Lora Thomas's SPOTLIGHT #25-07

This is copied from former Commissioner Lora Thomas's Newsletter 25-07

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Hello!

The Board of County Commissioners seems to always be moving FAST--and often in the shadows out of the light of public scrutiny--on several issues so take a quick look here to see what is going on!

CBS 4 - Residents Weigh in on Home Rule

On Tuesday evening Douglas County Reporter Olivia Young interviewed Katherine Michelsen who is OPPOSED to Home Rule in Douglas County for many well-articulated reasons. She also interviewed Commissioner George Teal and asked him about a slate of 21 candidates that has been chosen by the commissioners (some of whom have already withdrawn and/or been replaced), and below is his answer:

"To my knowledge, there is no list being circulated by the Colorado GOP or the Douglas County GOP," said Teal. "I do plan on running for the commission."

You can see in the screenshot above that Young then showed on the TV screen the email from the Douglas County GOP Chair--sent out the night before the commissioners voted to put Home Rule on the ballot--that listed the 21 hand-picked slate of mostly current/past elected officials for the June 24 election.

Professor: Expect court battles after controversial decisions

Young also interviewed Metropolitan State University of Denver professor Dr. Robert Preuhs, who said that, while home rule does grant more policy-making authority to counties, it may not be so easy to disregard state laws.

"Home rules can pass policies that may conflict with state policies. But generally, we're looking at, then, a court decision to decide whether the state, it is a state concern broadly enough that the state law would preempt the local law," said Preuhs, who is chair of the political science department at MSU Denver.

He said it comes down to whether the home rule law in question is a "state concern" or "local concern."

"Many of those more controversial decisions or policies that they may pass, right? Will certainly have a court battle and some sort of intervention," Preuhs said.

Young included two written statements supporting Home Rule for DougCo; one comment was from Doug Benevento, President of the Douglas County Board of Health, and the other from Ellie Reynolds, President of the Douglas County Economic Development Corporation, who was provided with $937,000 county tax dollars for its operations. She also is a lobbyist for Purple Label Government Solutions.

Click here to watch the story

Who Will Fund the YES on Local Control Campaign?

The commissioners voted to put Home Rule on the ballot on Tuesday, March 25 at a 1PM Special Business Meeting, and one hour later on the same day at 2:05PM a committee named "Yes on Local Control" was registered with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office to "support the establishment of Home Rule in Douglas County in the June 2025 Special Election."

Any of you think the YES side of this question is going to be funded--more like FLOODED--with Special Interest Money? Some that had inside information, or maybe even a hand in prompting and developing this radical change to Douglas County Government?

We don't yet know WHO is behind funding this campaign and won't know until the first report is filed on June 3, the same time as when ballots for the $500,000 Special Election will be arriving in mailboxes of county voters.

Ask yourself: Is the way that this entire Home Rule process has been sprung on the county give you a confidence/assurance that it is being considered for YOUR benefit--or likely someone else's? The deliberate lack of transparency and "gaming" of the process should raise more than just a couple Red Flags!

This Week's Schedule for the Commissioners

And speaking of transparency, it seems to be nothing but a growing distant memory in Douglas County government.

Once again, take notice that not a single work session next week includes a link for residents to listen virtually to the work being done by their government on their behalf.

There is a Town Hall scheduled for Monday, April 14, for the public to finally learn about the mega sports complex being planned in Sterling Ranch that has been constantly in the TV news and local papers. At 5PM citizens can visit with Parks staff to learn about the project and at 6PM the hour-long Town Hall, which is being held in the Commissioners Hearing Room at 100 3rd Street, will begin.

When was the decision made to stop putting links to meetings in order to give citizens the ability to watch their government in action after 5 years of providing that ability to citizens? What are they hiding that they don't want you to know?

Definitely NOT transparent...

Definitely MORE government in the shadows, if you ask me. . .

Click here to learn more

The Jeff and Bill Show - KNUS Radio 710AM

Popular Talk Show Host Jeff Hunt interviewed me on his Monday morning show - April 7 - at 8AM to give me an opportunity to explain, based on my research, knowledge and experience as a former Douglas County Commissioner, why Home Rule for DougCo is not what we've been told that it is.

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Thank you, Jeff and Bill, for this opportunity to educate voters. . .

Don't be Fooled

NO on Home Rule

If you or someone you know would like to subscribe to this SPOTLIGHT, please email me at Lora@LoraThomas.org to be added as a subscriber.

Ask Miss Information!

Dear Readers,

Last week I wrote about the requirement (a state law!) that mandates that, when a quorum or more of county commissioners are together discussing county policy, it constitutes a meeting that must be publicly posted at least 24 hours in advance and open to the General Public.

Well, lookie here! Noah Festenstein with The Denver Gazette published another story about our commissioners talking at the Parker Conservatives, a private club, which posted this meeting was closed to the public and media, on Wednesday, April 2 about Home Rule. Click here to see Noah's story for yourself

And yet the commissioners have yet to sponsor a single public meeting with residents about this important topic! Dunno about you, but that isn't what I call open, transparent and above-board. No siree! It smacks of back-room deals and puttin' in the Big Fix fer somethin' WE ALL are gonna get stuck payin' for!

Here's what Commissioner Kevin Van Winkle had to say: "Van Winkle said 70 members of the public attended the meeting, while dozens of others either played poker or drank at the bar during the meeting." What does that have to do with violating the law? Venue isn't the issue, Kev. It's whether you are giving public notice about meetings you're holding about public policy! And Gertie and I are still waitin' for an answer to the question above--When are y'all gonna have a meeting with us poor, unwashed little people about this big fix you've cooked-up behind closed doors?!

Folks, I was there on April 2 and also regularly attend Night with the Coroner events at Deep Space on Wednesday evenings nearly every month. There is a group of 6-8 poker players who regularly play cards on Wednesday evenings in the back corner, and I assure you that they are concentrating on their cards, not listening to politics. Using those poker players to muddy the issue of violating Open Meetings Laws is plain ridiculous--and lame, Kev.

Here is what the County Attorney said: In an email, Douglas County Attorney Jeff Garcia said after the home rule resolution was approved on March 25, "the furtherance of Home Rule is no longer within the Board’s authority." Sonny, I know you're a lawyer and all, but why were there no public meetings about Home Rule before March 25? Secret and sneaky may be an okay thing for lawyers, but us regular folk still like our representative government out in the open and above-board! And being a LAWYER (and seeing the likes of someone like Abe Laydon, that's probably not anything to brag about) one thing you SHOULD be concerned about is the LAW, and the law says you can't discuss policy in secret behind closed doors only to rubber-stamp it in a public meeting! And the REASON you should know it is because a Douglas County case on this very subject was decided a couple years ago against the school board, and the district court judge made it clear that public officials who try to "cheat around" the Colorado Open Meetings Law are breaking that law!

Interesting that at the April 2 meeting, Van Winkle said that there are safeguards in place and if the Charter is written in a way that the commissioners do not support, they have the ability to stop the Charter process from going forward, seemingly indicating that the Board still has authority over the process. That there's what some would call a client contradictin' his lawyer! Sounds like there's lots of confusion going on--a dang-good reason to slow the process down and get it right!

I've checked social media and find citizens are engaged, confused, in the dark and quite a few are just plain mad about this shadowy process and voting HELL NO!

If you are NOT one of those who are engaged and learning about what has been going on, get off your keester and FIND OUT! The clock is ticking!

Don't forget, and like I always say. . .

GET--AND STAY--INFORMED and vocal. . .or keep paying the price of apathy!!