Is Colorado’s local government sector functional or dysfunctional? | ANALYSIS

While much of the attention is focused on politics and governance at the state Capitol, the bulk of decisions that directly affect people's daily lives often come out of the local city council, school board and county commission.

Indeed, the saying all politics is local aptly describes the role that local governments play in shaping America's body politic. In fact, one think tank says 95% of all elected offices in the U.S. serve at the municipal level.

But while local governments are perhaps the most significant arm of America's democratic polity, they have little oversight, begging the question: Is the local government sector functional or dysfunctional?

In Colorado, entire city councils have resigned amid controversies since 2023. State legislators have intervened by passing laws to keep towns operating. County commissions have engaged in numerous public battles. And school boards have become decidedly political.

Prof. Robert Preuhs, chair of Metro State University's political science department, said the current political climate is becoming more contentious at the local government levels. But he said it started well before the 2020 pandemic, which many often blame for the current political climate.

Preuhs speculated such contentiousness started at least 10 years ago — and he expects that trend to continue.

Infighting leads to dysfunction

One of the biggest culprits infecting a functioning elected board is internal disagreement.

While Gov. Jared Polis has been pushing civility through his “disagree better” program, local boards — just like the state legislature — cannot always see past the red.

In 2023, the city of Dacono was “paralyzed” and was declared in “crisis” when four councilmembers resigned, others faced a recall, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found the elected board violated the state’s open meetings law.

In fact, several city councils have disbanded due to internal infighting.

In Florence, with rumblings and rumors surrounding the work of the town’s city attorney, city manager and police chief, the entire council, except the mayor, resigned.

Much of the controversy centered around the town's manager being unexpectedly fired in 2021 and another hired a year later. He was on the job only six months before he was fired in a 6-1 vote.

Current Florence Mayor Steve Wolfe was a sitting councilmember when the controversy started. He later ran for the city’s top spot and won, taking over in December 2023.

Wolfe, optimistic the city is now on the right track, said Florence was without a proper city council for at least five months. That meant that, while city utility services and public safety operations continued, all other city businesses were put on hold.

Wolfe, who has resided in Florence since 1985, said while many residents may have avoided the drama, he felt compelled to run for mayor and work to right the ship.

“I am optimistic, and we are in a good place now,” he said, adding that a new town manager, attorney and police chief have been hired.

Getting the town back on track was not just left to the newly elected council. Wolfe said they turned to the Colorado Municipal League for help. The group provided training on the rules of open meetings law, what is required for executive sessions, and how to deal with the public in a time of uncertainty.

Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, said a significant part of his group's duties is to not “parent but to provide advice” and direction to its members.

Florence was not the only city facing a unique situation in 2023.

The city council in Boone also resigned after the mayor and a sitting councilmember could not resolve their differences. Boone, a small community in Pueblo County, was without elected representation for six months. The disagreements started when the town's mayor charged that then sitting councilmember Rita Rhoads was not property following town ordinances.

According to news reports, after the town's council members resigned, Rhoads appointed herself mayor and allegedly cleared the town’s bank accounts of more than $400,000, preventing the town from paying bills for more than three weeks. Rhoads later said it was the "only way to save the town,” adding she closed the accounts to avoid their misappropriation, according to a report from KRDO. 

Because of what happened in Florence and Boone, Bommer said the Colorado Municipal League worked with the governor’s office to pass House Bill 1185 in 2023. The new law seeks to help towns conduct business and hold special elections to fill vacated seats amid abrupt resignations.

“These boards were in a real conflict and couldn’t do anything without a quorum,” Bommer said. “Usually, vacancies are filled by appointment within 60 days, but when a council only has a mayor, that cannot happen.”

When a council disagrees, Bommer said conducting business can become challenging. When elected bodies like the Aurora council disagree over whether kids should be allowed on the dais, the municipal league often advises the entity to deal with disagreements internally by starting a dialogue and working on fixing relationships.

In Douglas County, the three-member county commission has been battling for years. While none of the commission members has resigned, they have all grown accustomed to pointing fingers, name-calling and spending taxpayer dollars for investigations.

Commissioners Abe Laydon and George Teal, up for reelection, have formed an alliance, with Commissioner Lora Thomas, who is term-limited this year, the odd person out.

Teal and Laydon have voted to revoke Thomas’ credit card privileges and censured her on more than one occasion.

Rep. Robert Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch, introduced a bill to require larger counties, such as Douglas County, to be represented by five commissioners, instead of three. The idea failed in in 2023 and 2024. 

In introducing the measures, Marshall said that some argued that he is just trying to fix Douglas Couty's issues. However, the second-year state representative said he has since learned that the problem is not unique to Douglas County — that all kinds of issues arise out of having a three-member body.

He noted, for example, that Boulder County has a Democratic board, which, he said, means the more conservative parts of the county are underrepresented.

“I believe there is a universal agreement that the Douglas County Commission has dysfunction,” Marshall said. “The commission got my attention when you have three at large (elected officials), but two can lock out one. That made me research the issue further and find out it is a bigger issue. This can pop up in any county.”

Thomas, a Republican is planning to run against Marshall in the House District 43 seat next year.

School boards have also been at odds in recent years.

Despite having similar political views, arguments over directions in the Elizabeth School District resulted in multiple board members resigning and the remaining members appointing new ones.

The cost of dysfunction

In 2023, Laydon and Teal had Thomas investigated for malfeasance. After Thomas was cleared of wrongdoing, she asked that her legal fees be paid. Teal and Laydon refused and spent nearly $30,000 to fight a lawsuit filed by Thomas.

Meanwhile, Denver Public Schools spent more than $43,000 in 2022 on mediation for a board that, for the most part, aligned ideologically but disagreed with the district’s direction, requiring them to hire a consultant to help guide them through decision making at the board's annual retreat.

In Douglas County, internal disagreements intensified after four new members were elected to the school board in 2022. Notably, the disagreements included the firing of the school district superintendent in a 4-3 vote that year.

The decision to fire Corey Wise cost the district over $830,000 after he filed a lawsuit alleging retaliation and discrimination.

The school board's actions also led to state Rep. Marshall filing a lawsuit, claiming most board members violated open meeting laws before the vote to fire Wise. A judge agreed. The district opted to appeal, paying $186,000 in added legal fees. After losing on appeal, the district agreed to pay Marshall more than $100,000 for his legal fees.

“The acute dysfunction of the Douglas County School Board made me take notice,” Marshall said. “Would I say it is dysfunctional? Yes. Is it worse today than before? I don’t know. Where do you put the blame? I don’t know.”

Disagreements with constituents have proven costly elsewhere.

Several members of the Englewood city council faced a recall last year after when residents disagreed with the CodeNext zoning policy, which was established to serve as a framework for establishing clear community development policies.

Three councilmembers were forced into a recall months before the general election, costing the city around $130,000.

Before the recall election, which incumbents won, one embattled councilmember, Cheryl Wink, resigned after being questioned by a Colorado Community Media reporter about her attendance record. She was recorded referring to dissatisfied constituents as “these little citizens” who were “angry about everything.”

Still, Bommer maintained that most of the state’s 270 councils function well, while admitting dysfunction exists among a small percentage of local governments.

Potholes are nonpartisan

Bommer said candidates run for local seats for various reasons. Historically, the people who ran were longtime residents wanting to give back to the community. While that still happens, candidates have become more partisan, pushing an agenda or a single issue to get elected, he said.

Preuhs said the shift in reasons for running for office has “changed the local political scene.” As national issues take hold, candidates and local voters focus on partisan politics, he said.

“A lot of local election ballots do not show a ‘D’ or an ‘R’, but people know a candidate’s faction,” Preuhs said. “This is not really new, but at the same time, that partisan affiliation is at levels much higher than they have been in the past.”

Bommer said the problem is that a political agenda is challenging to push locally, where most issues have nothing to do with politics.

“People run because they are upset and want to achieve something specific,” Bommer said. “But you have to be an all-issue decider. Some issues may even be boring, but they are part of the job.”

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann said she has served on the town council for 11 years, noting that only recently has a candidate’s party affiliation mattered so much.

“It’s true – a pothole does not care if you are Republican or Democrat – it just needs to be fixed,” she said. “You are running for these nonpartisan seats, but it makes it challenging when the assumption is you are wrong because of party affiliation, and sometimes we can’t get past that.”

Kulmann said candidates statewide are starting to identify more as unaffiliated because, at the local level, they are fighting to move past party affiliation as a starting point for a resident’s opinion.

In campaigning for mayor, Kulmann said with every door she knocked, the first question was, “What is your party affiliation?”

Round-the-clock exposure

Kulmann said social media has made serving at the local level more challenging. From phone calls, emails, text messages, and social platforms where people could express opinions all day and all night long, an elected board never gets a break, she said. 

After 11 years, Kulmann said 2023 was the first time she considered quitting after having to file for a restraining order against a resident. While the resident can still attend meetings, he has to keep his distance from Kulmann.

In addition to a restraining order that forced her to stop taking her children to local events, Kulmann said she settled a court case on her use of social media after blocking an “extremely negative person.” In the court agreement, she had to agree not to block anyone. Eventually, she opted to eliminate commenting on posts altogether.

“Being more accessible than ever creates many challenges,” Kulmann said. “We get 2 a.m. phone calls, round-the-clock emails, and social media is constant. People today lack the patience to receive a delayed response. They want answers now.”

Admittedly, Bommer said one of the municipal league's biggest challenges is training local boards on how to deal with social media.

“Unfortunately, information can be spread without being fact-checked,” Bommer said.

Lindley McCrary, president of the Colorado School Board Association, which works with school boards statewide to help members become “confident,” encouraged more engagement, not less. 

“The more you engage (as a school board member), the more success you will have in the school district,” she said. “It is more of an opportunity than a burden.”

Public comment during local meetings has also come under scrutiny, as Preuhs said the public has become angrier.

In March, the Weld County Commission halted the public comment portion of meetings but reinstated it in April after more than 500 people signed a petition. When the public comment portion was removed, Chairman Kevin Ross said in an email that it was because of “abuse.”

Like Bommer, Jubal Yennie, executive director of the Colorado School Board Association, which represents 178 school districts, said most function well, and that it is normal for national politics to seep into board conversations, causing division both among elected officials and residents. 

Candidate conundrum

Whether serving at the federal, state, or local level, Preuhs said today’s politicians must “have thick skin and deal with a lot more opposition.”

“It’s much nastier, and emotions are higher from constituents,” he said. “All facets of politics have converged to make it tough for all those participating.”

As the incivility trend continues — which Preuhs said can be sourced to elected leaders themselves — fewer candidates will run in open elections, and current lawmakers will continue to resign.

At the state level in Colorado, the General Assembly has seen record numbers of elected officials resigning. That trend trickles into the local scene, Preuhs said.

The effect, Preuhs said, is that there may be fewer candidates running or communities will see more underqualified candidates taking seats.

In Englewood, a convicted felon with an outstanding warrant was seated on the school board when he ran unopposed. Davon Williams, who is currently negotiating with the prosecutor’s office in Adams County, faces a May 21 hearing to set a trial date if a plea agreement is not reached in the alleged aggravated car theft case.

Since taking office, Williams has asked the school district for financial reimbursement for mileage. When he was told he could not serve as the school district’s liaison to the city’s library board because he currently has a lawsuit against the city council, he filed a criminal complaint against the city manager and city attorney, alleging retaliation.

The district attorney's office of the 18th Judicial District later determined the criminal filing had no evidence to support the claims.

McCrary said she does not need to sound the alarm for school board candidates yet.

McCrary, who also serves on the Littleton School Board District, said rural areas struggle the most to recruit candidates, noting that some can go without candidates for several years before several candidates can file to run in one race. 

In Littleton, McCrary said it is not uncommon to have multiple candidates running for every open seat.

“It really just depends on the community, and it has to be the right fit at the right time,” she said.

For candidates, McCrary said it can be hard to understand the work a school board member does until they are serving. For example, McCrary said the board only has power over one employee, the superintendent, who manages the rest of the district’s staff.

McCrary said the COVID pandemic changed school boards nationwide, causing some board members to resign and others to run for political reasons.

“From my perspective, we are seeing things shift back to a student focus, which is important,” she said.

Preuhs said for schools, in particular, national political conversations — notably transgenders, pronouns, race, books — will likely continue to seep into local boards.

Preuhs said as these issues take hold at the local levels, more qualified candidates may be more hesitant to run, noting that besides the constant pressure from constituents, potential candidates also face background checks and media inquiries, not to mention scrutiny of their past social media posts and positions.

“As politics, incivility, and partisan politics grow, we will see a situation where it will become tougher to fill seats and local levels,” he said.