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As The Denver Post reports:

A long-awaited Jefferson County government-compensation study shows that 324 workers and 558 sworn sheriff employees are underpaid, while 66 workers are overpaid compared with employees in similar counties and cities in the West.

Yet the study – which cost the county $180,000 – does not take into account bonuses awarded by the county and how they affect how much money employees are taking home, especially for those already paid above market. The Sheriff’s Office does not award employee bonuses, but those given to workers in other departments, many of them top managers, have risen by more than 700 percent in four years.

The price tag to bring all the underpaid workers up to market rate is $1.1 million. The study did not tally how much could be recovered if the county sought to cut the pay of employees whose compensation is above market rate.

The county’s nine elected officials have total discretion in awarding bonuses as long as they stay within the money allotted to their departments for that purpose. There are no written policies or objective guidelines.

County administrator Jim Moore said the contract with the Waters Consulting Group Inc. was intended to examine base salaries and pay structures, not bonuses.

“Once we install a new compensation system, we will look at guidelines for bonuses,” he said.

The county has decided not to put a freeze on bonuses this year.

Commissioner Kathy Hartman, who has consistently opposed awarding county employees bonuses, said many government employees have expressed their frustration with being underpaid. With a tight budget, she said, she is worried that those who are significantly underpaid won’t get what they deserve.

“We should have an objective basis for what a job is worth, which hopefully we now have, and pay it,” Hartman said. “I’m very concerned about those who are overpaid and getting bonuses.”

County Commissioners, aside from Hartman, have always been all too happy to award hefty bonuses to hand-picked staff, even in tough economic times. Perhaps this survey will finally put an end to that nonsense.

From Sunday’s Denver Post:

Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm drove a stake through its heart. Voters in three counties shot it down. When it lingered on life support, the state Transportation Department pulled the plug.

But every time a plan to build a Jefferson County toll road flatlines, someone – or something – is there to resuscitate it.

“I think the power of real estate and those that prosper from real estate is why this (road) never dies. They won’t take no for an answer,” Lamm said.

The Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority, composed of representatives from Jefferson County, Arvada and Broomfield, is the latest group to propose a toll road that would connect Colorado 128 on the north near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to Colorado 93 at West 64th Avenue. Regional arteries would link the toll road to the Northwest Parkway. In the south, the tollway would feed into Colorado 93, a two-lane road.

The project faces significant hurdles, not the least of which is obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in private financing to build it. Yet, while traffic congestion is a significant problem in parts of Jefferson County, especially in Arvada, no study has ever shown that this toll road will remedy the problem. Even so, authority members, who have sunk $900,000 of taxpayer money into the endeavor, say it will.

“It’s common sense,” says Jefferson County Commissioner Kevin McCasky, chairman of the authority…

…Bill Ray, the authority’s interim director, said officials are finishing conversations this month with companies interested in building the toll road. And McCasky projected the authority would have a partner finalized by mid-fall. Construction could begin in 18 months.

But there are some potential roadblocks. Landing private financing is not easy in difficult economic times, and if a company looks toward the Northwest Parkway as an indicator, it may have second thoughts.

Northwest Parkway never got the traffic and revenue predicted, so it was leased to foreign companies for 99 years. High gas prices, a shaky economy and toll increases have resulted in a 3 percent decrease in average daily traffic volume from two years ago.

And then there’s Golden. The city has dug in its heels. And it has offered $10,000 for an independent expert to review its study at the request of any neighboring city or person involved in the toll road.

So far, there’s no takers.

Beltway proponents have been saying for years that they are close to a solution, but it’s really hard to see where they are going to find money to build the mythical road.

Columbine Courier wrote:

 “A fund that Jefferson County taps to meet its matching requirement for Head Start preschool services apparently is not large enough to cover the county’s. County Commissioner Kathy Hartman said she’s “been aware of, and involved with this situation for some time.” She credits Johnson and her staff for finding the problem, which she calls a serious issue.

 I believe Jeffco was made aware of this from an audit that ended December of 2004.  Pages 69-71 http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/…

Johnson and her staff had nothing to do with this discovery. Can the TRUTH please stand up!!

Concerning the Head Start program, it reads “There were no effective controls in place over matching or earmarking. The 20% match requirement was not met and the County exceeded the 10% maximum for children over the income threshold for at least three months of 2004….This $48,945 shortfall in meeting the required match total indicates the expenditure of $244,725 that were NOT matched. Therefore $244,725 of the program expenses are questioned costs.”

 KPMG noted this and soon after they were replaced by another auditor. The county announced this in a news release.

Will Jeffco Human Services FINALLY be OPEN and  HONEST. When will it finally be said “OUR whole accounting system is a mess?”

The Food stamps and Medicaid programs had techs gone astray with how the programs work.  The county practices and procedures were not in line with State law or common sense.  

 T. Howard (CPA) said “It was like getting into a car and not knowing what to do with the keys”.

From The Lakewood Sentinel:

With more than 356 days in office behind him, Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy said he could not be more pleased with his city and its residents.

According to Murphy, there is no accomplishment he spoke of during his campaign that he discovered to be impossible after a year of overseeing Colorado’s fourth largest city.

“I have accomplished my primary goal of getting council and others to work together in a civil matter. Everyone is included and a part of the process,” Murphy said.

Murphy will not be up for re-election for another two years, but Lakewood should have some interesting races in November 2009.