Terry Stokka has lived in Black Forest for 29 years. He is president of the Friends of Black Forest, chairman of the Black Forest Land Use Committee and chairman of the Black Forest Water & Wells Committee.
The BoCC tries to stunt the people’s voices
By Terry Stokka
Sometimes it seems that those who make the rules decide that they don’t have to live by them. For those in power, rules are often easy to change to their liking, and it is the little people below them who suffer the consequences.
Such was the case July 23 at the meeting of the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners. The issue was a rezoning request, and the applicant spent about an hour describing his proposal and emphasizing all the ways it met the requirements for the board’s approval. After his presentation, the board was supposed to hear from people who were in favor of or opposed to the proposal. That’s when things went downhill.
Let me first give you some perspective. I have attended dozens of BoCC hearings over the last 20 years as chairman of the Black Forest Land Use Committee. I have spoken many times in defense of the Black Forest Preservation Plan, and I’ve worked hard to preserve that gem we call Black Forest. I will admit to very few victories because it seemed that developers always carried much more weight than the residents of Black Forest. We were not heard in opposition to rampant development.
For many years, those in favor of or opposed to a proposal were given as much time as they wanted to present their case. I will concede that this was occasionally abused, as some people rambled on and on.
To streamline things at the July 23 meeting, the BoCC decided to limit speakers to three minutes, which is hardly enough time to make a case for much of anything. Since this sometimes meant more people spoke and repeated themselves, audience members were allowed to “donate” their three minutes to another speaker so that person could make a more detailed case. The developer was still allowed to take as much time as he wanted; those presentations sometimes lasted for 90 minutes. Also, after the presentations, the commissioners themselves were allowed to comment for as long as they wanted.
Back to July 23. For some reason, the chairman of the BoCC, our own Carrie Geitner, who represents Falcon, decided to shorten the comment period and limit comments to 90 seconds each, cutting the comment time in half. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she also deleted the option for others to donate their minutes to a speaker. If you think about it, you can speak for 90 seconds with only about four or five breaths.
I don’t know if the other commissioners were aware of the change before it was declared, but either way, it was a surprise to everyone in the audience. So, effectively, Commissioner Geitner eliminated any coordinated case for those opposed to the rezoning. This smacks of denying freedom of speech by limiting speakers in this way. It removes the voice of the people who live in the affected areas and prevents them from voicing their approval or opposition to issues affecting them directly.
There is a silver lining in this dark cloud, however. The residents of a development adjoining the rezoning parcel had prepared diligently and carefully. They had a written script and slides and were well prepared. They “circled the wagons” and assigned 90-second portions to twice as many people, some of whom had no intention of speaking when they came to the hearing. The leader lined them up, each with a script, and they presented their whole case, 90 seconds at a time. They worked around the new rule and showed Geitner that they were a step ahead of her. The next time I speak before the commissioners, I think I will use this tactic.
The planning commission had recommended denial of the rezoning by a 6-1 vote because it went against the county master plan in several ways. The rezoning was neither logical nor good for that area of the county. When the commissioners voted —after taking all the time they wanted to comment on the issue before voting — the vote was 3-2 against the rezoning, so the issue failed. Finally, we had a victory in our court.
One last thing. As absurd as the rezoning was for several reasons, Geitner voted to approve the rezone, even though she was outvoted by the other commissioners, 3-2. I wish I could say she learned her lesson, but I doubt it.
