Monthly Reports
(Click item's title to view it)
12/31/2007	Looking back and forward
As most of you know by now, I was chosen on December 1st to succeed Bill Cadman as a state representative. Assuming I am sworn in on January 14th at the Capitol, I will then resign as your county commissioner.
11/30/2007	ONGOING COUNTY BUDGET BATTLE
For the second month in a row, the budget was the main event. Your commissioner took on the big spenders again and again. While no colleague converted to fiscal conservatism, you and I won some good victories.
10/31/2007	POST-HALLOWEEN SCARE TACTICS
Halloween came a day late this year. On November 1st, the county tried to scare voters and citizens with its budget "tricks." A parade of governmental goblins wailed about their ritual sacrifices. These monetary monsters, dressed as Deficit, Cut, Crisis, and Shortfall, did not frighten me.
09/30/2007	A-WASTING WE WILL GO
Pointless resolutions, gifts of County funds, rental houses, missing millions in sales taxes, and more...
08/31/2007	DEATH AND TAXES and LAWYER LAUER
Is it any wonder my four colleagues unanimously oppose my re-election? Do you now understand why I am proud of their scorn and obloquy?
07/31/2007	A TYPICAL DAY`S AGENDA
I am proud to report all four of my collectivist colleagues now oppose my re-election. It shows I`m doing the job I promised to do-trying to reform county government.
06/30/2007	PIKE`S PEAK PERKS
I am keeping my promise to serve as a whistleblower on rampant governmental stupidity and to shine the spotlight of public scrutiny on secret county practices. My colleagues are horrified that my loyalty is still to the public, not to the government. I`m proud of that.
05/31/2007	GULLIBLE GOVERNMENT
Taxpayers would be wiser to make public policy decisions by flipping a coin than by trusting government bureaucrats, lawyers, and politicians. That mindless mob of miscreants has a knack for making choices that cost taxpayers more money and aggravate our problems rather than solve them.
04/30/2007	BIG BROTHER BUREAUCRACY
Before an overseas trip, I went to the county employee health clinic for a vaccination. I was given a two-page "Patient Health Survey" to fill out. It asked amazingly nosy questions. "Have any family members had Depression, Alcohol/Drug abuse, Mental Illness?" (no, just me-I still believe in limited government) and nine other family health issues.
03/31/2007	VEHICULAR TAXSLAUGHTER
Only your commissioner has a BS detector in good working order. My four colleagues all approve 99%+ of spending requests (Sallie Clark is at 100%; she has never voted “no� in 28 months. Dennis Hisey squeaked “no� only once.) Then the four feign fright at the county’s budgetary “crisis du jour.�
02/28/2007	DOUBLE DIPPING
Greene was not hiring a janitor or secretary, but a high-profile recently-retired career bureaucrat with health problems, who had maneuvered Greene into this overpaid position!
01/31/2007	County Hypocrisy
Three Examples
12/31/2006	DEBT = BONDAGE = SLAVERY
The Board of County Commissioners is about to rip you off. Over my vehement objections, my four colleagues plan to put you in debt for $31.4 million, plus interest, without your consent, in violation of the state constitution and their oaths of office.
11/30/2006	"Frugality" Flip-Flops in County Government
By now, you may have heard of the administrative shake-up in county government. It had good and bad aspects. Here they are.
10/31/2006	Land Use Abuse
You can see from these examples (and I have dozens more) that government has abused the land use power it seized for itself. We should take back those powers it doesn`t deserve or has abused (like regulating visual appeal), and insist that government clean up its act on those reduced powers we allow them to keep for the legitimate original purpose of protecting public safety.
09/30/2006	Portents of Political Perfidy
On October 19, 2006, your county commission voted, 3-to-1, to tell you how to vote on Amendment 38, the Petition Rights Amendment. By their actions, they told you the right to petition is useless (that is, the Founding Fathers were wrong).
08/31/2006	Defend your precious right to vote
Unhappy with growth? Worried about water? Wasteful spending? Roads? Dust? Trash? Taxes? Your recourse is usually just recycling politicians, since you can�t change policy.
07/31/2006	Perking Right Along
Politicians and bureaucrats whine incessantly that they don�t have enough to spend. No matter how much they get, it�s never enough.
06/30/2006	Summer Bummer
During July and August, the Board of County Commissioners meets on Thursdays only. I recommended that we do that all year, since there is not enough real work to do.
05/31/2006	Spring Fever
Last year, I finally persuaded the Board to hire four engineers for the Department of Transportation. They were assigned to projects previously sent out to private consultants. On average, for each new $75,000 employee, we would save much more on outside consultants, whose hourly rate was up to $150 per hour. One example was paying outsiders $300,000-$500,000 for two drainage basin studies that one new engineer could do yearly for $75,000.
04/30/2006	Waste, Waste, and More Waste
Each month, I could write reams solely on examples of wasteful government spending. Since April was income tax and property tax month, here are six examples (from hundreds available) of how your money is squandered by El Paso County government.
03/31/2006	Two Victories, One Draw
Mobile home ban, Race-based county forms, Pikes Peak Center roof repair.
02/28/2006	Pools and Pay Raises
Bob Selle, the Calhan school superintendent wanted to create a special district to build a Calhan swimming pool. Lacking market support (not enough paying customers), he tried to make all property taxpayers in four different school districts pay for this new layer of government with a property tax increase of 7.8 mills. All taxpayers would subsidize the recreation of a few.
01/25/2006	“Favoritism alleged in copier contract.” I say, “Hogwash.”
This month, I must refute the tabloid stories the Gazette ran on January 19th and 20th. The page one, column one headline on the 19th said, “Bruce accused of aiding backer.” The sub-headline said, “Favoritism alleged in copier contract.” I say, “Hogwash.”
12/31/2005	Golden parachutes--the gift that keeps on giving
A �golden parachute� is a severance agreement that pays employees for NOT working. It is contractual compensation for being FIRED. It is most common in government, since politicians are not playing with their own money.
11/30/2005	SECRET COUNTY LAW CRUSHES PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
By now, you may have read the December 11th story I asked the Gazette to write about the Board of County Commissioners� shameful assault on owners of manufactured homes.
10/31/2005	COUNTY FAIR—STILL MIS-RUN BY COUNTY, STILL NOT FAIR
In the past ten years alone, prior county commissioners have squandered over $1.4 MILLION subsidizing operating losses at the fair. Remember THAT the next time my colleagues say county government needs “more money.“ Remember THAT when they seek re-election as “fiscal conservatives.”
09/30/2005	POLITICS AT ITS WORST—A FARCE IN THREE ACTS
Remember city council asking voters this April to double council pay because council members were working 30-40 hours a week for only $6,250? Voters said “no.� When Mrs. Radford was asked how she could handle two full-time government jobs, her council role had magically shrunk to 15-20 hours a week.
08/30/2005	Bits and Pieces
I have long advocated that all governments place a suggestion box in their lobbies... and other thoughts
07/20/2005	Growth should pay its own way
A commissioner should not reject proposals simply because they a) are ugly or affect someone’s view, b) aren’t needed, profitable, or popular, or c) benefit “outsiders” or allegedly hurt property values. There is no such thing as “community property rights”
06/30/2005	June Report
This report is late because I was on vacation in June. Other board members went to a Colorado Counties conference at a mountain resort. Keeping my public vow not to take trips at public expense, I went to Europe.
05/22/2005	INSANITY IN FIVE EASY LESSONS
Our staff asks commissioners to identify personal and county business long-distance calls made from our desk phones. Fortunately, I keep a phone log and could track each call as government business. The first month, there were four calls totaling 63 cents. The latest amount was five calls totaling 26 cents. Some calls were only two cents each.
04/22/2005	The Rule of Law.
Sounds like a cliché, doesn’t it? Who could be against “the rule of law?” Based on sad experience, just about every decision maker in government, except me. Why? Politicians don’t like laws that exist to limit government and to restrain politicians.
03/18/2005	Courthouse corruption.
In November 2002, the former Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) asked us for tax and debt increases to expand and upgrade the jail on Las Vegas St. Voters said “No” decisively.
02/18/2005	The Little Things
They can mean a lot to ordinary people, yet in government, they are often overlooked. In fact, county government places a dozen or more “minor” items at each commissioner meeting on a “consent calendar” for approval without any discussion.
01/19/2005	The Herd Instinct
I was installed as the District 2 county commissioner on January 11, 2005. Last year, I expected, and successfully resisted, this herd instinct three times--at the county assembly, the Republican primary, and the general election. But, like the poor, political pressure will be with us always. Nothing frightens a cowardly collectivist more than an honest individualist.
11/14/2004	Ready for a Shock? I Will Keep My Word !
To all who voted for me, thank you. To those who voted for another county commissioner candidate, I will try to earn your confidence and support during the next four years. To those who forgot to vote at all, WAKE UP! YOUR HOUSE MAY BE ON FIRE!