HomeMy WebLinkAbout750613.tiff EXCERPT FROM HOME RULE MEETING
CHARTER COMMISSION
WELD COUNTY, COLORADO
JUNE 26, 1975
TAPE #39
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Next thing is, how is the public going
to receive it. And that' s for us to find out through the sum-
mer and to have some input into it. Which brings up my next
problem area. I see that, first of all, we might, maybe it
should be an executive session, but we have an internal prob-
lem and that is that we must give up our secretary in the next
week or so. We have two things to accomplish. We want to put
a book together, a folder, ad pamphlet, or whatever you want to
call it, on the charter. And I would think that it would be nec-
essary to get again good people with good intent and with a great
deal of ability to volunteer as a committee to draft a Weld Coun-
ty Charter explanation booklet similar to those others that had
been drafted previously. I would appreciate your expertise and
professional ability wherever possible by volunteering for the
committee. It' s going to be another job and I think that we can
put it together with some professional help. I think it' s absolutely
necessary that we do it. And I bring it up to you to find out how
much we can involve county funds in building this brochure. How
many are we obligated to print? How far do we go with it? Has any-
one thought about it yet?
UNIDENTIFIABLE MALE VOICE: Good question.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON : Mrs . Clark.
MRS , CLARK: You 're speaking of something other than the
basic charter. The charter will have to be printed at the county' s
expense.
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CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Something in addition to the charter. It
won't be the charter. It will be something for public dissimination
across the county. It will have the charter in it, but it will
tell what the background was for it, what it is now, the government
is now, what we propose it to be and an explanation of the process.
I don't have any idea how many we want to put out across the county.
I think that we are obligated to put out or publish some document
of some sort.
MR. WALDO: Has Mr. West advised us what under the statute we
should spend to. . .
MR. WEST: I really haven' t given it any thought because no-
body had asked me.
MR. WALDO: This is kind of a question on whether we're within
bounds or out of bounds and how far can we go. And we certainly
don' t want to do anything that is clearly wrong or even might be
thought to be wrong. Yet, we want to support it all we can.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Would you like for Mr. West to research it?
At that time I will appoint a committee of volunteers to carry out
this function. You might be right, Ralph, in having it researched.
I think it might, it could possibly be a touchy area. Glenn, do you
have any thoughts on it?
MR. BILLINGS: No, not that I could comment one way or another
whether there was any legal problem or whether there wasn' t. I would
probably guess that there would not be a legal problem. I guess you
will have to rely on Bill. I don' t think the statute would speci-
fically say that you cannot.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Mr. Brown.
MR. BROWN : I was wondering on the original budget, have we
spent all of it?
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CHAIRMAN JOHNSON; No, we have not,
MR, BROWN: Is this, could this be used for that purpose?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Well, that budget was just to fund us.
We don't have a specific budget to, we're trying to spend up.
MR. BROWN: No, I don' t mean that. Let' s don' t get into that.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Mr. Carlson.
MR. CARLSON: Do you have any approximate cost of what it would
be and what it would entail?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Again, we don't know how many colors you
are going, how thick is the book, what quality paper are you going
to use.
MR. CARLSON: You really haven' t gone into it that far at all.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: This is something that, when Mr. Billings
told me that it looked like the election would be set sometime in
September, I knew we had a lot of time to bring it up to date. I
think it might take thirty days to bring one up. And, again, I would
suggest that maybe you might think towards getting the facilities
and the help of someone like the people on the League of Women
Voters, who brought a booklet up on Weld County' s history. A
document that is rather well done. I have a copy of it. I think
I have it right here. I ' ll have to dig it out. I 'm running out of
room. But it' s about the size of what we would be talking about
with the charter . Mrs . Clark.
MRS . CLARK: I just remembered the Summit County and I think
we should maybe investigate what, of course, they had to print two.
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But I know the first one they had their letter from the members
and they had about five pages where they gave a brief explanation
of the basic changes that were made within the article. And I 'm
just wondering if that' s the kind of thing that you're talking
about. If we could, in fact, find out if there was a precedence
set in that underwriting the expense.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: I don't know that a precedence was applied.
I think that we might set a precedence here.
MRS. CLARK: I think the sort of thing that they did though
was very good.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Yes, I think. . .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE: Results.
MRS . CLARK: Not the results, but the book itself.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: We need some type of a document. I mean
not much more than the charter itself is . But, I think it needs
to have some basic explanation of what it entails . Something that
we are continually asked for, this document, from all sources. I
mean they come to the office all the time. Now, while you have that
on your mind, I originally contracted for our secretary, Pat, for
approximately six months as per your directions, and that time with
the extension has been exceeded and concluded. Now, I want to know
what your desire is as far as a secretary. I have made arrangements
throught the County Commissioners that Pat will maintain employment
for the county in the Planning and Zoning. They have a position for
here in their office. I would not like to jeopardize her position in
going into another job, but in the same time, I see that we have ad-
ditional duties. I would be very honest with you. I don' t want to
give up our telephone number over here because we have inquiries that
come from many places continually. And I think it would be good if
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we had some base of operation so I would have a contact here and
someone to sort mail for us and to do minimal tasks for a while.
If we go into a booklet, maybe we 're going to need her services
for that sort of thing. I would like to keep that telephone num-
ber and I think that through arrangements with some of the other
people in the Planning and Zoning, that we could have that tele-
phone number transferred in there. And that her basic duty would be
with Planning ans Zoning and her added duty would be to us, if
necessary. I would hate to think of the eventuality that we might
have this charter not be accepted and then have to find another
secretary when we have to go, if we have to go, back into session
again. I 'm trying to think way down the road, cover all points.
So, with your permission, the best thing that we could do in ap-
proximately a week, I would think, would be to release Pat to her
new position with them, unless you want to use her services in the
documentation of this new book. And I don' t know if that would be
very long employment. They are of the opinion down there that they
want her and that they are holding open the position for her, and
that she should go to that position. Mr . Dunbar.
MR. DUNBAR: I wouldn' t jeopardize the chance to, of getting
(not audible) .
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Mrs. Clark.
MRS. CLARK: Would there be anyway that we could have a 3/4 ,
1/4 of time, that sort of thing?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON : They are rather opposed to 1/4, 3/4 thing of
the sharing. However, any duties that we could put the telephone in
there and they would agree to this sort of thing and she could answer
and transmit messages to whomever need be, as well as we would have
a mail drop and a place for me to drop in once in a while and a
place for me to coordinate throught, but not to be used during regular
office hours. Now, added duties that Pat would do for us would be
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evenings and Saturday work or something like that if we had some-
thing that needs to be sent out. And then I could pay her through
a voucher system for that added time, similar to the way that we
are taking care of our internal duties to the Jeanne ' s. Would
that be agreeable? Wouldn't that be okay? A situation like that.
All right, so be it. I would like to, Mr. Billings .
MR. BILLINGS : Well, before you get off, if that' s all on
that subject. . .
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON : We are finished on that subject. Is this
a new one?
MR. BILLINGS: Well, unless the Charter Commission thought
the County Commissioners were over expending their budget, we'd
like you to take your name plates with you. It' s something you
might use for your desk you have out on the farm or wherever.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICES : Thank you.
MR. BROWN: Bob has the perfect suggestion. He is going to
take it home and put it on his tractor, but he ' s going to put Mrs.
in front of it.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Now, I will take volunteers for this other
committee. This charter book, this pamphlet, whatever you want to
call it. Mrs. Clark and I would appoint George Brooks to that com-
mittee automatically. I think, I ' ll tell you what. If you feel
you would like to serve on that committee, come up and talk to me.
And if enough of you don' t volunteer, I ' ll be talking to you. Now,
I would like to appoint an interim committee at this time to study
only, and I stress the point study only, the possibility of coming
up with some type of cost analysis of what the charter might entail.
And that information might be made available if it were ever needed
between now and the election. And I will, therefore, appoint Mr.
Lesh as the Chairman of the committee. And I will contact others of
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you or Mr, Lesh will, in the near future to enlarge upon the com-
mittee. I feel it better that I talk to you before I arbitrarily
name you to the committee because you might have had enough of it
and you don't want to serve or you might be interested in it. But,
I will appoint Mr. Lesh as Chairman of the committee because I
have conferred with him previously and then I say again, this is
only a study committee, an interim committee, to serve between now
and the time the Charter Commission, the Charter is acted on by
the public. But, they again, aren't only to garner information that
might be used to answer any possible difficult areas that would
involve costs of the Charter. Does anyone have anything else you'd
like to bring up at this late hour? Mrs. Clark.
MRS. CLARK: I wonder what happened to our social function on
the 8th?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: There was not a definite date set for the
social function. However, I was of the opinion from the last time
we talked that I didn' t know exactly that we would have an approved
crowd. I didn' t want to go down and rent a place and be stuck with
the bill to tell you the truth. If you will commit to me that so
many of you will attend, I will make reservations for dinner and do
it that way, if you would like a social function. Now, if that is
your desire, say around the 8th. Is that a Friday night or something?
MRS . CLARK: No, that was a Tuesday night and I don' t remember
how we arbitrarily decided on that. There was some discussion, but
I don' t. . .
MR. ANDERSON: Because it was the day before Lesh' s birthday.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: If I go down and work it out for the 8th,
say, how many will come to the thing if I make the arrangements?
How many would actually come? I get about a dozen. That includes
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members of the news media that have to set through all this. Ron,
will you come?
MR. TOLLEFSON: Sure.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: And Bob, and, . .
MR. BERND: Is that a city council night? Oh well, I 've
got a baseball game,
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Yea, and you guys over here, you gals over
here, will you come? There is about sixteen. Do you want to have
it?
MR, ANDERSON: That' s thirty-two.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: That' s thirty-two. Okay, well, I 'm going
to go down and rent something like the good old Holiday Inn. How
is that for dinner? Sit down, white ties, black tails, and all
that sort of thing and all like that. Just to come out and have a
good time in party. Cash bar. All right, consider it done.
MRS . CLARK: For the 8th?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: I 'd better check before we set a date. We
will notify you from the office. Anything else? Mr. Waldo.
MR. WALDO: What are we going to do about trying to promote this
and sell it to the people? I mean, we have worked pretty hard on
it and I didn't go for it to begin with, but I 'm pretty well turned
over now and convinced we have something worth while. And I 'd hate
to see us waste all this work and time and I think we ought to con-
sider what we as members of the Commission can do in good faith and
properly to promote the, to disseminate information about it and try
to sell the good features of it to the public and I think. . .
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CHAIRMAN JOHNSON; You have reached that same area again,
Ralph, that we were talking about a few minutes ago. How far
into it can the Charter Commission go? Obviously, all the mem-
bers can go as far as they individually deem necessary, but as
a Commmission, how far do we go? I don't know, but what out
obligations and duties under the law have been pretty well dis-
pensed with at this point. Mr. West.
MR. WEST: I think that' s true.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: I think that we would have to form somewhat
of an ad hoc committee of the Charter Commission that would have
nothing legally to do with the Charter Commission, but be comprised
of members thereof that would like to go out and put on a road show
and tell them what it' s all about.
MR. WALDO: Why don't we, when we dismiss this meeting, have
an ad hoc meeting and talk about it?
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: All right, fine. Consider that done. Any-
thing else for the Charter Commission at our last meeting? I can' t
believe this. You act like you don't want to go home.
MRS. CLARK: We do.
MR. BAIN: 11 :30, almost.
CHAIRMAN JOHNSON: Anything else? For the last time, this
meeting is adjourned.
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