Opinion | Rep. Bob Marshall: A rushed, secretive Home Rule power-grab in Douglas County

Copied from Rep. Bob Marshall's column in Colorado Politics, dated 6-6-25, link

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Rep. Bob Marshall

“For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.” — Luke 12:2 (KJV).

Douglas County’s Home Rule effort is secretive, rushed and being done by personal interests for special interests. It must be defeated. I’m generally agnostic about Home Rule. It could be good or bad. But this one is bad. Very bad.

Less than 90 seconds. That is the time Douglas County’s commissioners spent discussing and voting for a $500,000 single-issue special election for Home Rule, the biggest political decision a county can make. This was done at a hastily called special meeting with only 24-hour notice and no public input invited or allowed. Nobody I know heard any public airing of this Home Rule idea before that meeting. So why now? Why not during 2026 when a broad cross-section of the electorate would be engaged in a normal election year and it would not cost $500,000?

Evidently, the commissioners do not want a broad cross-section of the community involved. The night before the vote, an email went to 21 commissioner cronies telling them they were pre-selected candidates for the Home Rule charter commission, with the commissioners selecting themselves for the “at-large” seats. The commissioners also claim they’ve held 18 public meetings on Home Rule since voting for the special election. I attended three. At each one the commissioners did not take questions from the public and refused to stay for public comment. When they finally held a public town hall, it was such a controlled farce citizens vocally demanded they extend the meeting to answer questions. The response to that reasonable request? Threatening to arrest those “disrupting” the meeting while cutting off the live feed to 8,000 people who tuned in to have questions answered.

Any claim the commissioners are responding to citizen concerns is further belied by their own polling survey which showed only 44% support Home Rule. And this poll was skewed to deliver desired results. When I answered a preliminary question regarding whether I worked for the government, I was banned from the survey, along with anyone in my household. Despite living in Douglas County for more than 20 years, neither I, my wife nor my deployed Navy daughter were allowed to participate. Our opinions, and those of most Douglas County citizens, do not matter to the commissioners. The only opinions they value are their own and their special interests.

So follow the money: campaign finance reports show the pro-Home Rule “Yes on Local Control” committee had a total of… five donors: three business entities (none from Douglas County) that contributed $110,000 and the spouses of a commissioner and developer. By contrast, the “No” campaign raised just more than $30,000 with almost 300 individual donors, with the vast majority living in Douglas County. And these finance reports do not include the unknown amounts of dark money from a 501(c)(4) “nonprofit” which registered as a committee in support of Home Rule. Is Home Rule about local control? Money don’t lie. And what it’s telling us is outside-money interests are using Home Rule to buy control of the county; not people trying to take control of their own lives.

This is further shown by how Douglas County’s commissioners have been actively misrepresenting what Home Rule can achieve to goad conservatives into supporting it. Among various specious “dog whistle” claims, they have stated Home Rule would allow Douglas County to arrest migrants where no state law is violated, ignore state firearm laws, ban abortions and waive out of the state minimum wage (a state constitutional provision in Colorado neither the legislature nor any county can ignore). None of that is true. But what is true is the commissioners intend to use Home Rule to waste taxpayer dollars engaging in long-term losing litigation against state policies they find objectionable.

Only two counties in Colorado history have adopted Home Rule: Pitkin and Weld. Weld is far more conservative than Douglas. If they could engage in the conduct and type of local control Douglas County’s commissioners say is possible under Home Rule, would they have not already done so? They have not because they cannot. In contrast to Weld and Pitkin which both adopted Home Rule through citizen initiatives during a year-long process with dozens of public meetings, this is being rushed by a dictatorial fiat from just three commissioners. It is a naked, rushed, secretive power grab. Vote no on Home Rule.

Bob Marshall is the Colorado state House Rep. for District 43 (Highlands Ranch). A retired Marine, Marshall is a recognized tax and governance expert who has been voted the “Best Government Official” and “Best Attorney” in Highlands Ranch.