Boulder County's failing brain trust
Published in the Boulder Daily Camera, 8/30/16
Bad things eventually happen when political power falls into the hands of a few people with narrow agendas, even when they have the best of intentions. Over time, the powerful lose the perspective that citizens often have legitimate interests that differ from theirs.
The Camera's editorial pages have well documented the decades-long dominance of local government by PLAN-Boulder and, while we owe much to the past work of PLAN-Boulder, their members represent a small portion of our community with some very strong opinions that are by no means universal.
Voters in the city of Boulder have recently gone rogue and added diversity to City Council. However, other parts of local government are still stuck in the time warp that comes with decades of dominance by this small group.
Welcome to Boulder County government that, for the past 22 years, has been dominated by county commissioners handpicked by PLAN-Boulder. This includes all those currently in office as well as two former commissioners who now run the county attorney and parks & open space offices. This incestuous group has been racking up a list of dubious accomplishments that make a pretty good case for some fresh faces at the county building.
AdvertisementTake for example the county's bizarre position on county road rehabilitation, known outside of Boulder County as repaving. For years, every Boulder County resident understood that county roads were to be maintained by — drum roll, please — the county. Silly us. A few years ago, we learned that this wasn't the county's view and that many of us needed to find another way to have our roads maintained. As we scratched our heads wondering how to fix potholes, the county commissioners went on to clarify that what they really wanted was for some of us to give them more money for road maintenance. When our vote on this tax increase told them not-just-no-but-hell-no, the commissioners just went ahead and demanded payment through a scheme that was quickly thrown out by a court decision best summarized as, "Are you kidding me?" Two years later, the county still can't figure out how to fix the roads. Apparently, Boulder County government doesn't view good roads as a priority.
Those of us who have been repairing our cars and flying over the handlebars of our bikes after riding around on Boulder County roads know better.
How about open space? With our support, Boulder County has acquired 13.5 percent of the total land area in Boulder County for open space. But only 0.2 percent of this publicly-owned land is allocated to trails that the public can access. Hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists have fought long and hard for access to more open space to little avail. Yet, the county commissioners had no problem using their open space to make unscientific statements about the safety of GMO agriculture, something in which they had neither expertise nor a governing interest.
Furthermore, in an act of abject hypocrisy, the county is about to give up some of our open space to facilitate the hostile takeover of the Twin Lakes property for a dense housing development that will also require changes in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Open space that is too sacred for recreational use and protected by the Gospel according to the Comprehensive Plan is apparently up for grabs when the commissioners' other friends in local government get a bee in their bonnet. So, it looks like parochial interests and cronyism are now dictating Boulder County's open space policy. Imagine that.
Finally, the commissioners are now asking us to approve a 15-year, $100 million sustainability sales tax. Wow, that's a lot of money, but who can argue with anything that will allow us to be better sustained? The only problem is that their ideas are old and worn with most having become common practice long ago — things like helping farmers to use water efficiently, providing recycling services, organic farming, and public transit. Boulder County is already full of programs provided by nonprofit organizations for encouraging efficient water use, recycling, and public transit, not to mention our extraordinary organic farm businesses. How can county government realistically add value to these already vibrant and mature activities? Boulder County voters will support innovative ideas, but hanging the sustainability banner above a $100 million budget to be squandered on environmental ideas that matured before most millennials were born is not innovation. They just want our money.
Time for some new people with some new ideas. Remember that in November and vote for change in Boulder County government.
Bad things eventually happen when political power falls into the hands of a few people with narrow agendas, even when they have the best of intentions. Over time, the powerful lose the perspective that citizens often have legitimate interests that differ from theirs.
The Camera's editorial pages have well documented the decades-long dominance of local government by PLAN-Boulder and, while we owe much to the past work of PLAN-Boulder, their members represent a small portion of our community with some very strong opinions that are by no means universal.
Voters in the city of Boulder have recently gone rogue and added diversity to City Council. However, other parts of local government are still stuck in the time warp that comes with decades of dominance by this small group.
Welcome to Boulder County government that, for the past 22 years, has been dominated by county commissioners handpicked by PLAN-Boulder. This includes all those currently in office as well as two former commissioners who now run the county attorney and parks & open space offices. This incestuous group has been racking up a list of dubious accomplishments that make a pretty good case for some fresh faces at the county building.
AdvertisementTake for example the county's bizarre position on county road rehabilitation, known outside of Boulder County as repaving. For years, every Boulder County resident understood that county roads were to be maintained by — drum roll, please — the county. Silly us. A few years ago, we learned that this wasn't the county's view and that many of us needed to find another way to have our roads maintained. As we scratched our heads wondering how to fix potholes, the county commissioners went on to clarify that what they really wanted was for some of us to give them more money for road maintenance. When our vote on this tax increase told them not-just-no-but-hell-no, the commissioners just went ahead and demanded payment through a scheme that was quickly thrown out by a court decision best summarized as, "Are you kidding me?" Two years later, the county still can't figure out how to fix the roads. Apparently, Boulder County government doesn't view good roads as a priority.
Those of us who have been repairing our cars and flying over the handlebars of our bikes after riding around on Boulder County roads know better.
How about open space? With our support, Boulder County has acquired 13.5 percent of the total land area in Boulder County for open space. But only 0.2 percent of this publicly-owned land is allocated to trails that the public can access. Hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists have fought long and hard for access to more open space to little avail. Yet, the county commissioners had no problem using their open space to make unscientific statements about the safety of GMO agriculture, something in which they had neither expertise nor a governing interest.
Furthermore, in an act of abject hypocrisy, the county is about to give up some of our open space to facilitate the hostile takeover of the Twin Lakes property for a dense housing development that will also require changes in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Open space that is too sacred for recreational use and protected by the Gospel according to the Comprehensive Plan is apparently up for grabs when the commissioners' other friends in local government get a bee in their bonnet. So, it looks like parochial interests and cronyism are now dictating Boulder County's open space policy. Imagine that.
Finally, the commissioners are now asking us to approve a 15-year, $100 million sustainability sales tax. Wow, that's a lot of money, but who can argue with anything that will allow us to be better sustained? The only problem is that their ideas are old and worn with most having become common practice long ago — things like helping farmers to use water efficiently, providing recycling services, organic farming, and public transit. Boulder County is already full of programs provided by nonprofit organizations for encouraging efficient water use, recycling, and public transit, not to mention our extraordinary organic farm businesses. How can county government realistically add value to these already vibrant and mature activities? Boulder County voters will support innovative ideas, but hanging the sustainability banner above a $100 million budget to be squandered on environmental ideas that matured before most millennials were born is not innovation. They just want our money.
Time for some new people with some new ideas. Remember that in November and vote for change in Boulder County government.
