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Home My WebLink About20121554.tiff RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS MINUTES BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WELD COUNTY, COLORADO JUNE 20, 2012 The Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado, met in regular session in full conformity with the laws of the State of Colorado at the regular place of meeting in the Weld County Administration Building, Greeley, Colorado, June 20, 2012, at the hour of 9:00 a.m. ROLL CALL: The meeting was called to order by the Chair and on roll call the following members were present, constituting a quorum of the members thereof: Commissioner Sean P. Conway, Chair Commissioner William F. Garcia, Pro-Tem Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer Commissioner David E. Long Commissioner Douglas Rademacher Also present: County Attorney, Bruce T. Barker Acting Clerk to the Board, Esther Gesick/Debbie Heffel Director of Finance and Administration, Monica Mika e MINUTES: Commissioner Long moved to approve the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners meeting of June 18, 2012, as printed. Commissioner Garcia seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously. e AMENDMENTS TO AGENDA: There were no amendments to the agenda. le PUBLIC INPUT: Public input was given by Doug Meyer, County resident, regarding the Governor's decision about the drought situation. le CONSENT AGENDA: Commissioner Rademacher moved to approve the Consent Agenda as printed. Commissioner Kirkmeyer seconded the motion, and it carried unanimously. PROCLAMATIONS: fl 1) WELD COUNTY POLICE OFFICERS WEEK - JUNE 24-30, 2012, AND PEACE OFFICER MEMORIAL DAY - JUNE 25, 2012: Chair Conway read the Proclamation for the record. Sheriff John Cooke, Deputy Margie Martinez, and Deputy Randy Winset were present to accept the proclamation certificate. Fl COMMISSIONER COORDINATOR REPORTS: Commissioner Rademacher thanked the Governor for coming up to Weld County to meet with the Commissioners, although he delivered a negative answer to the Board's request for well pumping and drought relief. Commissioners Garcia, Long, and Kirkmeyer all agreed and thanked Chair Conway for his leadership in this matter. A1)-- Minutes, June 20, 2012 2012-1554 n \ Page 1 BC0016 NEW BUSINESS: E 1) CONSIDER CONGESTION MITIGATION AND AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) CONTRACT FOR COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS (CNG) AND AUTHORIZE CHAIR TO SIGN: Elizabeth Relford, Department of Public Works, stated this process was started in 2011, and she recommended approval to expedite completion of the contract. Commissioner Kirkmeyer moved to approve said contract and authorize the Chair to sign. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rademacher and it carried unanimously. RESOLUTIONS AND ORDINANCES: The resolutions were presented and signed as listed on the Consent Agenda. No Ordinances were approved. Let the minutes reflect that the above and foregoing actions were attested to and respectfully submitted by the Acting Clerk to the Board. There being no further business, this meeting was adjourned at 9:28 a.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS WELD COUNTY, COLORADO EXCUSED D: - OF APPROVAL Sean w- Chair Weld County Clerk to the Board f / William F. Garci-, Pro-Tem BY: Deputy CI k to the Board 00 "mom EXCUSED DATE OF APPROVAL , / `B, a K eye N�I� t =al David E. Long 7.1r 1 S, �1 Douglas IRademache ! Minutes, June 20, 2012 2012-1554 Page 2 BC0016 Fw: first coordination meeting for lincoln county, colorado - Yahoo! Mail G,CHIBIT 7f Page 1 of 3 A1400 , MClassic AIL 7iliat:Wg Fw: first coordination meeting for lincoln county, colorado Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 AM • Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 6:25 PM Subject: FW: first coordination meeting for lincoln county, colorado At the American Stewards of Liberty conference in Denver, a group of citizens of Lincoln County, Colorado who are opposing a railroad bypass designed to remove congestion from the urban colorado front (Denver, Colorado Springs) to the plains rural counties (to pass through and take private property) asked for our assistance in implementing coordination with their county. The first meeting was held today, and the Department of Colorado responded to the coordination invocation and meeting. The Commissioners made their presentations of local problems and impacts which had been ignored in the study performed to date, a study centered and focused only on benefit to the urban areas of removing from there air pollution, congestion, and noise. They made their statements of flaws in the study report. Their associates supplemented their statements with specific examples of the economic and social costs and adverse impacts of running this freight right of way through their private property. I gave a brief half hour or so argument that NEPA should have started years ago, and that NEPA requires coordination with the county, citing the regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality and citing examples from their "executive committee" of planners (state, railroad and consultants) as to how they had proceeded well past where they should have without complying with NEPA. I showed them from their own records and the regulations how this was a major federal action even though no federal agency is yet involved (openly). The Commissioners then took a pre-arranged recess before the Department responded. Margaret and I spent yesterday afternoon briefing the commissioners and their associates and the county attorney, and helping them prepare the way that their presentations would be given. I believe they were made more comfortable by the fact that they didn't have to deal with the law at all---just the real meat and potatoes of their local economic and environmental problems that would be caused by having a railroad right of way ittp://us.mc631.mail.vahnn enro ,. i�� ...A r ____ _, K. ' _. Fw: first coordination meeting for lincoln county, colorado - Yahoo! Mail Page 2 of 3 dividing their farms and ranches and school bus routes and water lines and sources. Their attorney is part time and he understands the coordinaton concept but said that he just hadn't had a lot of experience with the federal laws in the detail that he felt comfortable fielding any legal objections that the state might have. I said that I would take all the legal questions, and that put him at ease too. This morning, when the chairman of the commission spoke, he was last to speak, he ended by turning the floor to me to discuss NEPA. During the recess, the director of the state department came over and introduced himself and said he appreciated and agreed with the remarks. Said this process started before he got there, but he would probably have started the same way in order to try to save money---but admitted that they had gotten so far into the details that "we are now chasing our tail." I wondered how he would handle the situation when the meeting resumed; and to my surprise and delight, he said the same thing publicly, that they had not handled the situation right, he didn't know whether they had violated the law but knew that what they had done was not fair. Committed that they would coordinate, and that in the next phase would study the impacts on the local area, responding to the issues that were raised at the meeting. He said that what the commissioners and landowners had raised were indeed serious and needed serious planning attention. He assured the commissioners and public in the crowd (it was a filled meeting room of people who knew they couldn't speak because it was not a "Public meeting" for comment, but a government to government meeting) that they were not near a decision, and would make none until all these issues were considered and weighed. One of his planners, who didn't realize that her director had just surrendered to what is right and lawful, then outlined the next step and how they would have to organized partners in the Universities and so on, and then a citizens advisory committee and then come for local government meetings. What she did was lay out for us the details so that we are in a position of having this county take the lead as a player in the next planning stage of local impacts and benefits or lack thereof. Then, there were questions. Margaret asked several penetrating questions about whether they had decided to do an ea or an eis, and after one of the planners talked but did not answer, the director said that if they proceeded after this next step, it would be an eis, not an ea, because a much more detailed study was warranted by the important issues the county had raised. She asked enough questions to show once again that they should have been in NEPA and were not. At the end of questions by Margaret and several associates, I made a simple statement that during the recess I had talked with the head of their planning department who admitted that public perception was that a decison had already been made and the time was here to correct that through coordination. The Chairman then asked when it would be helpful to have a second meeting, and thats when you always kind of wince as you wait to see what they say about continuing the process. Without skipping a heart beat, the director said "in about two months we should be able to discuss the next stage of involving you in the process" He said the Board could just set a date as they looked ahead at their schedule and the department would come to a regular business meeting and coordinate. Margaret said that as the last statements were being made, the director had been looking at his calendar. � . .n.. �„ . Fw-first coordination meeting for lincoln county,colorado-Yahoo!Mai] Page 3 of 3 So,coordination is underway for the folks of Lincoln County,Colorado. It was a first for me;never had such a complete turn around announced right at the first meeting. We debriefed the commissioners,and said we would draft a statement letter for their review and their counsel's review setting forth their ideas as to how and where this department should take its next step and onward throughout the plannng process. The process does work. _.„ . . Hello