Boulder County's New Sitcom
Published in the Longmont Times Call, 1/27/12
What happened? A few months ago, I thought that the guys running the show in Boulder County were, if nothing else, smart and politically savvy people. But, over the past two months, they've looked more like a barely amusing Saturday Night Live skit on dopey government that just keeps tying itself in knots.The source of this transformation is the hiring debacle of our new county attorney, former Commissioner Ben Pearlman. It started in November when Boulder County Attorney Larry Hoyt, who had been on the job for 25 years, announced that he was retiring and would only stick around for another month. All of a sudden, Larry had to leave right now. Two days later, Commissioner Pearlman announces that, since he has to step down as commissioner at the end of the year and the county attorney job pays better anyway, hey, what the heck, he wants the job. The funny part starts when the county commissioners tell us (and expect us to believe) that Pearlman would have no unfair edge. In Utopia, that would work. Maybe.
They hold job interviews and, surprise, Commissioner Pearlman makes the first cut. On Dec. 21, Commissioners Domenico and Toor meet in private, apparently forgetting about Colorado's Sunshine Law. I checked, and the law says that a meeting about hiring must be public when it involves "discussions concerning any member of the local public body, any elected official, or the appointment of a person to fill the office of a member of the local public body or an elected official." I have reread this statement a hundred times and I can't see how the commissioners could have been confused. But, our county commissioners, who know that they can't get together for a cup of coffee without considering the Sunshine Law, somehow missed it. All of a sudden, I wasn't sure whether these guys were ignoring Colorado law and hoping no one was watching or whether they were really that clueless about a law that is fundamental to their jobs.
Then it started to get really funny.
At the Dec. 21 meeting, Toor and Domenico seem to make the decision to hire Mr. Pearlman, which they are explicitly not allowed to do in private. They can sometimes talk about the merits of candidates in private, but hiring decisions always need to be made publicly, and they knew that. But in the released tape of that meeting, Toor says to Domenico, "I say we just make the decision to offer the position to Mr. Pearlman" and Domenico replies "I know, I'm in the same place. OK." Now, to some of us, this would look like a "decision," but to our county commissioners, it was just a discussion. They say that they didn't actually make a "decision" until two days later at the public meeting on Dec. 23. I guess if you're a county commissioner, you can adjust word definitions to help you stay in bounds, sort of like when Bill Clinton redefined "sex," except that really was funny.
But let's give these guys credit for trying to be politically savvy by announcing this "decision" on Dec. 23, when many of us were wrapping presents and singing carols, hoping maybe we wouldn't notice that they had just engaged in another round of county cronyism. If not for this little Sunshine Law problem, it might have worked. Oops.
Instead, it blew up when the local media started talking about Sunshine Law violations while the political firestorm over the blatant cronyism was still burning. Even the Boulder County district attorney jumped in with public criticism of both the cronyism and the process. So, the county commissioners did The Right Thing by deciding that, lo and behold, they had not really made a "decision" and that by holding another public meeting on Jan. 3 they could make a "No, I really mean it, a decision decision." Shocking everyone, they decided that Ben Pearlman was the right man for the job of county attorney. Glad we finally sorted that out.
Only in a place where one party can operate with impunity would this happen. As long as many of us keep electing people based solely on their party affiliation, we should expect more of the same. That's not so funny.
Ron Laughery [email protected]
What happened? A few months ago, I thought that the guys running the show in Boulder County were, if nothing else, smart and politically savvy people. But, over the past two months, they've looked more like a barely amusing Saturday Night Live skit on dopey government that just keeps tying itself in knots.The source of this transformation is the hiring debacle of our new county attorney, former Commissioner Ben Pearlman. It started in November when Boulder County Attorney Larry Hoyt, who had been on the job for 25 years, announced that he was retiring and would only stick around for another month. All of a sudden, Larry had to leave right now. Two days later, Commissioner Pearlman announces that, since he has to step down as commissioner at the end of the year and the county attorney job pays better anyway, hey, what the heck, he wants the job. The funny part starts when the county commissioners tell us (and expect us to believe) that Pearlman would have no unfair edge. In Utopia, that would work. Maybe.
They hold job interviews and, surprise, Commissioner Pearlman makes the first cut. On Dec. 21, Commissioners Domenico and Toor meet in private, apparently forgetting about Colorado's Sunshine Law. I checked, and the law says that a meeting about hiring must be public when it involves "discussions concerning any member of the local public body, any elected official, or the appointment of a person to fill the office of a member of the local public body or an elected official." I have reread this statement a hundred times and I can't see how the commissioners could have been confused. But, our county commissioners, who know that they can't get together for a cup of coffee without considering the Sunshine Law, somehow missed it. All of a sudden, I wasn't sure whether these guys were ignoring Colorado law and hoping no one was watching or whether they were really that clueless about a law that is fundamental to their jobs.
Then it started to get really funny.
At the Dec. 21 meeting, Toor and Domenico seem to make the decision to hire Mr. Pearlman, which they are explicitly not allowed to do in private. They can sometimes talk about the merits of candidates in private, but hiring decisions always need to be made publicly, and they knew that. But in the released tape of that meeting, Toor says to Domenico, "I say we just make the decision to offer the position to Mr. Pearlman" and Domenico replies "I know, I'm in the same place. OK." Now, to some of us, this would look like a "decision," but to our county commissioners, it was just a discussion. They say that they didn't actually make a "decision" until two days later at the public meeting on Dec. 23. I guess if you're a county commissioner, you can adjust word definitions to help you stay in bounds, sort of like when Bill Clinton redefined "sex," except that really was funny.
But let's give these guys credit for trying to be politically savvy by announcing this "decision" on Dec. 23, when many of us were wrapping presents and singing carols, hoping maybe we wouldn't notice that they had just engaged in another round of county cronyism. If not for this little Sunshine Law problem, it might have worked. Oops.
Instead, it blew up when the local media started talking about Sunshine Law violations while the political firestorm over the blatant cronyism was still burning. Even the Boulder County district attorney jumped in with public criticism of both the cronyism and the process. So, the county commissioners did The Right Thing by deciding that, lo and behold, they had not really made a "decision" and that by holding another public meeting on Jan. 3 they could make a "No, I really mean it, a decision decision." Shocking everyone, they decided that Ben Pearlman was the right man for the job of county attorney. Glad we finally sorted that out.
Only in a place where one party can operate with impunity would this happen. As long as many of us keep electing people based solely on their party affiliation, we should expect more of the same. That's not so funny.
Ron Laughery [email protected]