BOCC: Day Apologizes for County Manager Workshop Fiasco, More Moolah for “Attainable Housing”, County Maintenance Contractor, Big Flower Gaffe

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

Warning: Clown Town Show Below: Some Taxpayers Might Find This Article Disturbing.

The January 31, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a,m, with all three glorious commissioner musketeers present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and “Traitor” Tom (“TT”) Flower.
Under Commissioner Items, where the muskies regale us peasants with all the meetings they had with other bureaucrats, the only significant item mentioned was the BOCC hired a new Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Director. Her name is Robin Knappe and she is currently a State of Colorado employee. She will be starting on February 13th.
Of note however, was Day’s com-ments on the County Commissioner workshop the muskies held two weeks ago.. Day said, “I want to issue an apology on the County Manager (meeting).” He said, “We started the meeting in the wrong part of the process.” He continued with, “We may regroup and start the process from the beginning. I apologize with how it went down.” Day said he appreciated the last half hour (when the peasants were finally allowed to speak about how this proposal is totally unneeded and how the commissioners are NOT doing their jobs). He then went on to apologize a few more times. (The amount of negative comments on this proposed County Manager position we have received at the Sentinel is astounding. For Day and Flower to try to push this through without any meaningful input from the rabble shows a level of arrogance that has no place in our local government. Canda is the only one fighting against this. The citizens have brought up multiple viable alternatives that would save the county millions. Why don’t we take a look at them Day and Flower?)
In Old Business, the Accounts Payable review was first up. Traitor Tom asked the new Coroner, Brad Baltzly, to come to the meeting over some trivial expense that Brad had approved ($400 to fix a toilet in his office that was emitting dangerous sewer gas). Brad explained it and Flower waxed on about how Brad did not follow normal accounting procedures. (Flower could have done this with a phone call, but no, he has to put on a show. A total waste of time.)
New Business was next. The first agenda item was the ARPA Funds for the Attainable Housing Board. The Board chair, Charles “Grant Sponge” Bogle was in the hot seat. Bogle said he had an emergency situation as he had not filed some response to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) over a grant and that the deadline was TODAY and he needed a letter from the mighty muskies saying they were going to give him a big hunk of change ($200k) from the ARPA grift money so he could proceed with his cheap housing project. And this was very important and a virtual emergency. (The muskies have already given him 18 lots in Silver Cliff supposedly worth around $500k for this deal. So Bogle and his minions now will have $700k of our money…..)

Flower then launches a full Flower Power Hour blither fest about the grants, the process, the deadline. ON and on. Blah, blah and more blah. “There is nothing more important in the county than affordable housing.” Blah, blah, blah. After wasting everybody’s time, and I kid you not, Flower actually said, “We gotta quit talking about this and get something done.” (I had to take a break from viewing this after that comment. That sentence should be on his tombstone.)
The discussion continued with Canda worrying about the county being on the hook for more money if the estimates are way off. (You betcha. Bogle and the grant sucking Boglettes don’t exactly have a stellar track record.) Day said he was concerned that the Town of Silver Cliff hasn’t formally approved the density change request and the adjustment of the lot lines. Bogle says Silver Cliff is on board with this. TT then whines some more. Then Bogle whines. There are apparently more items that Bogle is late with. Bogle said the grant is “over subscribed” now and the chance of them getting money from this grant is about zero. (So WHY are we doing this now!!!!) But, he says if we get this letter to the deep state on time it might help us in the next cycle! This sets everybody off again. (Bogle is completely unprepared for this meeting. He has had months to nail this down and now we are down to the last day?) Finally, the muskies pass the motion to give the moolah to Bogle. (This insanity folks, took almost an hour. Unfortunately , this was just the first act in this week’s Clown Town Show.)
Regrettably, the show continued. The next item was for the muskies to sign the signature page on some OEM “EMPG” Grant letter describing the OEM Assistant’s job description. Simple? Nope. Flower says he only has the signature page and he won’t sign it until he sees what it is attached to. The muskies start scurrying to find out what the deal is. TT keeps talking. The interim OEM Director speaks up and tries to explain to the MENSA muskies what is going on. TT keeps talking like some wind-up toy. This goes on for like some 20 minutes. Finally, somebody said they did the job description at an OEM workshop. The muskies adopt this and pass the motion.
Next item was the proposed County Building and Maintenance Contract and Contractor. Canda has been working on this. Canda said the county needs a prime contractor for all the maintenance of all the county buildings. It would be a one-year contract and the performance of the contractor would be reviewed every year. The contractor has to be licensed and bonded. He must also have the ability or have subcontractors to do work in four areas: HVAC, plumbing, electric and general construction. Plus the need to respond quickly is crucial. Canda wants to have a “bidders conference” and review the requirements with the contractors so everybody is on the same page. Canda then goes into some details after questions from Day and Flower. Flower then does his standard blab fest. The muskies then can’t figure out what day the bidders conference should be. Finally, after a LONG time, they actually punt and put this item on the February 8 BOCC meeting for further discussion.
The Planning and Zoning Director, Dorothy Carsten was next. She wants to change how P&Z charges the peasants for building a porch/patio/deck. Currently it is a flat fee of $75 with no regard to size. She wants to go with a square foot-based fee of 75 cents per SF. Apparently, her new computer system forces her to make out a separate form to enter the flat fee (in addition to the form for a building permit) but if she went to a SF basis she could do it all on one form. TT initially likes it but Day and Canda say it works now and why make it more complicated for the rabble. In the end, the muskies give it a no go.
That was it for the New Business and Day asks if there are any other items. Flower, of course, provides us with the Clown Town Show Finale. He says, out of nowhere, that the muskies never approved the actual dispersal of funds from the Conservation Trust Fund and that this is real bad. He then just keeps going on and on and on about this saying the money was never approved and blah, blah, blah. Flower knows all and this must be fixed. (“Pomposity” is inadequate to describe this diatribe.) Everybody got involved including County Clerk Kelley Camper and Finance head Braden Wilson. This goes on for something like THIRTY MINUTES! Finally, Wilson, says, oh looky here, the actual dispersals are IN THE COUNTY BUDGET as line items so there is NO PROBLEM AT ALL. The muskies did this in the budget meetings last November. Flower puts his head down and mumbles something about being wrong. And that was the finale for this BOCC Clown Town Show, FIVE HOURS of fun. Tune in
for the next one, folks. Brings your Clown masks.