Fight Over Media Interview Blows Up On Douglas County Commission, Chair Says 'Good Ole Boys' Trying To Silence Her
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - Two Douglas County Commissioners are trying to oust the Chair of the Board after a fight over whose turn it was to do a media interview. Chair Lora Thomas says Commissioners Abe Laydon and George Teal are "good ole boys" who are trying to silence and intimidate her.
Thomas says the commissioners told her they didn't trust her to do a media interview. In a letter to county employees, she called their actions "craven and petty" and an "attempt to intimidate me so I will stop criticizing their actions... like when Abe isn't available to come physically into the office on Wednesdays and Fridays because he is babysitting."
They responded with a motion to remove her as Chair, calling her incompetent, and appoint themselves as Chair and Vice Chair.
"This is embarrassing. I wish we didn't even have to do this," Thomas said in an exclusive interview with CBS4 Political Specialist Shaun Boyd. "It is petty, and this is two things. It is the tyranny of the majority trying to silence my voice and it is also these two men. I believe they are picking on a strong, competent woman."
Thomas has been speaking out publicly against Laydon and Teal for months over what she calls "poorly devised land schemes, financial boondoggles and self-serving policy proposals that will grow the size of our county government".
"I'm not bad mouthing them," Thomas explained. "What I am doing is telling their supporters, other Republicans that are part of the central committee, these are decisions that are being made that are not conservative. I think there are a lot of paybacks to supporters that's going on here."
Neither Laydon nor Teal would agree to an interview with CBS4. They plan to introduce a resolution to officially remove Thomas as chair at the board meeting on Tuesday afternoon. They also plan to censure her, calling her behavior "egregious" in a draft of the resolution.
"These two boys put me in a position that I had to stand up for myself, that's what this is all about," said Thomas, who plans to fight the resolution.
