MEEKER | The Rio Blanco County Board of Commissioners held a special work session last week ahead of their regular monthly meeting in Meeker with all three commissioners—Jennifer O’Hearon, Callie Scritchfield and Doug Overton—in attendance.
The session opened with a discussion about Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI) and its upcoming legislative proposal deadline. Scritchfield asked her fellow commissioners if they had items to submit and raised concerns about the accuracy of fiscal notes attached to state legislation and ballot initiatives.
“One that has been bugging me is—I can’t remember what they’re called—but they’re at the Capitol every time a bill comes through or there’s a ballot initiative, and they put a fiscal note to it,” Scritchfield said. “I don’t think it’s very accurate.”
She cited the wolf ballot initiative, which projected an initial cost of $3,000 and $3 million annually, as an example. She also pointed to a wild horse bill with a dozen costly measures that showed no fiscal impact.
“All the lobbyists I’ve spoken with want to know where these numbers come from,” she said. “I think that’s something we could ask CCI to dig into.”
O’Hearon and Overton agreed, with Overton adding that similar issues occur at the federal level and that CCI could help push for greater transparency.
The commissioners also discussed dividing responsibilities across CCI’s informal policy groups—ranging from housing and land use to wildfire and agriculture—so they can stay better informed. Scritchfield volunteered to cover agriculture, wildfire, and renewable energy. O’Hearon noted she already participates in several groups, including housing and land use, human services, behavioral health, and early childhood.
Overton expressed interest in joining the wildfire group, and Scritchfield acknowledged that his experience would be valuable. She said she wasn’t sure how participation by staff worked under CCI rules but added that it was worth exploring. O’Hearon said the process is straightforward and just requires notifying CCI ahead of time.
“We just need to let them know so they accept them into the meeting,” O’Hearon said. “They don’t accept folks they don’t have names for after a mishap a few years ago.”
The board then heard a presentation from Heyden Enochson, a founding team member and head of marketing at Madison AI, who demonstrated the company’s knowledge assistant platform. The tool is designed to streamline government operations by organizing public records—such as minutes, ordinances, and budgets—into a secure, internal, searchable database powered by artificial intelligence.
“We’re already running a full deployment in Pitkin County,” said Enochson, adding the platform can help draft reports, search voting history, look up codes, and more.
He emphasized that all data stays within the county’s system and is not shared across deployments or with external AI models.
“Our model doesn’t train other systems,” he said. “It’s entirely closed and specific to Rio Blanco.”
When asked about the risk of generating inaccurate responses, Enochson said the tool is tuned to respond only with verified data and is designed not to “hallucinate” or fabricate information. The platform could be deployed within 60 days, all three commissioners expressed interest in the platform and its potential to support day-to-day government operations. Scritchfield noted it could be a good investment, even without grant funding.
Following the work session, the board opened its regular meeting. With no public comments, they approved the agenda as posted and the consent agenda, which included payroll management for July 4, accounts payable for June, meeting minutes from June 24, the DMV motor vehicle report for June, the DHS EBT register, and the warrant register.
The board then heard from Emergency Manager Doug Cupp regarding the county’s hazard mitigation plan. Cupp joined remotely and shared that the county had solicited bids through BidNet for a consulting firm to update the plan, supported by a grant set to expire in July.
He reported receiving four qualifying bids: $48,000, $62,000, $68,000, and $70,000. Cupp said all were within the $77,000 grant amount and that the required 10% match could be met through in-kind contributions from his time and from local agencies.
“It should be no problem to reach our in-kind contributions without extra money going out,” he said.
Cupp recommended awarding the project to JEO Consulting Group, which had completed the county’s previous hazard mitigation plan five years ago and the community wildfire protection plan a year ago. He also noted their work in Eagle County received positive feedback.
Scritchfield said she had worked with JEO locally and recommended staying on top of timeline issues. Overton voiced no objections. The board approved awarding the contract to JEO.
Next, the commissioners approved a $3,090,097.01 contract with Elevated Excavating Inc. for the 2025 Meeker Coulter Field General Aviation ramp construction project, which includes both FAA-eligible and non-eligible work. They also approved a letter related to a competitive oil and gas lease sale previously discussed during the work session.
Meeting as the Board of Social Services, the commissioners heard an update from Department of Human Services Director Carmen McCay, who spoke about recent changes to SNAP and Medicaid under the newly passed “big beautiful bill.”
O’Hearon said she had reached out to Congressman Jeff Hurd for clarification and shared what she had learned.
“He didn’t really give me any dates except for Medicaid,” O’Hearon said. “But with SNAP, he said anybody under the 6% error rate will still be fully funded. If it goes over the 6 to 8% rate, it’s 95%, and then it goes down from there depending on where your error rate is.”
After reconvening as the Board of County Commissioners, the commissioners gave brief updates. All three had attended a town hall with Sen. Dylan Roberts and Rep. Megan Lukens at the Meeker Library. Overton noted they hoped to speak more with the legislators but said public participation kept them from having in-depth conversations.
The meeting adjourned with the next regular BOCC meeting scheduled for July 22 in Rangely Colorado at 9 a.m. in the Annex board room.