And so the lunacy begins. Inch by inch…
I wrote about the inevitability of it in The Flume, June 2022.
“I foresee a mean season of regressive political and social posturing if the Board of County Commissioners becomes only a reflection of the South Park Outsiders ideology. Trumplican conspiracies would most likely become the commission’s raison d’être. Everything from voting by mail to the essential logic of Red Flag laws would be on the cutting board. I see an intent to build a virtual wall around Park County, isolating it in a cocoon of holier-than-thou regression.”
On January 3, 2023, the Board of County Commissioners meeting included an item for approval related to the county’s purchasing policies and procedures. It was a housekeeping item proposed by staff with hands-on purchasing expertise and experience. Specifically, it adjusted threshold amounts for bidding and approvals, which had not been addressed since 2019 or possibly 2017.
My professional career was in governmental purchasing. I retired as Director of Publishing for the City and County of Denver, where, at that time, our office was responsible for procuring nearly $100,000,000 of goods and services.
During my professional career, I necessarily interacted with the political side of government—the Mayor, City Council, and political appointees. Many of those politicos had a better idea about purchasing policy and procedure, even though policy and procedures were mandated in the Charter and Revised Municipal Code. Many politicos believed only they should be the final authority on what and how a good or service was procured. Indeed, some even thought they were more qualified to decide what an agency needed or didn’t need than the hands-on agency head.
Back to Park County.
Commissioner Amy Mitchell voted no on revising Park County’s purchasing policy and procedure. She didn’t like the mandate that goods or services costing between $25,000 and $50,000 would require a formal bid process and approval by the administration and the elected agency head, but not the BOCC. Her song and tap dance (we’ve heard it before) was that her “heartburn” results from an anticipated economic downturn in 2023. “Sometimes another pair of eyes outside a department that’s budgeted the items can be helpful,” she said. She then asked a question about agreements with a maintenance component.
Mitchell’s “another pair of eyes” is the BOCC. Her question about agreements with maintenance components in them refers (although she was careful not to mention it) to the Dominion contract for voting equipment.
Mitchell and soon-to-be-sitting Commissioner Dave Wissel will constitute the majority on the three-member BOCC. They believe, if not inherently, at least as a matter of political payoff to their most fervent supporters (South Park Outsiders and their fellow travelers), in the Big Lie. Regardless of massive contrary substantiated evidence, they believe the My Pillow Guy, Tina Peters, Ron Hanks, Lauren Boebert, Donald Trump, etc. Naturally, therefore, they must rid the county of Dominion voting machines.
Wissel promises to “…evaluate alternative counting methods. …I will evaluate if and when,” he says, “the Dominion contract can be terminated, and what other methods [would] be more secure and cost-effective….” He promises he will work to implement voting measures that mirror the Improve Public Confidence Election Validity (SB21-007). The bill was proposed by Sen. Paul Lundeen in the CO Senate in 2021.
SB21-007 would require all Colorado general elections to be conducted in person at designated polling places. Mail-in ballots would not be automatically provided to the electorate unless the elector “affirmatively” requests one. Voting is restricted to seven days, and all votes must be counted by the close of election day. Any votes arriving after the close of the election would not be counted.
The fiscal note on SB021-007 says it would increase expenditures by the Secretary of State’s office by $1.5 million. The increased costs for small counties could reach $86,000, and for large counties, up to $1,495,000.
But Wissel goes a couple steps further. He wants hand counts done and will investigate the termination of Park County’s contract with Dominion. He says this is necessary because “there is enough evidence to justify people’s concerns of election fraud and general lack of integrity.”
Yes, the evidence provided by My Pillow Guy, Tina Peters, “2000 Mules,” “[S]election Code,” Ron Hanks, Sassy Pants Boebert, and indeed the South Park Outsiders makes for good reading. Even better reading if you’re convinced Donald Trump won in 2020. Or sincerely believe there’s a bunch of surly bottom-feeding dark state operatives crawling from under rocks in Park County, intent on manipulating vote counts on election day.
The manipulation of county processes and procedures to achieve regressive political and social posturing is unconscionable. But nevertheless predictable. The inch-by-inch regressive machinations I foresee once Wissel and Mitchell begin their trudge toward Making Park County Great Again is written on the wall for all to see.
Implicit in Mitchell’s objection to the purchasing threshold changes is the politico’s belief, as I said above that they’ve got a better idea. Even better than the hands-on agency head or elected official overseeing the responsible agency. Mitchell declared she has the utmost confidence in the elected Treasurer to deposit county taxpayer money where it should go. She said, “It’s kind of more housekeeping than anything. We put our faith in the Treasurer to make wise decisions and take good care of taxpayers’ dollars.” Yet, the purchasing housekeeping matter was a problem for her. And it was a problem because the future may see the elected Clerk and Recorder and/or the County Manager approving future expenditures to maintain the Dominion voting machines. Mitchell’s and Wissel’s political and social posturing trumps Park County’s citizens’ best interests. And the elected Clerk and Recorder nor the County Manager certainly cannot interfere with that.
The Outsiders require payback. And they’ll probably get it.
