BOCC: Day Announces He Is Running
for Re-Election,
Bombshell: Public Health Director Brown Put on Administrative Leave!

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

This week’s BOCC had two bombshell announcements. One we knew was coming (Kevin Day) and one that was a total surprise. (Yes, it was just another wonderful day in Happy Valley.)
So, what happened at the Custer County Board of County Commissioners May 28, 2024 meeting regarding Commissioner Kevin Day and his political future? We’ll get to that in a minute.
First, the meeting was in the BOCC’s throne room, and all three Commissioners were present: Day, and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp. The meeting started at 9 a.m.
In Commissioner Items, Canda said the county’s mountain top TV site will be using local internet provider Hilltop to feed the two stations. This will be a very reliable method. Epp said he has received three bids to fix the courthouse roof.
Then it was Day’s turn. And it was the only thing he commented on: Day announced he was running for County Commissioner again.
We knew it was coming when we found out that Custer County Commissioner Kevin Day had changed his political party affiliation from Republican to Unaffiliated in December 2023. But people asked, why would he do that? After all, he ran as a Republican for Commissioner. He sought the Republican Party’s endorsement in the primary election. He was supported by the Custer County Republican Party in his election efforts. Heck, even the Sentinel supported this guy. And what about all the Republican voters who voted for him in the primary and the general election? He supposedly ran on Republican “small and lean government” issues. Well, Day was not what he said he was. Exhibit A was Day’s maniacal effort to create the totally unnecessary County Manager position which almost destroyed our Custer County government structure. Thank goodness that was stopped via the recall of Commissioner Flower.
Flat out: Day has been a total disaster as County Commissioner. Now he is abandoning all the people and the Custer County Republican Party who voted him in. Why? Because Day knew last year after all the disastrous decisions he made that there was no way any true Republican (or conservative unaffiliated voters) would vote for him in the primary and the only way for him to retain power was to run for Commissioner as unaffiliated. (Unaffiliated can get on the ballot with almost no effort.) So, it was all about personal ambition, power and money. Not about the principles he supposedly ran on. Not about the people who supported him and voted for him. It is all about Day.
Just for old times’ sake, let’s beat the dead horse again. The three major tasks that Day had been assigned to in his reign as Commissioner were: Getting the Florence Fire/EMS tax district to cover the Wetmore area with EMS coverage; Fix the transmission issues with our county owned mountain top
TV stations and oversee the Finance Department. As our readers know, Day had totally failed in all three endeavors. Batting average: ZERO.
After courting Florence Fire/EMS for over a year to get them to cover Wetmore, they said no way. Day’s efforts to contact the two TV stations we use to fix the transmission issues came to nothing as, after some contact, the TV stations simply blew Day off. (After the failure, Canda volunteered to do the job and within months had a big sit down with the TV executives, developed a plan, and executed it.) But the worse one of all was the Finance Department and Human Resource multiple disasters which Day failed to detect as the Commissioner in charge of that department.
But the ABSOLUTE worst thing Day did was trying to ram down our throats the totally unnecessary and super expensive County Manager position. Day created it and then hired a guy who was TOTALLY UNQUALIFIED to run it. (Day hired the worst guy possible, the guy Day had previously hired to run the Finance Department and Human Resources. That guy left a trail of destruction in both departments that has cost the County huge amounts of money to attempt to fix.) Day hired a guy with no accounting or management background or experience to run a Nine Million Dollar, fairly complex, organization. A guy who totally failed as the Finance Department and Human Resources honcho. And don’t forget the $45k “severance package” Day put in the contract for that person. That guy got the $45k for working only five days as County Manager. That move ALONE is enough not to vote for Day. (One of Day’s problems is that he has no experience in the private sector and no real management history. Day is a career civil servant and looks at things from a county employee viewpoint and NOT as a representative of the people.)
We could go on and on. But the bottom line is that Day has been a total failure as County Commissioner and does not deserve to be re-elected. There is a good guy running on the Republican ticket with real problem solving and management experience who can run circles around Day. We can’t afford another four years of Kevin Day.

Now, back to the meeting. There were a few minor items, one being the Finance Director’s job opening is actually being advertised in a whole bunch of online sites (after months of basically nothing).
Then Day called an Executive Session to discuss a personnel matter in the Public Health Department. That took a while to get done.
After the Executive Session, Epp makes a bombshell announcement that he moves to put the Public Health Director, Dr. Clifford Brown, on administrative leave, with pay, immediately. (Due to a personnel issue.) Brown will be on leave pending “further investigation.” (This is a shocker as Dr. Brown is a pretty low key, well qualified and experienced administrator. We will keep you posted as this drama unfolds.)

And that was that. General Hospital/As the World Turns have got nothing on Happy Valley, folks. No need for TV drama here.
[Note: Day sent us his press release re him announcing his re-election effort. He states that there is “discord in the office.” The “discord”, folks, is coming from Day. His constant attacks on Canda are childish and disgraceful. You talk about causing “discord”? Day actually called the Colorado Bureau of Investigation a few weeks ago, in secret, to try to stop the meeting Canda asked for on Election Integrity. He called CBI! Without telling anyone! Day wanted CBI to try to find some dirt on the Forum’s speakers who are nationally known experts on Election Integrity. That was a totally low life move and Day never told the public (nor his “teammates” on the BOCC) that he did that. So, folks, where do you think the problem is?
Day also laments that there is a “split in the people of the county.” That, Kevin, is mostly coming from the lib newcomers who want to change Custer County into San Francisco. You seem to side with them a lot. That’s ok, but that is NOT what you ran on when you got elected. In any event, public political disagreement is a sign of a healthy open forum. Let people speak. Let people disagree. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is a good thing. (Plus, watching these libs have Soy Boy meltdowns over open carry is as good as it gets.) The problem is that Day just keeps making horrible decisions once all the facts are in. We need a change.]