From Lora Thomas

Copied from former Commissioner Lora Thomas's Facebook post dated 5-25-25, link

---

Ballots for the $500,000 Special Election on June 24 will be hitting mailboxes soon!

I'd like to thank the local papers, Colorado Community Media, for allowing me to write the Guest Column OPPOSED to Home Rule because, as the title says, "Home rule: It's not what they're telling you"

Compare the two columns below, and decide for yourself which position is grounded in frothy political propaganda and which one is supported with facts and evidence.

Then choose wisely in June - the future of Douglas county is at stake. . .

See below for text.

Why Douglas County needs home rule -- George Teal

Castle Rock News-Press May 22, 2025

In Douglas County, we want our freedom back.

For years, public health, the economy, our citizens' tax bills - and much more - have been burdened by progressive state policies that are out of step with the priorities and the values of Douglas County's residents and businesses. We can gripe about the status quo or take action to - wherever possible - chart our own course.

We prefer action.

That's why the Douglas County commissioners unaminously voted to launch the process to become a home rule county, as other Colorado counties have done over the decades. If approved by voters, it will provide significant flexibility for county leaders.

This transparent, citizen-centered effort, which includes two elections, is urgently needed and long overdue.

Our litany of concerns stretches back many years but began to crystallize during the panicked and excessive bureaucratic response to the COVID pandemic. We learned that, years before, our county's power to shape emergency public health policies was severely limited, having been legally ceded to bureaucrats at a multi-county health department.

Fortunately, we were able to retrieve the county's funding of the department, roll back burdensome and ineffective mandates and set up our own county-based Board of Health that is accountable and responsive to our local Douglas County community.

This experience caused us to put a laser focus on the numerous ways that state laws, regulations and mandates hamper our ability to align our actions with the needs and concerns of our citizens.

The most concerning example is how state law handcuffs our ability to combat illegal immigration.

Unlike in liberal bastions of Denver and Boulder, our citizens want to see criminal illegal aliens apprehended and deported. They strongly support the ability of our sheriff's office to work with federal immigration authorities to get that job done. Colorado's sanctuary laws prohibit common-sense cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to make our citizens safer. But if we become a home rule county, ICE will come in and criminal illegals will go out.

Our citizens are also strong defenders of the Second Amendment, a commitment that is not shared by the vast majority of Democrat legislators and our governor, who are determined to make Colorado the most hostile state in the nation to constitutional gun rights. My goal under home rule would be to find every way possible to make Douglas County an island of Second Amendment freedom in a sea of progressive anti-gun activism.

Taxpayers have not fared any better than gun owners under Colorado's liberal government. When lawmakers repeatedly failed to find a strong solution to soaring property tax bills, we decided to take the lead and cut taxes on our own. An obscure state board stepped in and stopped us, which forced taxpayers to continue to struggle with sky-high bills. Under home rule, Douglas County can regain control of our own tax policy.

The target list for reforms is long, and growing, right down to determining if we can roll back the litany of fees our residents and businesses pay - including the irritating fee on retail shopping bags.

But not on the list are ways to expand county government or give elected officials pay raises. Our goal is to reassert conservative, pro-taxpayer principles, not mimic the big-government tactics that sparked this effort in the first place.

We have heard the outcry from citizens who have been clamoring against an overreaching state government. In fact, our 2023 Citizen Survey showed 79% of respondents rated "greater home rule, that is, more independence from state controls over county administration" as a priority.

It will be our Douglas County citizens who drive the framing of the home rule charter.

On May 28, we invite you to a Live Town Hall at 6 p.m. to learn more about home rule before the June 24 election. You can join in-person, online or via phone. Visit douglas.co.us/townhall for details.

Then, in June, county voters will decide whether to move the process forward and elect 21 members of the Charter Commission. The members of the commission will draft the charter, and that process will include several formal opportunities for citizens to provide input. Once the draft is completed and accepted by the county commissioners, voters will then have the chance to approve the charter in November.

For too long, citizens, businesses and local governments in Douglas County have been forced to comply with, and pay for, state-driven policies that are ineffective at best and dangerous at worst.

Through the home rule process, our citizens can plant the flag of freedom and say, "enough."

This guest opinion column was written by Douglas County Commissioner George Teal.

---

Home rule: It's not what they're telling you -- Lora Thomas

I was as surprised as nearly everyone else when I learned on March 25 that the Douglas County commissioners voted unanimously to place the question of county home rule on a June 24 special election ballot that will cost taxpayers $500,000.

Prior to this surprise, the commissioners had not uttered a single word about this monumental change to our county government in any of their public meetings, an apparent violation of Open Meetings Laws. Their clandestine actions begged the question: If home rule is such a great proposal, why did the commissioners do all of the necessary months of planning behind closed doors in secret, deliberately excluding the key ingredient in representative government - input from We the People?

Out of 64 counties in Colorado, only Weld and Pitkin have chosen to become home rule counties, and in both counties, home rule was a product of grassroots movements - citizens who were fed up with three corrupt commissioners pursued the home rule process as a means to rein in their elected officials.

In both counties, the three-member board of commissioners was expanded to five to curtail crony corruption. In Weld, the process involved almost eight months, with scores of public meetings according to news reports, while in Pitkin the process took two years with a failed initial election and a second successful attempt in which only 7% of qualified voters actually participated.

The June 24 Douglas County Special Election addresses two questions. first: "Shall the voters of Douglas County, State of Colorado, elect a County Home Rule Charter Commission to study the structure and organization of Douglas County government?" The second question pertains to electing at-large and representatives from each of the three commissioner districts to serve on the Charter Commission, which will be tasked with writing the complicated document that will determine the governance of Douglas County into the future. This rather daunting task must be completed in only two short months, including three public meetings for citizen comment.

The chief confusion regarding home rule counties, as cited in the May 2020 Legislative Council Staff Issue Brief, stems from the fact that the authority for a home rule county is very limited when compared to the powers a home rule municipality exercises. Folks hear the term "home rule" and automatically assume it is all the same. It absolutely is not! Any conversation about county home rule must begin with the clear understanding that only the structure and organization of a home rule county can be addressed in the charter. For example, in both Weld and Pitkin counties, term limits for elected officials were increased, and Weld increased salaries as well. Weld also changed the coroner and treasurer to appointed positions rather than elected by the people as they are in Douglas County.

Proponents have described a home rule charter as a "constitution." It absolutely is not! Home rule counties are, per statute, corporate in nature.

Just because a provision is included in the charter does not make it unassailable law impervious to state government action. Just recently, Weld County commissioners ran afoul of state law in following their charter. House Bill 2021-1047 required a specific process to determine commissioner boundary lines.

When Weld did not follow the state law but instead followed the guidelines in its half-century-old charter, the League of Women Voters sued the commissioners, who claimed exemption from the state law as a home-rule county.

On February 25, 2025 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against the Weld County commissioners, stating, in part, "Although home rule counties enjoy autonomy in determining their internal organization, they remain bound to perform mandatory functions prescribed by state law." 25 CO 8 (2025)

Douglas County commissioners and their allies tout that home rule will make Douglas County safer, bring lower taxes and allow for governance of our county without the overreach of Denver-influenced state government interference.

In general, county home rule is being sold as a panacea of "local control" and "freedom"" but these home rule proponents cannot bolster any of these claims with actual facts or law. The truth is, the facts and law demonstrate these claims don't hold water.

As someone who strives to be an informed voter, I strongly urge Douglas County residents to become likewise informed on the home rule question.Please do not allow yourselves to be misled by slick images and catchy slogans and sound-bites into thinking county home rule is something that it actually is not — state laws cannot be ignored nor easily circumvented by home rule coun-ties. Unfortunately, we will still have to pay 10 cents for bags and follow gun-control laws enacted at the state Capitol — at least until they are successfully challenged in court. Don't believe me?

Just ask the folks up in home rule Weld County who are doing just that!

This guest opinion column was written by former Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas