County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

01/11/2007 - Tuesday’s meeting of the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners was largely a ceremonial occasion, but such occasions can be very instructive in showing how the County really works.

  We began with the swearing in of County officials—one Commissioner (the other two have two years remaining in their terms), and the Assessor, Clerk & Recorder, Treasurer, Sheriff and Coroner. It’s worth remembering that these are officials answerable directly to the voters and not, in most respects, to the Commissioners. County government, unlike most city governments, isn’t a clear-cut hierarchy. There are different officials responsible for their own areas of government, and while we try to work together (usually pretty successfully), no one branch can direct another branch on how to conduct its operations.

  We then had a budget resolution, appropriating additional sums of money for some of our departments and funds. Here—in the budget-setting process—the Commissioners do have a great deal of discretion. But the reason these last-minute appropriations are made is that the Commissioners are required by state law to have each of these funds in balance at year’s end—there’s no deficit spending in Colorado counties.

  Then came two different sorts of annual appointments, illustrating two different roles the Commissioners play. The first kind are essentially statutory appointments, deciding who among the County elected officials and staff would fill certain roles defined in state law. To stay in the financial area, for example, the Commissioners appointed our Finance Director, Clorinda Smith, as our budget official. By law, the County’s budget official is responsible for the submittal of certain information to the state. But we could conceivably have Clorinda prepare the forms and have one of the County Commissioners declare the budget official for the purpose of signing off on the various reports.

  The second set of appointments had to do with the work the Commissioners do outside their statutory roles, mostly in organizations like the Denver Regional Council of Governments and Colorado Counties, Inc. There’s no requirement that we belong to CCI (until recently, several large counties didn’t), and while DRCOG does have some statutory responsibilities, particularly in regard to land use and transportation planning, there’s no law mandating that we be active in that organization, either. But both CCI and DRCOG not only provide us with additional expertise, they allow us to give input to organizations which influence policy on the state and even the national level.

  Then there are lots of other local and regional committees and groups in which the Commissioners are more or less active, and whether through the bylaws of the organization or through a more informal procedure, the Commissioners are committed to participating. All three Commissioners have a number of such committee assignments, and they can take up a large amount of time. But whether participation is required or voluntary, it’s good for the organizations and for the County to maintain open lines of communication. And that’s what we try to do.