Thirty-two seats across 11 special districts in Jefferson County are up for election in 2022, but there won’t be an election for any of them: Not a single one is contested, and many have no declared candidate and will be filled by appointment from the County Commission.
The disparity between the number of available seats and the number of people who volunteer to fill them is not new, according to County Commissioner Cory Kirsch, who said it’s “definitely hard to get people to step up.”
“I don’t know where that disconnect is. The previous generation seemed to have known that they needed to be involved,” Kirsch said, remarking that, often, when people come to him with concerns, “They all come browbeat me left and right, and I say, ‘Hey I’ve got a great idea—you can come be on the board.’”
At the suggestion of serving on a board, he said, “they back off.”
Some boards, like Basin’s TV board, Kirsch said, are “just little boards that don’t need a lot of attention, might have one or two meetings a year,” and that can make it difficult to spark interest in serving on them. But if people don’t, he told The Monitor, services can disappear.
“As the ad I put in your paper said, if you want this thing to continue you’ve got to step up,” he said, reiterating the consequences: “If nobody wants to step up to run the thing, then it’s going to go away. The county doesn’t have the authority to step up and run this district.”
Explaining that services may dry up if a district fails can help motivate volunteers, Kirsch said. But he and Lindsey Graham, who works for the Jefferson Local Development Corporation, pointed to another obstacle for prospective volunteers: Many don’t know, or are intimidated by, the duties associated with serving on a board.
“We have a community that is involved … it’s just how do we get them to know about boards or come to be on them,” Graham, who is working to staff a nonprofit board to bring child care to Boulder, said. “I feel like we have a community that wants to and can … and I just don’t know that they know how to get on these boards.”
To fix that, and to help current board members brush up on their responsibilities and legal requirements, Graham and the JLDC scheduled a board leadership training event with MSU Extension for 6 p.m. on Feb. 17 at the Jefferson County fairground’s Volunteer Hall. The event is free, and also available on Zoom, but attendees must RSVP to Graham at lindsey.graham@jldcmt.com.
Boulder fills boards with active recruitment
The city of Boulder has also struggled with what leaders describe as declining volunteerism and waning civic engagement across society—something they’ve cited as part of the reason why the city’s fire department and ambulance service struggle to attract and retain volunteers.
But that’s not the case for the city’s Planning Board, Board of Adjustments or Cemetery Committee, all of which are full.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate … we’ve got some very dedicated people who do a very good job,” Mayor Rusty Giulio said. “They’re full, as far as the members go. That has a lot to do with picking the right people.”
City Council President Drew Dawson said that “I think the mayor does a good job at selecting the right people that are a match for the responsibilities that are delineated.”
Plus, he said, the boards have a lot to do and are often in the public eye, which he believes attracts volunteers. The issues before the boards, he said, are “ongoing, viable projects, they’re in the news frequently” and “they’re tied to the growth of Boulder.”
But there is a catch: There’s only a small pool of volunteers willing to participate.
“It’s difficult trying to find new people,” City Clerk Ellen Harne said. “It seems like the same people are committed to serving on several boards.”
The trick, Giulio said, is getting ahead of upcoming vacancies when possible, and considering who in the community is the best candidate to serve.
“I think the secret to it is you have to recruit people,” he said. “I actually go out and talk to people and have coffee and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing and we need you.’ It’s worked out well for the community I think.”
Who filed for special district boards?
The deadline to file for special district board seats was 5 p.m. on Feb. 7. Write-in candidacies must be submitted to the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder by 5 p.m. on Feb. 28. Nearly everyone who filed before the deadline last week is an incumbent, according to Clerk and Recorder Ginger Kunz.
Three seats are open on the Basin Fire District Board of Trustees, for which three incumbents filed: Brandon Smith, Kristeana Sherwood and Dudley Smallwood.
The Bull Mountain Fire District Board of Trustees also has three seats open. Only incumbent Bruce Wagner filed before the deadline. Trustees John Heide and Luke Vossler’s seats are also open, Kunz said, noting that Vossler inadvertently missed the filing deadline by one day but could still file as a write-in or be appointed.
For two seats open on the Jefferson City Rural Fire District Board of Trustees, only one person, Edward May, filed to be on the board.
For two seats open on the Jefferson Valley Rural Ambulance District Board of Directors, incumbents Susan Pullman and Rico Patacini filed to retain their seats.
The same is true for the Jefferson Valley Rural Fire District—where trustees Paul Smith and Reid Noyes, whose seats are open this year, both filed—and in the Elk Park Fire District, where trustees Clyde Santifer and Dean Hansen both filed to retain their seats. Montana City Fire District, where two seats on the Board of Trustees are open, also has two incumbents filed: Ronald Pearson and Kevin Terry.
The Clancy Fire Service Area Board of Trustees has four seats open but only one person filed: Rodney Caldwell.
All five members of the Basin Water and Sewer District Board of Directors, who were appointed last spring, filed to retain their seats. Board members are Nancy Smallwood, Brian Carver, Ron Hale, Dede Rhodes and Jason Norman, the board president.
Four seats are open on the Clancy Water and Sewer District Board of Directors. Two people—incumbents Lori Gilliland and Robert Johnson, both of whom previously served on the board, resigned and were subsequently reappointed to the board after the resignation of former board Chairman David Leitheiser—have filed to retain their seats.
The Jefferson Valley Soil Conservation District Board of Supervisors, the one special district whose election would be held with the primary, has three seats open, for which two people filed: Tom Carey Jr. and Mark Gornick.
Kunz said on Friday that, unless enough write-in candidates file by Feb. 28 to contest a board seat, she will notify the districts that the number of candidates is equal to or less than the number of open seats, meaning there’s no need for an election—although a board can request one anyway. Absent any challengers, candidates will be elected by acclamation on May 4, one day after the election would have been held if seats were contested.
