Chris Richardson and the Denver Basin

So a friend of mine, who just happens to be a Republican, sent me the following Chris Richardson diatribe from the Elbert County Republicans Page: 

"In terms of water, this is very well thought out project. The developer has a strong conservation component to the community. A CAT III (treated to almost drinkable levels) water plant will capture and treat all the water used in the homes of the community and reuse it for irrigation of open spaces and individual lawns - through this method, the amount of water allocated to the project by the state (only water that exists under the boundaries of the property itself) will provide for over 500 years of supply. This is far in excess of the 300 years we require in Elbert County (we and El Paso County require 300 years - all other counties only require 100 years supply).

Additionally, during the hearings we made the developer change his plan to ensure that there could be no shipment of water outside of the county from this property. Additionally, any shipment of water to support any individual or entity outside of the property (but within the county) would have to be requested by those that would receive the water and could only be approved after a publicly noticed hearing so no changes could be made secretly in the future. Again - any changes considered would have to meet our 300 water requirement." 

Ever the comedian, Chris started his post with a deep pun: "...this is a very WELL thought out project."  Now, that right there is some funny stuff on several different levels, five different levels, as a matter of fact...one for each aquifer in the Denver Basin.  Was this project carefully thought through as much as Chris describes?  Yes, it was! I have no doubt that the lawyers, water district officials, and investors would not have settled for less.  They have poured a ton of money into this project. I am sure the orders came down from the very top of the water chamber of command,  "Think of a way we can get that water out from under Elbert County!" someone hollered.  And with that...the stage was set.  

In capital letters Chris Richardson defines the water treatment as a "CAT III!"  Damned if that does not sound as serious as a heart attack or at least a hurricane bearing down on Florida.  At one point Hurricane Irma  was designated a CAT III! You have captured our attention now, Commissioner Richardson.  Richardson then quickly lets you know just how serious this whole thing is by saying the water will be treated to near drinkable levels!  Wow. Here's a fact for Commissioner Richardson: Urine is near drinkable! Was this treatment process thing designed by NASA?  I find myself now thinking (tongue firmly in cheek) that I would be damned lucky to have near-drinking  water running out of a tap at my house.  Oh, and by the way, I hope I am spelling this correctly. Should this new term be hyphenated?  Merriam-Webster failed to cue me in on the proper spelling of "near-drinking." Maybe the taps will be color coded.  Clear PVC is potable water while yellow PVC is near-drinkable.  I am feeling a little sorry for my colorblind friends right now.

The good commissioner then goes on to show how the 300 year water rule protects us from running out of water in Elbert County.  What could possibly go wrong there? I mean, Douglas County didn't want to wait 300 to 500 years to run out of water.  They did it in a matter of a mere couple of decades. As a result, we now  have people  just like former commissioner Kurt Schlegel running around trying to purchase water for places like Falcon, Castle Rock and Franktown. What?  You thought Kurt was at the BOCC meeting because he wants to grow Elbert County?  It was more likely he was there as the head of the Cherokee Water District, which is trying to purchase water for El Paso County residents.  

With a population of less than 30,000 people in Elbert County, near-drinkable water standards, and a 300 year water rule, we must be in great shape.  And with an expected price for an acre foot of water from the Denver Basin to top $30K, nobody can make any money on a resource that experts are calling the new gold.  Does that make sense to you?  Oh well, you can can trust Kurt and Chris.  They were elected after all.

As for building in protections from transferring  water to another water district by saying they would have to have a hearing,  they just voted unanimously to okay a project on a flawed PUD.  That is not me saying that;  that is a law firm ready to go to court against Elbert County saying that. The BOCC would okay making declaring water skiing the official sport of the county if Independence developer Tim Craft's attorneys were requesting it. 

I would also like to remind Mr. Richardson that you can say anything you want to your lawyer.  Craft can sell his water no matter what you do to coerce him with your highfalutin lawyer.  Mr. Craft was agitated that Mr. Richardson made approval of the proposed development, contingent upon not transferring water to another water district without first gaining permission from the BOCC.  That said, the water rights are his, adjudicated, a personal asset and if he wants to sell them?  Well, let's just say that you, Mr. Richardson, do not have any say-so in that regard.  All you did was make his payout a one time event instead of a regular paycheck.  Look it up.

Now, in a more serious tone:  Unlike Mr. Richardson, I do not profess to be a water expert but I have been working on water issues since the mid-1990's.  I sat on a couple of very important Restoration Advisory Boards (RAB's).  There were some very serious issues of contamination to the Denver Bedrock Aquifers from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Denver Waste Management Super Fund site on Gun Club Road, and the Former Bombing and Gunnery Range for Lowry Air Force Base.  In order to be on any RAB and make a difference, you have to keep up with a host of experts provided to you nonstop from the Army Corps of Engineers.  You have to do your homework.  You have to learn about how aquifers work, what their designations mean and who stands to make or lose money when it comes to selling, buying, polluting or making false claims about water in an aquifer system.  That is how my wife and I came to be somewhat knowledgeable about water.  Not experts, but I am confident in my claims.

I am not exactly sure what would prompt Mr. Richardson to boast that there impenetrable layers of rock exist between the five layers of the Denver Basin, but I have a lot of research that would indicate that while that might be true in areas of the Basin, it certainly is not true for the entire basin.   

He goes on to say, 

"The wells that will support this community will pull water primarily from the deep Denver and Arapahoe aquifers, not from the more shallow Upper and Lower Dawson Aquifers that people with individual wells use. There is no communication between the 5 aquifers (Upper and Lower Dawsons, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Fox Hills) that fall under the property. So usage of water from one aquifer doesn't effect water levels in another. (NOTE: Some usage of Dawson wells already permitted on the property is envisioned until the reuse/irrigation system is online - this usage is approved by the state and the allocation is minimal). Bottom line - the water used by this community will not affect local existing wells. I know that people are concerned but, the facts should minimize those concerns."

Mr. Richardson likes terms like "communication" when speaking about aquifers.  Of course it is a nonsensical use of terminology because water is not sentient and only seeks to find its level.  The Denver Basin and its five aquifers were formed by the breaking down of our Rocky Mountains, which actually used to be very much larger than they are today.  As a result, there are a lot of different kinds of layers of rock.  There is a great deal of conglomerate rock that is very porous.  There are some vast and very dense areas of expansive clays.  There is a great deal of sand, which is why our aquifers have given many the impression that there is lots and lots of water below our feet.  Not so fast, cowboy.

But if you sit down with the geologists who specialize in aquifers and the formations in which they reside, you soon learn that there are plenty of mathematical calculations that present educated guesses at the amounts of water in the Denver Basin.  None of them are necessarily accurate.  Those geologists just do not know how much water is in the Basin.  They cannot know because the formation is comprised of so many different kinds of features that they have no way of knowing, when they do a core sample, just what it will reveal.  

Talk to any well digger along the Front Range.  Talk to anyone that has to do percolation tests to see if your ground is suitable for a septic field.  Those people will tell you about clays, sandstone, sand lenses, and thick slabs of conglomerate rock.  Look up at the escarpments next to Kiowa and Cherry Creek.  Does that rock appear to be solid granite?  Even the most impenetrable layers of bentonite clay hide lenses of sand.  

I am reminded of a geologist from the Army Corps of Engineers who wanted to dig a seventy-five foot deep trench around the Denver Waste Management Super Fund Site in Aurora off of Gun Club Road and Quincy over twenty years ago.  He insisted that, if you fill the trench with expansive clay, it would make an impenetrable wall around the cesspool of Benzene and other deadly toxins in the groundwater because the landfill sat squarely on a layer of what was said to be solid rock.  Of course, we looked at it but did not allow them to build the trench barrier without test wells outside the proposed wall's perimeter.  Within a few months of completion of the clay wall,  toxins were found in the test wells.  After doing more bores, it was determined that there were significant sand lenses in the rock.  One scientist said that those lenses might be as wide as seventy-five feet.

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+the+denver+bedrock+aquifer+confined%3F&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#imgrc=hu_w_RjSE118nM:

When Chris Richardson tells you he knows what the Denver Basin looks like and whether it will or will not allow for water to migrate from one aquifer to another, he is just spouting half-truths.  If I had a dollar for every time Grant Thayer has announced publicly that he had a prosperous career as an engineer and knows a thing or two about oil, gas and water,  I wouldn't need to stop by the ATM for a month of Sundays.  What I never hear either one of them ask the people (who they are about to school in Aquifers 101) is if  they just might have a background that might shed a bit more light on the subject.  Never was that so apparent as it was during the testimony on the Independence development.   

The commissioners in this county, for as far back as I can remember, act as if they are anointed to the high station of Elbert County Commissioner by their Maker and that they are the font of all wisdom.  They are not, and neither am I, but at least I am willing to do my homework and learn.  

I have been active in the fight for people to take charge of their property rights for many years.  There is some irony in the fact that a Democrat has to remind a Republican BOCC that water districts are a bane to the water rights of the average homeowner in this county.  It goes without saying, these three commissioners have been on board with the Independence development since they began their campaigns over a year ago.  There were and still are conflicts of interest and most definitely intellectual dishonesty.  

The citizens  were ignored and the Central Committee of the Elbert County Republicans are responsible for the future outcome of this project, not the rank and file Republicans who only wanted their elected officials to demand a reset on this project.

A Pertinent Complaint on the Independence Matter

The following is a letter shared with me by Jackie Tugwell.  She gave me permission to post.  This is very important complaint to be aware of as we head into the September 5th. meeting of the BOCC at the Elbert County Fairgrounds.

Letter from Folkestad, Fazekas, Barrick, & Patoile, P.C. regarding Independence Specials Districts non-compliance with Elbert County Zoning Regulations. A HUGE thank you to Tony Corrado for your knowledge and helping to bring attention to this issue.
Sent via email to:
Elbert County Assistant County Attorney:
Bart Greet
P.O. Box 924 Kiowa, CO 80117
Bart.Greer@elbertcounty-co.gov
Board of County Commissioners:
Chris Richardson, District 1
Chris.Richardson@elbertcounty-co.gov
Danny Willcox, District 2
Danny.Willcox@elbertcounty-co.gov
Grant Thayer, District 3
Grant.Thayer@elbertcounty-co.gov
August 31, 2017
Re: Independence Special Districts/Incomplete Applications
This firm represents Jackie Tugwell and Shelly Rodie, as property owners within ¼ mile of the proposed Independence Subdivision and related proposed Special Districts. This letter shall serve as notice to the Board of County Commissioners that the Applicant’s Special District pre- and final applications are incomplete and must be rejected for failure to comply with applicable County regulations.
The Special Districts that are the subject of this letter are:
1. Case # SR-17-0020 The Independence Water & Sanitation District;
2. Case # SR-17-0021 The Independence Overlay Metropolitan District;
3. Case # SR-17-0022 The Independence Metropolitan District No. 1;
4. Case # SR-17-0023 The Independence Metropolitan District No. 2;
5. Case # SR-17-0024 The Independence Metropolitan District No. 3;
6. Case # SR-17-0025 The Independence Metropolitan District No. 4.
Pursuant to Resolution 13-13, as recorded in the real property records of Elbert County SR-17-0021 (the “Resolution”), the County has adopted local regulations governing the approval of Special Districts. These regulations were incorporated into Part II, Section 26 of the Elbert County Zoning Regulations, effective April 24, 2013.
As detailed below, the Developer’s pre-applications and final applications are incomplete in various areas. Pursuant to Section C(3) of the Resolution: “If/when either a pre- or final application is found to be incomplete, Community & Development Services shall inform the Applicant, return the Application, and restart the timeline clock only after a completed application has been received.”
Pursuant to Section C. (2)(b)(i) of the Resolution, both the Pre-application and Final Application are required to include certain information specified in Appendices A and B of the Resolution. In this regard, the Developer’s Pre-applications (and final applications) were incomplete in the following regards:
• Appendix A failed to include a list of all parties, individuals and entities providing funding and/or receiving revenue [Resolution, Appendix A, Section A(2)]
• Appendix A failed to include a list of all parties, individuals and entities that are part of the Special District delineating their roles and responsibilities. [Resolution, Appendix A, Section A(3)].
• Appendix A failed to include a report delineating the success of failure of related endeavors in which the same parties, individuals and entities have been associated, including bankruptcies or turn over of Special Districts to other entities for operation. [Resolution, Appendix A, Section A(4)].
• Appendix A of the Independence Water & Sanitation District failed to include an analysis regarding the cost and source of replacement water should the primary water source prove inadequate. [Resolution, Appendix A, Section E(2)].
• Appendix B (and referenced exhibits) apparently fails to provide for 50% funding in excess of the projected 10 year costs to provide for cost overruns. [Resolution, Appendix B, Section B(4)].
The apparent shortfall is exacerbated in light of the Developer’s use of an overstated and illegal residential assessment ratio. See Anderson Analytics Review of Financing Plans prepared for Elbert County Community & Development Services, June 19,2017 (“Anderson Review”) at 7, attached to Addendum to June 16, 2017 Staff Report Document. The Anderson Review further stated that “the residential assessment ratio correction should be made to the Finance Plans (which lowers the amount of debt that can be supported)”. Anderson Review at 8. The County apparently failed to direct the Developer to correct and resubmit the Financial Plan and Service Plans to correct the identified error. As a result, numerous financial conclusions and predictions within the various pre- and final applications are erroneous.
The Resolution clearly mandates that in the event a pre or final application is deemed to be incomplete, the County must return the application and shall restart the “timeline clock” once a completed application is received. Accordingly, based upon the omissions identified above, the Pre-Applications were incomplete and the BOCC is required to direct Community & Development Services to return the applications to the Developer and vacate the September 5, 2017 agenda items regarding Case Nos. SR- 17-0020, SR-17-0021, SR-17-0022, SR-17-0023, SR-17-0024, and SR-17-0025 (The Independence Water &
Sanitation District, The Independence Overlay Metropolitan District, and The Independence Metropolitan District Nos. 1-4, respectively).
The Board of County Commissioners is required to adhere to the unambiguous language of the Resolution, and a failure to do so would constitute an abuse of discretion by the Elbert County Board of County Commissioners. See Friends of the Black Forest Preservation Plan Inc. v. Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs of El Paso County and Black Forest Mission, LLC, 381 P.3d 396, 400 (Colo. App., 2016) (“A governmental body abuses its discretion if its decision is not reasonably supported by any competent evidence in the record or if the governmental body has misconstrued or misapplied applicable law.”).
Please feel free to contact my office with any questions.

________________________________________________________________________________

Water in Peril

 

 

Over the past decade, my wife and I have helped a great number of people learn how to fill out their own paperwork with the Colorado Division of Water Resources so that they were able to adjudicate their ground water.  We are not lawyers nor are we water experts.  We are retired  school teachers who moved to Elbert County twenty years ago with the firm understanding that Elbert County is a great place to live as long as you are aware that there is very little surface water.  There are only a handful of creeks and most of them can be jumped over by the average grade school kid looking for tadpoles. I have joked for years that the county motto is "Aqua ludis et sunt optionem," which loosely translates into English as "Water sports are not an option."  A little over 98% of the residents in the county are on well and septic systems.

The Palmer Divide, located on the southern edge of the county and not including the panhandle, rises to over 7,300 feet above sea level and acts as a divider between the Arkansas River drainage and the Platte River drainage.  The greatest amount of precipitation falls on this Palmer Divide area, and the water that accumulates there is the only reason that the average precipitation rate for the entire county rises out of the desert category.  That is the story on the surface of Elbert County, but the hydrology beneath the surface of the county is quite different.  Ironically, the lion's share of the water in the Denver Basin aquifers lies beneath our feet.  The water there has been designated as a finite resource.  The great Denver Basin no longer can recharge itself at a rate that remotely keeps up with the rate at which we pump it out for our homes and agricultural purposes.  

In the Denver Basin we have the 100 year rule in place. Using geological science and computer modeling, experts have determined (scientifically guessed, really)  the approximate amount of water  that is in the ground.  There are five distinct aquifers (Upper Dawson, Lower Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Foxhill) separated by layers of rock.  There is much debate about just how much migration of water occurs between the layers of the Denver Basin.  The 100 year rule simply states that, in order to insure water will be available for the next 100 years, no one  should pump out more than 1% of the available water from the aquifer beneath their property.  

In some counties, including Elbert County, there is an even more restrictive discharge rule.  Our county leaders were once was so protective of  our water that  they decided to employ a 300 year rule.  In our county we allow 1/3 the amount of the water that the state allows, the idea being that it would insure Elbert County would have water for its residents until 300 years into the future.  This, of course, was in the days before water was expensive and there was no profit to be made from pumping the water out of the ground for watering lawns, washing cars, etc.  

Our personal adjudication of water rights on our sixty acres entitles us to approximately 100 acre feet of water per year.  If we had a pipeline and a customer in mind, we could make a fortune off of our water at today's prices even at the 300 year level.  We choose to leave it in the ground and enjoy taking the occasional shower and watering the garden.  However, not everybody agrees with this frugal and respectful approach to our water usage and conservation. 

The operative words in the previous paragraph are as follows, "If we had a pipeline..."  We don't.  We are also okay with that reality.  It is only when water districts form, gain the power to float bonds and consequently build pipelines, that people get wealthy off of ground water.  Trucking water is never going to be a money maker. This is why the Independence housing development is such a huge problem for so many people.  The project allows a number of small water districts to be formed.  Of course, one water district would be sufficient for the entire development's plans as they exist, but each water district can issue bonds.  It does not take a mathematician to understand that six water districts can get six times as much money through the issuance of bonds as one district can. Why would they need to have that kind of money?  If you just said, "PIPELINES!" then you just won a chewing gum cigar. 

The developers of Independence do not have to sell a SINGLE home if they can form water districts, build a pipeline, and pump water back into what would become a desperate metropolitan area.  The value of water can be expected to exceed $30K per acre  foot.  If you think all of this projected development  is about bringing the rooftops and all of the tax money that say will be generated, think again.  It would be a pleasant extra for them, but houses are the last thing they need to make money.  

Water is the new gold.  The scarcity of it insures a continued rise in prices.  These developers do not care if the water table drops or that it would cause those who are on well and septic systems to lose their wells.   Think about it:  if diamonds were as plentiful as Canadian thistle weeds, you could buy them in gumball machines.  These guys will pump the aquifers until the water table drops and then sell you your OWN water back at an enormous profit.  Greed has a mighty thirst.

And finally, you do not get protections from the courts for any of this.  If they have adjudicated the water rights, it is theirs to sell.  If they acquire water rights using the powers of their water districts, it will be theirs to sell.  I can sell mine.  You can sell yours.  But never forget this one fact, the water in the Denver Basin is a finite resource.  Once it is gone, it is gone.  The state will not hear complaints about the dropping level of your well.  The only remedy by the courts would come if you could prove that the quality of your water has been damaged by a neighbor's misuse.  Well levels do not count as damaged water quality.  

The only protection from this threat to the water tables can come from a require careful review of these projects.  We must demand our BOCC  stop any unnecessary formation of bonding schemes disguised as water districts.  They have the power to okay or deny applications on unnecessary pipelines.  The future of our water in Elbert County runs through the Kiowa Courthouse.  The developers have been romancing Elbert County for years.  From the perspective of this author, it looks as though, unless this whole Independence project is slowed down and reviewed for its potential benefits and anticipated negative impacts, the fuse will finally have been lit on the water rush in Elbert County.  In the words of the most interesting man in the world, "Stay thirsty, my friends."

Short Followup to the Mike Akana Story - Sky Rim, Etc.

Imagine what would happen if a group of like minded home owners in a covenant controlled subdivision were dissatisfied with a reappraisal done by the tax assessor of a county.  Would they just call one another and complain?  Would they break into two political groups and try to lay blame for a less than acceptable reappraisal on the doorstep of the opposing political party?  Would they break into various factions within their community and argue with each other about why one group or another was responsible for what seemed like an unfair increase in taxes?  Of course not.

No, when something like a countywide reappraisal  occurs and something seems out of the ordinary, what normal people do is to call a neighbor and ask them if the got their appraisal in the mail, and if they did, ask the follow up question about whether they felt it was fair.  A friend of mine who is well versed in property appraisals looked at the list of 389 appeals that were sent into the Elbert County Tax Assessor's Office.  This person noticed that, of 80 homes in the Sky Rim subdivision,  23 of the residents living there, (or a little over a third of the homeowners) decided to appeal the reappraisal numbers calculated by the county.  It was determined collectively that not only did their taxes increase significantly,  nobody from the county actually went out to Sky Rim and actually inspected the properties.  As I have reported before, Elbert County  no longer even has a licensed appraiser employed who is qualified to do the inspections.
Three members of the Sky Rim subdivision enlisted an actual licensed appraiser.  As a result of the information presented by that professional and licensed appraiser, every appeal was found to be legitimate and all 27 members of Sky Rim subdivision were granted substantial cuts in their property taxes. Why does it look as though Billie Mills and her chief analyst, Mike Akana, are in way over their heads?  It appears as though the entire county reassessment was based on computer models, maps and guesses.  And could this be the reason Mike Akana never seems to work in one place for very long?

On another topic, I have noticed that the EC Republicans have been busy purging from a number of Elbert County websites everybody who even remotely is not in lockstep with the political ideologies of Peterson, Wills, Richardson or even former Commissioner Schlegel.  The vast majority of the people being tossed off of EC business sites, the EC Republican page, etc. are conservatives.  It makes one wonder why all of this purity of beliefs stuff is occurring at this particular moment in time.

Commissioner Richardson has been asked to recuse himself a number times from the review and approval of the Independence project because of  his perceived conflicts of interest. Richardson is being called out for endorsing the Independence project because he is a member of the Elizabeth School Board when he is well aware that the Elbert County Planning Commission had not yet presented their findings to the Elbert County BOCC.   He should not offer any analysis of any project that has not been been presented to the BOCC before it has gone through the correct channels.  

A few weeks ago, Andrea Richardson, Commissioner Richardson's wife, made a public spectacle of herself at the Stop Over-Development booth at the Elbert County Fair.  Mrs. Richardson, a successful realtor in the Elizabeth area, was wearing her Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce badge when she lost her temper and went on a 10+ minute rant that required intervention by Elbert County law enforcement.   

Did these two events trigger the recent purging of individuals and businesses from Elbert County websites? Coincidence? I wonder.

Touchy or vindictive?  You be the judge, but I suspect that before it's all over, this, too, will end up in court.  This debacle of recusal and the conflicts of interest, and even shoddy property reassessment will go down as another unforced err on the part of Elbert County government officials who still seem to believe that rules and procedures are for dimwitted suckers.  Heck, it's only taxpayer dollars and a well-earned, further tarnished reputation badge for our county.

The Confusing Story Behind Mike Akana

Elbert County is experiencing more controversy in its county government.   The following report  is yet another example of the worrisome culture of government employees  who work in the Kiowa courthouse.  Senior data analyst in the Elbert County Assessor's office, Mike Akana, is a person of whom we should all familiarize ourselves.  If you are a property owner in the county, he does have a direct impact on you.  It is the  analysis that he conjures up from his desk that ends up changing your property taxes.  It is not based on first-hand observation of actual properties by licensed appraisers.  It is a system that uses mapping and often times flawed conjecture.    

Let it be known that Mr. Akana has a confusing reputation that precedes him.  It is not a reputation that I fabricated.  No, it is one that was being covered by the press long before he got to Elbert County. I figured I would let the words of others help you get to know the man at the heart of Elbert County's tax reappraisal controversy.

My first link is an October 16, 2016 television news story from Ft. Meyers, Florida.  The source of the story is NBC-2.  It was brought to the attention of the press by Mr. Mike Akana (described in the article as a whistleblower) who was working in the local tax assessor's office.  He alleged he was bullied and harassed by his department head.  The department head asked for Mr. Akana's resignation based on his conduct and he tendered it with no comment to the reporters at NBC-2.  There is no doubt that Akana's boss in Ft. Meyers was viewed by many in the department as being the aggressive one in this disagreement, but the irony should not escape the reader.  Today, Mr. Akana is accused of being a bully tyrant.

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/333 66680/email-adds-to-impropriet y-concerns-at-property- appraisers-office

The only licensed and qualified ad valorem appraiser employed by the Elbert County Tax Assessor was K. Meis.  This licensed  employee resigned because she felt intimidated by the former  so-called whistleblower from Ft. Meyers,  Florida, Mike Akana.  Mr. Akana allegedly decided that while under the employ of  the Elbert County Assessor's Office, he should play the role of the bully when dealing with the assessor's staff.  

The following is an account of Mr. Akana's behavior with K. Meis. The article was written by local resident and retired attorney Rick Brown. It ran on several local web sites and as a news story on www.TruthColorado.com.  I have checked this information with several reliable sources.

"Our county government’s culture of bullying, enabled by former Commissioners Schlegel and Rowland and fostered by the disgraced former county manager and the soon-to-depart county attorney, lives on as their malignant legacy. Its most recent manifestation occurred in the office and with the knowledge of Elbert County Assessor Billie Mills and has led to the resignation of one of the county’s appraisers, a woman who has worked in the office for years and whom I know from experience to be highly competent, professional, and courteous in her dealings with the public

On June 28, Mike Akana, a senior data analyst in the assessor’s office, entered the office of the appraiser and angrily accused her of giving a member of the public information about the number of protests filed in response to recent property tax reassessments. It’s not clear why Akana was angry about the release of public information, which, in any case, had not been given out by the appraiser, but he lost control of his temper and kicked the chair she was sitting in.

The appraiser’s immediate response was to walk to the office of the County’s Human Resources Director. There, she was joined by Ms. Mills, the deputy assessor, Akana, and County Commissioner Danny Willcox. Akana accused her of being insolent, and she received no support from the assessor or her deputy. According to sources, Willcox said nothing. In the face of the total lack of support the appraiser wrote out a resignation on the spot.

Some of you may remember Mike Akana as the egregious suck-up who compared his boss to Galileo in the course of a power point presentation at a BOCC meeting. Mills is term limited, and I and others believe Akana hopes to convince voters to elect him as assessor next year.

In itself, this incident is disturbing, but it is also part of a pattern whereby female county employees are bullied or subjected to inappropriate conduct. A pending lawsuit against the county has arisen from such conduct. County commissioners seem to treat these issues as unworthy of swift and unambiguous discipline. Commissioner Richardson has reserved his most vigorous response for a letter to the Ranchland News accusing citizens concerned about such matters as having a “prurient obsession with the private lives of others” (for more on this letter see Robert Thomasson’s article posted below. It remains to be seen if any legal liability will flow from this latest incident." 

(end of article)

According to the State of Colorado,Mr. Akana is not qualified to actually go out and do any property appraisals in the field.  I am including a copy of the only licensure that Mr. Akana currently holds with the State of Colorado in regards to assessments.
 
The license (above) is what is known as an Ad Valorum license. It qualifies Mr. Akana to do almost nothing in the way of an actual site appraisal. This level of licensure is only utilized for appraiser employees of county tax assessment offices.  There are no assessment capabilities/requirements  connected with it.  Mr. Akana only received this license on July 15, 2017 and it is good only through  the end of this year.  

So all of you who were led to believe that Billie Mills and Mike Akana had proper credentials to jack with your taxes during this year's lengthy tax reappraisal were at a minimum, misled.  He got this inadequate license well after he had already been doing the appraisal.

The female appraiser, K. Meis had the next higher level of qualifications from the State of Colorado.  Her license, of which I have a copy, is current and is called "Licensed Appraiser."  The definition of that level is found here on the DORA website.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/real-estate-appraiser-steps-initial-licensure-certification  

"The Licensed Appraiser credential allows the appraiser to appraise non-complex 1-4 unit residential properties having a transaction value of less than $1 million and complex 1-4 unit residential properties having a transaction value of less than $250,000."

If you are confused because it appears that even this licensed employee falls short of the mark necessary to do appraisals on  most properties in the county, do not blame her.  She has at least met the much more rigid state standards for appraisal by the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) in Colorado.  Becoming a registered and licensed appraiser requires coursework and performance standards. She had to pass a difficult exam. She earned her status and it is a step well beyond what Mike Akana rushed down and applied for when people began to ask questions in July of this year. Billie Mills, the actual Elbert County Assessor, is the one in this case who should be answering the important questions in regards to who is and who is not qualified to go out into the county and perform assessment evaluation work that meets state requirements.  We can only assume that our entire Assessors Office is pulling some grand charade if we have not managed to hire qualified employees.

The following is another interesting article from 2007 when Mike Akana worked for Teller County as the chief analyst in the assessor's office,  and property values did not seem to align with what property owners were expecting.  Read it and see if you see any resemblance to some of the questions that are being asked of our 2017 Assessment in Elbert County.

http://coloradocommunitymedia.com/stories/Property-values-questioned,62927

Then there is this article written by Michael Phillips on May 25, 2017. The link is as follows:

http://www.truthcolorado.com/art6/stickershock.html

  

"Sticker Shock? You’ve been Akanaed…

Ok so have most of you recovered from the shock of opening up your 2017 Notice of Value from the Elbert County Assessor?

Some background: You might be wondering by what unicorn magical process did they come up with the percentages of increase? The legend goes that in 2013 County Assessor, Billie Mills, decided two things; to fire or run off a bunch her employees, and that property in Elbert County was undervalued. So that year, property values increased slightly and employees decreased a bunch.

Then in 2015 the County hired a “well-respected company from Lamar” to do assessments that the now sharply reduced EC staff was unable to accomplish. Then this is where the typical Elbert County government fog rolled in to muddy the facts: Mike Akana (who has his own interesting reputation in various Counties) somehow wormed his way into working under said “well-respected Lamar company “ (as a subcontractor-surrogate-buddy of Billie – or something else that nobody concerned will admit to.) So Mike Akana did the residential and commercial values for the County, apparently from the state of Florida at the time using wild-ass guessing or software, but never actually physically inspecting the properties (as required by law.)

Flash forward a bit. Billie Mills then hires Mike Akana as her special data analyst....and what happens....residential values jumped all over the board (even in the same neighborhoods) from a minus to over 181% increase and those are just the ones that have been investigated so far. And commercial properties, which Elbert County is desperate to attract, go from a minus 3% to a 200% increase. Apparently Akana’s Ouija board got his Monopoly game pregnant.

Property assessments are supposed to be based on property sales information gathered from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2016. And your property value is established from those sales - when like property is compared to other like properties.

Is that what is happening? The Ouija board says NO.

YOU NEED TO DO THIS FAST So, figure out your percentage of increase from the valuation the Assessor’s Office sent you...if it's not like homes in your neighborhood then PROTEST your value. With your Notice of Valuation is a “Real Property Appeal Form.” Fill it out and get it into the Assessor’s office (hand deliver or get Postmarked) by June 1.) Demand that the assessor's office to show you how they valued YOUR home....and if you don't like the answer they give you....go on to higher authority ....the County Board of Equalization...and then to the state Board of Equalization. Remember the taxes you’ll pay next year are based on your property valuation – you know, in case you didn’t think this issue is important. 

Elbert County is not booming like say Denver or high valued San Francisco; we are not shiny with lots of friendly services. We’ve got dirt roads, essentially non-existent infrastructure and scant services. Contrary to Elbert County Government’s rich fantasy life, property and values here are not sky-rocketing to raise the tax base. We are not a destination; we are a dusty pass-through on the way to somewhere.

Billie Mills needs to quit hiding behind Mike Akana’s data cloud, cut him loose, and do the job she was elected to do. Hire employees that know what they doing and get the job done right. Oh and by the way your County Assessor's value went down in 2015 ....up in 2017 but not by the 75-100% that other's did.....now that’s unicorn magic in action." 

(end of article)

So where does this information leave us?  It is not my intention to suggest that there is an easy fix to all of this.  Mike Akana is not without his skills in assessment.  He has worked in several locations and has risen to the level of Senior Assessment Analyst, and so one must fairly reason that he does have a knowledge base about his field.  Unfortunately, it is based almost entirely on software-based analysis that often meets with severe critical review by practitioners in his field. The concern here is the licensure, the cloud of public dissatisfaction with his methods, and the nagging employee turmoil that seems to follow him.  Elbert County government has already come under enough public criticism over the past decade without adding this to the list of complaints.

Why is Billie Mills not hiring qualified and licensed assessors in her department to reassure the public that the tax assessment is being handled within the recommendations of the state laws put forth by DOLA?  It is virtually impossible to get any sort of answers from the elected officials at the Kiowa Courthouse on these subjects without going through back channels, CORA requests, and the reporting of perceived violations uncovered by this process to state government officials.  

This newest iteration of elected officials likes to say that they have been more transparent than past groups, but it is my observation that what transparency we do have should be credited to the citizens from both sides of the political aisle who have, quite frankly, had enough of the "good-ol'-boy" methodology.  Elbert County wants to grow into a position of a modern and high functioning governance so that it might take its rightful place at the table with neighboring Arapahoe, Douglas and El Paso counties, but it refuses to acknowledge the need for compliance to state standards. When people come into adulthood, it is not good enough to say you are an adult, you must act like one.  This is a concept that Elbert County seems to fight tooth and nail.  There is a misguided notion that the "Elbert County way" has always worked in the past so the state and surrounding counties should accept it, but ultimately the adults around you will demand maturity and proper behavior.

We're waiting.

__________________________________________________________________________

Licensed Ad Valorem Appraiser

• This level of licensure is only utilized for appraiser employees of county tax assessment offices. 

Licensed Appraiser

• The Licensed Appraiser credential allows the appraiser to appraise non-complex 1-4 unit residential properties having a transaction value of less than $1 million and complex 1-4 unit residential properties having a transaction value of less than $250,000. 
  

Certified Residential Appraiser

• The Certified Residential Appraiser credential allows the appraiser to appraise 1-4 unit residential properties without regard to transaction value or complexity. The credential includes the appraisal of vacant or unimproved land that is utilized for 1-4 family purposes or for which the highest and best use is for 1-4 family purposes, but does not include land for which a subdivision analysis is necessary. 

Certified General Appraiser

• The Certified General credential allows the appraiser to appraise all types of real property.

Leavenworth, Kansas.

Chris Richardson is a good friend.  If you are on the Chris Richardson BFF list, you can be sure of two things.  The first is that James Taylor will be playing in the background and singing, "You've Got a Friend" if you are ever so fortunate to be invited into the commissioner's office.  The second thing is that if you ever have to resign from your job because of sexual misconduct, you can count on Chris to drop you a glowing note in the local paper that will read like a letter of recommendation from your mother to a prospective employer.  Yep, that is just the way he rolls.

Oh, look here.  This is a letter to the editor in the Ranchland News:

“Dear Editor,

I am dismayed by the prurient obsession with the private lives of others some people are showing locally on social media.

Tawdry gossip is beneath us as a community but, obviously not for all individuals.  These few individuals seemingly have no shame.  They strain the limits of patience of this tolerant community.

What is perhaps worse is that no one is in possession of all the facts and circumstances that effect another. But that does not seem to matter when constructing a tale intended to damn others.  If these people were children they would be classified as bullies.  As adults they should be too.

Each of us is uncomfortably aware of our own failings.  None of us would want to see the worst of ourselves made the topic of speculation.  Those few that revel in the pain and misfortune of others are not providing a noble public service.  They are spreading an ignoble stain on us all.  Were the shoe on the other foot they would likely be the first to cry foul.

We are better than this.  We should expect better of our neighbors.

I ask each of us to be better than our worst selves.  That we no longer tolerate those that would tear others down and demand civility in our public interactions.

Let the change start here in Elbert County.

Chris Richardson
Elbert County
District 1 Commissioner”  *

Mr. Richardson is sure getting good use out of his "Word of the Day" calendar that he got for Christmas.  My two favorite word choices from his important missive are “prurient" and “tawdry." Richardson is trying desperately to shift the blame of a poorly run county manager's office of which he has (along with the other commissioners) lost control.  Look away, he says.  Do not listen to those who are critical of a good man when he is down.  These muckrakers just want recognition for themselves.

There is nothing in this story that has unfolded at the courthouse that is “prurient”  because no one has discussed any of the details of the sexual indiscretions between Ed Ehmann and an employee under his review.  If that were the case, then it would, in fact, be cheap, or to use Chris' word, "tawdry."  We just know, from accounts of the family whose world Ehmann has turned upside-down, that there was an affair, that the impacted family has split, and now two county employees are being paid for not working until the end of August.  For it to be rumor and innuendo, one would have to be passing along something that is false.

The commissioners knew that this was going on and did nothing about it for an extended period of time.  We know that Mr. Ehmann had been called in by at least one of the sitting commissioners and grilled about a different allegation of an affair with yet another employee. It is reported that that accusation was denied.  And there are more people who have discussed at least a third relationship with another former employee.

I have no idea as to the veracity of these other accusations.  For all I know, they might be entirely false.  That is why I specifically chose not to use their names.  But to say that there is no reason to have had any concerns about our former County Manager's behavior is pure nonsense. His reputation preceded him and was not conjured up by the people who Richardson is trying to blame. Remember, the vast majority of people who read, follow, and give us information about the courthouse shenanigans are Republicans and Independents.  To say this is the fault of a few malcontents in the general population is ridiculous. I would ask Mr. Richardson to provide any proof of a series of false or misleading articles on this topic that would demonstrate his position. Any news of improper conduct by the former County Manager has sprung from the courthouse itself, impacted residents and the employees of the county.  Not everyone in Kiowa believes Ed Ehmann deserves sainthood despite what the commissioners are saying.

We are paying people with our hard earned taxpayer dollars who I believe should have been fired for cause.  In Elbert County government employees resign and they keep on collecting their paychecks.  The only people who have the ability to authorize those paychecks are the commissioners.  Mr. Richardson’s solution is to preach to us from his amazingly high horse about virtues, casting stones and the fact we should show no tolerance for those who are tired of the waste of our taxpayer dollars. Really?

Or is it just that the BOCC is beginning to realize that the lawsuits are mounting up, the person with whom they entrusted the actual running of the county is now out, and the attorney that they have relied upon for for questionable advice for so long has also resigned and he is also still drawing a paycheck.  If someone points out that we should be aware that what Ed did was not only wrong, but also has exposed us to even more litigation of which we would likely lose if the woman in this scenario decides to sue, then everybody should be quiet and just let the BOCC handle it?  I do not think so.  I think we should require the commissioners do a better job of both hiring and firing.  Stop blaming things on people whose right it is to complain if their elected officials refuse to do a good job.

I have spoken with a couple of friends (Elbert residents) who are retired officers from United States military service.  I asked both of them this simple question:  If a higher ranking official,  in charge of the performance review of a lesser ranking member of the military under him or her, were to become engaged in a sexual relationship with that person, how would the military view that behavior? One went so far as to bring up his current copy of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and went over in detail Articles 130 and 134 which talk about what happens when someone in a higher ranking position takes advantage of their position in regards to sexual improprieties.

While the courthouse, of course, does not fall under UCMJ guidelines, we see headlines every day about people who take advantage of employees and it usually ends up in court.  Fox News has recently paid out millions of dollars worth of fines imposed by judges for this abusive use of power.  The taxpayers pay for all of this nonsense if it occurs in our local government.  In short, retired Colonel Richardson, knows that this behavior was wrong, and he is not improving the situation by condemning people who want more from their elected officials.  He is perpetuating it.

The second retired officer I contacted had a different answer than the first.  His outlook was much more dire.  He simply explained that the questions that I was asking were a regular topic of conversation behind the walls of the military prison in Leavenworth, Kansas!  If the military takes this sort of misconduct that seriously, why doesn't Mr. Richardson realize that what the former Elbert County Manager did was wrong and that he should have been fired for cause, not given a glowing send-off with a pay check?

* All grammatical errors in Mr. Richardson’s newspaper article were left as-is.

This has to stop!

For my entire teaching career I was acutely aware of the fact that under the eyes of the law, I was considered, "a person in authority."  I understood from my classes, especially those I received in my M.A. studies from the University of Northern Colorado, just how important that designation truly was.  In effect, when children are placed under your supervision, you are essentially in charge of their well-being as if you were a surrogate parent.  The responsibility is genuinely immense.  The legal system is quick to come down hard on any educator who neglects that responsibility.  The mantra is, if you do not wish to assume that responsibility, then choose another profession.  It is really that simple.

As a result, teachers often have to go to great lengths to insure that there can never be any question that they have the best interest of their students in the forefront of their minds at all times.  I was famous for always grabbing another teacher and  bringing that person into any private meeting with a student.  And I always availed myself for that purpose to my fellow teachers.  It was part of what was expected of me and I complied.  But, should  teachers be the only professionals given this responsibility?  The answer is a resounding, "No!"

Doctors and dentists can be "persons in authority."  We entrust our health and safety into their hands, allow them to perform surgical procedures while we are under sedation, etc.  We have to trust  that they take that responsibility as seriously as any teacher does.  A police officer is "a person in authority." A correctional officer is "a person in authority." They can arrest you and then remove you from society.  They have the responsibility to take charge of your well-being, even if you are guilty of breaking the law.

So where am I going with all of this?  It is simple, really.  While not everyone has the legal obligation that teachers, medical practitioners or law enforcement officers have, there are people in positions in our society who hold great power over those who work under them.  That is why we continue to see so much litigation these days regarding high profile bosses or cable news celebrities who are taking advantage of their position. This news dominates the internet, cable television, radio airways, etc.  

Jobs do not grow on trees. It goes without saying that staying gainfully employed impacts all of us and on those who depend upon us. If someone is in a position of authority over you and your job status suggests by their words or their actions that, if you want to keep getting a paycheck,  you had better be prepared to do something that you ordinarily would not do, that is unacceptable abuse of power.  If you do not think it is serious, Google "Fox News litigation" and see what kinds of things come up on the screen.  More importantly, look at the settlements that are being paid out to people who come forward and prove to a jury that they were unfairly coerced into a situation.

Unfortunately, we have had this very type of behavior in our Elbert County government.  We have a culture in Kiowa where our elected officials (including past and present BOCC members) turn deaf ears to those people who try to point out these behaviors. But for whatever reason, (perhaps because they think it will reflect badly on the county or reflect poorly on their own hiring practices) they do not take swift action to remediate the situation. When the employee who is making the accusation is ignored, he might feel there is no other choice but to seek the assistance of legal counsel. And if the attorney finds merit in the argument, then they will seek to rectify the situation…and that generally means a lawsuit.  

I have checked the score card. The Elbert County government is abysmal at defending itself against these cases.  Why?  Because, for one, our local government is not properly vetting its employees.  Secondly, bad behavior is often times swept under the rug.

It has become the norm in Elbert County government to hire from within its ranks. The person who gets the job is given the position for a myriad of worn out reasons. Here are a few:  we went to school together;  she has worked in the county for ten years and her mother worked here for twenty years before that; he was good over in road and bridge, so he can do a great job in another department. 

The list of this faulty hiring rationale goes on and on, and it has to stop.  There is way too much nepotism and cronyism in our local government.  We need expertise and ethical behavior, not just familiar faces. 

The “complicated” situation that we now face regarding our County Manager is just such a case.  Does anyone really know if our County Manager is sick, on leave, was fired, or maybe just abducted by aliens?  No.  Even now, when we have an official statement weeks after the County Manager went absent, there are details emerging that center around inappropriate behavior by the manager, that two employees are receiving pay through at least the month of August, and that no one will be fired for breaking ethical boundaries.  We should all be very concerned about this.  Nobody who is a county official in a position to tell us what is happening has told the public the same story two times in a row.

There is a back story to this.  Yes, I am angry that it appears we are on the precipice of yet  another costly legal battle.  No, I do not want my taxes spent on another legal boondoggle that could have been avoided had anyone been doing proper oversight.  But you know what really ticks me off?  According to a practicing lawyer who has reviewed the details that we have before us, it is a slam dunk that the county would lose the litigation it is facing with this situation.  It is also pretty clear that we have had at least one other similar problem with our County Manager in the past and nobody stepped up to do the right thing. I see a person in charge of personnel matters and who had authority over an employee becoming romantically entangled with one of his employees. 

This is not a rumor.  I was approached by an affected family member and given information without solicitation. I do not in any way absolve either person involved for their behavior in this situation. They were both in the wrong. But as a former school teacher who accepted the regulations of my profession, it is my opinion our County Manager crossed a wide and very bright red line and it certainly appears that he is not accepting responsibility for his actions.  He had been previously admonished for this type of behavior. The commissioners just pussyfooted around the issue when, it is said, they knew of the man's earlier indiscretions.

Above all of this, there is now a family in crisis.  There are real people whose lives will never be the same. There are children who no longer have a stable family.  There seems to be very few people in the courthouse who care about the real tragedy of this situation. They only seem interested in blaming others and/or protecting themselves from any criticism.  

This has to stop.