(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%↑
30%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
If you have been spending a lot of time being concerned about holiday coffee cups at Starbucks, you might want to try pouring the hot liquid over your head. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). TOP […]
Okay, Polsters — it’s almost time to put on your debate pants. Let’s Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols! If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). TOP OF MIND TODAY… ► Famous rich person Donald Trump will be center-stage, literally and figuratively, during the […]
If you’ve been wondering what Bruce Jenner will look like as a woman…well, the wait is over. Here’s Caitlyn Jenner (and check out this helpful tip sheet from GLAAD). It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good […]
Let’s just repeat Memorial Day weekend once more, eh? It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). TOP OF MIND TODAY… ► State Rep. John Buckner (D-Aurora) has died at the age of 67 after […]
When Republican Libby Szabo announced in January that she would resign from the State House in order to fill a vacancy on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, she was roundly criticized; the editorial board of the Denver Post said Szabo was “thumbing her nose at voters” by resigning her seat just two months after winning re-election […]
THE COLORADO SUPREME COURT . . . "POLITICIANS IN BLACK ROBES." (AS IT TURNS OUT.) "Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority," Bacon. For decades I refused to believe it, but it is now incontrovertibly established. The Colorado Supreme Court is indisputably a political actor. Our Colorado Supreme Court exists to serve Colorado […]
Adams County voters will decide at the ballot box this fall whether or not to expand their County Commission by two seats, creating a five member board in place of the current, three-commissioner composition. The proposal is a response to recent corruption in Adams County, and championed by current commissioners there as creating greater government accountability and responsiveness.
When a similar suggestion came in front of the Jefferson County Board last month, however, Commissioners John Odom, Don Rosier, and Faye Griffin scrambled to come up with any excuse to shoot the proposal down, according to a report from the Denver newspaper.
Viewed through every lens except that of a current officeholder, augmenting the Commission makes sense. Sure, it’s an “expansion of government” as Commissioner John Odom whines, but it’s not an expansion of bureaucracy. People complain about “big government” when they don’t see or can’t find the personal benefit of government services. In a county of 550,000 residents, however, a five-member commission is simply good government: additional elected officials leads to more opportunities for more constituents to have their voices heard.
Odom also notes that it isn’t practical to allow the county to elect two more commissioners in part because of “additional space requirements.” Is that really enough of a reason? Because there aren’t enough offices? Heaven forbid the commissioners share offices, or, even worse, find space in the expansive Taj Mahal to accommodate everybody. The only reasoning more foolish than the office space canard is grumbling that there aren’t enough chairs in the Commission chambers. “We don’t have enough seats,” Odom could say. “We looked into getting some folding chairs, but those aren’t really comfortable and then we would have to decide who gets the padded seats. I guess we could rotate every few months, but it’s frankly not a conversation we want to have.”
Faye Griffin’s remarks were equally absurd, worrying that overworked support staff would have to put even more hours in at the office. It’s funny how Griffin’s complaints are almost diametrically opposed to Odom’s: in a five-member commission, people would have to work harder? Wait, but don’t we want our elected officials and their staff to work hard to earn and steward our tax dollars? Sounds like Odom’s reviled “expansion of government” may just make everybody a little more industrious, if you take his colleague’s word for it.
Don Rosier grouses that having five, district-elected commissioners would build “fiefdoms,” with each commissioner jockeying to benefit his or her own district. That’s right, Rosier believes that having commissioners catering to the specific needs of different communities across geographically and socio-economically diverse Jefferson County would somehow be a bad thing.
So, to review, Jefferson County absolutely should never, ever have five elected county commissioners because:
1) There aren’t enough offices.
2) People would have to work harder.
3) The commissioners would have to work for and respond to those living in their respective districts.
Great reasons.
These sorry excuses, however, belie the true reason guiding the commissioners’ opposition: expanding the board would dilute their personal political power. In Adams County, proponents of board expansion favor additional members because with three, after all, you only need to convince a friend to support you in order to ram public policy through the works.
Having five members, then, would lead to commissioners having to debate, consider, defend, and win votes for their proposals. Which, of course, would limit the commissioners’ ability to have their way with county government.
And why have “personal fiefdoms” when the entire county can be your domain?
Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier was last month selected as president of the Front Range District of Colorado Counties, an advocacy group which advises county governments across the Front Range. It’s a plum appointment for the first-term commissioner, who only took office last year after defeating incumbent Commissioner Kathy Hartman in 2010.
From the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners:
Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier has been elected president of the Front Range District of Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI), a group that represents boards of county commissioners from more than 60 Colorado counties.
The CCI Front Range District includes Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, El Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld counties and the City & County of Denver and City & County of Broomfield. It brings together commissioners from those counties who face similar challenges such as increasing urbanization, declining revenues and accelerating demands for services for citizens. By joining together, the commissioners share knowledge and experience, have a bigger voice on legislative matters, and work together on issues that cross county lines.
Rosier, who chairs the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners, was sworn in as a Jeffco commissioner in 2011, and was named CCI’s Freshman Commissioner of the Year during his first year in office.
CCI is a non-profit, membership association that provides information and education to county officials, and helps counties work together. Rosier was elected to head the Front Range group because of his work with other counties on critical issues such as transportation and economic development.
Rosier also serves on the National Association of Counties (NACo) Community and Economic Development Committee, which develops NACo policies and represents counties across the U.S. before Congress on matters related to community development and redevelopment, housing programs, building and housing codes, subdivision regulations, public works and economic development. Recently he was chosen as one of only 23 leaders in county government from across the U.S. to participate in a national leadership institute developed by NACo and the Cambridge Leadership Associates.
Locally, Rosier represents Jefferson County on several boards including the Denver Regional Council of Governments, the Jefferson Economic Development Corporation and the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority.
Rosier has quickly become the face of the Board, leading the controversial charge to complete the Denver-metropolitan beltway while still finding time to scare little kids.
He’s risen to the top of county government, however, less because of any inherent ambition or talent and more because of the power vacuum left in the wake of the Kings’ of Corruption abdications. Commissioners Jim Congrove and Kevin McCasky were so masterfully able to define — and desecrate — the Board of Commissioners because, working in tandem, they could ramrod through their policies with no questions asked. You could call it leadership, even if it was unquestionably corrupt — and occasionally bizarre.
Indeed, Rosier’s political profile has stumbled into the spotlight in part because the current Board isn’t really composed of strong personalities. Commissioner Faye Griffin, while popular, lacks the legislative chops to be anything more than a yes-woman. After decades in county government, she’s proven to be a better bureaucrat than policymaker. And while Commissioner John Odom has made some of the same mistakes as his predecessors, he’s too green — commissioner is too big for the guy who’s never successfully been elected to public office before.
And so Rosier, rocking facial hair which would make Colonel Sanders shudder, has alone been able to wield power in Jeffco. The Rosier era is doubtless an improvement over the reign of McCasky, Congrove, & company: there’s been no major corruption scandals, yet.
Still, you’ve got to wonder: is this the best we can do? Should one man really set the direction of the county as a whole? And what has Rosier accomplished, anyway?
The Taj Mahal is no longer a font of shame and outrage for Jefferson County residents. But the county government isn’t really anything to be proud of, either.
Don Rosier, then, is the rebound girlfriend of local politics: necessary to move on from past mistakes, but ultimately forgettable in the long run.
Despite the fact that former Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove passed away earlier this year, his ethically questionable decisions and attendant legal missteps will continue to cost the county taxpayer dollars, as ordered by a recent decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Congrove, remember, was taken to court in 2005 by blogger Mike Zinna. In that lawsuit, Zinna alleged a gross violation of his First Amendment rights after the commissioner used county funds to hire a private investigator to tail the county critic. A jury eventually agreed with Zinna’s claims, awarding him a symbolic $1,791 in damages. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch then ruled that the gadfly was entitled to $8,000 in reimbursement for lawyer’s fees.
As it turns out, the county’s tab for that particular lawsuit may run up even higher.
From the Denver Business Journal:
A federal appeals court says the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded to a blogger critical of Jefferson County government isn’t enough and is sending the case back to the lower court to increase that amount, The Denver Post reports.
It’s unlikely that Zinna will receive the $500,000 he’s requesting, but there’s no question that the county will be forced to spend more public money to finally end this particular legal skirmish. No matter how much the lower court decides Zinna deserves — and it’ll be considerably more than $8,000 — it will only add to the half a million dollars the county has already spent litigating this case.
While it’s ridiculous that taxpayers are continuing to foot the bill for the incredibly stupid decisions made by their erstwhile elected officials, it’s merely symptomatic of a larger problem with Jefferson County government. Congrove may be dead and buried, but his tenure as a commissioner is still hurting Jefferson County. Likewise, former Commissioner Kevin McCasky’s recent ethical violations continue to paint Jefferson County as a cesspool of corruption.
Bottom line, Jim Congrove was most certainly not the “good steward of taxpayer funds” that the legislature retroactively defined him as. In fact, just the opposite: Congrove and his cohorts left such an indellible black mark on Jeffco that it has taken — and will continue to take — years for the county to move beyond their years on the Commission.
Unfortunately, while the current Board of Commissioners hasn’t been mired in scandal (yet), history has a nasty habit of repeating itself in Jeffco.
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