Righteous Resolution – Health Sovereignty
The RESOLUTION FOR A DECLARATION OF SOVEREIGNTY AND HEALTH INDEPENDENCE BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF PARK COUNTY, COLORADO, that appears on the BOCC’s April 21, 2026, 1:00 p.m. quasi-judicial meeting agenda is pure MAGA in composition and theory, a meaningless gesture, an empty declaration that has no legal significance. Additionally, it is another example of an amateurish, poorly constructed document emanating, most likely, from the County Manager, possibly with input from the county’s arguably less-than-stellar legal counsel, and possibly from the county’s recently installed Assistant County Manager, Brandon Heacock.
Here’s Tuesday’s agenda with the Zoom link for remote viewing.
Here’s the proposed Park County Health Sovereignty document:
Where to begin?
First, this is a manifesto by and for MAGA-centric ideologues, too comfortable within their self-satisfying, righteous, opaque bubble to realize how ignorant they appear via the content of their health sovereignty screed, which reads like a sophomoric rant–something no reasonable person can take seriously.
The document states that Colorado has joined other vermin-infested states (Blue states like New York, California, and Illinois) in abjuring US public health agencies to utilize the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN).
What Colorado and those other states have actually done is to seriously question the ability of the currently severely gutted US public health agencies under the roadkill raccoon penis-grabbing Secretary of Health RFK to adequately protect the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans from emerging global disease threats. There is no abandonment of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is only the realization that the diminution of health, safety, and welfare concerns for We, the People, by RFK and the current occupant of the White House, is cause to seek any and all protections for the people that the CDC is currently hard-pressed to deliver under the current regime.
Colorado counties are creatures of the state; they have no independent sovereignty in public health matters except those restricted solely to local concerns. The ability of a county to establish a public health department, to cooperate with other counties for public health needs, and to manage incidences of public health threats is no less dependent on the state’s largesse, authority, and mandates than are elections, criminal code, operation of motor vehicles, or any other authority or responsibility codified in the state constitution or statutes. The purpose of a county public health department is to carry out the public health laws and rules of the state board.
I hope the “Whereas” in the document that begins, “Colorado courts have recognized the broad powers of local authorities…” was not blessed by the county’s legal contractor, Evans Law Group, or his paralegal, Nate Osterberg. If it was, the extent of their ineptness is greater than I thought it was.
Cited in the document to support the genius’s contention that Colorado courts have a history of recognizing the broad power of local authorities is People vs. Goudy. This was a 1909 case that eventually landed in the Colorado Supreme Court. The court’s decision has absolutely nothing to do with a county’s independent sovereignty in public health matters, or any other matters. It addresses only one section of the State Constitution, Article V, Section 21, which addresses the “single subject” rule for General Assembly legislative actions and whether that section applies to local governments. The Colorado Supremes said no, it doesn’t. Period. Full stop.
It is unclear whether People v. Goudy originated in Denver, which, under the Colorado Constitution, has been a Home Rule county since 1902. The home rule issue, however, further undermines the Park County Health Sovereignty document’s contention that Colorado courts, specifically in City and County of Denver vs. District Court, give them a leg to stand on. It doesn’t.
I will suggest to the geniuses who provide legal assistance to the Park County Board of Commissioners and the County Manager that their citation of City and County of Denver vs. District Court is incorrect. I’ll go out on a limb and posit that their citation should have read, City and County of Denver vs. Colorado River Conservation District (696 P.2d 730).
This was a case in which the Colorado Supreme Court reversed several lower-court decisions holding that Denver lacked the authority to appropriate water for use outside its municipal boundaries. Making a long story short, the court ruled that Denver, a Home Rule city under the Colorado Constitution, had the authority, in matters of “purely local and municipal concern,” to supersede conflicting state statutes.
Park County is not a Home Rule county. Public health is decidedly not a purely local concern. I do see the scenario where Park County honchos could argue that because they live in a bubble, the entire county is within that bubble, and the tuberculosis outbreak in Fairplay is a purely local concern.
The Now, Therefores, of this document proceeds from the flawed Whereases that precede them.
Sovereign Health Authority: How, I wonder, do the geniuses who wrote this thing believe their health authority is sovereign when, in the language itself, they acknowledge that authority must comport with state and federal law? They state their “police powers” were established in the Goudy 1909 case. Goudy had nothing to do with police powers, but with the process of legislation for the General Assembly and local authorities.
Rejection of International Control: This is nonsense. It is a political statement that, as I said above, reeks of MAGA in composition and theory, a meaningless gesture, an empty declaration that has no legal significance
Adherence to Federal Guidance: Once again, the geniuses have donned their MAGA hats. It is their option–certainly because of their vast knowledge and experience with public health matters–to accept or reject guidance from the federal government with respect to, oh, how about worldwide pandemics?
Repeal of Prior Health Directives: The document says “any and all” prior health resolutions, directives, or orders will be repealed as obsolete. What if one or more of those prior documents includes a state-directed mandate? What if any one of those prior documents is incorporated and operationally consistent with how the Park County Health Department currently operates? Have the geniuses consulted with the health department?
Declaration of Independence in Health Matters: Oh, that’s precious. A Declaration of Independence. This section says the county rejects external international health advice (the GUAN is purely voluntary, take it or leave it). It further states that Park County politicos will make all public health decisions, while Park County citizens have complete autonomy over their own health decisions. This is more MAGA-inspired nonsense that does not comport with Park County’s little fish in the big Colorado pond of Constitutional and statutory authority over public health matters that are not inherently local.
I, for one, have no confidence in Park County pols making smart decisions on public health. In fact, I have no confidence that Park County pols are capable of making reasonable decisions about much of anything, unless they take off those red hats, understand we all do not live in their MAGA bubble, and realize that public health concerns all of us. In fact, Tuesday’s BOCC agenda also includes the final hearing on the 2026 Platte Canyon Health Services District proposal — a noble grassroots effort by Park County citizens to address healthcare in the northeast quadrant of the county.
Given the commissioners’ mindset, as evidenced by the Health Sovereignty nonsense, any bets on how the Platte Canyon Health Services District proposal will fare?
