BOCC: Flower Hissy Fit, Wind Storm Repairs,
Justice Center Nightmare Continues

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
Some hot spots in this meeting, folks. Nothing huge but still illuminating. The February 28, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a.m. and for a change ended before noon. All three mighty musketeers were in their power throne room: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Tom Flower.
As usual Commissioner Items was up first. Flower kicked off the love fest with a vicious attack on Canda about Canda’s problem with having two muskies in the board room at the same time.
(If you remember, each muskie is assigned one day each week to be in the throne room. The other two days are open to anybody. A while back it was brought up that there shouldn’t be two muskies in the room as this would be a violation of the sunshine law. The past county attorney said that it was ok though as long as they didn’t do any “business” together. This gave the green light to Flowers to be there almost all the time which can interfere with the other muskies time in the room. Canda likes the only one muskie in the boardroom concept as many citizens want to talk in private. The day before apparently Flower was again there, and it was Canda’s day and Canda wasn’t happy that good ol’ boy Flower was again interfering in Canda’s ability to interact with the citizens and Canda told Flower off. Flower is now all huffy puffy about being schooled.)
Flower goes off on Canda about “the dressing down you gave me on YOUR day.” He says it is ok to have two commissioners in the room. He said he would “step out anytime” if you need a private conversation. Day chimes in and supports Tommy Boy saying “it is not a problem to have two commissioners in the same room. Canda says he wants some privacy when he is talking to a citizen. Flower goes on a bit and then it is over.
Canda changes subject and thanks Sangre de Cristo Electric for their great response to the wind storm that hammered the county a few days ago. He said they worked all night and replaced 13 downed poles. Canda said there were 24 residences damaged in the 120 mph breeze.
Flower came back on stage and talked bad about a recent Planning Commission he attended. He said it was a “bizarre meeting” and that there was no quorum. It was “very frustrating” he said. Tommy noted that the Planning Commission took no action on resizing the attainable housing lots the muskies are giving to low income housing effort. On and on he droned.
Under New Business, Finance was up first with the Accounts Payable and Payroll report. Flower was all freaked out about the Sheriff’s Office payroll amount stating how can they “carry that payload after the jail shutdown.” (MENSA boy Flower seems to forgotten that Sheriff Smith told the muskies that nobody got fired when the jail shutdown. Smith still needed three or so detention deputies to run the holding cell and do transports and four of the detention deputies went to POST training to become Custer County Deputies. Plus, the Deputies got a big raise. Looks like Flower is not a big fan of our new Sheriff, for some reason.)
Custer County’s potential tourist attraction level Taj Mahal, the proposed Justice Center, was next on the agenda. Flower said they need a new committee but the commissioners “should lead the charge” this time. (That means, in Flower Speak, that Tommy wants to micro manage the project.) He wants the muskies to be at all the meetings and he said the project needs to be “rebranded” because it took such a beating at the polls last time. (The odds of the citizens of this county increasing property taxes or the sales tax rate with raging inflation and more and more taxes and fees coming from the crazy libs in Denver is ZERO. The muskies better realize that a huge percentage of Happy Valley residents are on fixed income
and are taking a BEATING now. Since the state is mandating this, demand that the Denver bolshies pay for it.) The muskies pass a motion to continue pursuing this nightmare.
Consideration of Hiring a New County Attorney was the next item. Canda says they need a full time one and also a temporary part time one in case it takes a while to get a full time one. Flower says he only wants to look for a full time one. Canda suggest a $5,000 per month retainer fee. The muskies talk about this for a while. Flower suggests $4,000. They pass a motion going with the $4K figure.
The Conservation Trust Fund Polices and Procedures was next. Jennifer Kreigh, the BOCC administrative assistant presented her updated polices and procedures. (She did a good job.)
After the usual banter and few changes, the Three Musketeers approve it.
There were a couple of minor items and the show was over.