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April 3, 2014 Elbert County, Colorado | Volume 119, Issue 9 A publication of
elbertcountynews.net
Offices shuffled by county manager Handful of key personnel moving By George Lurie
glurie@coloradocommunitymedia.com Elbert County Manager Ed Ehmann is wasting no time putting his personal stamp on the way the county operates. During the last two weeks of March, Ehmann has been moving key personnel
from various county departments into newly configured office space in the courthouse in Kiowa. Ehmann, who was appointed county manager by the county commissioners in February, said the changes are part of a “reorganization that will move some staff around to better serve the public.” Ehmann, who is still operating as director of the county road and bridge department, has also recently moved into a second-floor office in the courthouse building that was formerly occupied by the county’s
finance director, who was fired by the commissioners in 2013 and has yet to be replaced. Ehmann’s new office is adjacent to the three commissioners’ offices and the still sparse office of new Ehmann County Attorney Wade Gateley. “At one time, we thought about moving the three commissioners’ offices to the Justice Center” in order to make more room
for other county workers in the courthouse building, Ehmann said. Board of County Commissioners Chair Kurt Schlegel said he supported the plan. “As long as I have my phone and iPad, I can work anywhere,” said Schlegel, adding, “it would take me about an hour to move out of my (courthouse) office.” But Ehmann said that “at least for the time being,” the three commissioners’ offices will remain where they are. Personnel continues on Page 4
Election bill gains Senate approval Republicans say recall measure tramples state constitution By Vic Vela
vvela@coloradocommunitymedia. com
At the March 26 BOCC meeting, Chairman Kurt Schlegel, center, listens to a comment from District 3 Commissioner Larry Ross, right. Schlegel announced that the county would be adhering more strictly to its open records requests policy. Photo by George Lurie
County tightens records policy ‘Deluge’ of requests requires staff time By George Lurie
glurie@coloradocommunitymedia.com At the March 26 Board of County Commissioners meeting, Chairman Kurt Schlegel announced that Elbert County is modifying the way it responds to public records requests. “Over the last two years, we’ve been getting deluged with a plethora of requests,” Schlegel said. “It’s really become a significant drain on the county’s resources and staff.” Schlegel said that county staff “is currently in the process of uploading records onto the county website” in the hope that “it will help decrease” the number of open record requests. “Up to now, we’ve been very lenient in charging people for staff time (related to responding to open record requests). That
policy is going to change,” Schlegel added. The county currently charges 25 cents per page — and $20 an hour for staff time involved in responding to open record requests. “We had typically been giving them the first hour (of staff time) for free,” Schlegel said. “It’s no secret that in Elbert County (where currently every elected official is a Republican) that partisanship plays a role in just about everything,” including in the number of public records requests filed, said Commissioner Robert Rowland. “I guess the Democrats feel like bombarding our staff with (open record) requests is one way they can be a burr under our saddle,” Rowland added. Nearly all open records requests “require getting the county attorney involved,” Schlegel said. “This costs us, the taxpayers, quite a bit of money and takes up valuable time for staff. And most of these (open record) requests have been asked before and are being asked repeatedly.” Under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), the county
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can charge up to $1.25 for a photocopy related to an open records request filed by a citizen. At the March 26 BOCC meeting, Schlegel provided an updated copy of the county’s “Open Records Request Procedure and Policy” statement, which reads, in part: “Elbert County seeks to meet public information requests in the most economical fashion possible. When applicable, an estimated cost of the requested information may be provided when requesting a substantial number of copies or research by the Custodian (of Records) is required. In the event research or compilation of records is required, the fee for compiling request information is $20 per hour for employee time utilized. The requestor may be required to pay all or a portion of the estimated cost before compilation of the information is performed.” The policy also states that “the County may refuse any request requiring data manipulation on the basis that CORA does not require manipulation.” County Manager Ed Ehmann confirmed that the “vast majority” of recent open record requests have come from “just a handful of individuals.” “We just don’t have the staff to handle this,” Ehmann said. Before he resigned last month, former County Attorney Alex Beltz said dealing with open record requests took up “a huge amount of my time, many, many hours almost every week.” Schlegel said, “You have no idea how frustrating this has been for county staff to deal with.”
A Democrat-sponsored bill that would re-shape how Colorado voters cast ballots in recall elections passed the state Senate on March 28, as Republicans cried foul. The bill would allow people more time to vote and would provide more options for casting their ballots in recall elections — something that wasn’t possible during last fall’s historic legislative recalls, which resulted in the ousting of two Democratic Senate members. But Republicans blasted the effort as an end-run around the state constitution that is clearly aimed at driving higher Democratic turnout in recall elections. “Just because the constitution is an inconvenient truth, it’s still the truth,” said Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, in a Senate debate that preceded the vote. Democrats say the idea behind Senate Bill 158 is to sync modern election code with outdated election language in the state constitution — which was written more than a century prior to last year’s recalls. The Colorado Constitution states that a candidate has up to 15 days prior to Election Day to submit enough signatures to appear on a recall ballot. The Democrat-sponsored bill would require candidates to submit signatures 15 days prior to when ballots are made available to voters, which occurs long before the actual day of the election. The changes would give county clerks more time to process mail ballots, something that didn’t happen during last year’s recalls — where Democratic Sens. John Morse of Colorado Springs and Angela Giron of Pueblo lost their seats in elections that were spurred by their votes on gun-control legislation. The elections were preceded by court battles that culminated with a Denver District Court judge ruling that the mailing of ballots could not be possible in those recalls. Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, a bill sponsor, said that resulted in “terrible” Recall continues on Page 4