Lora Thomas's SPOTLIGHT #25-09
Stop the Power Grab- Apr 15
- 5 min read
This is copied from former Commissioner Lora Thomas's Newsletter #25-09
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!
Home Rule Weld County deals with SB25-003
Restrictions on Semiautomatic Firearms & Rapid-Fire Devices
One of the talking points frequently coming from the Douglas County Commissioners to support making Douglas County Home Rule is that we will then have the ability to OPT OUT of overreaching state laws from the Legislature that we don't like. And as an example, the commissioners cite the original Colorado Home Rule County of Weld in Northern Colorado.
As we have now pointed out several times with several examples in this newsletter, Home Rule ONLY allows counties to change the STRUCTURE of government and that even after adopting home rule status, those counties remain bound to perform mandatory functions prescribed by state law.
Below is an example of how Weld County is performing the mandatory functions of state law.
Sheriff Steve Reams issued a Press Release on Facebook on Monday, April 14, which outlines how the Sheriff and the Weld County Commissioners, while OPPOSED to SB-3, are beginning the process to comply with the requirements under this new gun restriction that the Governor signed last week.
"While Weld County opposes SB 25-003, any refusal to perform the duties that this legislation delegated to the Office of Sheriff will have a negative impact on the citizens of Weld County and will essentially act as another impediment to the rights guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Sheriff’s Office will begin working on a plan to accommodate the new process required by this bill. To include, requesting any additional staff, equipment, or any other need as part of the 2026 budget request to the BOCC. Our plan will be in place before the effective date of SB 25-003, and further details will be communicated as they become available."
To make it abundantly clear, Sheriff Reams has stated that Senate Bill 25-003 will do nothing to reduce crimes involving guns in Colorado and is simply an afront to citizen’s efforts to exercise their 2nd Amendment Rights. To hear Sheriff Reams comments during the BOCC meeting, please use the following link: https://weldcoco.suiteonemedia.com/event/?id=1164
As much as we all would love to eagerly believe when the DougCO Commissioners and their circle of influencers tell you that Home Rule will give DougCo the tools to OPT OUT of state laws that we don't like, it's time to DEMAND examples to support their statements, which up to this point have not been provided or cited. And as you can clearly see from the public statement of Sheriff Reams, Weld County has no intention of trying to ignore or circumvent the new law once it goes into effect.
This newsletter has provided examples of law that document Home Rule counties need to follow the state constitution, state laws and court precedent. Which begs the question as to why Douglas County Commissioners and their influencers continue to offer misleading reasons justifying their secret, surprise push for Home Rule.
Why did Weld County become Home Rule?
In reviewing news articles via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection or Googling the Internet, I've found references that in the mid-70s, Weld County had three commissioners, one of whom was quite powerful and another commissioner was a crony who voted with the powerful one to give him a consistent majority on the board. Citizens grew weary of the Board of Commissioners giving jobs to their buddies and wasting taxpayer dollars. This frustration led to a grassroots effort of citizens who put Home Rule on the ballot in 1974 and elected a 21-member board to draft a charter.
Prominent among the changes brought about by Weld County’s home rule charter were:
Enlargement of the Board of County Commissioners from three to five
Establishment of a five-member, unpaid Weld County Council elected in a non-partisan format
Abolition of the post of county surveyor
Consolidation of the existing 12 departments into five, each to be the responsibility of an elected commissioner
Provision for a full-time county attorney and staff, rather than hiring an attorney on an hourly basis
Expansion of the number of members on citizens’ boards to bring better representation in the fields of planning, health, and zoning adjustment
Establishment of a county personnel division to provide standards for employment qualifications and pay
Provision for enactment of ordinances to establish policy and giving preference to local bidders if price and quality are competitive
The differences in the process between how Weld County became Home Rule and what is happening here in Douglas County are as night/day.
In Weld, Home Rule was a grassroots, bottom-up approach, not top-down as is being forced in DougCo. The citizens used Home Rule to expand their Board of Commissioners from 3 to 5 to combat the corruption they were experiencing. The citizens included a Weld County Council, a board of 5 unpaid, elected citizens accountable to voters just as county commissioners, who oversee the commissioners. Over the years there have been 17 amendments to the charter.
Most importantly, there was widespread citizen engagement. This is from the page linked below:
"At the general election in 1974 the electors of Weld County voted to for a Charter Commission for the purpose of drafting a proposed charter. After 39 regular meetings, more than 35 sub-committee meetings and 14 public hearings, the proposed charter was submitted to the County Commissioners.”
Remember that in DougCo the commissioners planned Home Rule--including hand-selecting those they favored for the charter commission--behind closed doors and launched it on the residents on March 25 after an invitation-only Local Leader Luncheon. I've made a public records request to the county for the list of those invited guests and have been provided with nothing.
Even in the wake of the surprise announcement of the $500,000 Special Election, I still have yet to see any public meeting scheduled by the commissioners to directly address the topic of Home Rule.
Pitkin County's Journey to Home Rule 1976-1978
The first mention in reviewing Aspen area newspapers in the mid-1970s was on March 11, 1976, when a group called Common Cause discussed Home Rule for Pitkin County. Over a period of time, citizens from Weld County were featured speakers at Pitkin County events, and often "commissioner abuse" was mentioned as the reason Weld pursued Home Rule through an extensive outreach to citizens in the form of numerous meetings throughout the county.
In a General Election on November 2, 1976, residents in Pitkin County voted to pursue Home Rule and elected 11 Charter Commission members. The newspapers had many articles about the trials and tribulations, the issues tackled by the Home Rule Charter Commission which was funded and hired staff to support the efforts. The original budget for this Charter Commission was $36,000.
A point of contention in drafting the Charter was the number of county commissioners, and only just before the final charter approval election on October 11, 1977 did the Commission decide -- but NOT unanimously -- on 5 commissioners.
In that October Special Election only 17% of the electorate participated, and the Home Rule charter was NOT approved.
State Statute allowed the Charter Commission another attempt and on March 21, 1978 a second charter was offered Pitkin voters. A whopping 7% of the electorate approved the updated charter 352 to 141.
Again, it is very important to note that the only two home-rule-only counties in Colorado out of 64 counties came about as the result of grassroots citizen movements with a lengthy, public debate period. Very much UNLIKE what is currently taking place here in Douglas County, where the process is being done TO the citizens, not BY and FOR them.
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.
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