BOCC: Recall Lawsuit, More Manna
From Heaven Grant Money, OEM Attacked

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The October 19, 2022 Custer County Board of County Commissioners meeting started a few minutes late. All three royal commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day, and members Bill Canda and “Traitor” Tom Flower.
Canda started off the Commissioner Items part of the meeting noting Round Mountain Water is getting a $500,000 grant. Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy helped them get it. Nothing big from Flower or Day.
County Attorney Clint Smith said the Flower Recall Committee, headed by Ann Barthrop, filed a lawsuit in the 11th District Court against Kelley Camper as Custer County Clerk and Recorder alleging irregularities in the recall count process and that the final count was incorrect. Smith said that CTSI won’t supply an attorney to defend it as there is no monetary damages claim in the complaint. He said he reviewed the lawsuit and noted he could “handle it” but he preferred someone else do it. Smith said Mrs. Camper contacted the Colorado Secretary of State and they referred her to an attorney in Denver.
Smith said the complaint has “problems”. He said he has no conflict with Mrs. Barthrop but he did work with her on the Justice Center Committee.
Canda asks how much this Denver attorney will cost. Clint said “he has no idea”. He noted “that with all the politics I feel uncomfortable about handling this”. He goes on for a bit about how he thinks the lawsuit isn’t that strong.
Traitor Tom (“ TT ”) , the subject of the Recall, then incredibly says “I think this is a frivolous attempt to drag out this thing. Gonna cost us money.” (This is rich. From the guy whose homies intimidated petition signers to withdraw their signatures. Move along. Nothing to see here, folks.) TT then goes on a rant about how this is going to cost the county money. He then starts putting pressure on Smith to take the case to save the county money. This goes on and on.
Smith finally gets the hint and says he will find out how much money the Denver attorney wants but he says he can do the lawsuit if needed.
Under Public Comments, a couple of men from the Wetmore area off of Hardscrabble complain that a neighbor is blocking their access road and they have a legal easement on it. They want to know what the three musketeers can do about that. The muskies all say easement issues are private and not county business. This goes on for a bit. It looks like the citizens have to go to court and get a court order that the Sheriff’s Office  can enforce.

Braden Wilson, Finance Director, is first up under New Business. He said the county’s preliminary budget was published by the October 15 deadline and the muskies need to hold a workshop by November 7th to nail it down.
TT then brings up some Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund grant for $836,000 the county is getting. He said the money can be used just like regular General Fund money (manna from heaven). The muskies need to accept the manna by January, 2023. The county will get half in 2022 and half in 2023.
Planning & Zoning is next. The new head, Dorothy Carsten, said the muskies need to have a workshop to review the application and renewals rules for Short Term Rentals. She then goes over some of the issues that need to be addressed. The mighty musketeers agree and ask her to set a date.
Next up is Chris Bryson, a county employee, who wants to discuss the status of certain Office of Emergency Management documents. Bryson alleges that our OEM Office has failed to update or keep current various FEMA and other documents (like the Community Wild Fire Protection Plan). He said a bunch have been expired for a long time and that means the county and towns are not covered for certain things and it is difficult or impossible to get certain grants with these documents not being current.
Bryson then said that the current OEM head, Adrian Washington, has been here for about two years and is doing nothing about this. Bryson said he has repeatedly tried to contact Washington but with no success. Bryson then challenges the muskies with, “What are you going to do about this?”.
TT answers with “based on what I know” is that the county does have a current operating plan. He then said “we will find out” about the other documents.
Bryson responds with, “You know why I am sitting here. I was one of the two candidates for the job and you made your choice.” (Bryson and Washington were the two top candidates for the OEM job two years ago.)
(NOTE: Washington was not there to
defend himself.)
Canda then gets into it. He said he got Bryson’s letter about this and sat down with Washington and reviewed it. Canda said that based on what Washington said, most of the items are good to go now. Canda then asked Bryson to go visit with Washington and work this out.
Bryson responded with, “He doesn’t reply to me.” He then goes on to say he thinks the muskies violated the Veteran’s Preference Law in hiring Washington as they both had “masters degrees” but Bryson is a vet and they should have hired him. Bryson then went on to highlight some of his job experience.
Canda and then TT then both said they evaluated both candidates and felt that Washington had better experience. They both said they fully evaluated the
veteran hiring angle but even with
that, Washington had a better overall
experience and training.
And that was that….