The Lost Creek Guide August 19, 2020

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Volume 13 • Edition 16

August 19, 2020

Serving rural Adams, Morgan, and Weld Counties

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light” George Washington “If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed” Thomas Jefferson

Stop the Charade of “Public Comment”

Dave Kisker, President, People United for Responsible Goverment If you have ever attended a land use hearing before the Weld County Commissioners, you will have observed a quasi-judicial, several step process concluding with a decision to approve or deny the application. First, the County Planning Staff gives a presentation about the application, concluding with a recommendation for the outcome—denial or approval. This is followed by a presentation from the applicant that attempts to justify the proposed change, whether it’s a use by special review (USR) or a proposal to rezone their parcel that would allow other uses. In both cases, specific criteria are supposed to be met according to the Weld County Code. The Commissioners would have you believe that the next step, Public Comment, is an important part of the process, and that they might even depend on competent testimony from knowledgeable members of the public on the impacts, positive or negative, of the proposed land use. Public Comment is then followed by an opportunity for the applicant to respond to the concerns that were voiced by the public, and then, the County Commissioners render a decision on the application. Since this is a “quasi-legal” process under State law, it is supposed to be fair and honest. However, the reality is different. After watching numerous such hearings over the last several years, it has become clear that in nearly all cases, the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Public Comment does not matter. Simply put, the Commissioners are merely “letting members of the public talk”. As suggested by their complete disinterest in this part of the proceedings confirmed by their lack of questions or other engagement, any hope that Public Comment has an impact is misguided. And, in some cases, such as the Martin Marietta rezoning hearing on 22 July 2020, these same people, who you have elected to be your representatives, blatantly ignored the well documented public input (available here: https://tinyurl.com/y2xk9377 ) while at the same time accepting without scrutiny the falsified contributions from Martin Marietta Materials. But, the Martin Marietta Materials rezoning was just the most recent example. I can’t think of many, if any, examples where public comment changed an outcome. It simply doesn’t make a difference unless it happens to coincide with the specific concerns of a Commissioner, such as an RV storage facility, or if the proposed use would be near one of the Commissioners, such as a compressor station near Johnstown. I suppose that in this day and age of government “openness”, public “participation” is the politically correct approach, but, if it doesn’t matter, what’s the point? In fact, in this case, there is evidence that in this case, at least one of the Commissioners had decided to approve this rezoning days in advance of the hearing and said so in conversation. So, since Public Comment will be ignored anyway, I suggest that it’s time to stop the charade. Let’s just save everyone’s time, and let the County Commissioners get together in a smoke-filled room with their crony applicants and decide what’s “good” for the rest of us. That’s essentially what happens anyway, but at least then, we could all save hours of wasted time and avoid the window-dressing of “fairness”.

ELAINE L. HALLIGAN-SHELTON Elaine passed on August 4, 2020 from COVID-19 following celebrating her 100th Birthday on July 15th. Viewing will be held at Tabor-Rice Funeral Home in Brighton on Thursday, August 13 from 4-6 p.m. Graveside services Friday, August 14 at 10 a.m. at Riverside Cemetery in Ft. Morgan. Masking and social distancing State Mandates will be observed. Elaine received 55 cards in response to the Birthday notice. The cards you sent helped to make her Birthday special and her family wants to thank everyone for their thoughtfulness. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Kiowa Creek Sunday School % Anne Rumley, daughter, 6742 Moore St. Arvada, Co 80004 (303-425-4362)

Note from Publisher:

A special thank you from the Publisher to those 55 well wishers who sent Elaine Shelton a birthday message. Her daughter’s comments above say it all. A few minutes spent to accomplishing something nice is something we all should all consider doing more often.

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE:

Page 2: Way of the World Page 3: Baseline

Page 3: MC Republicans to Host Unity Rally Page 3: West Nile Virus Detected in Berthoud Page 4-16: Morgan County Fair Results


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