Brief by Central Staff
Local politics – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Lake County seems to be leading in the contest to be Recall Capital of Central Colorado.
A year ago, voters recalled Sheriff George Shears. Earlier this year, residents began circulating a petition to recall Commissioner Bill Hollenback on the grounds that he was micro-managing the county and invading county employees’ privacy by photo-copying their paycheck stubs.
That effort failed to garner enough signatures by the deadline of March 18, but now there’s another committee. Its petitions began circulating on May 7, and they have until July 8 to gather about 600 signatures and force an election.
The cited grounds this time are similar to the earlier reasons. Another complaint about Hollenback is a grievance from a county employee, charging that she suffered gender-based discrimination from Hollenback.
His supporters say he has benefited Lake County by exposing mismanaged funds, such as those paid to Paul Esparaza for a new county telephone system that didn’t work.
Critics say that Hollenback’s supporters have been overwhelming county offices with their requests for copies of documents that are part of the public record.