushing the disastrous County Manager take over scheme and giving a county employee $45k for five days work. No. Somehow that was ok.)
After all the posturing by Day and Epp nothing was done. Why? Because Canda did nothing wrong. Day telling Canda that we should “all work together” is beyond parody. (The Commissioners who should be sanctioned are Day and Epp for attacking Canda without any basis at all. Canda did a ton of work putting that meeting on and he should be lauded. What the heck has Day done in three years except to cost the County a ton of wasted money? Day has had zero accomplishments and multiple failures.)
Day then stated that the BOCC needed to go into Executive Session to discuss the Jackie Hobby lawsuit against the County (caused by ex-Commissioner Tom Flower) and also, THREATS made against Commissioner Canda. (Hmmmm. What could that be all about? Maybe because he had the Election Integrity meeting and that ticked off a lot of local libs?)
After the Executive Session, the last Agenda Item was the proposed Jackie Hobby lawsuit settlement offer. All three Commissioners voted to approve it. (We requested the settlement wording. See the article elsewhere in this issue.)
(Wrap Up: A disgraceful perform-ance by Day and Epp. Total political pandering to the extreme left in the County. Canda did nothing wrong. The Election Integrity meeting was well done, with many experts speaking, both in person and via phone. The meeting was well attended by many local citizens and the reviews were great. James Gilbert’s complaint about how the meeting was set up was bogus. He really was just against the subject matter. If Canda had done the same phone call meeting setup procedure, but the subject was how to set up an illegal alien welcoming center on Main Street, Westcliffe, with free housing, food, medical care, cell phone and a Mariachi Band, all paid for by the County (i.e., OUR money), Gilbert would have lauded Canda to the heavens. Tell me I’m wrong.)
And that was that. (Hopefully Epp will stop trying to be a politician and do the right thing going forward. By Epp catering to a radical fringe minority in this conservative, Christian community, he is ignoring the wishes of the people who got him elected. Don’t turn into another Day.)