Bill could require county board to expand to 5

BY ELLIS ARNOLD AND HALEY LENA EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

In Douglas County, three people make the decisions that a ect roughly 370,000 residents. Often, those choices come from the majority of two commissioners.

Now, a bill in the state legislature could change that, expanding the number of members on a county’s board of elected leaders to ve. e bill would a ect several Front Range counties with large enough populations, including Douglas County, where the board has become known for its bitter con icts.

“To me, it is a simple good governance issue, but there is pretty much united bipartisan opposition from county commissioners who would be impacted,” said state Rep. Bob Marshall, a Highlands Ranch Democrat and one of the bill’s top supporters.

Commissioners serve as a county’s elected leaders, somewhat similar to city councils. ey make policy decisions that largely a ect parts of the county that are “unincorporated” — areas that sit outside of municipalities.

In Douglas County, that includes Highlands Ranch and many other areas, such as Franktown and Roxborough.

e idea to add two more commissioners in Douglas County came up in discussion in a county meeting in

August. Commissioner Abe Laydon remains opposed.

“ e last thing counties need are more politicians,” Laydon said in a statement about the state legislature’s bill. “Whether you have three or 30 commissioners, there will still be a majority and a minority vote unless it’s unanimous.”

Other counties already have five e proposal, state House Bill 23-1180, was introduced on Feb. 8. Another of its top supporters is state Sen. Kevin Priola, a Democrat who represents parts of Adams and Weld counties.

Some Colorado counties already operate with ve commissioners. Under current rules, once a county has more than 70,000 residents, a citizen’s group or the county commissioners can put a question on the ballot asking residents if they wish to add two more.

Of the 12 counties who are eligible through their population size, several have moved to ve commissioners, including Adams, El Paso and Arapahoe counties. Weld County and Pitkin County have moved to ve commissioners as part of their home-rule charters — essentially the counties’ own constitutions.

Denver and Broom eld have city council structures with about a dozen members each.

Boulder County has attempted to approve the expansion at least four times, according to Douglas County sta . e counties that would be a ected by the bill are Je erson, Larimer, Douglas, Boulder, Pueblo and Mesa, all of which have three commissioners.

“While counties with populations of less than seventy thousand may be adequately represented by three commissioners, counties with populations of seventy thousand or more require greater and more diverse representation,” the introductory part of the bill reads.

Douglas leaders have long clashed Douglas County Commissioner Lora omas, at the losing end of many 2-1 votes, has said she requested the information about possibly expanding the Douglas board after several residents asked her about the possibility.

“I’ve always been opposed to it because it would grow government,” she has said. “But I don’t know how to break this logjam with George (Teal) and Abe.” e relationship among Douglas County’s commissioners began to fray in April 2021 when Teal and Laydon voted to remove omas from her position as chair following a national media request gone awry. e two accused omas of using her role as chair of the board to lie to residents and “attempt to in uence the board” after she wasn’t selected to speak with the media outlet. Also part of the con ict among the commissioners are multiple layers of legal wrangling that stem from an investigation Teal and Laydon initiated after accusing omas of circulating an anonymous letter that criticized speci c employees in the Douglas County Sheri ’s O ce, allegedly creating a hostile work environment. ey also accused her of emailing county legal representation with a request not authorized by the full board. e $17,000 investigation into omas by outside legal counsel found that while omas had distributed the letter, doing so did not create a hostile work environment. It also found she did direct legal representation to provide her with information the board had determined to keep secret. omas appeared in a CBS Colorado news story in July discussing the con dential report that showed the results of the investigation, prompting the Douglas County government’s attorney to nd that omas could have broken the law by doing so. omas held a news conference in November and called the probe “yet another bogus investigation.”

A second investigation ordered by Laydon and Teal — this time conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce — did not nd probable cause to believe that omas committed the crime of rst-degree o cial misconduct.