Roger Baker.  Email has become a standard means of communications these days, and just last week a couple of items ended up in my inbox that bear directly on our long-standing disagreement with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, or DOLA.

The first was a very graciously worded announcement from the outgoing Executive Director of DOLA, Reeves Brown. Although a Republican, Reeves was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper because of his qualifications and, our disagreements aside, has done an exemplary job during his four years with the agency. The DOLA response to the September 2013 flooding was both efficient and effective, and would have in and of itself justified the Governor’s confidence in Director Brown.

The announcement noted that he is leaving at the end of February, and that the Governor has appointed a transition team to search for a new director; it also gave an address to which interested applicants could submit their résumés by January 22.

Although the email was addressed to me personally, I’m guessing that 10 or 20,000 of these went out with similar personal salutations; much though I would like to think that Reeves was encouraging me to apply, I suspect it was more a measure of political correctness.

At any rate, it would be nice to be included in the process of hiring a new Director, though I don’t suppose the concerns of our little county will weigh heavily on the Governor’s mind when he makes the appointment.

But just a day or two earlier, we received an email (actually, Commissioner Schmalz, as a member of the Gaming Impact Grant Review Committee, got it) from DOLA staff. This one informed the committee members that they would likely be contacted by representatives of a state audit team looking into that very program—the Local Government Limited Gaming Impact Program—with which we have experienced such difficulties over the last few years.

In this process I think we will have a little more impact. For one thing, the audit was requested by our own State Senator Jeanne Nicholson and Representative KC Becker, a fact which I am sure is not lost on the audit team.

I also suspect DOLA is less than happy about this. First of all, for DOLA staff, simply meeting with the audit team and providing them with materials takes a lot of time and effort. Then the audit team produces a lengthy document (the 2007 audit of the similar Energy and Mineral Impact Grant program, also run by DOLA, came to 85 pages plus attachments).

The audit report also contains recommendations, both for changes in procedure by DOLA staff, and for legislation that might help streamline or clarify those procedures.

The whole process is not without risk for Gilpin County, moreover. The audit team might recommend that (as was originally the case when the program was first implemented) the two gaming counties—Gilpin and Teller—shouldn’t be eligible for this funding at all; that would put a big hole in future budgets.

Still, being able to get our day in court (so to speak—we really, really hope the judicial system never has to become involved in this) will be worthwhile.

So I’m headed down to the State Services building in Denver (just across Colfax from the Capitol) next week to meet with the audit team; too bad they couldn’t have done this in the summer, or at least when the legislature isn’t in session (and parking would be merely difficult, instead of impossible).

Should be fun…