Tag Archives: 2023

2023, BOCC, Uncategorized

Nov. 30 BOCC: Audit Progress,Day Continues to Try to Kill Hiring a New Finance Director

BOCC: Some Audit Progress, Day Continues to Try to Kill Hiring a New Finance Director, Has Another Temper Tantrum

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The November 30, 2023 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a.m. in their gilded throne room across the street from the main county building.
All three commissioners were in attendance: Chair Kevin Day, and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Items, Canda brought up the Justice Center project. (Remember, the BOCC and the ex-county Sheriff, Shannon Byerly, spearheaded an effort to build a new “Justice
Center” a few years ago that would include a big new jail, offices for most of the county officials, and a court complex that would rival Genghis Khan’s royal quarters. They said it would cost about $18
million to build but the county would wind up eventually paying over
THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS for the 30-year bonds. The voters shot this down big time. The deal now is they are trying to build just a courthouse complex.)
Canda said the architect working on the project has a preliminary drawing of the building which would hold a courthouse, a courthouse employee complex and an area to house prisoners. He said it will be a modular design so additional sections can be added on later. Canda noted that the county “will decide later” on funding. (At the last courthouse committee meeting, based on the architect’s drawings and similar recently built courthouses in Colorado, we are talking around $18 million to $28 million to do JUST THE COURTHOUSE. That number is just the construction costs and NOT the finance cost. Based on current interest rates, the actual cost to the county could be $35 to $40 million. Insane.)
Canda said he was making good progress on getting the two TV stations’ broadcast translators up and running. He got the engineers from the two stations up to the hill and is getting firm prices on the job and the equipment needed. He is hopeful that it will be up and running by the end of January. (If you recall, this was Day’s job but he couldn’t get it done. Canda volunteered to take it over and is now making it happen.)
Epp then gave the Finance report. He said he and Finance are still gathering all the lease information from the various departments. (Remember, this lack of information on the county’s lease obligations was the big audit flag from the 2022 audit.) Epp then reviewed the progress they are making on the various other audit issues. He mentioned that the county’s accounting software company, CIC, is coming December 15th for a training session. The price that the county is paying for CIC also came up. It was previously mentioned that we are paying CIC around $200k a year. Epp said that was wrong, that we are paying them $50k a year.(Epp is doing a good job on cleaning up the Finance mess.)
In New Business, Canda said he is getting the 11 taxing districts in the county (e.g., library, Wet Mountain Fire, hospital district, etc.) together with the county’s assessor to figure out the deal on them lowering their mil levies to reduce our tax burden that the new property assessments will have on the taxpayers. (Note that the taxing districts don’t have to lower their rates. It is up to each district to make the call.) Canda said he hopes that the county’s property tax increase will be around two to four percent higher next year if they adjust down the mil levy. He said the school district has already lowered their levy 1.5%.
In Public Comments on this topic, the the West Custer County Hospital District spokesman said their ex-enses have skyrocketed over the last few years and they might not be able to reduce their tax burden
on us.
After some other comments, the head of the Custer County Democrat Party, James “Dr. Doom” Gilbert then blessed the audience with a rambling, convoluted discussion on “inflation”.
After this MENSA level discourse, he stated he was fine with NOT reducing the mil levy and having everybody cough up huge money for the county and the tax districts. (What alternative universe are these libs living in? Nice to be rich, Dr. Doom.)
The TV station fix was up again. Canda said the contractor recommended a self-contained cabinet for the TV translators. The contractor will submit a bid shortly.
It was mentioned that there were three or four applicants for the Human Resources Director’s job.
The contentious County Finance Director job posting then came up. Canda said he would like the county to post the job next week and have it widely posted and kept up for a long time so we can get a good number of candidates. This, of course, opened up a can of worms.

Epp then asked what the new Finance Director’s duties were going to be and how this will affect the current two people in the Finance Department. (Note that the BOCC voted in the last meeting to post the job, with Day voting no on that.) Day, refusing to accept the prior vote, then attempted to kill the move by saying the current staff in the Finance Department are getting the audit issues resolved (supposedly), finally saying, “I question the need of a new person.”
(The BOCC, in the last meeting decided to go forward with getting a new, QUALIFIED, Finance Director. Day is continuing to try to sandbag that decision. Folks, the county’s budget is around $9 MILLION a year. We have around 90 employees. A whole bunch of different departments. Tons of state and federal regulators to comply with. THIS IS NOT A BOOKKEEPING JOB. WE need a person with a real accounting degree, and good accounting and finance experience in this position. Plus, it looks like we might have to get a new county accounting system which means another conversion. We need a person who truly understands accounting to lead that conversion. Note that the recent conversion to CIC, under the ex-Finance Director Braden Wilson was very problematic. Wilson did not have an accounting degree.)
This discussion on getting a new Finance Director went on for a bit with Day refusing to get on board.
When Public Discussion was opened on this subject, the pro, new Finance Director advocates, and the ‘nay’ crew saying the current Finance Director, Lisa Bivins, can do the job, all went at it again repeating the same arguments as the last few meetings.
Of all the commenters, citizen Bill Parker made the best observations on the subject. (Parker is a very successful, retired businessman.) Parker started out saying “the qualified audit is a big red flag” and it is “not taken serious by you guys.” He addressed Day saying, “Kevin, you said the current staff is fixing the issues and you said we don’t need a new Finance Director.” Parker then went on to demolish Day’s position. Parker said, “We need professional help. We need a trained accountant in here to manage the Finance Department. You are kicking the can down the road again.” Addressing the staffing issue, Parker said, “I understand your concern about current county employees” but, “What about the concerns of the citizens about proper financial management in this county.” He continued, “We don’t want another qualified audit. We want the audit and books done in time. We need a trained financial manager.”
Addressing the fact that the commissioners want a workshop to determine the structure of the Finance Department and the employees’ duties, Parker stated the obvious, “The person who you are hiring knows how to organize the department. Why are YOU trying to do it. Let the new guy do it.” (Parker’s point is well taken. The commissioners want to discuss the whole structure of the department without knowing anything about how a professional Finance Department works. LET THE PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANT WE ARE GOING TO HIRE FIGURE THAT OUT. HE KNOWS WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND HOW TO DO IT. Letting three people who don’t know squat about this trying to do it is a disaster waiting to happen plus it is a colossal waste of time. If you don’t know what you are doing, get some professional help.)
Nadine Petersen then spoke up. Trying to get things done rather than delay this forever, she asked, “Is there any reason why that job can’t be posted now?” (The answer is NO, except Day is trying to kill it.) She then said, “No reason not to post it today. We need a new Finance Director. Please post this immediately.”
Jimmy “The Plumber” McMahon took the stage at one point and did his ‘Day doesn’t know what he is talking about’ routine. Usual Jimmy. A little aggressive but nothing we haven’t seen before. His main point was Day is making bad decisions and hurting the county. Again.
A few more people commented pro and con on this. Joy Anderson, then spoke, “All three have no finance or accounting backgrounds.” (Meaning Wilson, Bivins, and the new Finance Director’s assistant. Which is insane. A $9 million dollar Finance Department with NO trained accounting people in it. You wonder why we are in trouble.) Attacking Day’s position, Joy said, “You really don’t want somebody in here with finance experience to see what is going on in the county. You don’t want a qualified person. You should be fighting for the most experience. YOU ARE KNOWINGLY BACKING PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT QUALIFIED FOR THE JOB.” Joy continued with, there is “evidence that you do not know what you are talking about. What do you have against experience? Get the expert in there to organize the department.” (Duh!)
Somewhere during this melee, Canda said that most of the counties that he contacted during this Finance Director deal had Directors with accounting degrees. This comment somehow set Deb Adams, our lefty transplant from California, who is the county’s Tourism Board Director, off. She loudly and aggressively jumped on Canda saying, “You are lying” about the fact that other county’s Finance Directors have accounting degrees. She yelled at Canda saying prove it. Canda replied that he will get a list together and publish it or send it to Adams.
(This was way out of line. The bottom line is Adams hates Canda cause she lost to him in the last county election and is seeking revenge in the usual lefty, hate filled way. Plus, Canda represents the left’s worst enemy, a career military veteran and a devout Christian. This little vignette represents exactly the battle going on here in Custer County and in many parts of our country. The progressive left, like Adams, from failed leftist cities and states, move to rural America to escape their own failures, and then try to change our moral, Christian places into the stinking, godless cesspools they came from. Self destructive, self hating, sick people, folks.)
Some more jousting went on and finally it was quiet. However, it was not over. Day had another temper tantrum apparently triggered by McMahon’s comments and possibly Parker’s (Parker’s were absolutely polite while Jimmy’s was a little aggressive but not over the top). Day, visibly angry, raises out of his throne, points his finger towards the back of the room, yells, saying you “three” back there are “disrespectful” and he will not put up with it. If it happens again, he is going to have them leave. Day is all red in the face when he is saying this. He was pointing and yelling at McMahon, Parker and Len Arrigo. Parker said nothing wrong and Arrigo DIDN’T EVEN SPEAK AT THE MEETING! (Day, if you can’t take constructive criticism from the citizens of this county you are in the wrong job, dude. If it wasn’t for these guys, Nadine, Joy and Miles, trying to help the BOCC through difficult times, we would be in a world of hurt. You should be thanking these folks for all the time and research they have done. It is the citizens’ RIGHT to criticize public officials when they have done bad. Put your big boy pants on and thank these people for the help they are bringing to the table. And put that temper to bed. No room for that here. You are a politician, Day. Not a dictator. And somehow, Day, Adams aggressively calling Commissioner Canda a liar with NO evidence at all, is “respectful”? Why wasn’t she called out? Hmmmm….)
Yup, that was it. Another wasted BOCC meeting. We’ll see what happens next week.

2023, Uncategorized

Custer County GOP Chair Decision

Republican Committee Showdown!
Old Guard vs. The Citizens
PCP Ann Barthrop Saves the Day!

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
Gary Cooper’s performance in “High Noon” can’t compare to the showdown that happened last Thursday, October 26, 2023 at the Custer County Republican Central Committee’s (CCRCC) meeting at the Courthouse. The election contest for the Chair position of the CCRCC was the subject matter of the meeting and it took almost three hours to decide the winner. And that only happened because one person delivered a surprise knockout shot to the Old Guard that changed the game completely. Continue reading Custer County GOP Chair Decision →

2023, Uncategorized

Liberty Rocks Hosts CCSD-1 School Board Candidates

 

by Fred Hernandez
That this event was considered of paramount importance to most of the community was clearly evident in the sell out audience that came to hear the six candidates vying for a seat on the Custer County School District board. It was close to eighty friends and neighbors in a “standing-room-only” attendance on Thursday evening, October 19th, at Tony’s Mountain Pizza when Chairwoman Ann Barthrop called the meeting to order a little after the six o’clock hour, immediately after the standard Pledge of Allegiance and group singing America
Dr. Ann Willson did her familiar invocation quoting, from the book “Prayers and Presidents”. This time she quoted President Warren G. Harding from his speech during American Education Week Proclamation on November 20, 1922.
“Without a vision the people perish ( from Pr. 29:18). Without education, there can be little vision. Of education it is said that ‘It is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes’. It will be greatly worth the effort if, as an incident to the observance of Education Week, we can impress this thought upon the young manhood and womanhood of the nation and redirect their interest and patriotic zeal to the idea of making a proper contribution to educational work. The strength and security of the nation will always rest in the intelligent body of its people. Civic organizations and religious bodies may render special service by their cooperation; and particularly it is recommended that parents enlist themselves in behalf of closer understanding between school and home.”
Sage words indeed and a most appropriate quotation for the evening’s program.


Chairwoman Ann then briefly announced that the BOCC had arranged for speakers to do a presentation at Lange Hall on Proposition HH on Friday, October 20th.
In the interest of space and time, the over two hours meeting has
been edited to feature the salient points made by individual candidates and to capture the essence of their core beliefs. The order in which the candidates were called was picked randomly.

First up was Daniel Gasper, currently Shop Manager at Custer County Road and Bridge who apologized for not being a public speaker but shared his passion for the importance of maintaining a high standard for the school’s performance.

The next was Ms. Erin McCarthy, daughter of candidate Joseph McCarthy who regrettably but unavoidably had to go out of town. Erin is the mother of four children two of whom go to the local school. She read a letter penned by her father who expressed his sadness at some of the problems besetting the school and what steps needed to be taken going forward in order to address them in a positive manner. (The letter is on page 3 of this week’s issue.)
Third candidate was Regina “Reggie” Foster who gave a brief background of her experiences, in particular communications and team building, which she would apply if elected to the board.
The next candidate to introduce himself was Jeremy Hockett who cited his experience and training while he was in the U.S. Navy for over a decade where he learned to be an instructor and thus able to offer that training and experience.
Dr. Linda Brown, the write-in candidate, has a doctorate degree, a masters degree and has been a teacher, home school teacher, school founder and has given presentations in Oxford and Barcelona. She is a national trainer at the Northwest Evaluation Association which provides training for trainers and traveled throughout the country teaching trainers. This organization provides data on specific tests for each state which is an important tool that shows where there may be “holes” in the curriculum and thus making it possible to adjust the curriculum in a timely manner for the benefit of the students.
The sixth candidate Jennifer Kriegh is an active parent and currently a volunteer at the school. She spoke eloquently about the need for a school board member to be a good listener to the teachers, the students and, equally important, the parents. Moreover, she goes on, board members have to be accessible at all times and totally transparent most especially when it comes to the budget.
Chairwoman Barthrop then went to the questions starting with; How many board of education meetings have you attended and what motivated you to run? Both candidates Foster and Kriegh said they could count on one hand the board meetings they missed indicating that they attended the majority of meetings and they are motivated to run for the sake of their children’s good education which to them is of great importance. The next question was, “What are the three educational priorities that in a perfect world you would try to achieve and how will you achieve these?”
Candidate Gasper for his part sees how the school is changing due to politics and he wants to keep politics out of the school, retain the rural values of this community and improve communications and transparency. Candidate Foster stated that the school has wonderful teachers but they lack the tools to do the best job. She went on to say that teachers need to be heard when they express their needs and there is an urgent need to address the problem of teacher retention. Jeremy Hockett in his turn asked why prayer is not allowed in school when other agendas are tolerated? He spoke of the aging community and the need to make it attractive for younger residents with children to move into the county.
What was most evident through-out the give and take between candidates and Chairwoman Ann, who served as moderator, were
the following: the candidates were all in agreement that transparency is seriously lacking and needs to be improved. Another issue that needs immediate improvement is communications between the board and teachers, staff members and parents. There is also the issue of the lack of accountability which all the candidates agree needs to be addressed as a priority.
After a brief break, the audience was invited to address the candidates who were sitting side by side on the dais. Most noteworthy was the question raised by resident Mr. Len Arrigo who stated that he had heard a lot of rhetoric but nothing about the truly important concerns that the public have such as: parental rights, boys in girls sports, transgenderism, legalization of marijuana. Once again all the candidates were in almost perfect sync. Everyone agreed that parents have the ultimate right to teach their children according to their values and the values which the community holds dear. All candidates oppose [catering to] transgenderism and agree that as a general rule boys should not be allowed to play in girls sports.
From the more than two hour discourse one could conclude that this crop of candidates for the next school board are passionately committed to improve the overall performance of the school in general and of every child in particular. Everyone of the candidates individually brings their unique talents and qualifications to the contest. It will be challenging for the voting public to make the decision to choose the best combination of three members for the new board. We wish all candidates the best in their campaign.

 

2023, BOCC, Uncategorized

BOCC Double Header Oct 3 & 4

News and Commentary
The 10.3.23 BOCC:
The October 3, 2023 meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) started at 1 p.m. in their royal throne room. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Comments, Canda gave an update on our local “rabbit ears” two TV channels that broadcast from a local mountain to the peasants in Happy Valley. He said he met with chief engineers of both stations and that there is no written contract between them and the county and also there is no law forcing them to maintain broadcast translators for us. Canda says they are both looking around for used equipment that they would give us or we would have to buy our own. He is scheduling a meeting with the stations general managers to further explore options.
Canda is also going to schedule a meeting with a property tax expert and our assessor to discuss options and strategies on reducing our property tax mill levies due to the astronomical increase in property valuations.
Len Arrigo was first up in Public Comments. He wanted to know what controls were in place to monitor out-of-cycle (OOC) checks as it appears Finance cut a check for the fired County Manager for $30k (severance pay per contract which Day had inserted into the contract) and it was not reviewed or ok’d by a commissioner. He said he is going to do a CORA request to get a copy of the check.
In New Business, Day introduced a resolution to release the audio of the BOCC Executive Session (ES) on August 31, 2023 where the commissioners discussed the few resumes that were submitted for the County Manager position. (Remember Day restricted the resume submission period to only five days to minimize anybody decent submitting a resume so News and Commentary
The 10.3.23 BOCC:
The October 3, 2023 meeting of the Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) started at 1 p.m. in their royal throne room. All three commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Commissioner Comments, Canda gave an update on our local “rabbit ears” two TV channels that broadcast from a local mountain to the peasants in Happy Valley. He said he met with chief engineers of both stations and that there is no written contract between them and the county and also there is no law forcing them to maintain broadcast translators for us. Canda says they are both looking around for used equipment that they would give us or we would have to buy our own. He is scheduling a meeting with the stations general managers to further explore options.
Canda is also going to schedule a meeting with a property tax expert and our assessor to discuss options and strategies on reducing our property tax mill levies due to the astronomical increase in property valuations.
Len Arrigo was first up in Public Comments. He wanted to know what controls were in place to monitor out-of-cycle (OOC) checks as it appears Finance cut a check for the fired County Manager for $30k (severance pay per contract which Day had inserted into the contract) and it was not reviewed or ok’d by a commissioner. He said he is going to do a CORA request to get a copy of the check.
In New Business, Day introduced a resolution to release the audio of the BOCC Executive Session (ES) on August 31, 2023 where the commissioners discussed the few resumes that were submitted for the County Manager position. (Remember Day restricted the resume submission period to only five days to minimize anybody decent submitting a resume so  the job. Even with his weak resume.) Day said that since the meeting discussed resumes from people who were not a “finalist”, then the law says the recording can’t get released. (Remember, Day and Flower only chose Wilson as the only finalist so no other resumes could be released. Canda wanted “Candidate G” as a finalist but Day and Flower shot it down.)
After much commissioner and County Attorney gabbing, citizen Nadine Peterson spoke up and suggested that the BOCC have the meeting transcribed and leave out any resume info. Citizen Bill Parker then spoke up against the three minute time limit Day is imposing on us citizens’ comments.
Canda then spoke up and said this was the first time he saw a three minute time limit on the Agenda itself and said, “Kevin, you put that there. We didn’t vote on it. The people have a right to make their case, especially for a small county like us.” He also said we should release a copy today of the blood money check that Wilson got. Later on, citizen Steven Wilcox said the commissioner should vote on having a three minute comment limit and he wants that on as an agenda item for the next meeting.
There then was a big discussion on the controls and protocols for OCC checks with citizens demanding answers from Day. Epp said he would look into that and Canda noted that it was his understanding that big OOC checks needed approval.
And that was that.

The 10.4.23 BOCC:
The October 4th BOCC meeting started at 9 a.m. in their throne room. In Commissioner Items, Canda continued the local TV transmitting issue stating that a new VFR translator costs around $13k and we would need two of them. He is going to meet with the two TV station chief engineers about them installing and maintaining them. Continue reading BOCC Double Header Oct 3 & 4 →

2023, BOCC

Submissions – Concerned Citizens of Custer County

Disclaimer:

This page contains links to documents, recordings, letters to the editor and announcements submitted to the Sentinel by a loosely formed group of concerned citizens who have probed and done discovery on Custer County’s governing bodies, particularly,  but not limited to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) ,  on  issues of fiscal accountability, transparency,  adherence to written State and County policy, and performance.

The Sangre de Cristo Sentinel is providing the group with this page free of charge. The content may or may not align with our views and we do not make any claims  concerning the  accuracy of the group’s content.  This is not a place for vitriol or nasty personal attacks and we reserve the right to deny concerned citizens the right to publish on this page. The intent is to allow them to publish their findings and inform county citizens.

For your safety, we will inform you if a clicking on a link takes you outside of our website or requires that you download a document file
or audio file that we have not checked for viruses.

____________________

PUBLIC NOTICE
October 10, 2023
We would like to inform the public that an independent audit has revealed alarming findings in the operations of county government and they will be presented at the 9 AM October 18th meeting in Wetmore and we would like to encourage as many people as possible to be in attendance, whether in person or via zoom.

K. Joy Anderson and Other Concerned Custer County Citizens
(The Wet Mountain Tribune has also been requested to post
this notice.)

____________________

Download the audio for August 15, 2023 BOCC Executive Session here. This meeting took place in Wetmore.  To read a transcript of the meeting click here.  

NOTE: After the transcript was distributed to the newspapers,
an error in transcription was found.

Correction to the August 16, 2023 transcript of the Executive Session.
The citizens who transcribed the recording of this meeting would like to offer their sincere apologies to Chairman Day for this mistake;

The transcript error:
Page 10, Line 23-25 of the transcript were assigned to Kevin Day.
All three lines should be assigned to Tom Flower.

23 CHAIRMAN DAY: I don’t work for them.
24 I represent them. It’s all
25 philosophical. I get that.

__________________________________________________________

Download the Transcript for the June 29, 2023 BOCC Executive Session transcript  HERE.  Audio  files were to large to load here.

_______________________________________________________________________

The group of Concerned Citizens presented their findings to the Custer County Board of Commissioners at the October 18, 2023
mid-month meeting. The presentation was an Agenda item.

To read an account of the presentation by George Gramlich, see SDCSentinel.com.  or go to the county website to view the taped Oct. 18 meeting.  For just the presentation portion of the meeting, click here.

The presentation included three posters, laying out the questions and findings. Those PDF’s are here;

Presentation for 101823 Board 1

Presentation for 101823 Board 2

Presentation for 101823 Board 3

_______________________________________

Uncategorized

Town of Westcliffe Feb. BOT- Town Light Experiment Results, Sheriff’s Report, and New Crosswalk Causes Problems

Town of Westcliffe Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
—February 21, 2023
Summary: Interviews Set for Vacant Trustee Spot, Town Light Experiment Results, Sheriff’s Report, and New Crosswalk Causes Problems
By Becky Olson
The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees for the Town of Westcliffe was held on February 21st, 2023, and convened as scheduled at 5:30 p.m. in the town hall conference room. A quorum of Trustees was present and proceedings commenced after recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and unanimous adoption of the consent agenda. Continue reading Town of Westcliffe Feb. BOT- Town Light Experiment Results, Sheriff’s Report, and New Crosswalk Causes Problems →