While searching for a good ‘Home on the Range’ photograph to illustrate Part Three, I came upon Maddie the Singing Cat, on YouTube.
But I couldn’t bring myself to use a cat — no matter how talented — for the featured photo. So I went with a photo of the Weld County Board of County Commissioners, which you see at the top of the page. Weld County is one of the two Colorado counties that has chosen to become a Home Rule county.
In the photo, we notice a few things about Weld County. First, there are five commissioners, instead of the three we have in Archuleta County. Second, the men get to sit in chairs, and the women are expected to stand behind them. And everyone seems happy with that arrangement.
Third, the county’s motto is ‘In God We Trust’. Probably not your typical left-leaning county government.
My personal interest in Home Rule counties derives in part from living in a Home Rule town, Pagosa Springs. Eighteen years of attending government board meetings and writing about the results — and eighteen years of following and participating in local election efforts to raise taxes or prevent the raising of taxes — have lent a certain familiarity with the ways Home Rule encourages citizen participation.
Citizen participation is, overall, a good thing, in my book… although admittedly somewhat messy.
I can’t say for certain that the Town government, operating under a Home Rule Charter, is more responsive to the voters and taxpayers simply because of its Home Rule Charter. No doubt other factors are also in play. But I do consider the Town government to be a good example of how local government ought to operate. Generally speaking.
I can’t say the same for our Archuleta County government. Despite the fact that our current crop of commissioners is one of the best I’ve seen in my eighteen years as Daily Post editor, certain aspects of our County government seem terribly dysfunctional, and the numerous lawsuits in which the County is currently entangled, speak to that dysfunctional condition.
As mentioned before, 85% of our community lives outside the town limits, and thus does not benefit from the advantages of Home Rule governance.
As mentioned before, only two of Colorado’s 64 counties have chosen to become Home Rule counties, even though the voters amended the Colorado Constitution in 1970 to allow for county home rule. And one of those counties is Weld County, in the northeast part of the state. Opposite, you might say, from Archuleta County. Geographically opposite, but perhaps not politically opposite.
Although the Weld County Home Rule Charter dates from 1975, the current commissioners are not letting it sit on the shelf, gathering dust. They’ve placed a proposed amendment to the Charter on the 2022 ballot, for the voters to consider.
From the Weld County website, dated August 12, 2022:
On Wednesday, Weld County Commissioners passed a resolution to put a question on the November ballot to amend a portion of the Weld County Home Rule Charter with regard to collective bargaining.
In May 2022, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed SB 22-230, which grants employees of Colorado counties, including home rule counties, the right to engage in collective bargaining with their board of commissioners, despite Weld County’s (and 37 other Colorado counties) opposition to the bill.
If this news report is accurate, over half the counties in Colorado were opposed to SB 22-230. Archuleta Board of County Commissioners also opposed the new law, as I recall. From what I understand, the proposed bill began as strong ‘pro-labor’ legislation, granting collective bargaining rights to cities, towns, school districts, and counties — about 250,000 employees across the state — but the bill faced a veto from Governor Jared Polis, and was seriously ‘watered down’ in the final version. It now applies only to Colorado’s 38,000 county employees, and doesn’t allow them to strike, nor does it require binding arbitration.
It actually seems pretty toothless, except that it protects employees from retribution, if they engage in union activities.
But Weld County was not going to accept any kind of union rights in their county government. Their press release continued:
“In 1975, voters in Weld County voted and passed the home rule charter, which outlined how voters wanted their government run. Since that time, the voters have elected commissioners to handle the business of the county, including how to manage their tax dollars,” said Commissioner Chair Scott James. “This bill undermines the direction of the voters, takes local control of how their tax dollars are managed and just gives it away to this state bill.”
Weld County voters are being asked to approve an amendment to the Home Rule Charter to make it clear that “It is against public policy for the County to collectively bargain with County employees. The Board of County Commissioners shall not enter into any collective bargaining agreement with County employees. The County is under no obligation to recognize or negotiate with, for the purpose of collective bargaining, any collective bargaining unit of County employees, their exclusive representative(s), or any employee organization(s) chosen to represent them.”
If Colorado politics were a poker table, and Governor Polis and the General Assembly were betting SB 22-230, claiming that it applies to all counties in Colorado, the Weld Commissioners would be raising them a new Home Rule Charter amendment (with the prospective backing of Weld County voters.)
I’m not a lawyer, but my reading of SB 22-230 and the Colorado Constitution suggests that Weld County will lose the bet, when the question finally arrives on the counting table of the Colorado Supreme Court.
But God bless them for trying, if that’s how their taxpayers feel about union organizing.
And maybe that’s something that comes from being a Home Rule county? You’re more willing to be audacious?