Letter: Enough is enough

Dear Editor:

After over a year of legal wrangling in attempts to block or delay the recall by Commissioner Moyer and thus avoid a vote of the people, the day has finally come. 

The story line from Mr. Moyer is that a bunch of liberals are telling lies about him because of his conservative principles, financial responsibility and holding county employees accountable. Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Conservative  Principles — Rio Blanco is a very conservative county, that is why many of us enjoy living here. The group members that collected over 800 recall signatures, twice, are conservative. The problem is not the presence of conservatism, it is lack of principles. Time and again Mr. Moyer has come into a meeting clearly having discussed and decided an issue with now resigned Commissioner Rector, the two obviously having left the third commissioner completely out of the loop. This happened with Commissioner Woodruff and continues today with Commissioner Gates.

While collecting signatures, we were told of an incident where Mr. Moyer approached an ex-county employee and asked for “dirt” on Commissioner Woodruff, so that it could be used to coerce his vote. Principles?

Financial responsibility — The annual revenues to the County have steadily fallen in recent years with future projected revenues to decline further.  The projected budget deficit spending for 2022 is $12 million. The approved deficit last year was $ 4.4 million. The deficit in 2020 was $ 1.3 million.  During the same time period the Commissioners budget line item has gone from $457K to $533K.  How much more “financial responsibility” can we afford? One of Mr. Moyer’s first actions was to fire the long serving local attorney and hire an out of town, part time attorney, which ended up costing nearly double for far inferior service.

Employee accountability — A primary driver for the recall effort was a result of Mr. Moyer’s repeated disrespectful treatment of county employees and the general public. He likes to surround himself with “yes” men and bristles at the first hint of disagreement. Unfortunately, one of those yes men included Commissioner Rector, so if you fell into Moyer’s disfavor, even long serving, dependable employees were at risk, without the normal employee protections.

Meanwhile, state statutes are ignored, Sunshine Laws are violated, and general decorum at the BOCC meetings is forgotten anytime Mr. Moyer feels threatened, which is often. We saw a good example of this at the 

CCITF Workshop just this month. Instead of the occasional executive session, now there is one scheduled for each meeting. Transparent?

While circulating the recall petition, we heard repeatedly from county employees of their reluctance to be involved for fear of retribution from Moyer. They said it was the worst morale they had experienced but could not speak, fearing Mr. Moyer would retaliate. The final straw before the recall effort was his shameful treatment of the County Health Director last year. When the hostile work environment was investigated by the state last summer,  there were so many present and past employees that wished to be interviewed, that the interviewers simply ran out of time. The final report to the County was never released.

I know of at least 12 employees who were fired or left because of the hostile work environment created since Moyer’s reign began. Many of these were department heads. Most of you know one or more of these people, ask them directly. Or ask any of the public who have had the nerve to question Moyer’s actions or suggest a different approach. They are either ignored or attacked, often in the meeting.

 Accountability starts at the top. We want leaders who treat all people with respect, who make decisions in the open, and who don’t let personal vendettas inform their actions.   

Vote “yes” on the recall and give us a true leader. 

Jeff Madison

Meeker

---

Thoughts expressed on opinion pages are exclusively those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Herald Times. You are welcome to submit signed letters on matters of local interest to [email protected], mail to PO Box 720, Meeker, CO 81641 or drop off at 304 4th St., Meeker. there is no charge.

Due to space constraints, please keep submissions 500 words or less.