"We don't get people helping. We're not represented."”

– Masyn Moyer, Ward resident and Big Tent BoCo organizer

Learn more + sign

Volunteers will soon be spreading throughout Boulder County to collect signatures at rec centers, libraries, government buildings and other public places. You can even request that someone come to you via the website. 

Unlike county commissioners, volunteers plan to show up in every single community.

“We'll be in all the towns,” said organizer Rachel Friend. “So you can find us in Lyons or Ward or Longmont or Louisville.”

Go to BigTentBoCo.org for more information.

BOULDER COUNTY — Should Boulder County have five commissioners instead of three? Some politically engaged residents think so, and have started petitioning voters to see if they agree. 

Big Tent BoCo group is making the case that Boulder County needs two more elected officials to govern its population of 330,000 across 700 square miles. The group recently announced the start of its signature-gathering efforts; they’ll need to collect 13,064 by July 20.

The measure will advance two options for additional commissioners: adding two at-large representatives to the current three districted commissioners; or to redraw five new districts, with one commissioner from each. 

Masyn Moyer, Big Tent organizer, said the group is split on districts vs. at-large. As a current resident of Ward who has also lived in Nederland, Jamestown, and Raymond, her strong preference is for districts. By and large, she feels, elected officials do not give mountain towns the attention they deserve.

“People don't come up there and even campaign,” Moyer said. “Even when we had the fire in Nederland,” none of the county commissioners came to the burn site or the town. “We don't get people helping. We're not represented.”

The same is true of the county’s eastern plains, Moyer believes, populated by generational farmers beset by issues that are wildly different from those of people living in urban areas.

“If you're gonna represent those people, you gotta go there. You gotta be with the people,” she said. “You have to understand what the problems are. There is something very different about living in the mountains and being a farmer than being in Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, or Longmont.”

The size and complexity of Boulder County is another reason organizers believe it is time for expanded leadership. The governing structure has been the same since 1861, Big Tent’s website states, despite a population that’s doubled since the 1970s.

Boulder County handles public health, distributes federal benefits like SNAP and childcare assistance, maintains thousands of acres of open space, leases thousands more to farmers, and funnels millions of dollars to area nonprofits and fire districts. 

“They're doing a lot of work with a small number of people,” said Big Tent member Rachel Friend.

Now a Lyons resident, Friend served on the nine-member Boulder City Council, governing a town one-third the size of the county with three times as many lawmakers.

Big Tent’s leadership is almost exclusively people who have held or run for elected office, or worked behind the scenes. Moyer was a founding member of Boulder Progressives; Friend and her former colleague, Bob Yates, are on the team, as are State Senator Judy Amabile and current Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann. 

It’s a politically diverse group, at least for homogenous Boulder County, who have one core, shared value, Friend said: “More democracy is good.”

“It's not people who have the same political agenda, but people who are clamoring for more representation and more voice,”

So many elected officials have signed on, Friend believes, because they recognize how impossible the job is. Moyer agrees.

“Three county commissioners trying to cover all of these issues is bonkers,” she said. “It's just a massive job.”

And one that might become more difficult over time, as the population ages and the impacts of climate change—drought, fire, severe storms—accelerate.

Xcel Energy’s planned outages during the December windstorms left Ward residents without power for multiple consecutive days. Phone lines were down for two weeks after the quickly subdued Wild Turkey Fire in Fourmile Canyon. In the steep hills of western Boulder County, there is no cell service: no way to call for help. 

“During that time, my neighbor had a heart attack,” Moyer said. “I have two other neighbors who were on oxygen tanks and a senior whose one little tiny propane heater ran out of gas. At 2:30 in the morning [she] walked to her neighbor's house 'cause she's freezing.”

Those who represent Boulder County should be advocating and providing resources for these isolated, often older residents, Moyer argues.

“Why haven't we negotiated with Xcel that if they're gonna cut off [power], we need warming centers, we need generators? Where's our representation? Just like farmers, these folks were raised with a fierce independence. We do things for ourselves. 

“We are hardy folk, but nobody should have to be begging for resources.”