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Home My WebLink About20170809.tiffLA .A1 MSEC Employment Law • HR • Training • Surveys March 14, 2017 Karin McDougal, Esq. Weld County 1150 O Street Greeley, CO 80631 Re: Investigation of Complaint Given to Media Dear Ms. McDougal: 1799 Pennsylvania Street P.O. Box 539 Denver, Colorado 80201-0539 303,839.5177 (main) 800.884.1328 (toll free) 303.863.8956 (fox) MSEC.org Attached please find the complete Investigation Report. I have attached the original signed summary statements procured in this process. These are typed on my computer during the interviews before hard copies are reviewed/modified by the participants before signature. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the substance of this report, please do not hesitate to contact me at 303-223-5518. Should disciplinary action result against any employee in consideration of this Investigation Report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that the disciplined employee receive a summary of the nature and substance of findings. The "Summary of Findings" section of the Investigation Report is included to support that communication. The Investigation Report is not intended for disclosure to participants or management without a legitimate "need to know." Do not hesitate to contact me to discuss how you might otherwise choose to communicate with participants at the close of this process. For this and all other continuing issues related to addressing behavioral or performance issues, training, follow-up, or other employee relations issues, you are encouraged to seek counsel from MSEC as a function of your membership. Your assigned staff person is Christine Harkness, who is an attorney, and will be able to help you with any additional issues that may come up as a result of this investigation. Thank you for your assistance in the coordination of interviews in this process and thank you for your patience regarding provision of the final Investigation Report. Sincerely, MOUNTAIN STATES EMPLOYERS COUNCIL, INC. r ; Lori Karl Workplace Investigations LK/bb Attachments (mm0(1;CG.A 0r s 3/ 90111 CC:Ca.C13811crn) HR C PR) 3/1-1/17 2017-0809 PE.003D Scottsdale 602.955.7558 Fort Collins 970.223.4107 Colorado Springs 719.667.0677 Salt Lake City 801.364.8479 C k°OO (CD (6C 0050 INVESTIGATION REPORT Privileged and Confidential Information Attorney -Client and Work Product Privileged Not For Distribution To: Subject: Conducted by: Date of Report: Investigation Active: Procedure: Karin McDougal, Esq., Assistant County Attorney, Weld County, Colorado Investigation ofComplaint Given to Media Lori Karl, Workplace Investigator, Mountain States Employers Council, Inc. March 13, 2017 February 3, 2017 to March 13, 2017 Patti Russell, Director of Human Resources (HR), Weld County, Colorado (Weld County), contacted Michele Sturgell of Mountain States Employers Council, Inc. (MSEC) to perform a workplace investigation into allegations made by Ms. Sturgell explained the investigation process to Ms. Russell and clarified the investigator's role and the necessary expectations in this process as communicated to all participants and referenced below. The undersigned, Lori Karl, assumed the role of investigator in this matter. I conducted personal interviews and prepared written summary statements for each witness. I communicated similar introductory remarks to each witness. These remarks addressed the purpose of the investigation and my role as a neutral fact finder, Weld County's prohibition against retaliation for participation in the investigation and/or making complaints under the equal employment opportunity policy, the expectation to be truthful and complete in responses to questions, and the importance of treating the entire matter confidentially. Each witness reviewed his or her statement with me. I encouraged each witness to make any additions, deletions or other modifications necessary to accurately reflect his or her statement. Each witness attested to the completeness and accuracy of the statement by signing his or her summary statement. Unless otherwise noted, all interviews were conducted at Weld County's office located at 1150 O Street, in Greeley, Colorado. On February 23, 2017, I interviewed County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer by telephone'. 1 Commissioner Kirkmeyer was interviewed by telephone because she was not available when this investigator conducted interviews in Greeley. Weld County complaint given to media Page 2 of 17 On February 28, 2017, I interviewed the following individuals: a. b. Commissioner Mike Freeman; c. Director of I-IR Patti Russell; d. Commissioner Steve Moreno; e. Commissioner Julie Cozad; and f. County Attorney Bruce Barker. Also on February 28, 2017, I interviewed Director of Finance and Administration Don Warden by telephone2. On March 3, 2017, Commissioner Sean Conway declined to be interviewed through an email from his attorney, Jill Gookin. See Attachment 21. Sherrie Peif, reporter for Complete Colorado, did not return Ms. Russell's phone calls requesting an interview for this investigation. Attachments: 1. Email from _ dated November 23, 2016, re: employee incident documentation 2. Letter to Commissioner Sean Conway, dated November 30, 2016, re: notice of investigation of incident of harassment of by you on November 23, 2016 3. Email from dated January 7, 2017, re: question re: my harassment complaint at Weld County 4. Greeley Tribune article 5. Complete Colorado article with attached emails 6. Sherrie Peif's Facebook post 7. Greeley Tribune article re: Commissioner Conway's notice of pending lawsuit 8. Greeley Tribune article re: commissioners keeping Commissioner Conway from leadership role 9. Transcripts of January 6, 2017 voice mail messages from Commissioner Conway to Patti Russell and Bruce Barker 10. Anonymous letter sent to Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer 11. Anonymous letter to Patti Russell mailed to MSEC employee Michele Sturgell 12. September 2016 email exchange re: new CORA request 13. Barbara Kirkmeyer summary statement 14. summary statement 15. Patti Russell summary statement 16. Commissioner Mike Freeman summary statement 2 This investigator interviewed Mr. Warden by telephone because he was unavailable in person. Weld County complaint given to media Page 3 of 17 17. Don Warden summary statement 18. Commissioner Julie Cozad summary statement 19. Commissioner Steve Moreno summary statement a. Complete Colorado article re: Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblower violations 20. Bruce Barker summary statement 21. Email from Jill Gookin, dated March 3, 2017, re: Conway complaint 22. Email from Michele Sturgell, dated March 6, 2017, re: Background and Summary of Issues Weld County is governed by five elected County Commissioners who serve four year terms. for the Board of Weld County Commissioners, filed a complaint against Commissioner Conway on November 23, 2016, regarding an interaction she had with him that day.. included in her complaint details about three previous interactions with Commissioner Conway during which she felt "verbally accosted." Attachment 1. complaint was investigated by Michele Sturgell from MSEC. _ sent an email to Ms. Sturgell on January 7, 2017, alleging that someone shared with the media her November 23, 2016 email complaint against Commissioner Conway, which she considers an act of "retaliation." . states in her email that one reporter who wrote an article referencing her complaint, Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado, posted on her Facebook page that Commissioner Conway gave her a copy of. complaint. Attachment 3. Ms. Russell contacted MSEC to perform a third party investigation into allegations. Each of the pertinent allegations will be addressed individually. This investigator recommends that the reader of this report entertain the potential application of the alleged discriminatory basis, retaliation, to each asserted instance of negative or unfair treatment identified by. as this investigator has attempted to do. Investigator Findings This section identifies the pertinent allegations, followed by identification of specific sources of supporting or refuting information. Investigator commentary follows to develop specific areas of concern, address credibility assessment, or provide other subjective comment. For a comprehensive understanding of the issues presented here it is recommended that each witness statement be reviewed individually. Allegation 1: III alleges that Commissioner Conway unjustifiably gave a copy of her November 23, 2016 complaint to reporter Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado. Supporting Information: Former employee _ states: "There is an independent reporter named Sherrie Peif who has done a lot of reporting on local politics. She works for Weld County complaint given to media Page 4 of 17 Complete Colorado. I followed Ms. Peif on Facebook to see what she was writing about. In January 2017, a reporter from the Greeley Tribune tried to contact me through Facebook and Linked In to comment on an article because they had anonymously received in the mail my complaint about Commissioner Sean Conway. I didn't call the reporter back. ... Once I knew the Tribune released an article about the investigation into my complaint, I looked at Ms. Peif's Facebook post which referenced she had a new story on her blog. I clicked on the link from Ms. Peifs Facebook post to read her blog. When I read her blog, I noticed that she quoted certain portions of my November 2016 complaint. Also on Ms. Peifs Facebook page, she chastised the Tribune for saying it anonymously received my complaint, and admitted she received my complaint from Commissioner Conway [Attachment 6]. I took a screenshot of Ms. Peif's Facebook past and sent it to MSEC with information about the media articles. After I sent my email to MSEC, I contacted our Public Information Officer, - who handles media for all of Weld County, and she said Weld County did not release my complaint to the media." continues: "I think Commissioner Conway released my complaint to both Ms. Peif and the Tribune. If it wasn't Commissioner Conway, it was someone working with him. My original complaint went to the four other Commissioners who witnessed the event that precipitated my complaint, Patti Russell, and Bruce Barker. From what I understand, because it was a complaint, Mr. Barker had to provide a copy of my complaint to Commissioner Conway. I didn't care that Commissioner Conway had my complaint because it stated the facts, but I didn't want him to share it with the press. I don't know why Commissioner Conway would share it with the press because it's a word for word account of his harassment." says: "I don't think any of the other people who had a copy of my complaint would have sent it to the media. They have been trying to maintain my confidentiality. Ms. Peif s article had email attachments which she probably received through a CORA request. The County redacted information from the emails, showing they were trying to maintain my confidentiality. It felt bad to read about myself on the front page of the newspaper when I hadn't given my permission. This was a personnel issue and I don't believe it should have been released. If it was Commissioner Conway, maybe he thought he would get ahead of the fire storm by releasing my complaint. Or maybe he was trying to discredit me and my complaint." - adds: "I did not release my complaint to the media. It made me feel uncomfortable to see my complaint in the press. It felt like a personal betrayal. Even after I complained and submitted my resignation, I worked hard to train my replacement so she would have a seamless transition. I don't think Commissioner Conway took my complaint seriously and felt he could still do what he wanted. But the other four Commissioners felt my complaint was serious and it needed to Weld County complaint given to media Page 5 of 17 be addressed. The whole situation is uncomfortable, but I complained about Commissioner Conway's behavior so it might help someone else in the future." Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer says: "I had a copy of complaint that she filed in November 2016.... I did not provide a copy of. complaint to the media. I don't know who provided it to the media, but I know Commissioner Conway gave. complaint to Sherrie Peif, who works for Complete Colorado, an internet political blog site. Ms. Peif and Commissioner Conway are friends. She wrote on her Facebook page that Conunissioner Conway gave her. _ complaint. I know Commissioner Conway sent emails to Ms. Peif because we called in our IT Director, gave him a copy of the emails, and asked him to chase them down. Commissioner Conway denied sending the emails to Ms. Peif, but our IT Director gave us proof that Commissioner Conway sent the emails to his home email address, and then from his home email address to Ms. Peif. When we confronted Commissioner Conway, he said he didn't remember doing it." Commissioner Kirkmeyer adds: "I don't think. - would have sent the letter to the media because that's not her personality, and she had already resigned from her position. She's not confrontational and she has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to have that kind of stress. Her way of dealing with the situation was to leave her job. ... I don't think Patti Russell [or] Bruce Barker sent the. complaint to the media. I refer to Mr. Barker as our 'Abe Lincoln' of the office because he's very honest and credible. I don't think any of the other Commissioners sent it because we knew an investigation was going on with regard to the complaint, and I don't think it's their personalities. When we gave the complaint to Commissioner Conway in November 2016, we tried to do it respectfully, and then he accused us of having an illegal meeting. The only person who gained from leaking the complaint to the media was Commissioner Conway because it made him look like a victim. I think he wants to look like a victim so the light isn't shining on him." Commissioner Mike Freeman states: "Mr. Barker sent me the letter he drafted to be given from the Board to Commissioner Conway to notify him of November 2016] complaint.. _ complaint was attached to the letter to be given to Commissioner Conway, as well of copies of relevant policies, but I didn't keep a copy of any documents in the packet. I signed the letter to Commissioner Conway and gave the entire packet to him.... Ms. Peif said she receivedcomplaint from Commissioner Conway." Commissioner Freeman continues: "I did not release. complaint to the media. I don't think any of the other three Commissioners did it either. I believe it came from Commissioner Conway, either directly or indirectly. He may have done it to try to make himself look like a victim or to deflect from the issues going on in the Clerk and Recorder's office. The Clerk is Carly Koppes who is Weld County complaint given to media Page 6 of 17 Commissioner Conway's niece. ... I absolutely don't believe Bruce Barker or Patti Russell would have sent ■ complaint to the media.. would not have sent it to the media. She was extremely upset that it was sent to the media." Commissioner Freeman adds: "Commissioner Conway released attorney -client privileged information to Ms. Peif. The information released were emails between Mr. Barker and the Board regarding a meeting with Xcel. I had our IT manager check our email accounts. We learned the emails were sent directly from Commissioner Conway's phone to Ms. Peif. When I told Commissioner Conway the emails were sent from his phone, he said he didn't remember. A day or two later, Commissioner Conway admitted to sending the emails to Ms. Peif and he apologized to me. He didn't say why he did it." County Commissioner Julie Cozad says: "I had a copy of complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway. ... I did not give a copy of. complaint to the media. I don't know who did, but I suspect that Commissioner Conway may have done it. Ms. Peif directly said he gave her the complaint. I don't think any of the other Commissioners would have released the complaint to the media because they have integrity and trust. The rest of us don't do things like that. The other Commissioners are very trustworthy and possess high morals. I've known Commissioner Conway for about 6-8 years, and I trusted him in the past. But he has repeatedly given things to Ms. Peif, and he released attorney -client privileged emails on another occasion. From that point on, I realized I can't trust Commissioner Conway. I think he started doing things like that when he didn't agree with some things the Board did. I think he's grasping at straws to try to make it look like the problem is with the other Commissioners instead of with him. I think it's a deflection." Commissioner Cozad adds: "I don't believe Bruce Barker or Patti Russell would have sent _ complaint to the media. They both have high integrity. Mr. Barker is one of the best county attorneys there are. I don't believe u sent her complaint to the media. I don't think she would do that." Commissioner Steve Moreno states: "I never had a copy of complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway. I saw it, but never had a copy.... I did not release. complaint to the media. There is strong suspicion that Commissioner Conway released it to the media. Commissioner Conway was identified through IT as releasing other information to the Complete Colorado reporter who wrote about. _ complaint. I can see Commissioner Conway doing it because I've known him for a long time and he's been known to work with the media in ways to favor himself. In my opinion, Commissioner Conway may have felt he would gather support by releasing the complaint to the media. Commissioner Conway was a former press secretary for a senator and has Weld County complaint given to media Page 7 of 17 worked with the media for decades. I've heard others refer to him as the 'Spin Master' with the media." Commissioner Moreno adds: "I wouldn't understand why any of the other Commissioners would release. complaint to the media. I don't think they did it. I don't think Patti Russell or Bruce Barker sent the complaint to the media. I don't see why they would ever be inclined to do something like that. I only worked with for a couple years. I don't believe she would have released her complaint to the media." County Attorney Bruce Barker says: "On November 28, 2016, the Commissioners asked me to write a letter for them to present to Commissioner Conway on November 29 or 30. I asked Ms. Russell if there was a signed copy of the complaint so I could attach it to the letter, and she brought it to my office. It was the same thing I received from Commissioner Kirkmeyer, but signed. I attached a copy of._ signed complaint to the letter from the Commissioners and gave it to Commissioner Freeman for him to sign and present to Commissioner Conway. Commissioner Freeman told me on November 30th that the Commissioners met with Commissioner Conway during a conference in Colorado Springs and gave him the letter with the attached complaint. I attached the complaint to the letter from the Commissioners so Commissioner Conway could respond to it. On December 2, 2016, Commissioner Conway emailed me with questions and asked for copies of documents. I responded to his questions on December 5, 2016, and gave him a copy Commissioner Kirkmeyer's email, which included i complaint. That was the only time I directly gave Commissioner Conway a copy of. complaint." Mr. Barker states: "We knew Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado had already received a copy of the complaint because she admitted on Facebook that Commissioner Conway had given it to her. Ms. Peif had written an article referencing the complaint and posted it on December 22, 2016. Ms. Peif sent an email to the Commissioners the same day with questions." Mr. Barker continues: "I did not release. complaint to the media. I narrowed it down to the ten people who had copies of the complaint (5 commissioners, Ms. Russell, Mr. Warden,. me, and Michele Sturgell from MSEC for the investigation). In my opinion, it was Commissioner Conway who released the complaint to the media. The other 4 Commissioners told me to tell Commissioner Conway not to give it to anyone because it's confidential. I figured Commissioner Conway knew not to do that, but Ms. Peif admitted Commissioner Conway gave it to her. Commissioner Conway has consistently claimed to be a victim of actions against him by other Commissioners." Mr. Barker adds: "On September 28, 2016, Commissioner Conway forwarded to Ms. Peif a September 6, 2016 attorney -client privileged email exchange between Weld County complaint given to media Page 8 of 17 me and the Commissioners regarding a scheduled work session with Xcel Energy. Commissioner Conway had previously asked if he could disclose the email exchange, and I said only if the Board waived the privilege. We received a CORA request from the Independence Institute for communications about Xcel Energy on September 14, 2016, leading me to believe that Commissioner Conway had been talking to the organization about the matter. I told the organization I couldn't provide entails regarding Xcel because it was considered attorney -client privileged. I didn't hear anything more on the subject until October 17, 2016, when m sent me an article written by Ms. Peif regarding the Xcel emails. Ms. Peif mentioned in the article that Complete Colorado initially requested the emails through a CORA request but was told it was privileged. She also said in the article, `Complete Colorado was able to secure the email chain through one of the recipients who discussed the matter which waives privilege.' Commissioner Freeman asked our IT Manager to check Commissioner Conway's emails, and the Manager found that Commissioner Conway had forwarded the Xcel emails to Ms. Peif on September 28, 2016." Don Warden, Director of Finance and Administration, says: "I did not release complaint to the media. I don't know who did, but I heard that Sean Conway was suspected of doing it.... I'm almost certain none of the other 4 Commissioners would have released the complaint to the media. They understood this was a sensitive matter and would not have released it. Neither Mr. Barker nor Ms. Russell would have released. _ complaint to the media. They're very professional and know the sensitivity of this issue.I definitely don't think . would have released her complaint to the media. She called Ms. Russell after she read about it in the press and was very upset." Mr. Warden continues: "In the last year, Commissioner Conway has been at odds with the other Commissioners. Commissioner Conway released other information to the media, possibly to embarrass the other Commissioners, or to get Commissioner Kirkmeyer defeated. I've known Commissioner Conway a long time and I've worked with him for about 9 years. His behavior has changed recently in that he used to be a team player, but in the last year, he's been doing things that seem irrational and I can't explain. Commissioner Conway has some motive. He may want to harm the other Commissioners to elevate himself in the eyes of the public. I had one conversation with Commissioner Conway in August 2016 after he put his own spin on the other Commissioners' spending in conjunction with some training. I asked him, 'What is your end game? Are you trying to get Barb [Kirkmeyer] defeated?' He said he wasn't; he was just trying to be transparent to the public. Commissioner Conway subsequently released to the media a privileged email from Bruce Barker regarding a meeting with Xcel Energy. Again, I think Commissioner Conway was trying to embarrass the other Commissioners." Weld County complaint given to media Page 9 of 17 Refuting Information: Comments: • Mr. Warden adds: "Commissioner Conway's niece is the Clerk and Recorder and he's been protective of her. She has been under fire from some of her current and former employees who complained about her treatment of them. The other Commissioners have been critical of Commissioner Conway's niece. That may have led Commissioner Conway to do some of the things he's done." Patti Russell, Director of HR, says: brought her complaint to me or emailed it directly to me in November 2016 (the Monday after Thanksgiving). I also received a copy from Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I didn't give I complaint to anyone else. I did not release complaint to the media. I'm aware that Commissioner Sean Conway had a copy of. complaint because Bruce Barker, Don Warden and I discussed it. I don't know who released complaint to the media. But on Facebook, Sherrie Peif, a reporter for Complete Colorado, chastised the Greeley Tribune for releasing as much of the complaint as it did because it identified who made the accusations. I believe Ms. Peif said in her post that she got. _ complaint from Commissioner Sean Conway. Ms. Peif or Commissioner Conway may have given complaint to the Tribune. I don't know why Commissioner Conway may have released the complaint to the media, or what he may have gained from it because it doesn't make him or anyone look good." Ms. Russell continues: "I don't think any of the other Commissioners would have released IIII complaint to the media. They recognized it was a serious matter and we needed to keep it confidential to protect all parties. I don't believe Bruce Barker or Don Warden released the complaint to the media. I also don't believe released her complaint to the media. She called me after it was released and was quite upset because she thought it would be confidential." None, other than as set forth above. According to Mr. Barker, ten people had copies of or access to complaint. The eight witnesses who were interviewed deny sending complaint to reporter Sherrie Peif of Complete Colorado. The two remaining individuals are Commissioner Conway and MSEC's Michele Sturgell. Ms. Sturgell provided an email, dated March 6, 2017, which states, in part: I received complaint from Patti Russell. ...I never disclosed complaint to anyone throughout the investigation. ...I have never spoken to any member of the media regarding. complaint nor have I disclosed a copy of the complaint to anyone. Attachment 22. This investigator was unable to interview Commissioner Conway because he declined through his attorney, Jill Gookin, who made the following statement in Weld County complaint given to media Page 10 of 17 her March 3, 2017 email: "...my client has no information regarding who released the complaint so he will not be meeting with you." Attachment 21. Ms. Peif was not interviewed because she did not return Ms. Russell's phone calls requesting an interview. Ms. Peif s article in Complete Colorado, dated December 22, 2016, states that she had an "exclusive interview" with Commissioner Conway. The article states in part: `[The other County Commissioners] continue to say I broke the public's trust,' Conway said, 'But they continue to ignore that what I did was not break the public's trust. I exposed things that are going on at the county that are not only unethical, but borderline illegal.' ... Conway said his decision to retain an attorney and pursue legal remedies came after his colleagues proved determined to retaliate against him. ... Conway said the timing of the `workforce harassment' complaint is the most disturbing. Although his attorney has told him not to discuss specifics of the case, it was filed after he blew the whistle and according to documents shared with Complete Colorado, filed at the request of the commissioners. Complete Colorado will not identify the employee or the official complaint as they would identify the employee, but the complaint begins with 'As requested,' and toward the end includes 'after the conversation I stepped into the employee lunch room for a minute to make a personal call, and further collect my composure, and then went right back to my desk and jumped back into the tasks requiring my attention for the morning. I was later requested by the commissioners to create a written statement which I agreed to do. Attachment 5. Mr. Barker and Commissioner Freeman confirm that they provided a copy of. complaint to Commissioner Conway. Attached to the Complete Colorado article is a November 23, 2016 email from Commissioner Kirkmeyer to Mr. Barker, with copies to Mr. Warden, Ms. Russell and the other Commissioners, describing the phone call between. and Commissioner Conway that was the basis of. complaint, and witnessed by Commissioner Kirkmeyer and others. Attachment 5. According to Mr. Barker, on December 5, 2016 and at Commissioner Conway's request, he provided Commissioner Conway with Commissioner Kirkmeyer's email, which also included complaint. Thus, there is no question that Commissioner Conway had complaint and Commissioner Kirkmeyer's email referencing the complaint prior to granting Ms. Peif the "exclusive interview" that resulted in Ms. Peif s December 22, 2016 article. In fact, there is little question as to who provided Ms. Peif with a copy of . _ complaint as she reveals her source in a Facebook post, stating: "I admitted Sean gave me my copy." Attachment 6. Weld County complaint given to media Page 11 of 17 Mr. Barker and Commissioner Freeman point out that Weld County's IT Department learned it was Mr. Conway who sent attorney -client privileged emails to Ms. Peif of Complete Colorado in September 2016, which Ms. Peif used for an article. According to Commissioner Freeman, although Commissioner Conway initially said he didn't remember sending the emails, he later admitted to it and apologized. Thus, it appears that Commissioner Conway has a history of releasing privileged information to the media. On January 6, 2017, the day the Greeley Tribune published its article about complaint (see Allegation 2 below), Commissioner Conway left a voice mail message for Mr. Barker, stating in part: Sharon Dunn just called me and said that ... the Tribune has obtained the ...anonymously the complete complaint against me which is as you know a violation cause I haven't waived privilege and I am sure hasn't waived privilege. Attachment 9. Perhaps in an attempt to show others that he was upset about the release of the complaint and, therefore, not responsible for it, Commissioner Conway also left a voice mail message for Ms. Russell on January 6, 2017, stating in part: ...when we did this whole thing you told me that this would absolutely be kept confidential and Sharon Dunn has a complete copy of the complaint against me and just called me to ask for comment. This is a complete violation of our Human Resources policy and quite frankly a violation of and my rights. I'm not...pleased [as] you can imagine, I'm talking to my attorney. Attachment 9. Given the fact that Commissioner Conway considers the release of. complaint to be a "violation," his action is likely unjustifiable. Commissioner Conway may have been motivated to leak■ complaint to the media so he could claim, as stated in the Complete Colorado article, that. complaint was "filed at the request of the commissioners" who have "proved deteinnined to retaliate against him" for allegedly exposing things that "are not only unethical, but borderline illegal." In that Commissioner Conway released similarly confidential information to Ms. Peif in September 2016, approximately two months before. filed her complaint, his actions appear to demonstrate a self-serving pattern. Considering that pattern, there is little to show that Commissioner Conway's action was influenced solely by. complaint against him. Based on the foregoing, this investigator finds it more likely than not that Commissioner Conway unjustifiably gave a copy of. November 23, 2016 complaint to reporter Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado. Weld County complaint given to media Page 12 of 17 Allegation 2: • alleges that, without justification, Commissioner Conway or someone associated with him anonymously gave a copy of her November 23, 2016 complaint to the Greeley Tribune. Supporting Information: I= mop says: "The Greeley Tribune went ahead and released a generalized article announcing that an employee was accusing Commissioner Sean Conway of harassment, but my name wasn't mentioned. The Tribune included a portion of my complaint in the article. People who knew my situation knew the Tribune was talking about me.... I think Commissioner Conway released my complaint to both Ms. Peif and the Tribune. If it wasn't Commissioner Conway, it was someone working with him. ... Maybe Commissioner Conway didn't [send] the article to the Tribune, but it may have been someone who wanted to defend him. That person would have had to receive a copy of the complaint from Commissioner Conway." continues: "Around the time my complaint was sent to the Tribune, Commissioner Kirkmeyer told me she received an anonymous letter at her house that referenced me. The letter said I was working in conjunction with Commissioner Conway's family member who is also an elected official. Commissioner Kirkmeyer told me she didn't believe what she read in the anonymous letter." Commissioner Kirkmeyer states: "I got a phone call from a reporter from the Tribune, Sharon Dunn, on January 6, 2017. I was at a meeting at Colorado Counties, Inc. with Bruce Barker. Ms. Dunn said the Tribune received complaint through an anonymous letter, and asked if I wanted to comment. Ms. Dunn didn't know who filed the complaint and didn't mention. name. Mr. Barker answered Ms. Dunn's questions. I don't know who gave the complaint to the Tribune." Commissioner Kirkmeyer continues: "I received an anonymous letter on January 7 or 8, 2017. The postmark on the envelope was January 3, 2017.... I think the sender was trying to intimidate me. When I first saw the envelope, I thought, 'Why is Sean sending me a letter at my home?' because the writing on the envelope looks like Commissioner Conway's. The tone of the letter led me to believe the author was trying to discredit. because it implies she was doing things behind my back. After I read the letter, I thought that maybe Carly Koppes, Commissioner Conway's niece, sent the letter because it sounds like an immature mean girl talking. Ms. Koppes is the Weld County Clerk and Recorder." Commissioner Kirkmeyer states: "I learned from the other Commissioners that I was the only Commissioner who received this [anonymous] letter. I think Commissioner Conway sees me as being in charge. I had told. - in Weld County complaint given to media Page 13 of 17 November 2016 that she should document her complaint against Commissioner Conway and send it to Human Resources (HR). I sent my observations/complaint about Commissioner Conway to HR, our County Attorney, Don Warden, and the other County Commissioners before I encouraged the other County Commissioners to document their observations about Commissioner Conway's behavior and send them in. I demanded an investigation regarding his behavior, so Commissioner Conway may be trying to target me." Commissioner Kirkmeyer continues: "I believe that Commissioner Conway doesn't do anything directly, but engages others to do things. While I know he sent _ complaint to Ms. Peif, I don't believe he directly sent the complaint to the Tribune, but had a hand in it. I also don't believe Commissioner Conway sent me the anonymous letter directly, but I believe he had a hand in it. Some of the things in the anonymous letter would have only been known by County Commissioners or. our administrative assistant at the time. I don't believe any of the other Commissioners would have sent me the anonymous letter because they're not that type of person. Commissioner Conway has been targeting all of us for the last year or two, so it's his modus operandi. Many people have been critical of Ms. Koppes and her job as Clerk and Recorder and it's been covered by the press. I think Commissioner Conway may be trying to defend Ms. Koppes." Commissioner Freeman says: "I don't know who anonymously sent complaint to the Greeley Tribune. I would guess it was sent by Commissioner Conway or by someone to whom he gave the complaint." Commissioner Freeman continues: "I saw the anonymous letter that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received. I thought it probably came from the same kindof sources, either Commissioner Conway or someone working with him. The envelope was handwritten in block letters. I called Randy Bangert at the Tribune and asked if he kept the envelope in which he received.' complaint. He said he had the envelope so I asked if it was addressed to him personally in capitalized block letters, and he said it was. Mr. Bangert said he couldn't give me the envelope because he had to protect his sources. I asked to take a picture of the envelope, but he said he had to protect it. Mr. Bangert said he would save the envelope in the event he's ever compelled to produce it. I believe the same person who sent N complaint to the Tribune is the same person who sent the anonymous letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I think you can connect the dots. The letters were sent within a day of each other if not the same day." Commissioner Moreno states: "I'm aware that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received an anonymous letter. She showed it to me. The address on the envelope was handwritten. The other Commissioners and I looked at handwriting on documents that Commissioner Conway has signed, and we noticed that the handwriting on the envelope looked similar to Commissioner Conway's. I believe Commissioner Weld County complaint given to media Page 14 of 17 Kirkmeyer turned the letter over to the authorities. I talked with Commissioner Kirkmeyer about the letter and we feel that if it was Commissioner Conway who sent it to her, he may have been trying to intimidate her. Commissioner Conway believes his current issues are caused by Commissioner Kirkmeyer because they've had their differences of opinion." Commissioner Moreno adds: "I didn't receive any anonymous letters, but my wife received one at her job. I think it circles back to Commissioner Conway's niece, who is the current Clerk and Recorder and succeeded me in the role. The niece has had an issue with an employee who filed a complaint against her. The writer is trying to say that my wife and I are trying to help the employee who filed a complaint against Commissioner Conway's niece, and that I'm having an affair with that employee. I believe it's somehow tied to Commissioner Conway and his circle. I think they were just trying to disturb my family life. We reported it to the authorities." Mr. Barker says: "Commissioner Kirkmeyer and I were in Denver on January 5, 2017, and she received a phone call from a reporter from the Greeley Tribune. Commissioner Kirkmeyer put the reporter on speaker phone so I could listen also. The reporter said she received an anonymous envelope that included complaint. The reporter asked if an investigation was pending, and I said I couldn't comment on that or on the complaint. ... The Greeley Tribune article referencing the complaint was published on January 6, 2017." Mr. Barker continues: "In the same week that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received an anonymous letter by mail at her house, the Tribune received an anonymous envelope within complaint. We never saw the handwriting on the envelope to the Tribune, but my guess is it's the same handwriting on the letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I don't see the likelihood of anyone other than Commissioner Conway leaking complaint to the media." Refuting Information: None, other than as set forth above. Comments: The Greeley Tribune article entitled Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway published on January 6, 2017, states in part: A former Weld County employee who quit after she said she was verbally harassed by Commissioner Sean Conway has complained about him three times before, according to her complaint. ...The complaint in its entirety came to the Tribune anonymously through the mail late Thursday. ...Conway has said that the commissioners this week retaliated against him for that incident, and other events in which he questioned their ethics and spending, by encouraging the employee to file the complaint against Weld County complaint given to media Page 15 of 17 him. ...This complaint was initiated by commissioners against me, and I believe it is part of an overall retaliatory action against me,' Conway said. 'It's all part of a pattern.' ... Conway has said that the commissioners this week retaliated against him for that incident, and other events in which he questioned their ethics and spending, and by encouraging the employee to file the complaint against him. Attachment 4. On or around the same day that the Greeley Tribune anonymously received complaint, Commissioner Kirkmeyer received an anonymous letter at her house. The address on the envelope is written in all capital letters, and the letter is typed. Attachment 10. According to Commissioner Kirkmeyer and Commissioner Moreno, the handwriting on the envelope looks like Commissioner Conway's. Commissioner Freeman advises that an individual at the Greeley Tribune told him that the envelope in which the Tribune received the anonymous complaint was also addressed in capitalized block letters. In light of the fact that Ms. Peif acknowledged in a Facebook post that Commissioner Conway gave her a copy of. complaint, it is plausible that Commissioner Conway or someone associated with him also provided a copy of the complaint to the Greeley Tribune, which, as detailed above in Allegation 1, Commissioner Conway considers to be "violations" according to the voice mail messages he left for Mr. Barker and Ms. Russell. Commissioner Conway may have been motivated to leak complaint to the media so he could claim, as stated in the Tribune article, that. complaint was initiated by the other Commissioners as "part of an overall retaliatory action" against him for allegedly questioning their "ethics and spending." In that Commissioner Conway released similarly confidential information to Ms. Peif in September 2016, approximately two months before ■ i filed her complaint, his actions appear to demonstrate a self-serving pattern. Considering that pattern, there is little to show that Commissioner Conway's action was influenced solely by complaint against him. Based on the information gathered, this investigator finds it more likely than not that, without justification, Commissioner Conway or someone associated with him anonymously gave a copy of. November 23, 2016 complaint to the Greeley Tribune. Conclusion filed a complaint against Commissioner Conway on November 23, 2016, regarding an interaction she had with him that day, and included details about three previous interactions with him during which she felt "verbally accosted.". complaint was investigated by MSEC. Weld County complaint given to media Page 16 of 17 . - sent an email to MSEC on January 7, 2017, alleging that someone shared with the media her November 23, 2016 email complaint against Commissioner Conway, which she considers an act of "retaliation." This investigator interviewed the Weld County employees who had access to complaint, with the exception of Commissioner Conway, who declined to be interviewed. The information gathered leads this investigator to conclude that it was likely Commissioner Conway or someone associated with him who unjustifiably leaked complaint to Complete Colorado and the Greeley Tribune. Commissioner Conway may have been motivated to leak. complaint to the media so he could claim that. complaint was initiated by the other Commissioners in retaliation against him. In that Commissioner Conway leaked similarly confidential information to the media in September 2016, two months before. filed her complaint, there is little to show that Commissioner Conway's action was influenced solely by complaint against him. Summary of Findings 1. This investigator finds it more likely than not that Commissioner Conway unjustifiably gave a copy of Ms. _ November 23, 2016 complaint to reporter Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado. 2. This investigator finds it more likely than not that, without justification, Commissioner Conway or someone associated with him anonymously gave a copy of. November 23, 2016 complaint to the Greeley Tribune. Analysis Decision -makers for Weld County, Colorado, are responsible for assessing whether the facts of this matter support the allegations presented here or otherwise establish unacceptable conduct. This investigation report is intended to be the tool for making that analysis by identifying the relevant allegations and addressing sources of supporting and refuting information. This investigator's commentary is also shared, but it is important to understand that another person, such as a judge or a juror, might reach different conclusions based on the same or additional information. END REPORT Respectfully submitted, MOUNTAIN STATES EMPLOYERS COUNCIL, INC. Lori Karl, J.D. Workplace Investigator Weld County complaint given to media Page 17 of 17 LK/bb Attachments Attachment 1 From: Sent: To; Subject: Wednes ad y, November 23, 2016 3:57 PM Mike Freeman; Barbara KIrkmeyer; Julie Cozad; Steve Moreno Employee Incident Documentation - November 23 As requested, I am documenting the situation that occurred in our offices morning. I was requested to send an email detailing the situation to the four Commissioners here in office during this situation. At approximately 8:55 a.m., Wednesday, November 23, I was working at my desk when the main office line rang, and I answered a call from Commissioner Conway. After cordial introductions, he stated he noticed his calendar for this morning had filled up with work sessions. I replied that a few changes had occurred within the last day or so, and asked him if he had a question about one of them. He said "yes, I'm questioning why you're waiting until I'm out of town and then putting a bunch of work sessions on the calendar." I started to respond indicating that was not accurate, and he interrupted me and said "well, I see several meetings on the calendar that I knew nothing about, so explain that'll" I again started to respond and Indicated there was one new work session on the calendar, and then was Interrupted again by him elevating his voice and indicating he saw way more than one work session on the calendar. He then continued along the lines of saying "I see what you're doing here, you're creating all these meetings and scheduling them when I can't be here so that I can't be a part of them, aren't you?" I responded that I don't create the meetings, I simply schedule the ones I'm asked to schedule, He then escalated even louder indicating that I am NOT following proper protocol because I did not contact him and ask him, and that I shouldn't be putting meetings on the calendar without getting them cleared. I started to answer that the one new meeting for this morning was requested by another Commissioner (Moreno) as a rush request, specifically requested for this morning, therefore, it was already approved. I was cut off again by him now yelling, saying, "but you didn't call mein Did you? Why didn't you call me? You Just started setting all these work sessions without notifying me because you knew I was out of town..." At that point I firmly, but still politely, said "Sean, just stop. Let me explain..." to which he replied "oh no, YOU don't get to f***ing tell me to JUST STOPi" That statement shocked me, and I didn't make out a large part of the rambling that immediately followed this outburst, but it was basically a re -iteration of how I am supposed to clear meeting requests with him when he is not here. I finally spoke up and clarified to him that the work session scheduled at 10:00 a.m. was carried over from yesterday, because the Board ran out of time to discuss It. I then reminded him that he indicated to me before he left that he was okay with Judy's work session requests going forward while he was out. At this point he was quiet. Then I explained that the Public Works work session was moved up to 9:30 and that he personally approved that one going forward without him, face-to-face with me, before he left the office on Monday -- the time just changed on that one. The work session had a note Indicating he ok'ed it going forward. Then I reiterated the only new addition was the prep meeting for legislative breakfast, which was specifically requested for this morning. He then questioned who requested it, and I said that Commissioner Moreno and Judy Griego had. I was going to further indicate that I had talked about approval further with Commissioner Freeman, but he cut me off again and started yelling about that he was mad that I was circumventing him and I wasn't doing my Job properly, and that he wasn't notified "of any of this," I Interrupted him and told him that I essentially DID notify him by making sure he was on the email Invitation for the appointment, and that's why he was able to see it. I started to explain that the protocol Is, if a Commissioner is already out, to go ahead and schedule a meeting If It is requested by another Commissioner, but to invite ALL commissioners so that the one absent can decide if they'd like to call in or not. He then asked me, "so what do you want me to do about it then??? Do you want me to call In for this work session?" To which I replied, "sure, if you would like to be a part of the conversation, I'd be happy to set up the conference line so ATTACHMENT I you can join — you just have to let me know." Then momentary silence, Then he started yelling again saying "nol NO1 This is NOT how this works! You do not get to decide which work sessions I get to be a part oflll" I was trying to reply that I did not want to argue on the phone with him, but was not able to get my words in without being talked over, He continued yelling saying "Nol This is not the right protocol, and you know what? This is what the protocol is going to be from now on! From now on you're going to,.." In the middle of this, I attempted to talk over him saying "No Sean, I'm not changing protocol." But he continued on, yelling about how I needed to listen to him, and I needed to,....., all blurring together. I said "I don't know why you're yelling at me" at one point and he continued on, probably not even aware that I was trying to say something. At this point,was standing at my desk and was semi -aware of the situation, and Julie and Steve were Just standing off to the side of my desk. As he Just kept yelling, and I couldn't get a word in edgewise, and I was now quite upset with the yelling so I said one more time "stop yelling" and he didn't, so I hung up the phone. I then announced out loud to those standing around me, "I'm sorry, I just hung up on Commissioner Conway, but he would not stop yelling at me on the phone, and I didn't want to listen to it anymore." At that point, visibly shaken, I then excused myself from my desk to walk down the hall to the ladies room so I could regain my composure. Along the way down the hall I heard Commissioner Cozad say that someone needed to call Commissioner Conway back right now, and that it should be Mike, as the Chair. I spent a few minutes regaining my composure before heading back to my desk, and when I did, the Commissioners were all in Mike's office, and Mike was on the phone with Commissioner Conway. I did not tune into the conversation taking place, Instead assuring those at my desk that I was upset, but I was fine overall, After that conservation was over, the Commissioners confirmed that I was not in the wrong to hang up the phone, and that I should not be subjected to being yelled at on the phone. The Commissioners then went on to the Board room for the meeting, and a few minutes later I entered into CTB office to grab a stamp to continue working on the certificates I was previously working on. While in the office, Chloe mentioned that Commissioner Conway had called for me earlier. She was not aware of the situation which had transpired. Apparently, after I had hung up the phone, Commissioner Conway had called the main line right back, and because I didn't answer it, she did. She relayed to me that when she answered the phone, Sean was immediately upset and barked at her "where'sI?" She Indicated she thought I was just on the phone, and he cut her off saying "I know she was because she was Just on the phone WITH MEI" Chloe indicated to him that she would come check and see if I was at my desk and put him on hold. She came out to my area, and since my desk was empty, she informed Barb, who was close by, that Sean was waiting on the phone for me, and Barb informed her that Mike was on the phone with Sean and that I was not at my desk at the moment. She confirmed Sean was not on hold anymore when she got back to her desk. After this conversation, I stepped into the employee lunch room for a minute to make a personal call, and further collect my composure, and then went right back to my desk and jumped back into the tasks requiring my attention for the morning. I was later requested by the Commissioners to create a written statement, which I agreed to do. I Just want to note in my remarks that this is now the fourth time where I have been verbally accosted by the same Commissioner: Summer, 2011- Centennial Center office. Clerk Esther Gesick had to come to my aid to diffuse the situation. I did not request a notation in my personnel file at the time, but likely should have. Summer, 2014 — of which I did file a written complaint in my personnel file. I was allowed two days of Administrative Leave following this episode. Summer, 2016 — minor compared to the first two, but still major enough that one of the attorneys had to come intervene to diffuse the situation. I verbally reported this one to HR director as well, but did not provide a written notation, November, 2016 — the one described above. 2 It Is concerning to me that in each situation it has been seemingly unprovoked, escalating extremely quickly, Further, all four situations have arisen out of some task I completed which was not done outside of proper protocol in any of the four situations. Thank you. 1150 0 Street, P.O, Box 758, Greeley, Colorado 80631 v, Confidentiality Notice; This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which It is addressed and may contain information that Is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure, If you have received this communication In error, please Immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient Is strictly prohibited. 3 Attachment 2 November 30, 2016 • room to regain her composure. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 1150 O STREET P.O. BOX 758 GREELEY, COLORADO 80632 PHONE: 970-336-7204 FAX: 970-352-0242 Sean Conway, Weld County Commissioner P.O. Box 758 1150 O Street Greeley, CO 80632 Re: Notice of Investigation of Incident of Harassment of by You on November 23, 2016 Dear Commissioner Conway: On November 23, 2016, at approximately 8:55 a.m., you called Office Manager to discuss the scheduling of various work sessions. In the course of the call you became verbally abusive to her, as detailed in her report of the incident written the afternoon of November 23rd. A copy of. report is enclosed. IN says that at one point you yelled, "oh no, YOU don't get to fucking tell me to STOP!" The call continued for a number of minutes. You proceeded to further yell at her and argue about protocol for scheduling work sessions. During the call, Commissioners Cozad, Kirkmeyer, and Moreno, and I were standing in the area close to _ and witnessed her efforts to speak to you professionally. We observed her emotional reaction to your abusive behavior. eventually hung up the phone and, in tears, left her work station to attend the ladies Commissioners Cozad, Kirkmeyer, Moreno, and I called you shortly after the above -described incident. We informed you we had observed. during the call and her reaction to your abusive behavior. We informed you we believe your language and demeanor during the call were entirely inappropriate and unacceptable. You offered no remorse for your actions; instead trying to blame. - for not scheduling work sessions according to your desires. Weld County Code Subsection 3-3-50 A. says: "The County strongly disapproves of and does not tolerate harassment of any kind, nor any behavior by any employee that creates an unacceptable employment environment or hostile work environment.... Harassment may involve action, behavior, exclusion, comment or physical contact which is found objectionable, or which creates an offensive environment or results in the recipient feeling threatened, humiliated, intimidated, degraded, patronized, demoralized or less confident in his or her ability." Subsection 3-3-50 J. requires the Director of Human Resources to investigate ATTACHMENT 2 incidents of harassment, and to report the findings of such investigation to the appropriate elected Letter, Sean Conway November 30, 2016 Page 2 official(s). A copy of Section 3-3-50 is enclosed. Based upon the facts described by III- in her report, and upon the observations by Commissioners Cozad, Kirkmeyer, Moreno, and me of the above -described incident, we have reason to believe you violated Section 3-3-50 by your abusive behavior toward I Your abusive behavior appears to have been directed toward s because she is female. Be advised that Patti Russell, Director of Human Resources, will be working with Mountain States Employers' Counsel to investigate the above -described incident and the other incidents described by in her report. In doing so, the investigators will interview S Ms. Russell, Commissioners Cozad, Kirkrneyer, Moreno, and me, and others who may provide information regarding the above -described incident and any other abusive behavior exhibited by you. Depending upon what is revealed, other female employees may be contacted to investigate whether they too have been the subject of abusive behavior by you. The Board demands that you cease immediately from all similar abusive behavior directed toward female Weld County employees. Be advised the Board views such abusive behavior as outside the scope of your duties as a Weld County Commissioner. You are therefore not covered by Weld County's insurance and its duty to defend you from possible legal actions brought against you by the victims of such abusive behavior, pursuant to C.R.S. § 24-10-110. Furthermore, the Board demands you refrain from any retaliatory actions against III • Sincerely, and others who are interviewed as part of the investigation. Mike Freeman, Chair Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado pc: Bruce T. Barker, Weld County Attorney Attachment 3 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: Hi Michele, - <hotmail.com> Saturday, January 07, 2017 12:47 AM Michele Sturgell Question re: my harrassment complaint at Weld County SC.FBcom vent jpg My name isyou interviewed me several weeks ago at the request of the Weld County Commissioners, regarding harrassment complaints. You said to email you if I ever had a question, and now I do. Since my departure from Weld County, i have tried my hardest to keep a low profile, but there has been quite a bit of mention of me within the local press - referring to me as an unnamed employee. I have been mentioned in several Greeley Tribune articles, as well as articles from an independent source, Complete Colorado. Most notably from that source, this article link: httptcompletecolorado.com_/pa etwof 2016[11.121/weld-county-comm_issioner.:_puts-county Lgn notice.. of.irrpending-lawsuit-for-whistleblower-violations, WELD COUNTY ot;,uflS1MrC ULC( Weld County Commissioner outs county on notice of impending lawsuit for Wni stleblower Violations corn pletecolorado.corn "I didn't do this to embarrass anybody, to personally vilify anybody. But I was getting, quite frankly, very concerned we were bordering on some pretty unethical and potentially illegal things. And I wasn't going to jail for them. I wasn't going to get indicted for them." -- Sean Conway This has been greatly uncomfortable for me, because, even though I am not technically named, many of the people reading these articles know exactly who's it's talking about, since I was the only employee in the Commissioner's office at the time of these allegations. This article includes attachment of emails in which I am talked about, with my name redacted in black marker. The investigation was opened based upon an email I wrote, detailing my most recent harrassment incident, which you indicated stood alone as its own evidence for that situation, we then verbally talked about the other 3 instances in which I referred to at the end of my 1 ATTACHMENT 3 letter. I was under the impression that this email would be kept confidential, as a part of my overall confidential report. Unfortunately, it appears this has not been the case. I knew the moment that I read the above article that my letter had been shared with this press writer, Sherrie Peif, because she quoted from the letter itself when describing the actions I took immediately following the harrassing phone call. I could not figure out how she would have received a copy of it, since it was to be kept confidential. I had my suspicions that Commissioner Conway himself had given it to her, but was not sure. Fast forward to this evening - the Greeley Tribune reached out to me to comment on yet another story, which I declined to do, which claims my letter was provided to them anonymously and they quoted a large part of my letter verbatim in the online version, which is to be printed tomorrow morning, I'm told. I have never once talked to any member of the press regarding this situation. Link to article: http://www.,reeleytribune_combiews/localiweld-county„employee-complaint-a(Ides-fourth cornplaintainst-commissioner-sear-conway/ Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway CreeIeyTrl www.greeleytribune.com Line,corn A former Weld County employee who quit after she said she was verbally harassed by Commissioner Sean Conway has complained about him three times before, according to her complaint.The I was again shocked and upset that my confidential letter was given to a member of the press and printed. I was still unnamed, but again, several people immediately began texting me when they saw the article online, as they know it has to be talking about me. Immediately after reading the online version of the article, I was drawn to read the FB page of the previous press writer, Sherrie Peif, who already had a comment on her page posted about the Tribune article, of which I attached a screen shot of her message. She clearly indicates in this message that Commissioner Conway himself provided a copy of my letter to her directly, and goes on further to insinuate that I may have been the one of the few people that could have possibly provided the letter anonymously to the Tribune. I absolutely have not provided this letter to anyone other than the intial people I emailed it to. I feel the action of providing the letter to a member of the press, with the intention for it to be published and utilized against me, is an action of retaliation by Commissioner Conway. I remember you saying within the 2 interview that any acts of retaliation would not be tolerated as they would be considered criminal in nature, and I wanted your advice as to what options exist from here. I look forward to hearing from you, 3 Attachment 4 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Friday, February 10, 2017 2:35 PM Lori Karl FW: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway This is the Tribune article regarding the complaint which was anonymously sent to the Tribune. Bruce T. Barker, Esq. Weld County Attorney P.O. Box 758 1150 "O" Street. Greeley, CO 80632 (970) 356-4000, Ext. 4390 Fax: (970) 352-0242 Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is attorney privileged and confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. From: Sent: Friday, January 06, 2017 10:30 PM To: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer@co.weld.co.us>; Julie Cozad <jcozad@co.weld.co.us>; Steve Moreno <smoreno@co.weld.co.us>; Mike Freeman <mfreeman@co.weld.co.us>; Sean Conway <sconway@co.weld.co.us>; Don Warden <dwarden@co.weld.co.us>; Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us>; Patti Russell <prussell@co.weld.co.us> Subject: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway 1 ATTACHMENT 4 Mike Freeman • 1)REV • I 3 of 3 images • NEXT WHAT'S NEXT The Board of Weld County Commissioners meets at 9 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays in the Weld County Administration Building, 1150 O St. A section for public input is reserved near the beginning of every meeting for residents to discuss anything not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to 3 minutes. All comments must be directed to the board. The chairwoman may immediately refer any comment to staff for resolution or for scheduling of a work session. The board will not take comments regarding matters which are likely to be considered at a future public hearing, such as a land -use hearing, and you will be asked to give your testimony at that hearing, either in person or in writing. Combined public input on any topic will be limited to 15 minutes. A former Weld County employee who quit after she said she was verbally harassed by Commissioner Sean Conway has complained about him three times before, according to her complaint. The employee reported to the four other county commissioners that the Nov. 23 event in which she said Conway screamed at her for scheduling a meeting when he was out of town was not her first tangle with him. The complaint in its entirety came to the Tribune anonymously through the mail late Thursday. The Tribune is not naming the employee because of the nature of the complaint, which falls under the heading of sexual harassment. Weld County Attorney Bruce Barker has rejected open records requests of the complaint, or emails pertaining to it, on that basis as well. "This is now the fourth time where I have been verbally accosted by the same commissioner," the woman wrote. She detailed the following incidents: 2 » "Summer 2011 — Centennial Center office. (A clerk) had to come to my aid to diffuse the situation. I did not request a notation in my personnel file at the time but likely should have. » Summer 2014 — of which I did file a written complaint in my personnel file. I was allowed two days of administrative leave following this episode. » Summer 2016 — minor compared to the first two, but still major enough that one of the attorneys had to come intervene to diffuse the situation. I verbally reported this one to HR director as well, but did not provide a written notation." Barker would not confirm if there are or have been any other complaints filed against Conway. The woman resigned within a week of the Nov. 23, 2016, incident, which was a phone call with Conway that she wrote began with "cordial introductions." According to the complaint, Conway told her he had noticed his calendar that morning had filled up with work sessions, and she said there were a couple of changes that had occurred in the last day or so and asked if he had a question about one of them. Then, it turned ugly. "He said, 'Yes, I'm questioning why you're waiting until I'm out of town and then putting a bunch of work sessions on the calendar,"" she wrote. "I started to respond, indicating that was not accurate, and he interrupted me and said, `Well, I see several meetings on the calendar that I know nothing about, so explain that!' I again started to respond and indicated there was one new work session on the calendar, and then was interrupted again by him elevating his voice and indicating he saw way more than one work session on the calendar. "He then continued along the lines of saying, 'I see what you're doing here, you're creating all these meetings and scheduling them when I can't be here so that I can't be a part them, aren't you?"" In the complaint she said she attempted to explain how the meeting had changed, and he continued accusing her or trying to keep him out of them. "'But you didn't call me, did you? Why didn't you call me? You just started setting all these work session without notifying me because you knew I was out of town.' At that point I firmly, but still politely said, `Sean, just stop. Let me explain,' to which he replied, 'Oh no, You don't get to f* * *ing tell me to just stop!" She said in her complaint that he accused her of trying to circumvent him, and that she needs to clear any calendar changes through him. The meeting in question was a work session that Commissioner Steve Moreno had sought with Human Services Director Judy Griego. He said, "No, no, this is not how this works. You do not get to decide which work sessions I get to be a part of. ... He continued yelling, saying, `No, this is not the right protocol, and you know what? This is what the protocol is going to be from now on. From now on you're going to ... " She said the conversation continued to get heated, and she eventually hung up on him. 3 Commissioner Julie Cozad, who was just elected this week as chairwoman for 2017, was standing next to the woman during the call. "I was standing there when it happened. I observed what happened, and I suggested to her to file a complaint with our personnel department," Cozad said Friday. She and other commissioners said they could not continent on the actual allegations, as it was an ongoing investigation. Shortly after that event, then -Chairman Mike Freeman called Conway to clarify the situation. The employee had changed the calendar at Freeman's request. "I told her to put the work session on the calendar. All he had to do was respond to the email, and say, 'I need to be at this,"" Freeman said last week. "I talked to Sean, and immediately changed that work session. ... I said, 'If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me. She put it on the calendar because I told her to.' He said she knows better than to do that. I said, at end of the day, she doesn't have a choice. ... It's what I asked her to do."' Conway has said that the commissioners this week retaliated against him for that incident, and other events in which he questioned their ethics and spending, by encouraging the employee to file the complaint against him. The group also kept him from any leadership roles on the board this year. Conway has since filed a notice to sue his fellow commissioners for retaliation and defamation. Conway did not return calls to his cell phone Friday seeking for comment. In an interview this week, Conway said it was clear the commissioners put the employee up to it. "This complaint was initiated by commissioners against me, and I believe it is part of an overall retaliatory action against me," Conway said. "It's all part of a pattern." This week the commissioner kept Conway from serving as chairman of the board, a position he felt he should have had since he served as chairman pro -tern all last year, and they kept him from coordinating a county department. "It has nothing to do with retaliation," Freeman said Friday. "It has to do with what I believe is in the best interest of Weld County. Until this investigation is over, I feel uncomfortable putting Sean in a leadership position. There's no retaliation whatsoever." Cozad said she's been in management a long time, and she would have been remiss not to have suggested the employee file a complaint. "Because I've been in management positions before, I would say that when incidents like that occur, they need to be reported," Cozad said. Added Freeman: "As far as putting an employee up to going and reporting something, (she) had every right to go report that and did it on her own." The Tribune has attempted to speak to the employee, but she did not respond to requests for an interview. Barker said because it was an ongoing investigation, he couldn't discuss anything about the complaint other than to acknowledge — since Conway had already done so himself publicly — that there was a complaint. 4 There is no set time frame in which to investigate the complaint, and he said he couldn't even say how far along the investigation was. The road forward also is a mystery in terms of how to respond once the investigation is finished. He said he'd make decisions on what to do next after the investigation is complete. "In 34 years, I've never dealt with something like this before," Barker said. Sent from my iPhone 5 Attachment 5 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Follow Up Flag: Flag Status: Lori: Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Friday, February 10, 2017 2:21 PM Lori Karl FW: Media FYI: Complete Colorado - Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblower violations Follow up Flagged Here is the first article by Sherrie Peif. Click on the "Emails obtained by Complete Colorado" link and you can see the documents given to Sherrie Peif by Commissioner Conway. Bruce T. Barker, Esq. Weld County Attorney P.O. Box 758 1150 "O" Street Greeley, CO 80632 (970) 356-4000, Ext. 4390 Fax: (970) 352-0242 Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is attorney privileged and confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. From: Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2016 5:25 PM To: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer@co.weld.co.us>; Julie Cozad <jcozad@co.weld.co.us>; Mike Freeman <mfreeman@co.weld.co.us>; Sean Conway <sconway@co.weld.co.us>; Steve Moreno <smoreno@co.weld.co.us> Cc: Don Warden <dwarden@co.weld.co.us>; Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us>; Patti Russell <prussell@co.weld.co.us> Subject: Media FYI: Complete Colorado - Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblower violations http:/,corn.pletecolorado.e0mnjpagetwc2/2o 16/1.2/ 27_,/weid-cowl ty—commissioner-putw_ec unty_ctn-notice--crf_ impending -la .wsuit-for-whistleblower-violations/ Politics, Sherrie Peif, Top News, Weld County 1 ATTACHMENT 5 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impendinlawsuit for whistleblower owei .� vio ation December 22, 2016 4:33 PM By Sherrie Pelf GREELEY — Weld County Board of Commissioner Sean Conway notified the county on Dec. 2 that he intends to sue it, and also name the four other members of the board as individual defendants for violating Colorado Whistleblower protection laws. Notice of irnse,ndipg lawsuit by Anoaymous kprzCiZ on Scribd In an exclusive interview only on Complete Colorado, Conway said since he blew thewhistle on unethical and possibly_ille ll behavior by the other four members of the board, those four members, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Julie Cozad, Steve Moreno and Mike Freeman, have stripped Conway's constituents of a representative by preventing him from serving as a Weld representative on any board, not assigning him a county department to oversee in 2017, and they stripped him of his role as chairman of the board for 2017. None of the four named commissioners responded to a request from Complete Colorado for comment by press time. Complete Colorado will update the story at a later date if they respond. Conway believes the retaliations may also be in violation of the Weld County Charter, and added that Kirkmeyer may find more charges against her as she continues to publicly slander Conway, most recently at December's Weld County Council meeting. "They continue to say I broke the public's trust," Conway said. "But they continue to ignore that what I did was not break the public's trust. I exposed things that are going on at the county that are not only unethical, but borderline illegal. They continue not to address the real problems." Conway told Complete Colorado that he had hoped by exposing a small portion of what was going on the commissioners would stop their actions, but instead they've "doubled -down," he said. 2 "I really did not think, naively, that they would take it to this extreme," Conway said. "I knew that they would extract their pound of flesh for what I did. But they still don't get it why I did it. At what point will these people stop?" 'ALL OFFICIAL COUNTY BUSINESS GETS DONE IN BARS AND PARKING LOTS' Instead, Conway claims the other four commissioners are holding non -publicized lunch meetings after board and land use meetings. Conway said he initially would go to lunch with them, but then they started talking business during the luncheons, so he stopped. Conway also claims the board is holding spot -meetings in some of the most unusual places — also without noticing them — including a hotel bar in Colorado Springs and the parking lot of the Eaton Country Club. "I am legitimately concerned, at the very least this is not very ethical behavior, but it's bordering on illegal," Conway said. "If you remain silent, you're just as guilty as the people doing it. I'm hoping the public will come forward and start having conversations with these commissioners. There is a real problem with the current board in complying with the open meetings law. The new rule is all official county business gets done in bars and parking lots." RETALIATION AGAINST CONWAY Conway said his decision to retain an attorney and pursue legal remedies came after his colleagues proved determined to retaliate against him. He said immediately following the disclosure that he waived attorney client privileged emails, they ordered a technology employee to keep tabs on all his emails, took away all his elected duties, threatened to have criminal charges filed against him, are planning a public censure, and most disturbing, he said, instigated a workforce harassment complaint against him by an employee. "And the retaliation continues after Barb's comments Monday night before the County Council," Conway said in reference to comments made about Conway soliciting money for a school his wife is affiliated with, waiving privilege Kirkmeyer continues to say he did not have the right to do, and violating public trust laws. "Once again, she ignores the actual contents of her statements and behavior." Although nothing is official until the board's Jan. 3 meeting, Conway was told at the annual Colorado Counties Inc. conference a couple weeks ago that he was being removed representing Weld on the Upstate Economic Development Board and the Weld/Greeley Airport Board They allowed him to remain on the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization Board but only because he was selected by the MPO to represent them on the State Transportation Committee. On Nov. 29, during the conference, board president Freeman informed Conway that the group wanted to meet after the conference at the hotel. Conway said it was entirely out of order. The meeting, which was held Nov. 30 in the bar at the Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs, was never noticed to the public, as required by law. During that meeting each commissioner took turns telling Conway how they didn't trust him and as far as they were concerned he would have no responsibilities on the board ever again. Kirkmeyer wants to oversee two departments instead, according to Conway. "I don't know how you do that," Conway said. "If you're doing it correctly, if you're doing it the right way, there is no way you can coordinate two departments. They all sat there and it was all for one and one for all. It was made very clear to me ... that this was a direct result, a direct punishment for what I did. 3 They also chose that time to hand him a complaint filed against him by an employee for alleged harassment. "I was also handed a note from Commissioner Freeman that said I was prohibited from having any conversations with that employee, period," Conway said. "It came out of left field." He said the while the CCI conference was noticed, during his first seven years on the board, if they met to discuss county business at the conference, that meeting was noticed to the public separately. He said he was blindsided and felt awkward discussing county business in a bar with others wandering around. "Julie Cozad was the first to speak," Conway said. "She just said, 'You know, I just don't trust you. ... I think you've tried to embarrass us." Conway said Cozad accused him of purposely releasing the Xcel email chain to hurt Kirkmeyer. "Then Julie said, `Because of that, you're not going to be chair next year," Conway said. The four decided Cozad would chair and Moreno would be pro tem. Kirkmeyer told him he willfully and spitefully went after her, that he was the cause of the problems for the Emergency Operations Center issues coming to light, that it was his fault people were upset over Kirkmeyer taking mileage reimbursements. "She said, 'I want you to understand it's specifically because of your release of that email," Conway said. Conway said they threatened to ask the Weld County District Attorney's Office to file criminal charges against him for violating state laws concerning public trust. However, those laws surround fiduciary duties. They do not cover an elected official acting as a whistle blower. Emails obtained by Complete Colorado show they also plan to censure Conway. A public censure is usually little more than a public reprimand or slap on the wrist when a body of elected officials doesn't approve of one or more members of the elected body. In this case, however, the board would be shaming Conway for exposing their unethical behavior, he said. "They are going to have to outline why they are censuring me," Conway said. "And I'll have an opportunity to do answer that, unless they do it while I'm gone, which based on how things have gone that's a possibility. If they choose to censure me, they do it at great political peril to themselves because I think the citizens of Weld County can see through this. At the end of the day, what they are trying to censure me for is behavior that has been undertaken by my fellow county commissioners." Conway said the timing of the "workforce harassment" complaint is the most disturbing. Although his attorney has told him not to discuss specifics of the case, it was filed after he blew the whistle and according to documents shared with Complete Colorado, filed at the request of the commissioners. Complete Colorado will not identify the employee or the official complaint as they would identify the employee, but the complaint begins with "As requested," and toward the end includes "after the conversation, I stepped into the employee lunch room for a minute to make a personal call, and further collect my composure, and then went right back to my desk and jumped back into the tasks requiring my attention for the morning. I was later requested by the commissioners to create a written statement which I agreed to do." The employee accuses Conway of "yelling" and using profane language. Conway, who admits he can project his voice across a room with little -to -no effort, denies he yelled at the employee or used 4 profanity. He said he was sharp with the employee as he was reprimanding the employee for inconsistent job performance. In the complaint, the employee noted three other times Conway "verbally accosted" him/her. Two of the three were never officially reported, the employee alleges, while one was supposedly placed in her/his employment file; however, Conway said when he requested the employment file, there were no complaints against him. In E mails shared with Complete Colorado_ that Conway received as discovery for his case, an email from Kirkmeyer at 9:45 p.m. — just 12 hours after the alleged conversation — , Kirkmeyer makes suppositions about the conversation between Conway and the employee by inferring that Conway planned an intentional attack on the employee. Emails over Conway's harassment by Anony_mcus kprzCiZ on Scribd "I believe Commissioner Conway called at 9:ooam because he expected (name redacted) to be alone at (his/her) desk," the email reads. Kirkmeyer continues her account. "We all witnessed the call and could here (sic) the yelling on the phone," the email reads. "According to (redacted name) he also cursed at (her/him) using the "f" word." Kirkmeyer's email supports Conway's claim that the report was filed after the employee was urged to do so. "Comm Cozad and myself instructed (name redacted) to report the incident to HR." Finally, Kirkmeyer orders Barker to investigate the incident ASAP and "a letter of reprimand given to Comm Conway." She further says he wants him put "on notice," and that he "will not be under the protection of the county." Elected officials don't have the authority to put other elected officials "on notice." Nor do they have the authority to determine who is and who is not protected by the county. The only recourse available to the board is the censure, and that has to be voted on in public to be held. EMPLOYEES FEAR KIRKMEYER Two county employees who spoke on the promise of anonymity, said this type of behavior is common, but not from Conway, adding that Kirkmeyer frequently uses the "f" word and regularly yells at employees, threatening their jobs. They said it could be witnessed and verified at any work session or department meeting. Complete Colorado agreed to their anonymity because the employees fear retaliation that was appropriate considering the retaliation toward Conway, something Conway said was part of the reason he decided to speak out again. "This is not about the who, this is about the what," Conway said. "If they are allowed to take this kind of retaliation against a county commissioner, what message does that send to at -will employees. If I lay down and let this retaliation go unanswered, it will have a long term chilling effect. This will be interpreted by a lot of employees who already are very concerned, as 'I can't afford to make a commissioner mad. I need this job.' They don't have a right to create an atmosphere and send a message to every single one of our employees and department heads that 'if you cross us, you don't do what we tell you to do, look what we did to Conway."' 5 IT STARTED AFTER THE 2O14 ELECTION Conway said in his eight years as a county commissioner, there has never been such a blatant disregard for public trust. He said there has always been conflicts at times among commissioners, but he believes that prior to now, everything was kept in check and commissioners were able to work together because there were commissioners that acted as a "backstop" to stepping over the line. However, since the 2014 election, things have changed he said. "If you would talk to former county commissioners that I served with, they would say not only didn't we do it this way, we took measures so we never put ourselves in this position," Conway said. "Did we have entities that relocated in the county and came and introduced us? Yes. But we never had work sessions with Noble or Anadarko or any other company to talk about specific projects that would impact our quasi-judicial decision making authority until this last year. Prior to 2015, we had a majority of commissioners that when things like this would come up, they would say, `No."" BARKER FORCED TO TELL XCEL 'NO' Conway said he wanted to make it clear, he was at the Xcel meeting but only after a conversation with attorney Bruce Barker immediately before the meeting saying the board would not discuss what Xcel wanted to discuss. Conway pointed out that the work session request was very specific. In fact, the documents released by Conway to Complete Colorado in October say they want to talk about the North and South Greeley Transmission System expansion. "The work session was very specific," Conway said. "So when I read this wasn't just Xcel coming in to say, 'Hi' or to brief us on operations not specific to Weld County, that's when I sent the email (asking Barker if the meeting was appropriate). "This meeting was entirely different. It was to talk about potential land use issues that were going to be before the board of county commissioners. I was concerned that was not appropriate. And the county attorney sent an email and said no it was not. It's not a he said/she said." Conway said Xcel came into the meeting with their maps and all their paper work and they were going to give them the entire rundown of the project, but Barker had to tell them they couldn't. KIRKMEYER TARGETS COUNTY COUNCIL, JEMIOLA TOO Conway's fellow commissioners haven't stopped the accusations and false claims. And they haven't targeted just Conway. Conway said shortly after Weld residents started complaining to the council about the commissioners, the board instructed the clerk to the County Council to forward all emails addressed to the County Council to commissioners first. The County Council is an elected body that is charged with overseeing the commissioners and other elected officials in Weld. Many of the claims that Conway confirmed were initially brought to the council by members of the community who were regularly filing open records requests to keep tabs on the commissioners. At the November County Council meeting, Council President Jordan Jemiola questioned assistant County Attorney Frank Haug about several things he believes are inappropriate going on in the commissioner's office. According to emails, Kirkmeyer didn't approve of Jemiola's questions. "While you are at it you should talk to Frank about his treatment at the County Council by Councilman Jemiola. It is also on the web. While we cannot reprimand him. (sic) I would like him put on notice as well," Kirkmeyer's email reads. It is unclear what Kirkmeyer means by "put on notice." 6 Complete Colorado video recorded the exchange at that meeting, and Jemiola learned of the email from Complete Colorado. "I am concerned that I and the rest of the council were not notified of such request by commissioner Kirkmeyer," Jemiola said. "This may cause a direct conflict of interest with Bruce Barker representing both the County Commissioners and County Council depending on what "put on notice" means to commissioner Kirkmeyer." Jemiola said he's always been concerned that Barker represents both. He believes it's a conflict of interest. During_Monday's council meeting Barker said if there was an issue between the boards, he would represent the commissioners while the District Attorney's Office would be put in charge of representing the Council. That is unsettling for Jemiola. "It is also cause for concern," Jemiola said. "Our attorney has attorney/client privilege with both the council and the commissioners. Should a direct conflict occur, all the county's attorneys should recuse themselves because they hold privilege and internal knowledge of both bodies." XCEL DONATES TO VARIOUS BOARDS INVOLVING KIRKMEYER, COZAD, CONWAY Also at Monday's County Council meeting, Kirkmeyer and Moreno gave a presentation about the commissioners and what they had accomplished over the past year. Jemiola questioned Kirkmeyer about several stories in Complete Colorado that exposed issues in the commissioner's office. Kirkmeyer became frustrated and mentioned several incidents about Conway that attempted to discredit him, including one about Conway soliciting money from Xcel Energy for Salida del Sol Academy, a charter school in Greeley that Conway's wife helped open and remains on the board of directors. The Conway's were also instrumental in relocating and helping University Schools obtain a charter status. The Greeley Tribune reported that two weeks after the Xcel meeting exposed by Complete Colorado that Xcel donated $10,000 to Salida del Sol, implying Kirkmeyer's comments were correct. "Commissioner Conway breached the public's trust and breached the board's trust, and he shouldn't have done that," Kirkmeyer's comment from the meeting as it appeared in The Tribune. "If Commissioner Conway was so concerned about it, why did he go out and solicit funds (from Xcel) for his Salida del Sol foundation?" "Salida del Sol is a Greeley charter school. Conway's wife, Rebecca Koppes Conway, is on the board," The Tribune report read. "A few weeks after the county's meeting with Xcel, the company donated $io,000 to the school to provide equipment and supplies for the new robotics class." However, The Tribune article did not report who confirmed Conway actually solicited the funds. Complete Colorado obtained records that shows Conway did not have anything to do with the money the school received. Records shows Xcel has donated money to other Weld County entities in the past, including $10,000 to the Boys 8z Girls Club of Weld County. Barb Kirkmeyer and Julie Cozad both sit on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club. The donation is part of the company's Education Grant Program. In 2015, the company donated nearly $500,000 to Colorado causes supporting education. The application process began in early 2016. Ronna Sanchez, a member of the Salida del Sol foundation wrote the grant and supplied Complete Colorado with a copy of the application. Conway had nothing to do with the donation.Xcel Application 2016 by Anoaytnoi is lz;przCiZ on Scribd 'I WASN'T GOING TO GET INDICTED FOR THEM' Kirkmeyer also took issue with Conway waiving privilege to the Xcel email chain. "Commissioner Kirkmeyer continues to insist they can still refer this to the district attorney for prosecution," Conway said. "Even though I have done everything legally right. I have conferred with several attorneys It was my privilege to waive. I chose to waive it because I was concerned the county attorney's legal advice was being ignored. I've been threatened both by an email from the county attorney and in person by commissioner Kirkmeyer." Conway said after everything that has happened, he believed that a legal answer was the only way he could make his fellow commissioners understand how serious all this is. He also said he would do it all over again. "I didn't do it to attack someone personally," Conway said. "I didn't do this to embarrass them. I did this because I was at my wits end. I had multiple conversations with them, saying 'you can't continue to do this. You are violating the public trust. Stop doing stupid things.' Those are the type of conversations you can't have. At the end of the day, I didn't do this to embarrass anybody, to personally vilify anybody. But I was getting, quite frankly, very concerned we were bordering on some pretty unethical and potentially illegal things. And I wasn't going to jail for them. I wasn't going to get indicted for them." Click and Connect! Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. 8 Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. Forwarded message ---------- From: Mike Freeman <mfreeman(c co.weld.co.us> To: Don Warden <dwarden[c�co.weld.co.us> Cc: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer@co.weld.co.us>, Bruce Barker <bbarkerc co.weld.co.us>, Steve Moreno <smoreno@co.weld.co.us>, Julie Cozad <jcozadAco.weld.co.us>, Patti Russell <prussell(a)co.weld.co.us> Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 00:37:48 +0000 Subject: Re: Confidential Bruce, I completely agree with Barb's account. I can understand ********'s frustration with Sean to begin with in trying to explain aboutillIMMIMERSbut then his tirade atis completely inappropriate and unacceptable! I had to tell him to stop several times before he calmed down enough to tell me whicheM/11111110he was upset about I don't know what actions we can take as a Board but this behavior has got to stop. The Board needs to sanction or censure him whichever is appropriate. Mike Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 23, 2016, at 3:53 PM, Don Warden <dwarden(co.weld.co.us> wrote: > Here are few articles on censoring a board member. > http://www.goskagit.com/news/local news/fire-district-censures-commissioner-for- hostile-work-environment/article cc5736b4-3617-11 e3-acd0-001 a4bcf887a.html > http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/06/24/rodeo-hercules-fire-board-members- future -in -hands -of -colleagues -2/ > http://www,pressdemocrat.com/news/2226449-181/mayor-accuses-santa-rosa- councilman?ref=related > http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/1861128-181/city-manager-urges-additional- trainincOrefrrelated > Donald D. Warden > Director of Finance and Administration > Finance and Administration > PO Box 758 > 1150 O Street > Greeley, CO 80632 > tel: 970-356-4000 Extension 4218 > email: dwardenAco.weld.co.us > > Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. > ----Original Message--- > From: Barbara Kirkmeyer > Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2016 3:33 PM > To: Bruce Barker <bbarker(�co.weld.co.us> > Cc: Don Warden <dwarden()co.weid.co.us>; Steve Moreno <smorenoiaco.weld.co.us>; Mike Freeman <mfreeman(ct7,co.weld.co.us>; Julie Cozad <icozad(a7co.weld.co.us>; Patti Russell <prusselleco.weld.co.us> > Subject: Re: Confidential > While you are at it you should talk to Frank about his treatment at the County Council by Councilman Jemoilia It is also on the web. > While we cannot reprimand him. I would like him put on notice as well > Thank you > Have a great day >> On Nov 23, 2016, at 3:06 PM, Bruce Barker <bbarker(c co.weld.co.us> wrote: >> We will follow up on this Immediately. I will discuss with Patti and Don how best to do so. I need to think through remedies, but at a minimum, this needs to be dealt with on Monday. >> Sent from my iPhone >>> On Nov 23, 2016, at 4:45 PM, Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer(a�co.weld.co.us> wrote: >>> >>> Bruce >>> Today at approximately 9:00arn Commissioner Conway wad verbally abusive to >' He is out of town and called to yell alialllfo followed procedure by >> I believe Commissioner Conway called at 9:00am because he expected * ** to be alone >>> Comm Conway has the opportunity to >>> Instead he called ********. We all witnessed the call and could here the yelling on the phone. According to ******** he also cursed atiusing the "f' word. ******** hung up on him. >>> ******** was visibly upset to the point of tears.S actually removed I from her work space and walked down the hall to the restroom. >>> Comm Conway called backed and was short withealliallftnstructing them to go find ******** and getelfon the phone. >>> In the meantime , Comm Freeman called Comm Conway. Commissioners Moreno, Cozad and myself were present. >>> Commr's Freeman and Moreno spoke to Comm Conway. Explainedillallaft Comm Freeman instructed Comm Conway to stop yelling at ******** and told him his behavior was inappropriate >>> Comm Cozad and myself instructed ******** to report the incident to HR. We also informed she did not have to tolerate that ehavior from anyone; should hang up and we would stand withilland suppo >>> I observed ******** was in tears on and off for a least the next hour. >>> This is not acceptable - ever, by anyone. >> I want the incident investigated and a letter of reprimand given to Comm Conway. ASAP >>> I want him on notice we do not tolerate this behavior and should he continue to do it he will not be under the protection of the county >>> >>> I am appalled and ashamed of his behavior and treatment of our staff. There have been other occurrences that I was made aware of but this is the first one I have personally witnessed. »> »> The Board and the County need to ensure all of our employees work in a safe and respectable environment. And the Board Is responsible to act in the county's best interest. >>> I expect immediate action. >>> »> I ask Commissioners Freeman; Cozad and Moreno to add their comments please to my email. >>> >>> Thank you >>> Commissioner Kirkmeyer Forwarded message -------- From: Julie Cozad <jcozad[~1,co.weld.co:us> To: Mike Freeman <mfreemanna,co.weld.co.us> Cc: Don Warden <dwarden(c�co.weld.co.us>, Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer(2co.weld.co.us>, Bruce Barker <bbarkeraco.weld.co.us>, Steve Moreno <smoreno(a�co.weld.co.us>, Patti Russell <prussell(a�co.weld.co.us> Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 01:24:57 +0000 Subject: Re: Confidential I also agree with the assessment by Commissioners Kirkmeyer and Freeman. We can not allow this ty ep of abuse of our employees. I have also heard of previous incidents and I also witnessed toda s incident from the beginning of the call from Commissioner Conway t could hear the yelling but not the actual conversation. I tried to ask who she was talking to, and then realized it was Commissioner Conway. got very upset and then finally hung up. SIP was so upset that she had to leave her work area. Immediate action of some type needs to happen on Monday when we are all back. Sent from my iPad > On Nov 23;2016, at 5:37 PM, Mike Freeman <mfreeman@co.weld.co.us> wrote: > Bruce, > I completely agree with Barb's account. > 1 can understand ********'s frustration with Sean totegin with in tryilig to ,;;xplain aboutallielMftut then h,I,5 tirade E,3 is completely inappropriate and unacceptable! I had to tell him to stop severa ones before he calmed down enough ow' vhat actions we cart.,take as a Board but this behavior has got to StO > Ti> Boar ' ne o sanction or.. censure him whichever is appropriate. hang up and, the ne) ` hour. e incident inves iga - • : • - . eprimand gi'.en to Comm Conway. ASAP »a> I want him on notice we do not tolerate this behav or and should he continue to do it he will not be under the protection of the county »» »» I am appalled and ashamed of his beh' jinr ar, i treatment of our staff. There have been other occurrences that I was made aware of but this is the first one I have personally witnessed. >>» >>>> The Board and the County reed to ensure all of our employees work in a safe and respectable environment. And the Board is responsible to act in the county's best interest. >>>> I expect imh?ediate >›- -.>>> I ask Commissioners Freen;an; Cozad and Moreno to add their comments plea *e to my email. >>» »» 1 hank you >>>> Commissioner Kirkmeye; ------- Forwarded message From: Steve Moreno <smoreno(c,�,coweld.co.us> To: Mike Freeman <mfreeman anco.weld.co.us>, Don Warden <dwarden,co.weld.co.us> Cc: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirknteyeraco.weld.co.us>, Bruce Barker <bbarkert co.weld.co.us>, Julie Cozad <jcozad(c co.weld.co.us>, Patti Russell <prusselliico.weld.co.us> Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 16:45:52 +0000 Subject: RE: Confidential I agree with everything stated and I was also in Commissioner Freeman's office when Sean continued to yell about4iiiiiiiiiniffilik Commissioner Freeman had his speaker on so I could hear the conversation with Sean. 1 tried to explain to him I had e also raised is voice to me and stated did I not know h This behavior must stop or we are going to lose valued employees of the County. Attachment 6 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Friday, February 10, 2017 2:39 PM Lori Karl FW: Sherrie's FB post This is the Facebook message where Sherrie admits Sean sent a copy of the complaint to her. Bruce T. Barker, Esq. Weld County Attorney P.O. Box 758 11.50 "O" Street Greeley, CO 80632 (970) 356--4000, Ext. 4390 Fax: (970) 352-0242 Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is attorney privileged and confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. From: ME Sent: Friday, January 06, 2017 10:12 PM To: Patti Russell <prussell@co.weld.co.us> Cc: Don Warden <dwarden@co.weld.co.us>; Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Subject: Fwd: Sherrie's FB post Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: From: " To: ' Subject: Sherries FB post 1 ATTACHMENT 6 y'- I ill e—\l.d t„I I I II D i.lY\�J FS.l nam I rarely do this, but, I'm really disturbed by this story. When I did my story on this, I also reported that this employee alleged that this had happened before. None of them were in her file. They were just noted in this report. Also, I have the full copy of this report, which I also said in my story, but I chose not to quote it or release it because nearly every quote can identify the employee. While this report doesn't directly identify the employee, the quotes from the report make it clear who it is. And that's not fair to that employee. Finally, anonymously?? really? No. I admitted Sean gave me my copy. Really to bad. I'm just really disturbed that which ever commissioner, attorney, communication's director or employee (because that is the only place this could have come from) sent this to the Tribune didn't man up and put his or her name on it or asked to be protected. This looks simply like an effort to discredit Sean. At least Sean has the courage to do what he's done in full transparency to his constituents. Weld County employee complaint alleges fourth complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway I G... Attachment 7 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Friday, February 10, 2017 2:32 PM Lori Karl FW: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway files notice of pending lawsuit claiming his fellow commissioners are retaliating against him The Board's decision not to elect Conway as Chairman and to not appoint him as a Coordinator of a department was made on January 4`1'. His Notice of Claim was sent by his attorney to the Board and me on December 28, 2016, received on January 3, 2017. Bruce T. Barker, Esq. Weld County Attorney P.O. Box 758 1150 "O" Street Greeley, CO 80632 (970) 356-4000, Ext. 4390 Fax: (970) 352-0242 Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is attorney privileged and confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. From: INN Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 7:51 AM To: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer@co.weld.co.us>; Julie Cozad <jcozad@co.weld.co.us>; Mike Freeman <mfreeman@co.weld.co.us>; Sean Conway <sconway@co.weld.co.us>; Steve Moreno <smoreno@co.weld.co.us> Cc: Don Warden <dwarden@co.weld.co.us>; Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Subject: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway files notice of pending lawsuit claiming his fellow commissioners are retaliating against him http://www.ctreel tribr.ine.com/new_s/local/weld-cou,7ty_-comrnissior cr se an-conw< y -files -notice. -of -pc nding_!awsuit-. Maiming -his -fellow commissioners are retaliatiny against h_rni Sharon Dunn sdunn@greeleytribune.com Back to: LOCAL January 3, 2017 Follow Local Submit nu/ News 1 ATTACHMENT 7 Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway files notice of pending lawsuit claiming his fellow commissioners are retaliating against him WHAT'S NEXT The Board of Weld County Commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. today. In it they will elect a chairperson, and appoint commissioners to oversee county departments before moving on to land -use hearings. The board meets at the Weld County Administration building, 1150 O St., Greeley. Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway has filed a notice of claim against his fellow commissioners alleging retaliation and defamation after he said he publicly exposed their violations of Colorado's open meetings laws and questioned their use of county funds at an emergency training last summer, among other wrongdoings. Conway's attorney, Jill Gookin of Loveland, filed the notice of claim with Weld County Attorney Bruce Barker on Tuesday — the day before the commissioners are set to appoint commissioner oversight for county departments and elect a chairperson for the year. The commissioners are set to meet this morning for the annual changing of hands. Conway, who has served as the chairman pro -tern through 2016, is expecting to be elected chairman, which has long been the practice of the commissioners as they enter a new year. heyare so blinded right 1.1 now by a. iec..i. ' anger 53er andU �e;' at me t 4 R d 1 0 1 Fy.�.-.., out ... r \\. that a they � n S.o � a. a �� C�� De.i otl,iUy for calling g I_��l 11.E oilt pI_tb�ie y" that t�tt('y ,..-A N...00�. a1. i s ' I� � t, pp � F4T''YY \ � �, lll � in t moving `/ a A , n� pFa 7 start .n, see I l� ..diI � U[,,�".( 6I. ". /. I li�� hope.; C. e9 '1 V I�.Rg ti»i �VSLR. d iii t.. lN.y s1.n�� Q. to s� a may be we need. to step 1_ ack- . Sean Conway, county conmis sionc.a' But this year, the four remaining county commissioners — Mike Freeman, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Julie Cozad and Steve Moreno — have no intention of doing so. They told him at a November conference in Colorado Springs they no longer had any trust in him after his public accusations of wrongdoing and an incident in which he allegedly screamed so much at a county employee for scheduling a meeting he couldn't attend that she resigned. She later filed a complaint of harassment against him, claiming a hostile work environment. The complaint is being investigated by an outside contractor. Conway has accused the commissioners of encouraging the employee to file the complaint. Conway has said the meeting in Colorado Springs was illegal in that the public was not given proper notice. The remaining commissioners say proper notice was given for the meeting, in that all five commissioners were attending the conference that had a variety of topics. 2 Conway had initially told Barker about his intent to sue the cornrnissipir :rsDer 2, and the notice of claim rehash, •, issues all involved have been arguing about for the past several months. "You can throw whatever you want in there, everything he says in there is not true," Freeman said late Tuesday in response to the notice of claim, which highlights Conway's concerns and claims of retaliation and defamation. "I don't know that there is one true statement. "I am frustrated. I truly don't understand what his agenda is and what he's doing. ... It is what it is. Four of us are working really hard to do what is in the best interest of Weld County, and it appears that one commissioner" isn't. The remaining commissioners say the troubles start and end with Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes, Conway's niece. Koppes has been accused of mismanaging the Weld County Clerk and Recorder's Office. Conway denies his concerns have anything to do with her. When troubles arose in her office, Conway came to her defense publicly. When commissioners decided she couldn't go with other county officials and employees to an emergency training exercise in Breckenridge last summer, the other commissioners say he suddenly had a problem with the conference even though he voted in favor of it earlier. Conway said his larger concern was the $45,000 cost for the entire training exercise when it was budgeted for $15,000. Because he exposed some of these issues, Conway said his fellow commissioners are retaliating by taking away his leadership duties this year. "They are so blinded right now by their anger and rage at me personally for calling them out publicly that they can't look at this thing objectively," Conway said Tuesday. "My hope in moving forward is they'll start to see maybe we need to step back." Freeman retorted: "You can't strip someone of something they never had. For any appointment, it takes three affirmative votes, and I don't believe Sean has three affirmative votes for anything." Technically, the fact Conway filed a notice of claim is not that ominous. Weld County Attorney Bruce Barker said it is not the same as a lawsuit; it's just a notice Conway intends to file. From here, the claim will be sent to the county's insurance carrier in Denver, who then will decide whether to respond to the claim, which is not a requirement. It could languish on a shelf for months waiting for a lawsuit to be filed. At that point, the county would have to answer it in the legal system. Or the claim could sit there and collect dust and nothing will have changed. Conway, Kirkmeyer and Freeman were sworn in for their four-year terms Tuesday morning. They plan to conduct their meeting as normal today: elect 2017 officers and appoint commissioners to oversee departments, and then move on to land -use hearings. Not gaining the chairmanship or coordinating a county department will not technically strip Conway of his duties as a commissioner in terms of serving on the board. He will still be a voice and have a vote in all cases that go before the board. 3 "More than 79,000 people voted for me last November," Conway said. "I got more votes than Trump, Buck and any other commissioner. ... At the end of the day, I'm going to be the voice for open government, and when I believe they step over the line or they're not being transparent on budgetary issues, I'll be there for those people out there." 1'()tNd Fa114,S, AT O Click and Connect! Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. 4 Attachment 8 Lori Karl From: Sent: To: Subject: Another article on that issue. Bruce T. Barker, Esq. Weld County Attorney P.O. Box 758 1150 "O" Street Greeley, CO 80632 (970) 356-4000, Ext. 4390 Fax: (970) 352-0242 Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Friday, February 10, 2017 2:33 PM Lori Karl FW: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County commissioners keep Sean Conway from leadership role Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is attorney privileged and confidential, or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. From: Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2017 9:25 AM To: Barbara Kirkmeyer <bkirkmeyer@co.weld.co.us>; Julie Cozad <jcozad@co.weld.co.us>; Mike Freeman <mfreeman@co.weld.co.us>; Sean Conway <sconway@co.weld.co.us>; Steve Moreno <smoreno@co.weld.co.us> Cc: Don Warden <dwarden@co.weld.co.us>; Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.co.us> Subject: Media FYI: Tribune - Weld County commissioners keep Sean Conway from leadership role hith;JIwww.greeleytirkr.rneoomrrnews/localtwt ld-counly_commissioners-I<eep-sean_connu_`rorn, leadership -role Sharon Dunn sdunn@greeleytribune.com Back to: LOCAL January 4, 2017 Follow Local Submit Yon/ News Weld County commissioners keep Sean Conway from leadership role COMMISSIONER ASSIGNMENTS 1 ATTACHMENT 8 » Chairwoman — Julie Cozad » Chariman pro -tern — Steve Moreno » Coordinator of Finance and Administration departments — Cozad, assisted by Moreno » Coordinator of Public Works — Mike Freeman, assisted by Moreno » Coordinator of Planning and Human Services — Barbara Kirkmeyer, assisted by Freeman and Cozad » Coordinator of Health Department — Moreno, assisted by Kirkmeyer READ MORE Is it time for commissioners to revamp their interpretation of Colorado's open meetings law?: Click here. The Weld County commissioners on Wednesday were true to their words, keeping Commissioner Sean Conway from a leadership position through 2017 even as he threatens to sue them. The commissioners elected Commissioner Julie Cozad as chairwoman for 2017 and Commissioner Steve Moreno as chairman pro -tern. Conway, who was pro -tern this year and expected to be named chairman himself, voted against both appointments and commissioner oversight of four county departments, which also excluded him. On Tuesday, Conway filed a notice of claim, in which he stated he would sue his fellow commissioners for retaliation and defamation. They had told him on Nov. 30 they would not elect him as chairman — contrary to the longstanding practice of electing the pro -tern as chairman the following year — and they would not allow him to coordinate any county departments. Since July, Conway and the four other commissioners have gone back and forth accusing each other of wrongdoing in a tangled web of complaints about violation of the public trust and transparency. "I truly believe that what we did was the proper and right thing to do based on the circumstances, and I can look myself in the mirror at night and feel very comfortable with the decisions we made," outgoing chairman Mike Freeman said of the morning's votes. I(. . i r.t ..:i oped atter a :month Of t e s �.eCtt Ort, COO .t. t:' Ileads would pn t'eva i l a:1,t'1.o ig .11-ty fellow eomm.Isstoner , but il.nfoi'1:0ma :ehy, that has not occurred.. Sean Conway, reading from a %rhl teu sna.t 1G:.&.e.i-:i.t of -protest Conway seemed prepared for that eventuality Wednesday, bringing a big smile and a written statement of protest to the meeting. "I had hoped after a month of reflection, cooler heads would prevail among my fellow commissioners, but unfortunately, that has not occurred," Conway read aloud to the commissioners and an audience of about 25. "The actions today are retaliation against me for attempting to secure the public's right to know about budget issues and my public release of the attempt to schedule meetings with companies that will be having business before Weld County." 2 Conway said that was in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the commissioners scheduling an illegal meeting with Xcel Energy in September 2016. He and the other commissioners attended that meeting, and all have agreed there was nothing illegal about it. Conway, however, said it would have been illegal had he not intervened and voiced concerns to the county attorney; he released emails of privileged attorney -client advice to prove his points, a breach that upset his fellow commissioners. He said retaliation also was for his vocal concerns about overspending and getting corporate sponsorship from businesses for a county emergency training exercise in Breckenridge last summer. Commissioners have said Conway's concerns about issues only came about when his niece, Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes, was prohibited from holding a Republican executive committee meeting at her office, when she was excluded from that emergency training, and after there was a public call for an official audit of her office. Just before that Nov. 30 meeting when they told Conway they had lost trust in him, a county employee resigned after filing a harassment complaint against Conway. She said Conway screamed at her and used profanity for scheduling a meeting he couldn't attend. The investigation into the matter is ongoing. Freeman said with that complaint pending, he couldn't in good conscience put him in charge of county employees. Conway then filed a notice that he would sue his fellow commissioners, the tension from which had not yet settled on Wednesday. Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer pondered the question of finding peace within the ranks with such a lawsuit pending. "I have no idea how that's going to occur when one county commissioner decides to send a notice of claim, essentially a pending lawsuit, to try and bully, threaten and intimidate us into appointing him to something that we just don't have any trust for him to be in." Two residents who came in support of Conway called the morning's actions disturbing. "The public statements intended to discredit and shame Mr. Conway are not of the professional standard that citizens expect, and they reflect poorly on the commissioners and the county," Hudson resident Karen Grillos told the board. "They seem ... hostile, emotional and without clear, legitimate, or professional objectives." David Kisker of Johnstown said that Conway was no angel, but there seemed to be other instances on the board of violating the public trust. He described commissioners getting corporate sponsorship for that summer emergency training as "money laundering," and he chided others on the board for taking 25 percent of their re-election funding from oil and gas interests when the board was considering new rules regulating oil and gas procedures in the county. Conway told the audience that the commissioners were violating the county charter by not appointing him oversight over a county department. County Attorney Bruce Barker said there was clearly no charter violation. The charter states a commissioner shall coordinate a department with the assistance of another, he said. 3 rr4 "You as a board can choose which one of you will coordinate which department," Barker said. "It doesn't say each commissioner gets to coordinate a department. It doesn't say that anywhere in the home rule charter." While Kisker and Grillos worried that the commissioners were taking away Conway's voice on the board, members said they only kept him out of a leadership role. "Commissioner Conway still has a vote on every single matter that comes before this board," Freeman said. "The only thing we decided was to not have him in a leadership role this year." The first meeting of the year, however, is meant to be more of a reflective one. The newly appointed chairwoman, Cozad, said there was a lot of good work to continue at the county. She cited as priorities the need to continue to work on the expansion of Weld County Road 49, sustaining the Bright Futures program that gives scholarships to Weld's college -bound students, and expanding the Weld County Jail. "I will continue to represent Weld County in a positive and productive way," she said. "Hopefully, as a board, we can find ways to work together in 2017." When it came to the question of brokering peace among a fractured body, she hesitated. "I can't control what other people do and say," Cozad said. "I am only responsible for myself, to my constituents and my district, and I think it's important now as the chair that I try to lead the group to do the business of the county. That's the most important thing. As a county things are going very well." ,UIIHN THE CONVERSATI Click and Connect! Confidentiality Notice: This electronic transmission and any attached documents or other writings are intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify sender by return e-mail and destroy the communication. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action concerning the contents of this communication or any attachments by anyone other than the named recipient is strictly prohibited. 4 Attachment 9 Message left: for 1:3rtu,e: Friday 0l/06/20'i.1 Hey Bruce it's Sean calling about 10 till 3 on Friday afternoon, hey we have a little bit of a problem. Sharon Dunn just called me and said that she has the complete the Tribune has obtained the comp anonymously the complete complaint against me which is as you know a violation cause I haven't waived privilege and I am sure- hasn't waived privilege Uh but we have a problem here. Uhm I just finished my invest my uh interview this morning with the investigator uh on this whole thing she is in the process of finalizing her report and uhm all of a sudden the Tribune gets the full complaint I , you know we've got to treat this the same way we treat other privileged ********** around here. So if you could give me, if you could give me a call 970-518-6999 I bet the Sharon Dunn probably needs to get a call from you but I'll defer to you on that thanks. I am not calling her back until I get a call from you. Thank you. Message left for Patti: Friday 01./00/201 1 2:4'i p.m. Hi Patti, uh it's Sean Conway calling you at about 2:45. Hey Patti, uh you know when we did this whole thing you told me that this would absolutely be kept confidential and Sharon Dunn has a complete copy of the complaint against me and just called me to ask for comment. This is a complete violation of our Human Resources policy and quite frankly a violation ofand my rights. I'm not uh pleased you can imagine, I'm talking to my attorney. If you could please give me a call back on my cell 970-518- 6999 uhm I can uh forward you the uh voicemail that I got from Sharon Dunn that she says uh she has the uhm uh complete complaint and uhm is writing a story for Saturday. So I just need to hear from you in terms of uh how this might have gotten out since you told me that this was in uhm uh strict confidence and that no one had this besides you and Bruce. Please call me back... thanks...bye. ATTACHMENT 9 Attachment 10 ATTACHMENT 10 Attachment 11 Dear Patti: I have worked with you for a number of years. I am now tired of working with you. You are now causing harm to people in the office just to keep Kirkmeyer happy. You do know that texted to me and other people in the county that it was Don Mueller she had to chase out of her office. Not Sean Conway (the walls are thin here) and that she was being bothered by Kirkmeyer, Cozad, Mueller and Tucker. Yet, you let that Ile stand. Well, when those screen shots appear...and I will make sure that mine do, good luck with your job. I also know that you lied to the investigator, who by the way never came to talk to me, about Sean being at a funeral. We know you told her that he did not go to the funeral because he was in the office that morning. And you knew that funeral was at 2 pm in the afternoon in Denver, but you chuckled about not telling her that part. I know you and are buddies and the two of you went to lunch together the day that the complaint by got leaked. Did - stop by the Triibune that day? There are pictures. So, why don't you retire and the can go away from her pouting and we can have a normal office again. We all are sick and tired of you and her. You give horrible advice, telling all of us to suck It up when it comes to elected officials but when you were exposed for giving bad HR advice you rolled• over to•do Kirkmeyer'& bidding. If you, are so. worried about sexual harassment, why aren't you worried that Moreno was sleeping with one of his employees and he Is still doing her bidding...???? That could get the county sued for sure. Sincerely, A fellow employee ATTACHMENT 11 Attachment 12 Bruce Barker <bbarker@co.weld.cous> 2 C- rn N O N 0 U U m 2 111 (6 v (n C a) L 3 o FW: new CORA This is the one I was looking for. P.O. Box 758 N m Lo 0 co 0 U a) QJ 0 rn m X w ci 0 0 Sr) m 0 N 0) N N 0 N U1 m 0 m X (o 41 un a ..Y ('s1 a) s_- -C Cl)a) (a i1 O l if a , (.0)) ±' +C t r (ll > a L _c.(u U b•0+?+ C U .C U 0 U vi >- a) v-- OU vs a1 ai a� C c ) 0) w tit V) o --473 U U •'u >- ,'n_ C D o "a 0 C E -0 `- r C Ci C -- a; a).0 _sT C U .)- .w C C- O S' n :3 +' bA N C a1 C •n E C 0 u O a) c v47' 0 a o ° ro C-_— U ra cu C CI) C CL) -Cy C (I) E E m C •- o u v r0 C C c U a) .aU-. (9 as CO (1) s.• 4 ti U (d '� > C >- •C 0 C N .4-3 -o > c •u c COCL... an C m .w vi v O O F 4 (o 0 co c S- v co fl U -0 U C (n EC - v ° U a) .-- v C „,(0 s .E 0: U U U V L O (Ca C u z E • c 4. "a O U C rnn so (0 O U71-5 cu j RS -a E C 'L7 E (n o 0 0 4- lJ o u U From: Bruce Barker ATTACHMENT 12 - -s (22J R)) (1) u ..F C„) aJ .. Ln tlJ L- S) v S,) r) 0 0) C 0ro v 1) 0 +c iv rs c m c ro ("U j C? l0 Cry N O O in f -J O `*-i Ni U � E L (1) c; U I-, v 0 v y 4- a O _0 o (f) ,n ) (q) O ("0, z:1 + v � o 0 0 c E o. E S O .c N u u ..Q >� elo a) 0- u j O v ca C .Q Q. (n v 0 .c N c .0 a) F 'Q) v w u E 0 C U U 0 "0> u v v C Sy a C .> U 0 'I c CL^ (n E O C Li O u o o E UJ O N W > C .C E 0 0 0- v v U (1) .y__ C I-- 0 0 00 X 0 d CL 1150 'O'' Street (O m m w N (D N CD 900 0 N ® 0j m (b o (v m rn v v N X l7 rn b.1) C:: .v.`. r15 v 0 "0 .0 .0 S O W O_ C J o. o 14 IT: c v o'n 'Q U L) N 0 .0 >, a) -r_ 9 rn . c c a1 o .r_ C •u ro C . 0 s✓ E v E 4- u 0 v v c o %'- o ` o co n n r7 c c v u E '-)=- CO Vic: D 0 (TS U 7 0 u 9 co 7 .O "C3 W VO 0 .,� C tl) CO dui a) C6 C T (9. _c "0 =5 C ro 0) � v o 4-, -5 (o > .> c sa >.._ 0 sp !co ° u 12 v 0 •0 °) C Y ro v, c ro s_ o c >- , m c u O Q .� N m E (O -c iii N 44, ro ::3 N G O j (.O Oi _o u ' v 1-• c O .C 0 C C N v a U o 0 s - n `� v 4- N ° Q) . 0) cu v 4..6,./s 0 a 0 O • O u u L L O a� '''0 r> v u t v) v< Z E •-' C o Qr. O v, cu ra to f0 0 "O c N ' o ,0 . 0 v c v u n coc ~ -0wc0>- >- C) as O U U) O 0 LL to H V) Dear Board of Weld County Commissioners, OO { CQ ..•-i 0 CD a... H -, bA • 0 '� O o '0 < cd •��-+ O N @ a'd o O U a� O o O G) rn • Q.4-• .5 a) O d. 41) OD 4 O •0 :s10 •- O 4-' 4' o to 0 O a) U - O • › z=1 O cd En O E C4 -4O o - -4 a> • I 0 0 ect -0 O U 1~ U ( N N It g N C -40 O M N N 0 O o Uco Q( N ON u vi 0 b O V) O x O O O o o O UU 0�y r4-+ 4--' O +C� d rn W O U 0•4 f:4 ests were paid for by Weld County Any guest list or list of attendees and a list of whic U O cn N 5 H O a) -d a) U H O U O O a) -d cn 0 a) a) O a) -d 0 U a, .5 b H O 0 cad U -d A copy of all grants or other sources of money that may have defrayed the cost of the Breckenridge training and the amount O U oh I Ia) ct O .O "O O a a) 4-4cn 0 U -d a) a) a) a) N Xi cn o W O 0 a) a) O H ll O 1—i 2 0 a) • O4 a) - a) U O U cKS cn 3 O1,1 o - 4-1 4.1 U '� 715 g cu o O -0 - 2 .5 i U ca 3 .. I o 5 cn U OU -° bon d z y a) - C..) o a) 0 b a) cn .-0 a) 0 o o 5 0 C" Q. 0 'E OU 0-, ch \O a) 4t1 u vc ,O N a) >s, ✓, ¢ ON N O cn U O N a) -d U cn cnn O 0 cn H O O a) -o cn ott O cn .5 N .d A copy of all grants or other sources of money that may have defrayed the cost of the Long Beach conference and the amount concerning the conference between the dates July b O cn cn cn .1 O U 5 0 o N O N ti cd U N CU O O O 0 • V) U O 5 O - U 3 �. o H U ccS LU 'd g „.4• E a) O a) 3 < a) g a) �-, -d Attachment 13 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Barbara Kirkmeyer (by telephone) Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation *Confidentiality *Truthfulness/Completeness February 23, 2017 My name is Barbara Kirkmeyer. I am a County Commissioner for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 16 years. IiiatookE4 the Human Services and Planning Departments and report to Weld County voters. ' r u hr e0ir ur l t� tOll I' ('.o. ce( � � t c P f61 I had a copy of _ complaint that she filed in November 2016.. didn't senii it to me directly; I received it under attorney -client privilege from Bruce Barker. We received it because Commissioner Sean Conway requested all emails associated with the complaint after we had given Commissioner Conway a letter to notify him of. complaint. Mr. Barker let us know that Commissioner Conway asked to see all emails between us about the complaint. I did not provide a copy of. complaint to the media. I don't know who provided it to the media, but I know Commissioner Conway gave. complaint to Sherrie Peif, who works for Complete Colorado, an internet political blog site. Ms. Peif and Commissioner Conway are friends. She wrote on her Facebook page that Commissioner Conway gave her. complaint. I know Commissioner Conway sent emails to Ms. Peif because we called in our IT Director, gave him a copy of the emails, and asked him to chase them down. Commissioner Conway denied sending the emails to Ms. Peif, but our IT Director gave us proof that Commissioner Conway sent the emails to his home email address, and then from his home email address to Ms. Peif. When we confronted Commissioner Conway, he said he didn't remember doing it. I got a phone call from a reporter from the Tribune, Sharon Dunn, on January 6, 2017. I was at a meeting at Colorado Counties, Inc. with Bruce Barker, Ms. Dunn said the Tribune received. complaint through an anonymous letter, and asked if I wanted to comment. Ms. Dunn didn't know who filed the complaint and didn't mention._ name. Mr. Barker answered Ms. Dunn's questions. I don't know who gave the complaint to the Tribune. I received an anonymous letter on January 7 or 8, 2017. The postmark on the envelope was January 3, 2017. I took a picture of the letter and sent it to Mr. Barker. I think the sender was trying to intimidate me. When I first saw the envelope, I thought, 'Why is Sean sending me a letter at my home?' because the writing on the envelope looks like Commissioner Conway's, The tone of the letter led me to believe the author was trying to discredit. because it 1 ATTACHMENT 13 implies she was doing things behind my back. After I read the letter, I thought that maybe Carly Koppes, Commissioner Conway's niece, sent the letter because it sounds like an immature mean girl talking. Ms. Koppes is the Weld County Clerk and Recorder. I learned from the other Commissioners that I was the only Commissioner who received this letter. I think Commissioner Conway sees me as being in charge. I had told. in November 2016 that she should document her complaint against Commissioner Conway and send it to Human Resources (HR). I sent my observations/complaint about Commissioner Conway to HR, our County Attorney, Don Warden, and the other County Commissioners before I encouraged the other County Commissioners to document their observations about Commissioner Conway's behavior and send diem in. I demanded an investigation regarding his behavior, so Commissioner Conway may be trying to target me. I sent the anonymous letter I received to Mr. Barker. Mr. Barker called the Sheriff's Office, and then he suggested 1 talk to them. When I talked with the Sheriff's Office, they said they would hold on to the letter in the event I receive more. I also showed the letter to the other Commissioners in case they receive similar letters. I believe that Commissioner Conway doesn't do anything directly, but engages others to do things. While I know he sent. complaint to Ms. Peif, I don't believe he directly sent the complaint to the Tribune, but had a hand in it. I also don't believe Commissioner Conway sent me the anonymous letter directly, but I believe he had a hand in it. Some of the things in the anonymous letter would have only been known by County Commissioners or. our administrative assistant at the time. I don't believe any of the other Commissioners would have sent me the anonymous letter because they're not that type of person. Commissioner Conway has been targeting all of us for the last year or two, so it's his modus operandi. I don't know why Commissioner Conway has been targeting all of us, but I believe he's upset that he's not in control. I also think he's a psychopath. It's easy for him to lie. Many people have been critical of Ms. Koppes and her job as Clerk and Recorder and it's been covered by the press. I think Commissioner Conway may be trying to defend Ms. Koppes. I believe Commissioner Conway blames Commissioner Moreno and me for Ms. Koppes' problems. Commissioner Conway accused me of going after Ms. Koppes. We've had issues of mismunagen enl in Ms. Koppes' office, and the Commissioners overturned Ms. Koppes' • decision to t an employee after that employee grieved the decision. All three Commissioners who voted on the decision voted to overturn the termination. Commissioner Conway knew information about that employee because the employee's family had been before his wife, a judge. Commissioner Conway said the employee is `batshit crazy' and I was just trying to make Ms. Koppes look bad. I talked with. - after her complaint was sent to the Tribune. I advised her to contact MSEC if she had questions. I told her to take care of herself when she asked if she should talk to the media. I don't think. - would have sent the letter to the media because that's not her personality, and she had already resigned from her position. She's not confrontational and she has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to have that kind of stress, Her way of dealing with the situation was to leave her job. 2 I don't think Patti Russell of Bruce Barker sent the complaint to the media. I refer to Mr. Barker as our 'Abe Lincoln' of the office because he's very honest and credible. I don't think any of the other Commissioners sent it because we knew an investigation was going on with regard to the complaint, and I don't think it's their personalities. When we gave the complaint to Commissioner Conway in November 2016, we tried to do it respectfully, and then he accused us of having an illegal meeting. The only person who gained from leaking the complaint to the media was Commissioner Conway because it made him look like a victim. I think he wants to look like a victim so the light isn't shining on him. February 23, 2017 / ,1 Zil'tk,(, eL"\..U:. 1'),L1. I(�.�ite.t '2/L' ,Barbara Kirkmeyer 3 Attachment 14 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation *Confidentiality *Truthfulness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is I was the Colorado. I worked here for 12 years. I worked in the Weld County Office of the Board Department and reported to Chair of the Board of County Commissioners. There is an independent reporter named Sherrie Peif who has done a lot of reporting on local politics. She works for Complete Colorado. I followed Ms. Peif on Facebook to see what she was writing about. In January 2017, a reporter from the Greeley Tribune tried to contact me through Facebook and Linked In to comment on an article because they had anonymously received in the mail my complaint about Commissioner Sean Conway. I didn't call the reporter back. The Greeley Tribune went ahead and released a generalized article announcing that an employee was accusing Commissioner Sean Conway of harassment, but my name wasn't mentioned. The Tribune included a portion of my complaint in the article. People who knew my situation knew the Tribune was talking about me. Once I knew the Tribune released an article about the investigation into my complaint, I looked at Ms. Peif's Facebook post which referenced she had a new story on her blog. I clicked on the link from Ms. Peif's Facebook post to read her blog. When I read her blog, I noticed that she quoted certain portions of my November 2016 complaint. Also on Ms. Peif's Facebook page, she chastised the Tribune for saying it anonymously received my complaint, and admitted she received my complaint from Commissioner Conway. I took a screenshot of Ms. Peif's Facebook past and sent it to MSEC with information about the media articles. After I sent my email to MSEC, I contacted our Public Information Officer, _ who handles media for all of Weld County, and she said Weld County did not release my complaint to the media. I think Commissioner Conway released my complaint to both Ms. Peif and the Tribune. If it wasn't Commissioner Conway, it was someone working with him. My original complaint went to the four other Commissioners who witnessed the event that precipitated my complaint, Patti Russell, and Bruce Barker. From what I understand, because it was a complaint, Mr. Barker had to provide a copy of my complaint to Commissioner Conway. I didn't care that Commissioner Conway had my complaint because it stated the facts, but I didn't want him to share it with the press. I don't know why Commissioner Conway would share it with the press because it's a word for word account of his harassment. Maybe Commissioner Conway didn't sent the article 1 ATTACHMENT 14 to the Tribune, but it may have been someone who wanted to defend him. That person would have had to receive a copy of the complaint from Commissioner Conway. I don't think any of the other people who had a copy of my complaint would have sent it to the media. They have been trying to maintain my confidentiality. Ms. Peif's article had email attachments which she probably received through a CORA request. The County redacted information from the emails, showing they were trying to maintain my confidentiality. It felt bad to read about myself on the front page of the newspaper when I hadn't given my permission. This was a personnel issue and I don't believe it should have been released. If it was Commissioner Conway, maybe he thought he would get ahead of the fire storm by releasing my complaint. Or maybe he was trying to discredit me and my complaint. I did not release my complaint to the media. It made me feel uncomfortable to see my complaint in the press. It felt like a personal betrayal. Even after I complained and submitted my resignation, I worked hard to train my replacement so she would have a seamless transition. I don't think Commissioner Conway took my complaint seriously and felt he could still do what he wanted. But the other four Commissioners felt my complaint was serious and it needed to be addressed. The whole situation is uncomfortable, but I complained about Commissioner Conway's behavior so it might help someone else in the future. It's not okay for him to be picking on female employees. Around the time my complaint was sent to the Tribune, Commissioner Kirkmeyer told me she received an anonymous letter at her house that referenced me. The letter said I was working in conjunction with Commissioner Conway's family member who is also an elected official. Commissioner Kirkmeyer told me she didn't believe what she read in the anonymous letter. There was another article in the Tribune saying there were 6 women who complained against Commissioner Conway. The Tribune apparently requested a copy of the investigation report, but the County took measures to protect it. February 28, 2017 2 Attachment 15 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Patti Russell Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose * Retaliation * Confidentiality *Truthfulness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is Patti Russell. I am the Director of Human Resources for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 8 years. I work in the Human Resources Department and report to the Director of Finance and Administration, Don Warden. brought her complaint to me or emailed it directly to me in November 2016 (the Monday after Thanksgiving). I also received a copy from Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I didn't give _ complaint to anyone else. I did not release. _ complaint to the media. I found out it was released to the media because I read the articles on Complete Colorado and in the Greeley Tribune. The article in Complete Colorado quoted portions of. complaint. I believe the Greeley Tribune mentioned the complaint but redacted names. I'm aware that Commissioner Sean Conway had a copy of. complaint because Bruce Barker, Don Warden and I discussed it. Commissioner Conway received a copy of the complaint from the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners (Mike Freeman) when Commissioner Freeman put Commissioner Conway on notice that he would not be the Chair of the Board or coordinating any Departments. They were in Colorado Springs at the time. I don't know who released. _ complaint to the media. But on Facebook, Sherrie Peif, a reporter for Complete Colorado, chastised the Greeley Tribune for releasing as much of the complaint as it did because it identified who made the accusations. I believe Ms. Peif said in her post that she got. _ complaint from Commissioner Sean Conway. Ms. Peif or Commissioner Conway may have given. complaint to the Tribune. I don't know why Commissioner Conway may have released the complaint to the media, or what he may have gained from it because it doesn't make him or anyone look good. I don't think any of the other Commissioners would have released. _ complaint to the media. They recognized it was a serious matter and we needed to keep it confidential to protect all parties. I don't believe Bruce Barker or Don Warden released the complaint to the media. I also don't believe. - released her complaint to the media. She called me after it was released and was quite upset because she thought it would be confidential. 1 ATTACHMENT 15 I learned after the fact that Commissioner Conway released attorney -client privileged emails to Ms. Peif from Complete Colorado. I don't believe the media ever contacted me to comment on. complaint. I was aware after the fact that someone sent an anonymous letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I saw the anonymous letter sometime later. I saw only a copy, not the original. Commissioner Kirkmeyer didn't opine as to who may have sent her the anonymous letter. I don't know who may have sent her the anonymous letter. February 28, 2017 Patti Russell 2 Attachment 16 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Mike Freeman Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation *Confidentiality * Truthful ness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is Mike Freeman. I am a County Commissioner for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 4 years. I work in the Board of County Commissioners Department and report to the voters. I didn't have a copy ofcomplaint regarding Commissioner Sean Conway. I saw complaint when Bruce Barker showed it to me before I left for a conference in Colorado Springs, but I didn't keep a copy. While I was in Colorado Springs, Mr. Barker overnighted a packet to me. I was chair of the Board of County Commissioners at the time. Mr. Barker sent me the letter he drafted to be given from the Board to Commissioner Conway to notify him of the complaint.. complaint was attached to the letter to be given to Commissioner Conway, as well of copies of relevant policies, but I didn't keep a copy of any documents in the packet. I signed the letter to Commissioner Conway and gave the entire packet to him. I knew complaint was released to Sherrie Peif because Ms. Peif posted the complaint on the Complete Colorado website. Complete Colorado is a blog. Ms. Peif said she received. _ complaint from Commissioner Conway. I don't know who anonymously sent _ complaint to the Greeley Tribune. I would guess it was sent by Commissioner Conway or by someone to whom he gave the complaint. Commissioner Conway released attorney -client privileged information to Ms. Peif. The information released were emails between Mr. Barker and the Board regarding a meeting with Xcel. I had our IT manager check our email accounts. We learned the emails were sent directly from Commissioner Conway's phone to Ms. Peif. When I told Commissioner Conway the emails were sent from his phone, he said he didn't remember. A day or two later, Commissioner Conway admitted to send`t`lfeemails to Ms. Peif and he apologized to me. He didn't say why he did it. I don't have a copy of the emails that Commissioner Conway released. I believe I gave them to Commissioner Conway. I did not release _ complaint to the media. I don't think any of the other three Commissioners did it either. I believe it came from gommissioner Conway, either directly or indirectly. He may have done it to try to make hintiook like a victim or to deflect things -going onto the other County Commissioners. -1,;,:)t-,\ ' ,: �: y , r.;{ r ATTACHMENT 16 The media contacted me to comment on. _ complaint, but I said it was a personnel issue and I couldn't talk about it. I saw the anonymous letter that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received. I thought it probably came from the same kind of sources, either Commissioner Conway or someone working with him. The envelope was handwritten in block letters. I called Randy Bangert at the Tribune and asked if he kept the envelope in which he received complaint. He said he had the envelope so I asked if it was addressed to him personally in capitalized block letters, and he said it was. Mr. Bangert said he couldn't give me the envelope because he had to protect his sources. I asked to take a picture of the envelope, but he said he had to protect it. Mr. Bangert said he would save the envelope in the event he's ever compelled to produce it. I believe the same person who sent complaint to the Tribune is the same person who sent the anonymous letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I think you can connect the dots. The letters were sent within a day of each other if not the same day. I have never received any anonymous letters. I absolutely don't believe Bruce Barker or Patti Russell would have sent III complaint to the media. would not have sent it to the media. She was extremely upset that it was sent to the media. February 28, 2017 Mike Freeman cl id, re C e �'tray.r G_ Gu �' Y Cam,,, _cywr\ vth v, 9 'Y.\ Cu ,eti.{t 0.S vcv• �GG.S rZCo.vG'c k -- Le) Y 2 Attachment 17 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Don Warden (by telephone) Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation *Confidentiality *Truthfulness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is Don Warden. I am the Director of Finance and Administration for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 39 years. I work in the Finance and Administration Department and report to the Board of County Commissioners. I never read complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway, but I may have seen it. I don't recall that I ever received a copy of. _ complaint. Patti Russell and Bruce Barker discussed the complaint with me, but I never got a copy. I was aware that. complaint was released to the media. Ms. Russell and Mr. Barker informed me the complaint was on Sherrie Peif's website and in the Greeley Tribune. I did not release complaint to the media. I don't know who did, but I heard that Sean Conway was suspected of doing it. I don't have any direct evidence of that; it was hearsay from people talking about it. In the last year, Commissioner Conway has been at odds with the other Commissioners. Commissioner Conway released other information to the media, possibly to embarrass the other Commissioners, or to get Commissioner Kirkmeyer defeated. I've known Commissioner Conway a long time and I've worked with him for about 9 years. His behavior has changed recently in that he used to be a team player, but in the last year, he's been doing things that seem irrational and I can't explain. Commissioner Conway has some motive. He may want to harm the other Commissioners to elevate himself in the eyes of the public. I had one conversation with Commissioner Conway in August 2016 after he put his own spin on the other Commissioners' spending in conjunction with some training. I asked him, 'What is your end game? Are you trying to get Barb [Kirkmeyer] defeated?' He said he wasn't; he was just trying to be transparent to the public. Commissioner Conway subsequently released to the media a privileged email from Bruce Barker regarding a meeting with Xcel Energy. Again, I think Commissioner Conway was trying to embarrass the other Commissioners. Commissioner Conway's niece is the Clerk and Recorder and he's been protective of her. She has been under fire from some of her current and former employees who complained about her treatment of them. The other Commissioners have been critical of Commissioner Conway's niece. That may have led Commissioner Conway to do some of the things he's done. 1 ATTACHMENT 17 I'm almost certain none of the other 4 Commissioners would have released the complaint to the media. They understood this was a sensitive matter and would not have released it. Neither Mr. Barker nor Ms. Russell would have released.' complaint to the media. They're very professional and know the sensitivity of this issue. I definitely don't think. would have released her complaint to the media. She called Ms. Russell after she read about it in the press and was very upset. February 28, 2017 2 Attachment 18 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Julie Cozad Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation *Confidentiality * Truthfulness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is Julie Cozad. I am a County Commissioner for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 2 years. I work in the Board of County Commissioners Department and report to the voters. I had a copy ofcomplaint against Commissioner Sean Conway. I'm aware that her complaint was shared with the media. I first became aware of it through a Facebook post by Sherrie Peif. Ms. Peif posted that Commissioner Conway gave her a copy of the complaint and she wrote about it in an article. Bruce Barker notified me that Commissioner Conway called him and Patti Russell, saying that Sharon Dunn from The Tribune had called him and said they had a copy of the complaint and it was sent to them anonymously. I saw the article in the Tribune referencing I _ complaint. I did not give a copy of. complaint to the media. I don't know who did, but I suspect that Commissioner Conway may have done it. Ms. Peif directly said he gave her the complaint. Either Commissioner Conway or someone associated with Commissioner Conway released it to the media. I don't know what Commissioner Conway would have had to gain by providing the complaint to Ms. Peif or the Tribune. I don't know if maybe he wanted to release it so he could spin it a certain way. I don't think any of the other Commissioners would have released the complaint to the media because they have integrity and trust. The rest of us don't do things like that. The other Commissioners are very trustworthy and possess high morals. I've known Commissioner Conway for about 6-8 years, and I trusted him in the past. But he has repeatedly given things to Ms. Peif, and he released attorney -client privileged emails on another occasion. From that point on, I realized I can't trust Commissioner Conway. I think he started doing things like that when he didn't disaire,i With some things the Board did. I think he's grasping at straws to try to make it look like the problem is with the other Commissioners instead of with him. I think it's a deflection. I don't believe Bruce Barker or Patti Russell would have sent. _ complaint to the media. They both have high integrity. Mr. Barker is one of the best county attorneys there are. I don't believe. - sent her complaint to the media. I don't think she would do that. 1 ATTACHMENT 18 The media contacted me to comment on. _ complaint. I was asked if I made talk to HR about the incident. I said I was standing there when it occurred and witnessed it, so I told - to report it to HR. I'm aware that someone sent an anonymous letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I think she called me. She was pretty upset. I saw the letter. When she showed me the envelope, it looked like Commissioner Conway's handwriting. The letter was typed. In a way, the letter was threatening and intimidating. I think the letter was trying to make Commissioner Kirkmeyer not trust others. I have not received any anonymous letters. February 28, 2017 2 Attachment 19 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Steve Moreno Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose *Retaliation * Confidentiality *'Truthfulness/Completeness February 28, 2017 My name is Steve Moreno. I am a County Commissioner for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 31 years. I work in the Board of County Commissioners' Department and report to the voters. I never had a copy of but never had a copy. I'm aware that someone released _ complaint to the media. There was information about it on the Greeley Politics website, which directed me to the Complete Colorado website, which also had an article. complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway. I saw it, I did not release I complaint to the media. There is strong suspicion that Commissioner Conway released it to the media. Commissioner Conway was identified through IT as releasing other information to the Complete Colorado reporter who wrote about". complaint. I can see Commissioner Conway doing it because I've known him for a long time and he's been known to work with the media in ways to favor himself. In my opinion, Commissioner Conway may have felt he would gather support by releasing the complaint to the media. Commissioner Conway was a former press secretary for a senator and has worked with the media for decades. I've heard others refer to him as the 'Spin Master' with the media. I wouldn't understand why any of the other Commissioners would release s complaint to the media. I don't think they did it. I don't think Patti Russell or Bruce Barker sent the complaint to the media. I don't see why they would ever be inclined to do something like that. I only worked with I for a couple years. I don't believe she would have released her complaint to the media. I can't recall that the media ever contacted me to comment on. _ complaint. If they did contact me, I would have told them I couldn't carpment because it's an employee issue. 1 ATTACHMENT 19 I'm aware that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received an anonymous letter. She showed it to me. The address on the envelope was handwritten. The other Commissioners and I looked at handwriting on documents that Commissioner Conway has signed, and we noticed that the handwriting on the envelope looked similar to Commissioner Conway's. I believe Commissioner Kirkmeyer turned the letter over to the authorities. I talked with Commissioner Kirkmeyer about the letter and we feel that if it was Commissioner Conway who sent it to her, he may have been trying to intimidate her. Commissioner Conway believes his current issues are caused by Commissioner Kirkmeyer because they've had their differences of opinion. I didn't receive any anonymous letters, but my wife received one at her job. I think it circles back to Commissioner Conway's niece, who is the current Clerk and Recorder and succeeded me in the role. The niece has had an issue with an employee who filed a complaint against her. The writer is trying to say that my wife and I are trying to help the employee who filed a complaint against Commissioner Conway's niece, and that I'm having an affair with that employee. I believe it's somehow tied to Commissioner Conway and his circle. I think they were just trying to disturb my family life. We reported it to the authorities. February 28, 2017 Steve Moreno 2 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 1 of 8 Search Search Follow Us • About Us ' , , : _ , _,/,._, ,1 i tv . T :_:: rr: r , )1 :, r r 0 1 ,f, it, , . , ,,,, :J- r , 7, 1 17 '__,_.„ J. . , ,,/ J ' r ompL rm , _____, __ _ iT E ORIGINAL REPORTING & COMMENTARY • Front Page • Politics • Columnists» • Issues» • Exclusives • National • Local» • Send Tips Politics, Sherrie Peif, Top News, Weld County r o Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblower violations December 22, 2016 4:33 PM. By Sherrie Peif Shire 2761 G+7 0 GREELEY — Weld County Board of Commissioner Sean Conway notified the county on Dec. 2 that he intends to sue it, and also name the four other members of the board as individual defendants for violating Colorado Whistleblower protection laws. Notice of impending lawsuit by Anonymous kprzCiZ on Scribd ATTACHMENT 19a http://completecolorado . com/pagetwo/2016/ 12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 2 of 8 Scribd is down for maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll be back shortly. Please see the Scribd Status Paae for the latest details. In an exclusive interview only on Complete Colorado, Conway said since be blew the whistle on unethical and possibly illegal behavior by the other four members of the board, those four members, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Julie Cozad, Steve Moreno and Mike Freeman, have stripped Conway's constituents of a representative by preventing him from serving as a Weld representative on any board, not assigning him a county department to oversee in 2017, and they stripped him of his role as chairman of the board for 2017. None of the four named commissioners responded to a request from Complete Colorado for comment by press time. Complete Colorado will update the story at a later date if they respond. :Conway believes the retaliations may also be in violation of the Weld County Charter, and added that Kirkmeyer may find more charges against her as she continues to publicly slander Conway, most recently at December's Weld County Council meeting. "They continue to say I broke the public's trust," Conway said, "But they continue to ignore that what I did was not break the public's trust. I exposed things that are going on at the county that are not only unethical, but borderline illegal. They continue not to address the real problems." Conway told Complete Colorado that he had hoped by exposing a small portion of what was going on the commissioners would stop their actions, but instead they've "doubled -down," he said. "I really did not think, naively, that they would take it to this extreme," Conway said. "I knew that they would extract their pound of flesh for what I did. But they still don't get it why I did it. At what point will these people stop?" 'ALL OFFICIAL COUNTY BUSINESS GETS DONE IN BARS AND PARKING LOTS' Instead, Conway claims the other four commissioners are holding non -publicized lunch meetings after board and land use meetings. Conway said he initially would go to lunch with them, but then they started talking business during the luncheons, so he stopped. Conway also claims the board is holding spot -meetings in some of the most unusual places also without noticing them — including a hotel bar in Colorado Springs and the parking lot of the Eaton Country Club. "I am legitimately concerned, at the very least this is not very ethical behavior, but it's bordering on illegal," Conway said. "If you remain silent, you're just as guilty as the people doing it. I'm hoping the public will come forward and start having conversations with these commissioners, There is a real problem with the current board in complying with the open meetings law. The new rule is all official county business gets done in bars and parking lots." RETALIATION AGAINST CONWAY http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2016/12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 3 of 8 Conway said his decision to retain an attorney and pursue legal remedies came after his colleagues proved determined to retaliate against him. He said immediately following the disclosure that he waived attorney client privileged emails, they ordered a technology employee to keep tabs on all his emails, took away all his elected duties, threatened to have criminal charges filed against him, are planning a public censure, and most disturbing, he said, instigated a workforce harassment complaint against him by an employee. "And the retaliation continues after Barb's comments Monday night before the County Council," Conway said in reference to comments made about Conway soliciting money for a school his wife is affiliated with, waiving privilege Kirluneyer continues to say he did not have the right to do, and violating public trust laws. "Once again, she ignores the actual contents of her statements and behavior." Although nothing is official until the board's Jan. 3 meeting, Conway was told at the annual Colorado Counties Inc, conference a couple weeks ago that he was being removed representing Weld on the Upstate Economic Development Board and the Weld/Greeley Airport Board They allowed him to remain on the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization Board but only because he was selected by the MPO to represent them on the State Transportation Committee. On Nov. 29, during the conference, board president Freeman informed Conway that the group wanted to meet after the conference at the hotel. Conway said it was entirely out of order. The meeting, which was held Nov. 3o in the bar at the Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs, was never noticed to the public, as required by law. During that meeting each commissioner took turns telling Conway how they didn't trust him and as far as they were concerned he would have no responsibilities on the board ever again. Kirinneyer wants to oversee two departments instead, according to Conway. "I don't know how you do that," Conway said. "If you're doing it correctly, if you're doing it the right way, there is no way you can coordinate two departments. They all sat there and it was all for one and one for all. It was made very clear to me ... that this was a direct result, a direct punishment for what I did." They also chose that time to hand him a complaint filed against him by au employee for alleged harassment. "I was also handed a note from Commissioner Freeman that said I was prohibited from having any conversations with that employee, period," Conway said. "It came out of left field." He said the while the CCI conference was noticed, during his first seven years on the board, if they met to discuss county business at the conference, that meeting was noticed to the public separately. He said he was blindsided and felt awkward discussing county business in a bar with others wandering around. "Julie Cozad was the first to speak," Conway said. "She just said, 'You know, I just don't trust you.... I think you've tried to embarrass us." Conway said Cozad accused him of purposely releasing the Xcel email chain to hurt Kirluneyer. "Then Julie said, 'Because of that, you're not going to be chair next year," Conway said. The four decided Cozad would chair and Moreno would be pro tern. Kirluneyer told him he willfully and spitefully went after her, that he was the cause of the problems for the Emergency Operations Center issues coming to light, that it was his fault people were upset over Kirluneyer taking mileage reimbursements. "She said, 'I want you to understand it's specifically because of your release of that email,"' Conway said. Conway said they threatened to ask the Weld County District Attorney's Office to file criminal charges against him for violating state laws concerning public trust. However, those laws surround fiduciary duties. They do not cover an elected official acting as a whistle blower. Emails obtained by Complete Colorado show they also plan to censure Conway. A public censure is usually little more than a public reprimand or slap on the wrist when a body of elected officials doesn't approve of one or more members of the elected body. In this case, however, the board would be shaming Conway for exposing their unethical behavior, he said, "They are going to have to outline why they are censuring me," Conway said. "And I'll have an opportunity to do answer that, unless they do it while I'm gone, which based on how things have gone that's a possibility. If they choose to censure me, they do it at great political peril to themselves because I think the citizens of Weld County can see through this. At the end of the day, what they are trying to censure me for is behavior that has been undertaken by my fellow county commissioners." Conway said the timing of the "workforce harassment" complaint is the most disturbing. Although his attorney has told him not to discuss specifics of the case, it was filed after he blew the whistle and according to documents shared with Complete Colorado, filed at the request of the commissioners. Complete Colorado will not identify the employee or the official complaint as they would identify the employee, but the complaint begins with "As requested," and toward the end includes "after the conversation, I stepped into the employee lunch room for a minute to make a personal call, and further collect my composure, and then went right back to my desk and jumped back into the tasks requiring my attention for the morning. I was later requested by the commissioners to create a written statement which I agreed to do." The employee accuses Conway of "yelling" and using profane language. Conway, who admits he can project his voice across a room with little -to -no effort, denies he yelled at the employee or used profanity, He said he was sharp with the employee as he was reprimanding the employee for inconsistent job performance. In the complaint, the employee noted three other times Conway "verbally accosted" him/her. Two of the three were never officially reported, the employee alleges, while one was supposedly placed in her/his employment file; however, Conway said when he requested the employment file, there were no complaints against him. In emails shared with Complete Colorado that Conway received as discovery for his case, an email from Kirkmeyer at 9:45 p.m. — just 12 hours after the alleged conversation — , Kirluneyer makes suppositions about the conversation between Conway and the employee by inferring that Conway planned an intentional attack on the employee. Emails over Conway's harassment by Anonymous kprzCiZ on Scribd http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2016/ 12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 4 of 8 Scribd is down for maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience. Well be back shortly. Please see the Scribd Status Page for the latest details. "I believe Commissioner Conway called at 9:ooam because he expected (name redacted) to be alone at (his/her) desk," the email reads. Kirlaneyer continues her account. "We all witnessed the cal] and could here (sic) the yelling on the phone," the email reads. "According to (redacted name) he also cursed at (her/him) using the "f" word." Kirlaneyer's email supports Conway's claim that the report was filed after the employee seas urged to do so. "Comm Cozad and myself instructed (name redacted) to report the incident to HR." Finally, Kirkmeyer orders Barker to investigate the incident ASAP and "a letter of reprimand given to Comm Conway." She further says he wants him put "on notice," and that he "will not be under the protection of the county." Elected officials don't have the authority to put other elected officials "on notice." Nor do they have the authority to determine who is and who is not protected by the county. The only recourse available to the board is the censure, and that has to be voted on in public to be held. EMPLOYEES FEAR KIRICMEYER Two county employees who spoke on the promise of anonymity, said this type of behavior is common, but not from Conway, adding that Kirkmeyer frequently uses the "f" word and regularly yells at employees, threatening their jobs. They said it could be witnessed and verified at any work session or department meeting. Complete Colorado agreed to their anonymity because the employees fear retaliation that was appropriate considering the retaliation toward Conway, something Conway said was part of the reason he decided to speak out again. "This is not about the who, this is about the what," Conway said. "If they are allowed to take this kind of retaliation against a county commissioner, what message does that send to at -will employees. If I lay down and let this retaliation go unanswered, it will have a long term chilling effect. This will be interpreted by a lot of employees who already are very concerned, as 'I can't afford to make a commissioner mad. I need this job.' They don't have a right to create an atmosphere and send a message to every single one of our employees and department heads that 'if you cross us, you don't do what we tell you to do, look what we did to Conway."' IT STARTED AFTER THE 2014 ELECTION Conway said in his eight years as a county commissioner, there has never been such a blatant disregard for public trust. He said there has always been conflicts at times among commissioners, but he believes that prior to now, everything was kept in check and commissioners were able to work together because there were commissioners that acted as a "backstop" to stepping over the line. However, since the 2014 election, things have changed he said. "If you would talk to former county commissioners that I served with, they would say not only didn't we do it this way, we took measures so we never put ourselves in this position," Conway said. "Did we have entities that relocated in the county and came and introduced us? Yes, But we never had work sessions with Noble or Anadarko or any other company to talk about specific projects that would impact our quasi-judicial decision making authority until this last year. Prior to 2015, we had a majority of commissioners that when things like this would come up, they would say, 'No.'" BARKER FORCED TO TELL XCEL 'NO' http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2016/12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 5 of 8 Conway said he wanted to make it clear, he was at the Xcel meeting but only after a conversation with attorney Bruce Barker immediately before the meeting saying the board would not discuss what Xcel wanted to discuss. Conway pointed out that the work session request was very specific. In fact, the documents released by Conway to Complete Colorado in October say they want to talk about the North and South Greeley Transmission System expansion. "The work session was very specific," Conway said. "So when I read this wasn't just Xcel coming in to say, 'Hi' or to brief us on operations not specific to Weld County, that's when I sent the email (asldng Barker if the meeting was appropriate). "This meeting was entirely different. It was to talk about potential land use issues that were going to be before the board of county commissioners. I was concerned that was not appropriate. And the county attorney sent an email and said no it was not. It's not a he said/she said." Conway said Xcel came into the meeting with their maps and all their paper work and they were going to give them the entire rundown of the project, but Barker had to tell them they couldn't. IURIMVIEYER TARGETS COUNTY COUNCIL, JEMIOLA TOO Conway's fellow commissioners haven't stopped the accusations and false claims. And they haven't targeted just Conway. Conway said shortly after Weld residents started complaining to the council about the commissioners, the board instructed the clerk to the County Council to forward all emails addressed to the County Council to commissioners first. The County Council is an elected body that is charged with overseeing the commissioners and other elected officials in Weld. Many of the claims that Conway confirmed were initially brought to the council by members of the community who were regularly filing open records requests to keep tabs on the commissioners, At the November County Council meeting, Council President Jordan Jemiola questioned assistant County Attorney Frank Haug about several things he believes are inappropriate going on in the commissioner's office. According to emails, Kirluneyer didn't approve of Jemiola's questions. "While you are at it you should talk to Frank about his treatment at the County Council by Councilman Jemiola. It is also on the web. While we cannot reprimand him. (sic) I would like him put on notice as well," Kirlaneyer's email reads. It is unclear what Kirlaneyer means by "put on notice." Complete Colorado video recorded the exchange at that meeting, and Jemiola learned of the email from Complete Colorado. "I am concerned that I and the rest of the council were not notified of such request by commissioner Kirkmeyer," Jemiola said. "This may cause a direct conflict of interest with Bruce Barker representing both the County Commissioners and County Council depending on what "put on notice" means to commissioner Kirlaneyer." Jemiola said be's always been concerned that Barker represents both, He believes it's a conflict of interest, During Monday's council meeting Barker said if there was an issue between the boards, he would represent the commissioners while the District Attorney's Office would be put in charge of representing the Council. That is unsettling for Jemiola. "It is also cause for concern," Jemiola said. "Our attorney has attorney/client privilege with both the council and the commissioners. Should a direct conflict occur, all the county's attorneys should recuse themselves because they hold privilege and internal knowledge of both bodies." XCEL DONATES TO VARIOUS BOARDS INVOLVING KIRIGVIEYER, COZAD, CONWAY Also at Monday's County Council meeting, Kirkmeyer and Moreno gave a presentation about the commissioners and what they had accomplished over the past year. Jemiola questioned Kirkmeyer about several stories in Complete Colorado that exposed issues in the commissioner's office. Kirkmeyer became frustrated and mentioned several incidents about Conway that attempted to discredit him, including one about Conway soliciting money from Xcel Energy for Salida del Sol Academy, a charter school in Greeley that Conway's wife helped open and remains on the board of directors. The Conway's were also instrumental in relocating and helping University Schools obtain a charter status. The Greeley Tribune reported that two weeks after the Xcel meeting exposed by Complete Colorado that Xcel donated $10,000 to Salida del Sol, implying Kirlaneyer's comments were correct. "Commissioner Conway breached the public's trust and breached the board's trust, and he shouldn't have done that," Kirlaneyer's comment from the meeting as it appeared in The Tribune. "If Commissioner Conway was so concerned about it, why did he go out and solicit funds (from Xcel) for his Salida del Sol foundation?" "Salida del Sol is a Greeley charter school. Conway's wife, Rebecca Koppes Conway, is on the board," The Tribune report read. "A few weeks after the county's meeting with Xcel, the company donated $io,000 to the school to provide equipment and supplies for the new robotics class." However, The Tribune article did not report who confirmed Conway actually solicited the funds. Complete Colorado obtained records that shows Conway did not have anything to do with the money the school received. Records shows Xcel has donated money to other Weld County entities in the past, including $10,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Weld County. Barb Kirkmeyer and Julie Cozad both sit on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club. The donation is part of the company's Education Grant Program. In 2015, the company donated nearly $500,000 to Colorado causes supporting education. The application process began in early 2016. Ronna Sanchez, a member of the Salida del Sol foundation wrote the grant and supplied Complete Colorado with a couv of the application. Conway had nothing to do with the donation.Xcel Application 2016 by Anonymous knrzCiZ on Scribd http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2016/12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Weld County Commissioner puts county on notice of impending lawsuit for whistleblowe... Page 6 of 8 Scribd is down for maintenance. U Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll be back shortly. Please see the Scribd Status Pape for the latest details, 'I WASN'T GOING TO GET INDICTED FOR THEM' Kirkmeyer also took issue with Conway waiving privilege to the Xcel email chain. "Commissioner Kirkmeyer continues to insist they can still refer this to the district attorney for prosecution," Conway said. "Even though I have done everything legally right. I have conferred with several attorneys It was my privilege to waive. I chose to waive it because I was concerned the county attorney's legal advice was being ignored. I've been threatened both by an email from the county attorney and in person by commissioner Kirkmeyer." Conway said after everything that has happened, he believed that a legal answer was the only way he could make his fellow commissioners understand how serious all this is. He also said he would do it all over again. "I didn't do it to attack someone personally," Conway said. "I didn't do this to embarrass them. I did this because I was at my wits end. I had multiple conversations with them, saying 'you can't continue to do this. You are violating the public trust. Stop doing stupid things.' Those are the type of conversations you can't have. At the end of the day, I didn't do this to embarrass anybody, to personally vilify anybody. But I was getting, quite frankly, very concerned we were bordering on some pretty unethical and potentially illegal things. And I wasn't going to jail for them. I wasn't going to get indicted for them." http: //completecolorado. com/pagetwo/2016/ 12/22/weld-county-commissioner-puts-county... 2/28/2017 Attachment 20 Mountain States Employers Council Weld County, Colorado Bruce Barker (by telephone) Lori Karl, J.D. *Purpose * Retaliation *Confidentiality *Truthfulness/Completeness March 1, 2017 My name is Bruce Barker. I am a County Attorney for Weld County, Colorado. I have worked here for 33 years. I work in the County Attorney's Office and report to the Board of County Commissioners. I had a copy ofwritten complaint against Commissioner Sean Conway. It was emailed to me on November 23, 2016 by Commissioner Barb Kirkmeyer. She sent the email to me, Don Warden, Patti Russell, Julie Cozad, Mike Freeman, and Steve Moreno. On November 28, 2016, the Commissioners asked me to write a letter for them to present to Commissioner Conway on November 29 or 30. I asked Ms. Russell if there was a signed copy of the complaint so I could attach it to the letter, and she brought it to my office. It was the same thing I received from Commissioner Kirkmeyer, but signed. I attached a copy of. signed complaint to the letter from the Commissioners and gave it to Commissioner Freeman for him to sign and present to Commissioner Conway. Commissioner Freeman told me on November 30`h that the Commissioners met with Commissioner Conway during a conference in Colorado Springs and gave him the letter with the attached complaint. I attached the complaint to the letter from the Commissioners so Commissioner Conway could respond to it. On December 2, 2016, Commissioner Conway emailed me with questions and asked for copies of documents. I responded to his questions on December 5, 2016, and gave him a copy Commissioner Kirkmeyer's email, which included. complaint. That was the only time I directly gave Commissioner Conway a copy of. complaint. I became aware in December that. complaint was shared with the media. Commissioner Kirkmeyer and I were in Denver on December -January 5, 20167, and she received a phone call from a reporter from the Greeley Tribune, Commissioner Kirkmeyer put the reporter on speaker phone with-meso I could listen. also. The reporter said she received an anonymous letter with -envelope that included. complaint. The reporter asked if an investigation was pending, and I said I couldn't comment on that or on the complaint. We knew Sherrie Peif from Complete Colorado had already received a copy of the complaint because she posted something admitted on Facebook-abeut itthat Commissioner Conway had ATTACHMENT 20 given it to her. Ms. Peif had wrote -written an article referencing the complaint and posted it on December 22, 2016. Ms. Peif sent an email to the Commissioners the 1 same day with questions. The Greeley Tribune article referencing the complaint was published on December 2/1January 6, 20167. I did not release I complaint to the media. I narrowed it down to the ten people who had copies of the complaint (5 commissioners, Ms. Russell, Mr. Warden,. me, and Michele Sturgell from MSEC for the investigation). In my opinion, it was Commissioner Conway who released the complaint to the media. The other 4 Commissioners told me to tell Commissioner Conway not to give it to anyone because it's confidential. I figured Commissioner Conway had -enough -sense -knew not to do that, but Ms. Peif admitted Commissioner Conway gave it to her. Commissioner Conway has consistently claimed to be a victim of actions against him by other Commissioners, In the same day week that Commissioner Kirkmeyer received an anonymous letter by mail at her house, the Tribune received an anonymous envelope with complaint. We never saw the handwriting on the envelope to the Tribune, but my guess is it's the same handwriting on the letter to Commissioner Kirkmeyer. I don't see the likelihood of anyone other than Commissioner Conway leaking. _ complaint to the media. On. September 28,201.6, Commissioner Conway released forwarded to Ms. Peif a September 6, 2016 attorney -client privileged email exchange between the two of us me and the Commissioners regarding a scheduled work session with Xcel Energy. Commissioner Conway had previously asked me if he could disclose the email exchange, and I said only if the Board waived the privilege. We received a CORA request from the Independence Institute for communications about Xcel Energy on September 14, 2016, leading me to believe that Commissioner Conway had been talking to the organization about the matter. I told the organization I couldn't provide emails regarding Xcel because it was considered attorney -client privileged. I didn't hear bask from ar- ne-anything more on: the subject until October 17, 2016, when.- sent me an article written by Ms. Peif regarding the Xcel emails. Ms. Peif mentioned in the article that Complete Colorado initially requested the emails through a CORA request but was told it was privileged. She also said in the article, "Complete Colorado was able to secure the email chain through one of the recipients who discussed the matter which waives privilege." I -Commissioner Freeman asked our IT Manager to check Commissioner Conway's emails, and the Manager found that Commissioner Conway had forwarded the Xcel emails to Ms. Peif on September 28. 2016, March 1, 2017 --1 i'uce Barker Attachment 21 a d = c o N •" N U vo �E L O NCO C d (0 a, 2„ c -1:13t 4 O Y U ` w G Li -J Z. Y t, d .L O C �a) —I LL LA I— U Ln Ms. Gookin- a) U u O C.: 0 a(.; U E E O U E C1) s a) 0 C E ro C 0 Cu bA .- 0.. O v F 0.0 C 0 4-, E C0 (C) C 0 C O (0 0.. 1O t Ca O O C 0 Li C� CC E O U u a) a) 10 a) a) bA as a) E O -0 W a O u a) ..c C bA L o b�A 1,1 T a) '47; a) n C -C > Ca U r-• 2 00 M `Zr M 0 . r..1 rd ti) N oO 00 bl),yp''M O (NI N Chi c Uca c �C p� ri OO M � C N •t6 O rY1 a .5 O EO U V uo a Z o c (9 ( (1) U = r", Ll.. U O C �� LL (/I I— (I) a) ID 2 o v v t Wtto a) a ,c O 7 L �cc 4iD E N a) t 2 C -, -0 O E C ++ JD co co co = E c OL . O (0 U •C a Cto O C OV CO CO CO — -C C '(n C O •en a = p v, U a) _ A ,C E u o v E 'p v, ID a) •— (a L y.+ C 0 — t w3 0 C o '+ c 00 a C in 11 O 0) c0 ._ ba CU) C WV) �' Y CbA b0 C -C .p c0 0 ba a) C 0) .0 p co O '`'' a) > 0 0 C L N L L a) a cc L Q. vi tO 4— O O .a s 13 al 0 +� G) on a ?� (17v 1 b.0 +, 5 > 4-' E a C 0 uO bA a) U) C E (0 ' -0 L -0 a) (n +, ++ L CO 4-. 0 y, C C CO L (73_ 4 u E E u t O O O O N a--, C C 13 O (0 V 4-, C Q =o en O E C (a 'v, p . 3 N V 3U s v N L J `n C v a 3 ' 178 � tA vi ? :p a=-+ O YO ATTACHMENT 21 N co a) co M O ti U co co ti szt- N- 0 r--- CD V- (QOaD cp co > a) CO 6) CA -ICLtiO "Helping good people through hard times." Attachment 22 2 N tf1 Y 'G d .L O = 0 BAIT ..1 li V1 H V) Dear Ms. Karl - a, C 0 >- C ro O C a w ra E v O ` ✓ ,@_ a) E a1 . 0 L 0) a) .n O _ E T.) N E L C a) co >0) O C +, C a) C O O Q (0 L on Qr > N a1 • C C > • ra E L 4- O • O ca Q Q a1 N L rB 0 v s re Y � N al a1 t6 C O >' 4'' C .C (o — ro O .aY E N O a • Q � w E O to a 3 v E I OC •F) a, O ro O C u p Ino Y N v I c a) t Y Y 3 'p el O > VO c O L. L _c - Y a) N O U a) co t O C Y C .F6 Q O V Please let me know if you have any questions or need any additional information. rn M rn 0 O .� M by ti O 00 U �O t `cri .44 O N C/D CD - 4 M • g a)o ATTACHMENT 22 Hello