Dear Editor,

Many may know that I voted against the 2024 Gilpin County budget, but that decision did not come easily. I was torn on how to vote for the 2024 budget. There were some sections that I supported, such as the adjustment of salaries based on the compensation study. The study reviewed salary comparisons not only against the larger counties like Boulder and Jefferson, but smaller jurisdictions, like Clear Creek County, Black Hawk and Central City. The study found that some salaries were even below the recommended minimums, so those were adjusted upward. It also determined that males were paid less than females for similar work.

My hope was that with the salaries adjusting upward, a serious discussion of staffing would be considered. However, when comments about staff reduction or evaluation were brought up, County Manager Rears stated that staffing will be reviewed in 2024. It did not make sense to me to ignore the present staffing or proposed 2024 staffing while discussing the budget. An example is the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) majority approving the new position in 2023 for a communication engagement officer under County Manager Rears to promote “true” and “accurate” information about the county’s activities and positions. I believe there would be no need for a designated person to feed information to the public, if the commissioners allowed online access to all their work sessions. When citizens, publishers of the two newspapers and I brought this up numerous times with the commissioners, County Manager Rears’ various responses have been; that the commissioners would be reticent to speak freely, in case they are misquoted, or it would require a staff member to sit through the complete work session just to manage the online access and his latest suggestion of reducing the number of work sessions.

Another section of the 2024 budget I supported was allotting approximately 6.4 million dollars for much-needed capital outlay for our aging buildings such as roof repairs and updated fire alarms systems. A capital repair and long-term maintenance study was conducted by an engineering firm and they determined that Gilpin County had $20 million dollars of deferred maintenance. The monies allotted in 2024 for capital outlay shows a strong commitment from the commissioners toward deferred maintenance, starting with safety issues.

Besides my concerns about not addressing staffing in the 2024 budget, I also disagreed with the ongoing pressure to build a 1.3-million-dollar food pantry, the approach to historic preservation, and the compromise on the Recreation Center operations. The Recreation Center operation discussions covered numerous scenarios from complete repurposing of the pool to a 7-day-a-week operation of the pool. The commissioners’ compromise of paying for public access with a 4-day-a-week operation (child and teen programs have 6-day access) from the General Fund, is truly good for the community. However, it is a short-lived victory since it is the opinion of the BoCC majority that this is not sustainable and they will throughout 2024 “communicate” to the public that alternative funding is necessary. Lucky for them, they approved an $80,000 per year community engagement officer to do just that!

Sincerely,

Marie A. Mornis

Gilpin County Commissioner - District #1