April 11, 2025 • 11 mins
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOME RULE IN DOUGLAS COUNTY? My friend Deborah Flora joins me at 1pm today to talk about an upcoming event open to the public put together by Douglas County Citizenry to let people ask questions about the proposal. Mark your calendar.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Flora joining me today, fresh back from New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh indeed, boy, when you say side hustle partner, boy,
the Imagination Races, we are not.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Promise. No, only fans going on there. You have to
follow my social media and know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're not talking about that today, No we're not.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're talking Let's start with talking about something we weren't
necessarily here to talk about. But you just got back
to New Orleans. You spent yesterday at the World War
Day ride has also been to the World War Two
Museum and said it was just absolutely incredible. What are
your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It was amazing. So my husband and I went. He's
an eighty second Airborne veteran, you know, he studied military history,
and so we've been to numerous military and history museums.
There's something unique about the World War Two Museum. It's
the national one. It's in New Orleans, completely different than
Bourbon Street, which is a whole other story. But it
was so immersive, it was so moving, And what I
(00:53):
thought was most moving about it was you saw the
sacrifice of young men. I mean we're talking eighteen, seventeen,
nineteen years old who just said, yes, this is the
right thing, I will do it. I will show up.
And they were called the greatest generation for that reason,
and some.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Of them lied. I've met a World War two better
than went in at fifteen because he lied and his mom, like,
I guess his mom backed him up. Yes, fifteen years old,
Like my daughter's fifteen. Now she's afraid to order for
herself at Fuzzy's Tacos, you know, right, right, No.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's so interesting. I start babysitting when I was twelve
years old, but when our daughter was twelve, I'm like,
oh no, too young. Yeah, and now we are looking
at this generation and it hit me in many ways, Mandy.
One of the ways was looking at the fact that,
you know, we literally have created and I'm not blaming
the younger culture, but we put them in a circumstance
where we have communicated to them, you're not resilient, you're
(01:45):
not strong, you can't deal with issues. In fact, if
you find a mouse in your dorm room, call the police, call,
you know, go to your safe space with your crayons.
And this generation took down the worst evil the world's
ever seen. Yeah. One other takeaway that I well couple,
but it ends by walking you through the Holocaust, and
(02:07):
that's always just sober museum I.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Have That museum for me is every person in the
world should go through the Holocaust Museum in DC, because
when you see that, you begin to understand the depths
of depravity that human beings are capable of.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And the thing that I took away from that is
it's time we rein back in our public discourse. When
you call someone that you disagree with politically or ideologically
a Nazi, you are doing a disservice and trivializing right
one of the most horrendous periods of human history, and
it's time we just step back. You use that word
(02:46):
all the time, you were really literally taking the power
away from telling the story of the Holocaust and what
happened to these individuals, And everybody needs to really kind
of check that at the door. There is evil in
our history. There is evil in the world, but it's
not your neighbor who maybe has a different letter after
(03:07):
their name or a different sign in their yard when
it came to election season, So I think that that
was something that really hit me.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Wait a minute, I'm going to take it from there
in a natural segue. Okay, to the Douglas County Citizen Recruits.
But you and your husband and several other wonderful people said, look,
we're tired of angry discourse. We just want to create
a space where people can hear from people experts on
different policy issues and sit around and have a conversation
(03:36):
here from people they might agree with, here from people
they might disagree with. And that is the organization that
is hosting a home a charter home rule for yes,
tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And that is why a group of us
founded Douglas County Citizenry. You notice nowhere in the name
are we declaring and planting our flag on one side
versus the other. We're talking about citizens coming together to
be engaged and informed. I believe a lot of things
that happen in our state which are extreme, happen because
(04:09):
people don't know and we're not you know, we believe
in the Big ten. We truly do believe. The Constitution
was written based on the idea that eighty percent of
people agree on eighty percent of things, and let's come
together and this stuff we don't then let's not be
afraid to ask questions. There's so much self censorship today
people won't even ask a question, even if they're afraid
(04:30):
that people in their own party are going to call
them a name, the men that they even ask a question.
So that leads to the town hall we're going to have.
It's going to be April twenty ninth. It's open to
the public. It's going to be at Northstar Academy, which
is a school in Parker, Colorado. So it's going to
be as big as we need it to be. You're
going to help me moderate, which I'm glad about that.
(04:52):
And the whole point is this, We're going to have
not just one viewpoint. We're going to have people that
talk about what home rule is is, what Home rule isn't,
what it allows, what it doesn't. And I want to
say ahead of time, I am a smaller government proponent
in every possible way, but even I have a lot
of questions about Home Right. And it doesn't mean at
(05:12):
the end of the day people might not say, yes,
this is the thing to do, but we have a
right to come together and get the full information right,
and that's what this is about.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So who is going to be there, Okay, who's on
our panel?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah? So what we have so far and we'll keep
putting information out and by the way, if you're on Facebook,
go to Douglas County Citizen read the page. The group
is private at this time, and you can certainly request
to be a member, but you have to buy the way,
not call your neighbor a name to be on that page.
But go there. We'll have details and we'll keep announcing
more people. But right now we have Douglas County Commissioner
(05:48):
George tile because the county commissioners have presented this as
an idea. We have Wells County Commissioner Scott James because
Well County is one of only two counties in Colorado
that has home rule in this way. It's Well County
and Pitkin County. So we're going to find out what works,
what doesn't work, what challenges there are. We have somebody
coming from Boulder County who's conservative but stood up against
(06:09):
it there because a lot of it is the devils
are in the details, you know, what is it?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's my question, right, That's that's my question because I
and I've had people reach out to me and saying,
what are you going to talk about this home rule thing?
And I said, when I understand it yes, when I
understand what the real limitations are. And that's why I'm
excited we're having the guy from Weld because a lot
of people are making a lot of suppositions that we
will be able to get out of this law or
get out of that law, and I currently I'm not
(06:37):
seeing that. So I'm interested to hear from both Commissioner Teel,
who who is advocating for this, what his thoughts are,
and then what the reality in Weld County is, because
politically we're very similar. Weld is more red.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
But much more we have to be Aware County.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, so I'm very fascinated to find out all of
that stuff before I make decision. Someone on the text
line just said, is this just Douglas County? This sounds
great for all of Colorado. It is just Douglas County.
But I'm hoping to get enough of a handle on
it after this forum that I can come back and
talk to every one of my listening audience about what
(07:15):
this actually is.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, and we're in the process right now of identifying
the right person. We've got several folks in mind who
will be a part of that panel to talk about
what does this actually look like what state statute over
rules a county home rules statute? Right, not that it
may sway people one way or the other, they already
have made up their minds, but at least we will
(07:37):
have informed citizens right when they vote on this and
so much of it. By the way, is the next
step in this process is going to be electing twenty
one members.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, this is critical right now. Yes, it is the
deadline coming up for this that is critical. So the
Home Ruld Charter Commission is a group of twenty one
citizens and in June, which I think is insane that
we're having a special election for this, but that's a
whole conversation for another time. They're going to vote on
two Douglas County residents will vote on two issues. Number one,
(08:09):
whether or not to pursue a home World Charter, and
number two, they will vote on twenty one members of
the Charter Commission. Now, one of the things that makes
me distrustful of this process currently is that apparently the
County Commission at hand picked twenty one people that they
were comfortable with. Now that doesn't mean they're necessarily going
(08:30):
to be on the commission, but the fact that they
came loaded for bear and literally brought all these people
into our room so they could sign each other's petitions.
That to me feels I'm uncomfortable with that, right, I'm just.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Going to say that well, And I think here's the thing.
You know why I appreciate, you know, Commissioner Tail being
a part of this is is it gives him an
opportunity to answer that question, to create that transparency, which
creates greater trust in the process. But this commission is
going to be the key because this commission of twenty
one elected individuals, and the way anyone who wants to
run for that, it's only twenty five signatures you have
(09:03):
to get in Douglas County. Bye, I believe it's April
twenty fourth. But that commission, it's going to be the
Home Rule Commission, will come up with a charter. And
that's where the details really come in. What does the
charter allow a home rule county.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
To do it?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A lot of it has to do with how elected
officials are chosen and different things like that. In Well
County termles. In Well County, for instance, some of those
county wide elected officials are now appointed by commissioners instead
of elected. That's all stuff that citizens should know and
find out more about. And that's why we're going to
(09:42):
have this Douglas County Citizen Retown Hall. And by the way,
for the listener who asked about it, this is just
Douglas County. Hey, you don't have to be from Douglas
County to come to this find out more about what
home rule means. If you want it to come to
your county or you don't want it to come to
your county.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Somebody just pointed this out. Yes, being in this is important.
Having the sessions recorded and also stream live on YouTube
will also create more community engagement. Is that going to happen?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Absolutely? What we'll do we probably won't live stream it,
but what we do for Douglas County citizen We have
all kinds of panels. We've had a border panel with
an ice expert and law enforcement. We've had one on
schools and what's going on state, local, and national. This
one will be recorded. We will post it for everyone
to see on the Douglas County Citizenry page, which is
(10:30):
different than the private group. It's the page. It will
be there for everyone to see, but we encourage everyone
to come. We will be taking questions from those who come,
and that's going to be important. We really believe the
founding of this country is based on a well educated
citizenry is the key to maintaining a free republic.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
There are two dates that you need to keep in mind.
The forum that is going to include much more information
isn't until April twenty ninth. If you are a person
who would like to be a part of this Charter Commission,
you've got to get your application in by the twenty fourth.
I on the blog today. I just added it all
the details about how to get a petition. You have
to have twenty five signatures. They will be verified, so
(11:12):
make sure that you know who's signing these petitions. But
then you have to appear on the ballot. But it's
all going to be done in by April twenty fourth,
So it's all on the blog today. Debrah Flora, thank
you for coming in today and talking about this.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thank you always good to chat with my sister from
another message
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes that's right.
Flora joining me today, fresh back from New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh indeed, boy, when you say side hustle partner, boy,
the Imagination Races, we are not.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Promise. No, only fans going on there. You have to
follow my social media and know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We're not talking about that today, No we're not.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're talking Let's start with talking about something we weren't
necessarily here to talk about. But you just got back
to New Orleans. You spent yesterday at the World War
Day ride has also been to the World War Two
Museum and said it was just absolutely incredible. What are
your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It was amazing. So my husband and I went. He's
an eighty second Airborne veteran, you know, he studied military history,
and so we've been to numerous military and history museums.
There's something unique about the World War Two Museum. It's
the national one. It's in New Orleans, completely different than
Bourbon Street, which is a whole other story. But it
was so immersive, it was so moving, And what I
(00:53):
thought was most moving about it was you saw the
sacrifice of young men. I mean we're talking eighteen, seventeen,
nineteen years old who just said, yes, this is the
right thing, I will do it. I will show up.
And they were called the greatest generation for that reason,
and some.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Of them lied. I've met a World War two better
than went in at fifteen because he lied and his mom, like,
I guess his mom backed him up. Yes, fifteen years old,
Like my daughter's fifteen. Now she's afraid to order for
herself at Fuzzy's Tacos, you know, right, right, No.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
It's so interesting. I start babysitting when I was twelve
years old, but when our daughter was twelve, I'm like,
oh no, too young. Yeah, and now we are looking
at this generation and it hit me in many ways, Mandy.
One of the ways was looking at the fact that,
you know, we literally have created and I'm not blaming
the younger culture, but we put them in a circumstance
where we have communicated to them, you're not resilient, you're
(01:45):
not strong, you can't deal with issues. In fact, if
you find a mouse in your dorm room, call the police, call,
you know, go to your safe space with your crayons.
And this generation took down the worst evil the world's
ever seen. Yeah. One other takeaway that I well couple,
but it ends by walking you through the Holocaust, and
(02:07):
that's always just sober museum I.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Have That museum for me is every person in the
world should go through the Holocaust Museum in DC, because
when you see that, you begin to understand the depths
of depravity that human beings are capable of.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And the thing that I took away from that is
it's time we rein back in our public discourse. When
you call someone that you disagree with politically or ideologically
a Nazi, you are doing a disservice and trivializing right
one of the most horrendous periods of human history, and
it's time we just step back. You use that word
(02:46):
all the time, you were really literally taking the power
away from telling the story of the Holocaust and what
happened to these individuals, And everybody needs to really kind
of check that at the door. There is evil in
our history. There is evil in the world, but it's
not your neighbor who maybe has a different letter after
(03:07):
their name or a different sign in their yard when
it came to election season, So I think that that
was something that really hit me.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Wait a minute, I'm going to take it from there
in a natural segue. Okay, to the Douglas County Citizen Recruits.
But you and your husband and several other wonderful people said, look,
we're tired of angry discourse. We just want to create
a space where people can hear from people experts on
different policy issues and sit around and have a conversation
(03:36):
here from people they might agree with, here from people
they might disagree with. And that is the organization that
is hosting a home a charter home rule for yes,
tell me about that.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And that is why a group of us
founded Douglas County Citizenry. You notice nowhere in the name
are we declaring and planting our flag on one side
versus the other. We're talking about citizens coming together to
be engaged and informed. I believe a lot of things
that happen in our state which are extreme, happen because
(04:09):
people don't know and we're not you know, we believe
in the Big ten. We truly do believe. The Constitution
was written based on the idea that eighty percent of
people agree on eighty percent of things, and let's come
together and this stuff we don't then let's not be
afraid to ask questions. There's so much self censorship today
people won't even ask a question, even if they're afraid
(04:30):
that people in their own party are going to call
them a name, the men that they even ask a question.
So that leads to the town hall we're going to have.
It's going to be April twenty ninth. It's open to
the public. It's going to be at Northstar Academy, which
is a school in Parker, Colorado. So it's going to
be as big as we need it to be. You're
going to help me moderate, which I'm glad about that.
(04:52):
And the whole point is this, We're going to have
not just one viewpoint. We're going to have people that
talk about what home rule is is, what Home rule isn't,
what it allows, what it doesn't. And I want to
say ahead of time, I am a smaller government proponent
in every possible way, but even I have a lot
of questions about Home Right. And it doesn't mean at
(05:12):
the end of the day people might not say, yes,
this is the thing to do, but we have a
right to come together and get the full information right,
and that's what this is about.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So who is going to be there, Okay, who's on
our panel?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah? So what we have so far and we'll keep
putting information out and by the way, if you're on Facebook,
go to Douglas County Citizen read the page. The group
is private at this time, and you can certainly request
to be a member, but you have to buy the way,
not call your neighbor a name to be on that page.
But go there. We'll have details and we'll keep announcing
more people. But right now we have Douglas County Commissioner
(05:48):
George tile because the county commissioners have presented this as
an idea. We have Wells County Commissioner Scott James because
Well County is one of only two counties in Colorado
that has home rule in this way. It's Well County
and Pitkin County. So we're going to find out what works,
what doesn't work, what challenges there are. We have somebody
coming from Boulder County who's conservative but stood up against
(06:09):
it there because a lot of it is the devils
are in the details, you know, what is it?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That's my question, right, That's that's my question because I
and I've had people reach out to me and saying,
what are you going to talk about this home rule thing?
And I said, when I understand it yes, when I
understand what the real limitations are. And that's why I'm
excited we're having the guy from Weld because a lot
of people are making a lot of suppositions that we
will be able to get out of this law or
get out of that law, and I currently I'm not
(06:37):
seeing that. So I'm interested to hear from both Commissioner Teel,
who who is advocating for this, what his thoughts are,
and then what the reality in Weld County is, because
politically we're very similar. Weld is more red.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
But much more we have to be Aware County.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, so I'm very fascinated to find out all of
that stuff before I make decision. Someone on the text
line just said, is this just Douglas County? This sounds
great for all of Colorado. It is just Douglas County.
But I'm hoping to get enough of a handle on
it after this forum that I can come back and
talk to every one of my listening audience about what
(07:15):
this actually is.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, and we're in the process right now of identifying
the right person. We've got several folks in mind who
will be a part of that panel to talk about
what does this actually look like what state statute over
rules a county home rules statute? Right, not that it
may sway people one way or the other, they already
have made up their minds, but at least we will
(07:37):
have informed citizens right when they vote on this and
so much of it. By the way, is the next
step in this process is going to be electing twenty
one members.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Oh, this is critical right now. Yes, it is the
deadline coming up for this that is critical. So the
Home Ruld Charter Commission is a group of twenty one
citizens and in June, which I think is insane that
we're having a special election for this, but that's a
whole conversation for another time. They're going to vote on
two Douglas County residents will vote on two issues. Number one,
(08:09):
whether or not to pursue a home World Charter, and
number two, they will vote on twenty one members of
the Charter Commission. Now, one of the things that makes
me distrustful of this process currently is that apparently the
County Commission at hand picked twenty one people that they
were comfortable with. Now that doesn't mean they're necessarily going
(08:30):
to be on the commission, but the fact that they
came loaded for bear and literally brought all these people
into our room so they could sign each other's petitions.
That to me feels I'm uncomfortable with that, right, I'm just.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Going to say that well, And I think here's the thing.
You know why I appreciate, you know, Commissioner Tail being
a part of this is is it gives him an
opportunity to answer that question, to create that transparency, which
creates greater trust in the process. But this commission is
going to be the key because this commission of twenty
one elected individuals, and the way anyone who wants to
run for that, it's only twenty five signatures you have
(09:03):
to get in Douglas County. Bye, I believe it's April
twenty fourth. But that commission, it's going to be the
Home Rule Commission, will come up with a charter. And
that's where the details really come in. What does the
charter allow a home rule county.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
To do it?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
A lot of it has to do with how elected
officials are chosen and different things like that. In Well
County termles. In Well County, for instance, some of those
county wide elected officials are now appointed by commissioners instead
of elected. That's all stuff that citizens should know and
find out more about. And that's why we're going to
(09:42):
have this Douglas County Citizen Retown Hall. And by the way,
for the listener who asked about it, this is just
Douglas County. Hey, you don't have to be from Douglas
County to come to this find out more about what
home rule means. If you want it to come to
your county or you don't want it to come to
your county.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Somebody just pointed this out. Yes, being in this is important.
Having the sessions recorded and also stream live on YouTube
will also create more community engagement. Is that going to happen?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Absolutely? What we'll do we probably won't live stream it,
but what we do for Douglas County citizen We have
all kinds of panels. We've had a border panel with
an ice expert and law enforcement. We've had one on
schools and what's going on state, local, and national. This
one will be recorded. We will post it for everyone
to see on the Douglas County Citizenry page, which is
(10:30):
different than the private group. It's the page. It will
be there for everyone to see, but we encourage everyone
to come. We will be taking questions from those who come,
and that's going to be important. We really believe the
founding of this country is based on a well educated
citizenry is the key to maintaining a free republic.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
There are two dates that you need to keep in mind.
The forum that is going to include much more information
isn't until April twenty ninth. If you are a person
who would like to be a part of this Charter Commission,
you've got to get your application in by the twenty fourth.
I on the blog today. I just added it all
the details about how to get a petition. You have
to have twenty five signatures. They will be verified, so
(11:12):
make sure that you know who's signing these petitions. But
then you have to appear on the ballot. But it's
all going to be done in by April twenty fourth,
So it's all on the blog today. Debrah Flora, thank
you for coming in today and talking about this.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Thank you always good to chat with my sister from
another message
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes that's right.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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