Why an election in June?

Why a special election in June? I believe the county commissioners are doing this in a special election in June for lower voter turnout.  They’re hoping that people will get the ballot in the mail, say, “I don’t know what this is,” and toss it in the trash.  Never mind that it’s at $500,000 additional expense to the taxpayers to do a special election.  This could have waited until November and been put on the ballot at no additional expense, with time for additional community dialogue.  But that’s not what they’re looking for.

A home rule county is able to structure its county government and write its own charter, similar to a constitution.  While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it all depends on who writes the charter, and what is in it.  I’m concerned that this effort is being led by the commissioners.  They have conflicts of interest.  They can increase their own pay, end their own term limits, and could appoint their buddies to positions such as the sheriff or coroner.  It’s a power grab.  

What are the commissioners hoping to gain?  They want to entrench their power.  They want to keep the commissioners at 3 commissioners, elected at large.  If we were to go to 5 commissioners, elected regionally, we would get better constituent representation.  But they don’t want that.  They want to lock in power, right at their level.  

The commissioners and Douglas County Attorney Jeffrey Garcia want to have legal standing to sue the state on policies they don’t like.  They want to waste taxpayer dollars on futile litigation raging against the liberal machine.  That’s not good stewardship of county resources.

Shut down the power grab in June, and join me in voting NO on home rule.

Eiko Browning