Stewart's dual role spurs talk of recall

By Eric Frankowski and B.J. Plasket
The Daily Times-Call

BOULDER — Backlash against Tuesday's appointment of county Commissioner Ron Stewart to a dual role as director of the Parks and Open Space Department has begun to mount, and the repercussions could include a possible attempt to have all three commissioners recalled.

Calling the unprecedented move "a blatant disregard of our democratic system," members of the Boulder-based Land Use Coalition demanded a reversal of the decision.

"The citizens of Boulder County deserve no less," said AJ Chamberlin, president of the 1,000-member group, which was formed earlier this spring to oppose county attempts at regulating mountain development. "The reaction of our membership is stunned disbelief.

"The county commissioners should rescind this appointment immediately."

If that request goes unheeded, she said, the next step will likely be to start the recall process.

"It's something that we're looking at very seriously," Chamberlin said.

By state law, initiating a recall requires a petition with the signatures of 25 percent of the voters who cast ballots in the last election in which the official ran. For Stewart, who last ran in 1996, that would mean 28,429 signatures, according to county attorney Larry Hoyt.

Shock over Stewart's appointment, however, wasn't limited solely to the Land Use Coalition.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Bob Beauprez, the former head of the GOP in Boulder County, called the action a "further consolidation of power" by the board of commissioners that will only expand the already-considerable political strength wielded by Stewart.

''This is as close to a dictatorship as we allow in this country,'' he
said.

Stewart, chairman of the elected three-member Board of County
Commissioners, was handed the administrative open space position following a 2-0 vote of fellow commissioners Paul Danish and Jana Mendez on Tuesday.

His appointment ended eight months of speculation about who would take the permanent reins of the powerful department, which was left leaderless in September by the death of longtime director Carolyn Holmberg.

Behind the scenes, Stewart was considered the best person for the job by many elected officials and department heads.

Publicly, however, the commissioners never let on that Stewart was a candidate, maintaining that a search would eventually be initiated for a new open space director.

When asked if he was interested in the job two weeks ago, Stewart sidestepped the issue.

As part of his dual role, Stewart will forego the $70,000 to $80,000 annual salary that comes with the Open Space job and instead keep his commissioner's pay.

That fact drew applause from county treasurer Sandy Hume, the lone elected Republican in county government, who said Stewart was a natural fit for the job.

Nonetheless, like Beauprez, coalition members such as Boulder attorney Ann Mygatt consider the fusion of legislative and administrative roles into one person to be dangerous.

Quoting from James Madison, she said, "The accumulation of all powers — legislative, executive and judiciary — in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, can be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

"In short," she said, "it's a back-room deal smacking of political
cronyism ... It sure looks a lot like Mayor Daley Chicago to me. If it wasn't Boulder, I'd say this happened in a smoke-filled room."

"I think it's unfortunate," Stewart said in response to the attacks,
"because on one hand, we're making an effort to listen to their concerns (through reconsideration of the mountain development regulations by an advisory committee). And for them to seize this as an opportunity to criticize even further is disappointing. It displays a complete lack of understanding of how county government works."

But Mygatt and other coalition members are not just concerned about Stewart wearing two hats, said Mygatt. They also condemn the process by which his appointment was made.

She questioned why the decision was made without advance public notice.

"Obviously, the (commissioners) don't trust the people," Mygatt said. "They don't trust our opinions."

Commissioner Jana Mendez said such criticism was expected from the group.

Talk about an outrage," she said. "It's obviously people who don't support either the open space program or growth control.

"This was an administrative decision and it's our job to make those decisions," she said. "Department heads serve at the pleasure of the commissioners, and we pick people who the citizen's have confidence in, and who do they have more confidence in than someone they elected? It's a big
mystery to me why (the Land Use Coalition) wouldn't support competency."

She concluded by saying she would not consider rescinding her decision to tap Stewart for the job.

Copyright © 1999 Longmont Times-Call.
Reprinted with permission.

For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at info@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.

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