The Second Interview
After receiving documents from the county via a CORA request, I’ve reviewed them and reported my impressions in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this saga.
Questions for the Second Interview
As noted above, the new county manager, Lucas Meyer, didn’t win the second interview either. In the first interview, he finished behind other finalists, notably Clarice Navarro, his final competitor in the 2nd interview.
The first interview committee consisted of four MAGA-centric evaluators and three moderates. The second interview committee comprised four MAGA-centric evaluators and only two moderates. Meyer still lost despite the second interview committee’s skewing toward a MAGA-friendly outcome.
Go figure.
There were some notable questions in the second interview.
Commissioners Wissel and Mitchell intended to steer the creation of the Strategic Master Plan. As noted, their intent was memorialized in the County Manager finalist interview question 8. This mischief is typical but illegal because it does not comply with applicable statutes.
As I stated in a prior post on March 9, 2025, “…the County Planning Commission is statutorily charged with making and adopting a Strategic Master Plan (called a ‘master plan’ in the legislation). The statutes do NOT allow the Board of County Commissioners or the County Manager to interpose themselves into the Planning Commission’s making of a Strategic Master Plan. No statutory imperative gives the Board of County Commissioners or the County Manager the power to administrate, interject themselves into, or participate in the Planning Commission’s activities, discussions, and decisions regarding making a Strategic Master Plan or adopting the same. The Board of County Commissioners has the sole statutory authority to approve or not the Strategic Master Plan adopted by the Planning Commission.”
Yet, interviewees Clarice Navarro and Lucas Meyer were asked how they would steer the creation of the document if hired as the county manager, which neither the Board of County Commissioners nor the County Manager has the authority to do.
Another interesting question was 16:
Not unsurprisingly, during the chit-chat session at the end of the quasi-judicial BOCC meeting on March 18, 2025, Wissel lauded Elon Musk’s scorched earth activities within the federal government and suggested the Park County BOCC would benefit by following Musk’s lead:
Wissel gave Meyer the best rating for his answer, with a big “Yes” next to “Rif,” or reduction in force. He wrote down Meyer’s points. Meyer appears to have relied on his staunch religious beliefs to characterize a RIF process by stating that “worthy” is the key to who remains.
Lord, I am not worthy…
Indeed, question 13 is interesting as it asks about the chain of command in which Meyer includes God, Lord and Savior, Jesus, Lord. Certainly, Meyer’s devoutness is commendable, and indeed, he knew who his majority audience was during the interviews (the “majority audience” was, after all, those who believe an invocation at the start of a quasi-judicial government assemblage is acceptable and Constitutional). Interestingly, he didn’t get very high marks for his answer.
Leni Walker asked an unscripted question about how many people Meyer had previously supervised. Meyer’s answer was 314.
I am intrigued by Meyer’s answer—three hundred fourteen. In addition to over 600 words describing his duties at Yellowbook, renamed to Hibu in 2012, Meyer’s bona fides read that he “supervised and exercised leadership over nonsupervisory employees.”
How does one do that?
Let’s evaluate Meyer’s claims to the military. His 314 subordinates would make up a small battalion, headed by a lieutenant colonel who is assisted by a major and a command sergeant major. Let’s say there are three companies in Meyer’s battalion, each headed up by a captain. Within those companies, there are about three platoons each under a lieutenant. In those platoons are three or four squads, each led by a sergeant. So, some thirty troops assist that lieutenant colonel in managing those 300 troops.
Yeah, I know. Running a battalion in the Army is not managing an ad sales and distribution outfit in Aurora. However, there is something to the best practice of limiting direct supervision of employees from five to ten people. Maybe Hibu was not a “best practices” believer? I don’t know. But did they depend on Meyer to manage (in any reasonable person’s perceptions of what managing employees is) to run that 314-employee shop?
We’ll probably never know how much Meyer fluffed up his bona fides if he did. I discussed this further here.
I used a military comparison of Meyer’s claim of managing 314 people in Part 2 of this series because he emphasizes such manly pursuits and alludes to them concerning Army combat and Colorado Corrections prison riots.
Here are the two scoring sheets from the interview committee. Remember, there were four MAGA-centric scorers for the second interview and two moderate scorers. I’ve removed the interviewers’ names.
Can you guess where Meyer’s high scores came from? Interestingly, one interview committee member I identified as MAGA-centric rated Meyer lower than Navarro.
Nah. I won’t reveal who it was, though you might have a good guess if you’ve kept up with this saga.
Regarding ratings, the committee’s initial application review numbers remain unsure. My and county numbers differed, and no answer is forthcoming for the discrepancy.
The first interview scoring tabulation is below:
Meyer, as above, ranked fourth out of six on the first set of questions and fifth out of six on the second grouping. And, finally, here again are the scores for the second interview between Clarice Navarro and Lucas Meyer:
I won’t say Meyer is a three-time loser in the contrived process of finding a new county manager. After all, there is still a question about the application scoring. But none of that mattered. Did it.
What mattered was how the cake was already cooked before the oven was turned on.
