November 18, 2012 04:24 AM UTC

Jeffco: Only Large Colorado County with Three Commissioners

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• by: Colorado Pols

Adams County voters overwhelmingly endorsed County Question 1A this year, with over 58% of the vote cast in favor of the expansion of the Adams County Board of Commissioners. The ballot measure was hailed by Republicans and Democrats alike as means of creating greater accountability and transparency in a county plagued by pay-to-play scandals involving a score of its elected officials.

The new policy, set to take effect after the 2014 election, empowers voters across the county to elect five commissioners instead of the three currently required by law. Once Adams County seats those commissioners in early 2015, Jeffco will become the only one of Colorado’s five most-populous counties governed by a three-member board.

El Paso County, with a population of about 637,000, has five commissioners. The City and County of Denver, with 620,000 residents, is governed by 13 city council members and one mayor. Arapahoe County’s 585,000 people are represented in county government by a five commissioner board. And, with the passage of Question 1A, Adams County’s population of 451,000 will soon have five commissioners of their own. In contrast, 541,000 residents in Jefferson County are represented by just three people at the highest level of local government.

To put that number in perspective, remember that Jeffco accounts for over 10% of the entire population of Colorado. There are, in fact, just about as many people living in Jefferson County as there are in all of Wyoming — and the Cowboy State has a congressman and two senators, let alone its 90 state legislators and countless members of local government.

With Adams County moving to an expanded commission in order to improve government, there’s no sensible argument as to why Jeffco should leave governing up to three people. In response to a request that they refer a similar measure to their county’s voters, the current slate of county commissioners blanched, citing unfounded and patently absurd fears that there wasn’t enough office space to accommodate two new elected officials and that electing commissioners district-by-district would create “personal fiefdoms.”

Those arguments are as ridiculous upon examination as they are facially. There’s over 227,000 square feet of administrative space at the Jefferson County Government Center alone, not to mention the handful of satellite offices nearby. Two additional elected officials could be accommodated with ease — even if there isn’t room for new offices (which there certainly is), couldn’t commissioners share workspaces?

Ignoring the office space canard, there’s no evidence that an augmented commission will, contrary to the commissioners’ claims, adversely impact county government. Nearly a hundred thousand Adams County voters supported expansion because it would improve responsiveness and accountability among their elected officials. That Jeffco stands alone as the only Colorado county of more than 400,000 people clinging to a three-member board is testament to the fact that larger boards make sense for large populations.

Although the current commissioners have refused to conduct a good-faith examination of board expansion, Jeffco may just get two more elected officials without their imprimatur. Colorado Revised Statute 30-10-306.5 provides a mechanism for citizens to petition an expansion measure onto the ballot. To do so, proponents would have to secure the signatures of eight percent of the total number of votes last cast for secretary of state. In Jeffco, that’s about 17450 signatures overall — a tall order, sure, but not insurmountable given the need to modernize Jefferson County government and the commissioners’ current obstinance on the matter.

Failing a petition, county government composition can be dictated by statute. There have been rumblings for several years now that the state legislature will require counties of a certain size to have five or more commissioners. The recent move in Adams County only bolsters arguments in favor of such a solution, and Jefferson County alone probably won’t be able to fight it.

Which, considering the insultingly untenable arguments the current commission has given in opposition to a larger board, is probably a good thing.