Unsurprisingly, Nathan “Jay” Bish withdrew from consideration for the county manager position. The official version of his withdrawal, voiced by Commission Chair Amy Mitchell, is that he decided he was not yet ready to move. However, Jay shared this with me:
Apologies for the delay, I’ve been unwell with pneumonia the past week and have not been checking emails.
Being 100% transparent with you why I requested my application withdrawal:
I made a realization upon reviewing my notes from the interview. I plan on moving states when I get a new job and it occurred to me that maybe a top leadership position would not be a good fit for me right out of the gate. There would be regulations and requirements that I wont be fully trained on and I’ll be looked on as an outsider. It occured to me that maybe I should get a deputy position first as it would allow me to acclimate to the new environment and also learn from existing administrative personnel. My grandfather always told me that a true leader knows when to take a step back and learn before they can lead.
So that’s why I requested my application withdrawal.
I care deeply for my work and those I work for. I don’t want to set myself and my employer up for failure just because I was being too ambitious.
I really do appreciate the opportunity.
Bish also shared with me that the MAGA-centric nature of the Park County government did not affect his decision. “As for the maga stuff,” he said, “I try to stay out of the national politics stuff, especially at work.”
So, the ballgame has come down to two finalists, Clarice Navarro and Lucas Meyer.
Clarice Navarro
As I’ve previously noted, choosing Clarice Navarro as the county manager would create an interesting dynamic. She is Hispanic and would provide the administration with a bit of diversity. She was MAGA tested in 2016, sitting on the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump. She interrupted her third term as Colorado District 47 representative when Trump appointed her to executive director of the Colorado USDA Farm Service Agency. Before being elected a state representative, she was Congressman Scott Tipton’s district director in 2011 and 2012. She became Lauren Boebert’s district director in 2021 and held that position for at least three years.
Perhaps her bona fides would meet the position’s requirements in the “equivalent combination of training and experience” portion of the spec. But she is a political animal, probably a Type A personality, and who knows how long it would be before the other Type As, Wissel and Michell, clashed? And how long would it be before she became bored with the minutiae of county government?
After rereading her bona fides and listening to her short presentation at the January 7, 2024, BOCC meeting, I realized it takes less effort to rectify her training and experience with the job specification requirements. Her hands-on experience as a City Councilwoman in the statutory city of Las Animas, Bent County, her representation of Colorado’s House District 47 in the rural southwest corner of the state, and her experience with the Farm Service Agency speak well to her training and experience. Her experience with the Colorado State Legislature is probably her most impressive calling card, given Park County, as all Colorado counties operate generally at the mercy of the state legislature.
Granted, there’s no doubt Navarro is thoroughly MAGA, and her service as Lauren Boebert’s district director for at least three years is witness to that.
Navarro’s Bona Fides – Click to review
Navarro’s comments at the BOCC meeting of January 7, 2025.
Well, thank you for having me with you this afternoon. It’s been a pleasure to be with you and going through this process and the possibility to serve Park County. Thank you all of you for joining us today.
I have built my career serving city, county, and state communities through my leadership roles as a city councilwoman, state representative, Colorado State executive director for Farm Service Agency, and recently, the district director on the Western Slope.
I have most recently joined the FFA Foundation Board of Directors, and I have built my career in policy, fundraising, and building relationships with stakeholders, and I take pride in leading teams to success. I strive for building towards excellence for our businesses, families, and communities.
And I have over fifteen years of experience in serving communities just like this.
My previous experience goes back to working for rural development, where I helped moderate-income families purchase their first homes through rural development funding. And where I found great pride in that is being able to see hard-working families be able to provide a home for their families and something that they can take pride in and work towards.
After that I became a city councilwoman in Las Animas Colorado in Bent County, which is very southern Colorado from here. Really enjoyed my time there and being an effective local government official where I can make immediate changes, where I can sit on a board I can listen to the residents of Bent County and really serve their purpose and what they felt was needed. As I progressed in my career, I became a state representative and I represented Pueblo, Otero and Fremont County for six Years.
Serving at the state legislature really helped me find the ability to work with the Colorado State Budget, find areas where we can make improvements, where I can make amendments and where I can take money back to my communities that I was serving, which I hope I can do so for Park County. As the state legislature begins to resume, I would like to reach out and make those connections with our representatives and find areas where we can make our voice heard and see where we can bring back some state money to Park County. With my federal, with my federal experience I worked as the state executive director for Farm Service Agency. I served the entire state of Colorado. I had 36 offices throughout the state with 200 employees, a $65 billion budget and a $6 million operating fund.
I have learned to be an effective leader, be a good listener and be a positive role model for my employees, and I also have an open door. I want people to see me at the grocery store and be able to stop and talk to me and have a conversation.
My goal here is to really embrace Park County and become part of it and make this my home. And that is something that I’m really looking forward to.
As I embrace this change, I have talked to a couple of people out in town at the coffee shop today at the sheriff this afternoon as well, and several of the staff. So I’m just really excited to move on your mission what you have in store for the county and really become a great mediator and liaison for you as well. Give you my advice and counsel as best as I can and get your feedback so that we can work together and our best foot forward for our community.
Thank you.
Lucas Meyer
My previous comments about Lucas Meyer began this way: In my former life, I was a division director for the City and County of Denver. I hired and fired a lot of folks. I studied hundreds of applications and applicants and know what I’m talking about.
If I saw an application where the applicant listed prior jobs, describing those jobs with a 500 to 600-word description of duties, the red flag would be raised. If, for instance, the job title was budget analyst, and the applicant offered a recap of duties, maybe up to fifty words, that would be good. That would be expected. 600 words, on the other hand, would gild the lily, would be an attempt by the applicant to substitute inane volume for substance, an attempt to make of the job something it wasn’t.
“Wow! Would you look at all those words!!!” a competent manager would never say when reviewing an application.
Meyer’s application also contains over 1200 words related to what he calls job-related training. Imagine that. 1200 words. And it is training. It’s online training, specifically BAS Prism via the federal government and BOP training via the Burea of Prisons. Generally, to be eligible for promotion, you must complete these little gems in a specified period. These are short subject-matter courses you log into, maybe take a test after you’ve read the material, and if you pass the test, Voila, you click a button. You can add the item to your resume. You can go through six, seven, eight, or more subject-matter topics in one sitting.
Once again, a competent manager would look at those 1200+ words, shake their head, raise the red flag, and be warned that this applicant is padding the application, providing the inanity of volume to hide the lack of substance to be evaluated against the job specifications.
After looking once again at Meyer’s bona fides and listening to his statement at January 7, 2025, BOCC meeting, my conclusion is that the bulk of Meyer’s work history reflects experience in accounting, less than a year serving as a correctional officer with the Colorado Department of Corrections, little over a year managing mattress stores, three years as a distribution manager for Yellow Book and, perhaps what he feels is his most important endeavor, his work with and devotion to the Knights Templar non-profit Christian religious organization. If you study his bona fides, each job is accompanied by, as I’ve noted, a plethora of extraordinary detail.
During the public comment period of the BOCC meeting, Kimberly Gregory, Head Accountable of the South Park Outsiders and PR Chair of the Park County MAGA Party, took the dais in support of Lucas Meyer. Her comments included a likening of Meyer to J.D. Vance and, among other things, that Meyer’s military training was noteworthy.
Indeed, Meyer mentions his military service in his comments on January 7, 2025.
As an Army Vietnam Era veteran, this caught my attention. That phrase, “Vietnam Era,” necessarily identifies my service as non-combatant, and I’ve never claimed otherwise. The majority of my service was spent in the Tidewater area of Virginia. When Kimberly Gregory mentioned Meyer’s military service, Meyer affirmed it as his “…service in leadership in the military during our Operation Iraqi Freedom…” I sat up. Maybe I was unfairly evaluating this man. If he served in a combat theater, I owe him deference.
As is my practice, I researched this claim. Although Meyer did not include his military service on his resume for the county manager position–at least, I don’t see it–he did note it on one of his LinkedIn pages.
I sent Meyer the following email, hoping he could provide clarification:
In yesterday’s BOCC meeting, Kimberly Gregory rose to your support. During her comments, she said your Army experience is noteworthy, presumably as an asset in undertaking the county manager position.
During your remarks, you said, “…my service and leadership in the military during Iraqi Freedom.” Reviewing your resume, you were in the Army from February 2007 to October 2008, serving at Fort Carson as a radiologist assistant and at Fort Polk as an “Environmental Compliance Officer.” A couple of clarifying questions: 1) You were not deployed to the Middle East. Correct? Your service as a radiologist assistant was conducted as an enlisted man. Correct? Was your “Environmental Compliance Officer” service also performed as an enlisted man? Or, when you left Fort Carson and went to Fort Polk, did you become a commissioned officer?
As a fellow veteran, I was naturally attentive to these comments.
Thank you
As of this writing, I have not received a clarification.
Should we agree that to vaguely ascribe to yourself a perceived glory of leading soldiers in combat when, in fact, your nevertheless honorable service was mundane and ordinary is, one can conclude, more a self-inflicted sin against one’s own integrity than it is a dishonor to those who actually made war, fought and came home whole or didn’t?
Meyer’s Bona Fides – Click to review
Meyer’s comments at the BOCC meeting of January 7, 2025.
Hello and welcome. I’m Lucas Meyer. It is an honor to be here today speaking to you. Whether you know me personally or not, I want to take time to make one thing clear and that is that I care deeply about every single one of you in this room and within this county. Our county’s been my home for a long time, and I have so many fond memories here, and so many people that you know truly mean so much to me. I’ve really been proud to it call my home for a long time. You know, and though while recently I’ve moved down to town to take on a leadership role in my church. That has been as a regional prior which handles three states and multiple different churches in an executive pastor position. That would be Colorado, New Mexico and Utah; a responsibility that demands focus, organization and leadership.
These are traits that I developed throughout my life. For my early days as an Eagle Scout, to my service in leadership in the military during our Operation Iraqi Freedom, I’ve embraced challenges with dedication and purpose. I’ve served in law enforcement with the state of Colorado and the Department of Justice, earning trust through fairness, professionalism and unwavering belief in truth, justice and the American way. That may sound cheesy, but that’s something that, like I really take to heart. That is who I want to be.
We need to manage our funds wisely in this county and we need to rebuild reserves. We need to plan for growth that encourages new businesses and welcomes new residents. While preserving the breathtaking beauty of Park County, we need infrastructure that supports all that we hold dear.
We need professionalism and transparency in our government to ensure trust and accountability.
Park County, like our nation, is facing a new day.
Together we have the opportunity to create a new and brighter tomorrow. We have that opportunity together, not just as our local government, but as our citizens, our xommunity and everybody that works and lives in this county. Everybody that visits this county, we have that opportunity together. To build something new. Something brighter and something inclusive that listens to all kinds of diverse opinions and values. What we truly have here. With that, I want to thank you for your time and consideration. I truly appreciate the opportunity to have lived here and been a part of this county for so long. So for that I want to say, you know, thank you. Specifically to everyone that we have, you make this a very special place.
Over the last few months, I’ve written about the Park County BOCC search for a new county manager, sometimes with bombast and bravura. I’ve assumed that the MAGA-centric majority of the Board of County Commissioners, Wissel, Mitchell, and Commissioner-elect Gemmer, had already decided who the next county manager would be, even promising the position months ago to Lucas Meyer.
However, whether my assumption is valid takes on an urgency following my above review of where we are with the remaining finalists–Navarro and Meyer.
May we describe Navarro’s bona fides and her comments on January 7, 2025, as the nuts and bolts summary of the training, qualifications, and experience of someone well-suited to carry out the duties and responsibilities of Park County’s county manager? Can we gather from her bona fides and comments that hiring her would serve the best interests of Park County? May we hope that her grounding in MAGA-centrism will not adversely affect all citizens of Park County?
May we describe Meyer’s bona fides as embellished? May we characterize Meyer’s January 25, 2025, comments as constituting the essence of an appeal to emotion? From Meyer’s bona fides, can we gather that his qualifications, training, and experience are not best suited to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the position he seeks?
Can we hope the MAGA-centric Board of County Commissioners will do the right thing in the best interest of the citizens of Park County? May we pray that despite their ideological dogmatism, they will see the forest for the trees and, with clear consciences, thank Lucas Meyer for his interest in the position, his love of Park County, and his devotion to his Savior, but gently declare Clarice Navarro is better suited to the position?
We will have to wait for the climax of this saga to be played when Jason Gemmer takes his seat as District 2 Commissioner. That will be January 14, 2025.
Just a thought. Just a caution. Just a suggestion. Just truth.
“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
