Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)
—March 23, 2020
Westcliffe, Colo.
by Jackie (Muddy) Bubis
An emergency meeting, this meeting was held at the Courthouse Annex with Commissioner Canda and Deputy Clerk Peggy Miller present. Chairman Flower, Commissioner Printz, and Attorney Smith attended via phone. Also present in the room were Dave Aiken, Dawna Hobby, Vernon Roth and Elisa Livengood.
Per Attorney Smith – because this was a posted public meeting, the commissioners can vote. They will also ratify any decisions they make when they are all present in a future meeting.
Commissioner Items
Mr. Printz has met via phone with Kathy Garcia, spokeswoman for Senator Cory Gardner, to make sure that Custer County will get our share of COVID-19 test kits and personal protection equipment. He has talked to dozens of constituents, “putting out fires and calming fears.”
Mr. Canda has been spending a good deal of time brainstorming about ways that the Board can help the citizens in this time. Ideas include waiving landfill fees. He is also wondering about county non-essential personnel helping John Carroll with his food drive work. He’s been working on a plan whereby some of the local pilots and planes can help with transport of patients if EMS is tied up.
Mr. Flower has had ongoing conversations with state agencies. He spoke with Gary Hyde about Road & Bridge complying with the latest edict from the governor to cut staff by 50%. Mr. Hyde wants to have half his staff work two days a week and the other half work the other two days a week (his department works four ten hour days and is closed on Friday.) Mr. Flower  made sure to mention that all county employees would continue to get paid. He reported that he’s heard from a number of small businesses that are concerned about losing their business because of being closed.
The Board approved the Road & Bridge plan for cutting staff effective as soon as possible.
Mr. Flower mentioned the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy
District water forum has been cancelled and the attendance fees
refunded.
Attorney Items
Attorney Smith has been working with the Sheriff to draft an employment agreement for new employees who go through the 28-week certification training to work for a minimum of thirty-six months after being hired or be required to pay the county back for the training.
He also is working on a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the CCEDC regarding incorporating the fiber plan.
New Business
The Board adopted Resolution 20-08 which involves procedures for emergency meetings of the BOCC. The commissioners also ratified the cancellation of the March 18th meeting and the decision to close the courthouse.
The Board approved the purchase by the Department of Human Services of a Chevy Traverse for $32,539. There were three bids and this was the lowest and was for the vehicle that the department preferred. The cash price will be reimbursed by the state 20% per year for five years.
The Board got a finance report from Dawna Hobby, who stated that there were really no issues due to the courthouse closure. She has been working in her office as she was not quarantined.
The Commissioners discussed the meeting format for the March 31st meeting. Mr. Flower expects the meeting to be held at the Annex and that all the commissioners will be there. But they will look at other technology options in case they can’t meet in person. Mr. Flower will work on the agenda which will need to include many items from the cancelled mid-month meeting.
County Health Nurse Elisa Livengood reported that she believes that the latest order from the governor is “very liberal and loose.” She supports no “shelter in place” order at this time. (UPDATE: Shelter in Place restrictions were issued on 3/25/20 by Gov Polis. Read here on the State website or here as issued on 3/26/20 as a pdf on our website.)  She stated that she does have the authority to clamp down in some areas and is considering talking to the grocery and dollar stores to get them to limit only ten customers in the store at a time and markings in the cashier lines indicating the proper 6-foot social distancing. She stated that this is not occurring at the moment. She stressed her belief that this distancing is the only way to control the spread of the virus.
Ms. Livengood also reported that two people in the county have been tested and results are due back in the next 24 hours. The EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been moved to the fire house. It is closed to the public and only essential EOC personnel will be allowed inside. * (Update: this may change. See County notice here.) At this point, that this would be Ms. Livengood, and acting-OEM Alex Anderson. OEM Meredith Nichols is at this time self-quarantined and not experiencing any symptoms. Livengood is hoping to get a Public Information Officer (PIO) hired short-term.  As Public Health Nurse, she is authorized to do that hiring and the position would be reimbursed once the emergency is over. Ms. Livengood also reminded local businesses that, if their
business is shut down or slowed down, to be sure an keep detailed records of revenues lost because there will be some reimbursement available because of a declared emergency.
Mr. Flower reported that, for the second week in a row, the paper of record has not published the RFP’s for the justice center. Mr. Canda reported that the Sentinel had published both weeks. Mr. Printz is concerned and stated that, if the paper of record isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do, a change might need to be made. Mr. Flower will have a conversation with the editor of that paper about it.

Mr. Printz is working with a local non-profit that has $25,000 in seed money to help locals who have lost jobs due to the virus. The proposed plan is to provide $150 weekly vouchers for these folks, working with the local stores, all to help people get by. He stressed that he is working as a private citizen on this and not as a commissioner.
Mr. Flower expressed the Board’s appreciation to Elisa Livengood and her office as well as Vernon Roth for the extra time they’ve worked to support the community. Meredith Nichols was included as well.
There was a discussion about essential county personnel being able to come back to work if they are not quarantined.
Ms. Livengood stressed that only one person per office should be working at a time unless they had room and could strictly enforce the 6-foot rule. The consensus was that these recommendations would be taken and department heads would make the decisions. Mr. Flower stressed that this did not mean a reopening of the courthouse to the public before the April 1st date.
The courthouse will have a deep cleaning within the next day or so as well.
The county is still waiting on the results from the COVID-19 test done on the man who visited the courthouse. (UPDATE: No positive  test result was released in the following days.)  He is still in quarantine and is feeling much better, reported Livengood. The affected courthouse staff as well as the two commissioners are still in quarantine, but none has shown any symptoms of the virus.