Voters to have say on much needed Adams County government reform
September 3rd, 2011
Voters will have their say in an important step toward putting Adams County back on track.
With corruption running rampant in Adams County government, citizens will have their chance in November 2012 to implement much needed reforms. On the ballot will be a question asking voters to increase the Board of Commissioners to five members from the current three.
Commissioner Erik Hansen forced the Democrat members of the board, Alice Nichol and Skip Fischer, to adopt a series of reforms and proposals. Among the most important is the expansion of the board, a measure that will dilute the power of the few and provide residents with better representation.
The scandals that have rocked county government in recent months have brought to light significant problems starting at the top. Three individuals hold power over the county and that has proven to be too much for them to handle.
Will there be an added cost to the taxpayer to have two additional board members? Yes but look at what having three has cost us. Millions of dollars in stolen funds, mismanagement of county government and elected officials to whom ethics is a foreign concept.
Along with the addition of two commissioners will come increased responsibility for the voters themselves. Citizens simply need to make better choices about who they send to Brighton. We can no longer send people like Alice Nichol and Gil Reyes to represent us.
The survey ordered by the commissioners showed that 84% of respondents were concerned about corruption in the county government. Yet the voters are the ones that put those same, corrupt officials in office.
County and municipal government in our area has been dominated by Democrats for decades and greed and corruption has followed. Changes need to be made, the Adams Family needs to be sent packing, and new blood in the form of elected officials capable of principled leadership need to be selected.
On the net:
I served as Director of Public Works and County Engineer for three years in Adams County. My tenureh ended in 1975. I was forced out because I would not participate in the shady dealings that was taking place at that time.It was as corrupt then as it is now. A clean slate of elected officialdom is the only way to clean it up. I am glad to see that the corruption of Adams Couty Government has finallly come to the surface. If I can be of service contact me at your convenience.
Congratulations to you for maintaining your ethics, Mr. Wilson. We need more like you.
I am happy to have the Adams County corruption team under the microscope. Since moving to this county, I have been less than impressed when having to deal with county officials. I would not be surprised to find that there is widespread graft and kickbacks.
My reservation with the County Commissioners numbering 5 is that this is an increase in the size of county government right there! This is the time we must REDUCE the size of government at all levels, and certainly reducing the size of this county’s overbearing government has got to be a top priority.
Uprooting corruption is absolutely the best thing to do, but how can it be done while reducing the size of government? And what is going to keep 5 Commissioners from doing what the 3 have been doing up to now?
Sincerely,
Nancy W
Unreal, you want 5 commissioners (2 new ones), staff, cars, expenses, retirements (and it is not social security) and the list goes on. This is a 40% increase in the top end of the county government. People want less government not more. Oh, this will make corruption less, no way, it will make it so there is more of a chance for corruptions. The Adams County voters are not fools. Bring it on and the voters will tell you how it is.
James,
Less government and lower cost is almost always preferable but where has that gotten Adams County? We have lost millions (that we know of) due to poor oversight in the past by the Board of Commissioners.
With only three commissioners you have a situation where two of them working together can run the county however they see fit. There is no debate, no working to consensus. That was the legacy of Alice Nichol and Larry Pace as well as others who have held the office. They colluded together and thier underhanded backroom dealings put the county where it is at today.
Five commissioners dilutes the power of any one (or two) individuals on the board. It would increase oversight, make it more difficult for one group to ramrod proposals through, and foster greater debate and deliberation.
Is there a cost? Absolutely yes. However at this point Adams County can’t afford not to make this move.
Increasing the board to five members is essentially playing the odds in our favor. Unless you believe that a majority of the people in the county are corrupt (and I don’t), increasing the size of the board will increase the likelihood that a a majority of commissioners are honest and are looking out for the best interests of the county. Or in a worst-case scenario, it increases the likelihood that at least one competent and well-intended person is on the board. Look at the impact that one such person, Erik Hansen, has had since he replaced Larry Pace.
The impact of even one good person is huge. The impact of multiple good people, and particularly a majority, is enormous, and that is what it will take to turn this county around.
So why do we need to expand to five? The summary of the survey (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18801028) provides a clue. It states that “Adams County government was rated as somewhat favorable or very favorable by 65 percent of Adams County voters.”
What does that tell us? Well, it tells us that around 50% percent of voters are not paying attention, to be quite frank about it. The only rationale for positive ratings are going to be based on the performance of Erik Hansen or the perception that the announced reforms are going to fix the problems (which is far from a sure thing for multiple reasons). Those two things likely warrant perhaps a 15 to 25 percent approval rating, so the rest is simply people not reading the news and not understanding the situation. If the results of the survey were released by media awareness or other factors, I guarantee that you would see much lower figures.
People who are paying attention are aware that this county needs a complete turnover in leadership (other than Hansen). But we’re a minority of voters if you believe the survey. So what’s it going to take? It’s going to take a lot of activism in the upcoming commissioner elections in 2012. We need a majority of competent, professional, and ethical people on the board, and that’s going to come one of three ways:
1. Kicking out at least one (or preferably both) of the current incumbents up for election on a three-person board.
2. Voting in a majority of worthy leaders on a five-person board.
3. Both of the above.
If we don’t expand the size of the board, only one of the options above will work, and knowledgeable voters are outnumbered right now by clueless voters. If we expand the board, two of the options will work, and it’s also much more likely that knowledgeable voters can claim two or more seats and get people on board who will assist Hansen in the reforms. So let’s expand the size of the board.
And for crying out loud, educate people about what’s going on. We need to let the 50 percent of voters who are clueless know about how the county has been run. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers. It’s not just the paving scandal and the assessor scandal. It’s the jail security contract, it’s the needs assessment contract, it’s the office furniture contract, it’s the incompetence in handling the legal challenge on the landfill, it’s the land purchase scandal, it’s the ignoring of the Colorado Open Records Act. As the election nears, tell people about these things so they won’t vote simply on name recognition. Whether we expand the board or not, this education HAS to happen to turn Adams County around.
[...] Lastly, there is a very important reform measure on county voters’ ballots that we absolutely must pass. [...]