Board of County
Commissioners (BOCC)

—September 6, 2017
WESTCLIFFE, Colorado
by Jackie Bubis
The meeting started at 9 a.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call. Introductions of the public in attendance followed. The crowd overflowed into the hallway.
There were no public comments.
There were no commissioner items.
Attorney Items:
Attorney Clint Smith brought Resolution 18-18 (to put the building codes question on the ballot) to the Board for final approval.
The wording for the ballot is as follows:

BALLOT QUESTION 1-A
Shall the Board of County Commissioners for Custer County go forward in conjunction with the Custer County Planning Commission and prepare a proposed resolution for a building code based on the 2006 International Building Code and a fire code based on the 2006 International Fire Code for the unincorporated areas of Custer County, State of Colorado, with said codes to be consistent and compatible with the building codes and fire codes currently in effect in the incorporated Towns of Silver Cliff and Westcliffe, and further with said codes to be subject to an express provision that the resolution would be prospective in nature only and would not apply to existing structures or to structures that are properly permitted and under construction at the time said resolution. [If approved, becomes effective?]
The Board approved this resolution by a 2-1 Vote – Commissioners Printz and Hood voted Aye.
The Sentinel would like to remind the readers what Mr. Printz asked for in this wording.
From the meeting August 31, 2017 – Commissioner Printz made a motion to add the question of adopting the 2006 International Building Code and the 2006 International Fire Code to the November ballot. Mrs. Hood seconded the motion. Mr. Smith stated that he didn’t have sufficient time to research and put together the ballot wording before it was due on September 8th. After discussion, Mr. Smith agreed that if it was a simple yes or no to adopting the 2006 IBC and Fire Code, he could have the wording for the meeting next Tuesday. (Note: as you can see, Mr. Smith made the wording a great deal more vague than a yes or no question – thus not needing to address the sticky subject of what a building code will cost the county. The full discussion can be heard on the recording starting at about the 1:51:00 point on the county’s audio.)
When asked who could vote on this issues, Clerk Kelley Camper answered that only registered voters who reside in the unincorporated county could vote.

In New and Old business:
The Board transferred the remaining funds for the Airport’s budget to the Airport account. Mr. Bob Jolly gave the Airport Report to the Board. He did mention that a group had come in and camped out at the airport for three nights and stated that they’d had a wonderful time. When an audience member asked if the group brought their own porta-potties, Mr. Jolly answered no. The group had used airport facilities. It is unknown at this time if the Airport is required to have approval in the form of a special use permit for this sort of event.
Virginia Trujillo gave the Treasurer’s Report.
Elisa Magnuson gave the Public Health Report.
Laura Lockhart gave the Human Services Department Report. The Board went into Executive Session with Mrs. Lockhart to get an update on one of her confidential cases.
Mr. Kattnig will speak with Road and Bridge about grading U.S. Forest Service roads that we are under contract to grade twice a year. He will request to see the records for grading these roads.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m.

(Editor/GG: Note that the ballot wording states that the proposed code should “be consistent and compatible with the building codes and fire codes currently in effect in the incorporated Towns of Silver Cliff and Westcliffe” which specifically incorporate a whole slew of additional codes including the “Existing Building Code” which seems to add a lot of codes NOBODY but a few have talked about. Also, the “Existing Building Code” seems to contradict the ballot wording on exempting “existing structures”. The fact is folks, with this intentionally vague wording, the Commissioners can do anything they want if this passes. As Commissioner Printz pointed out, the previous day, “vague”, is in the Commissioners “best interests”. You lose your liberty one cut at a time, folks. Time to stop the bleeding.)