On May 12, 2026, County Manager Lucas Meyer said the Park County Planning Commission created the 2024-2025 Strategic Master Plan with “less than honorable intentions from the beginning.”
Hypocrisy abounds with impunity from the Park County Board of County Commissioners, Wissel, Mitchell, Gemmer, and its County Manager, Lucas Meyer. Lockstep in their MAGA-centric ideological crusade to implement a paradigm that values only their perception of right and wrong, their skewed reality, they are emboldened to bastardize the clear meaning and intent of state statutes into the self-serving, self-righteous, and self-aggrandizing claptrap of MAGAspeak, where up becomes down, where white becomes red, and no one, no person outside their bubble-encased cabal is worthy of their attention, icluding We, the People.
I’ve already written about the 2024-2025 Park County Strategic Master Plan and the MAGA-centric response to it: Wissel’s New Paradigm: A Challenge to Transparency; The 2025 Strategic Master Plan; Short Takes – Planning Commission meeting of March 19, 2025. There’s really nothing more I can say except, well, a new twist was provided by the elderly County Attorney John Evans, who, by the way, never seems to understand that one needs to speak directly into the microphone to be heard by the Zoom audience at BOCC meetings.
At the May 12, 2026, BOCC work session, the Strategic Master Plan was on the agenda once again, with Wissel and Mitchell spewing and sputtering about what they see as its deficiencies, and Gemmer’s less-than-enthusiastic support as he, once again, just went along to get along with his commission compadres, and Meyer’s disingenuous conclusion, as above. When Wissel turned to John Evans for guidance on how they, the Commission, should go forward from there, I didn’t hear Evan’s colloquy, except for one word: resolution. Aha! Yes, recent events have established Evans’ pattern, his foolproof response to the frustrations of the MAGA-centric BOCC: create a resolution that will include everything you, as MAGA, want to do to change an otherwise statutorily proper and compliant process, and spell out in detail how you (the Commission)–believing that you are a sovereign entity quite removed from compliance with state mandates–want the process to work regardless of what the Colorado Constitution or state stautues require. Witness the 12-page manifesto regarding A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE PARK COUNTY HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICT STUDY COMMITTEE FOR THE PURPOSE OF EVALUATING THE VIABILITY, GOVERNANCE, AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF A POTENTIAL HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICT, which, to be sure, will stifle any further citizen initiative to create a Platte Canyon Health Services District.
The Park County Republican Central Committee, Chaired by none other than District 3 Commissioner Dave Wissel, is having some candidate forums. BUT WAIT! Where is the winning vote getter from the Park County Republican Assembly for the office of Assessor, Monica Jones? Why is she not included? Who is Mrs. Wallie “By Golly” Weld’s wife supposed to be assessed against at the forums?
This, in my opinion, exemplifies the essential cowardice of Dave Wissel. Not only cowardice, but the antics of a two-year-old child who will never, ever forgive and forget he was toppled from his 38-year incumbency as assessor by a woman. He is a mean-spirited and vindictive person. He is… Well, the video says it all.
It is clear that the MAGA choice for sheriff of Park County in 2026 is Ahmet Susic, and his sidekick for undersheriff is Gary Rhoads.
Certainly, Gary Rhoads was added to the ticket to dispel, as one social media Karen said, “Ahmet is an Islamic name!” Rhoads is a well-known fixture in the Platte Canyon Area, perhaps better known for his coaching (wrestling) than anything else. In fact, Rhoads was terminated by the Colorado State Patrol in 2010 (he was a sergeant based in Bailey) for cause. Rhoads fought the termination, apparently arguing for reinstatement. To my knowledge, he was not reinstated, and whether or not he pursued litigation to regain his position is unknown.
There are several nagging questions about Susic. He claims 20 years in law enforcement, but in those twenty years, he has remained a sergeant. A sergeant is a first-line supervisor, but there are three or four positions above the sergeant rank where supervisory and administrative duties are more heavily emphasized. One exception was when he says he set up the Blue River, Colorado Police Department, where he served as Chief of Police. But if he were chief, why didn’t he stay there?
I don’t know the answers to those questions. But, if I listen to Kimberly Gregory, the Head Accountable of the South Park Outsiders, and campaign manager for the now-defunct candidacy of Phil McDonald for sheriff, Ahmet and Gary are her choices; they apparently fulfill her perception of what a MAGA-centric sheriff and undersheriff should be.
In any event, Susic appears to be playing to the MAGA crowd with the bugaboos he knows will get their attention.
I won’t repeat what I’ve written about the revelation that Tom McGraw, Steve Spodyak (candidate for sheriff), and Mrs. Spodyak are suing County Manager Meyer for his particular brand of pure conniving spite. I’ll just link it here for your perusal.
J’Acuse, which I began this post with, refers to an open letter penned by Emile Zola in response to what was then known as the Dreyfus affair. It stands as an expression of outrage and accusation; a charge against those in power who use their positions to foment scurrilous and disgusting agendas that benefit no one but themselves and their minions.
