From Conservative to Communist in 14 Months
by Shari Dovale
A few years ago, the then-Board of Commissioners (BoCC) with Dan McDonald at the helm, had control of the Human Resources (HR) department. There were many controversies as to what was getting/not getting addressed through HR, such as complaints.
There were also issues and questions on the hiring practices that were being utilized. Concerning the hiring practices, the law states:
From the BC Personnel Policy and Procedure Manual:
However, the Chairman made the following public statement, of unilateral power over all employees:
An attempt was made to show that the BoCC actually complied with the law:
But this proved fruitless.
In March of 2021, an executive session was held by the BoCC, which included Chairman Dan McDonald, Commissioner Jeff Connolly, and the Swearing Pastor Commissioner Steve Bradshaw.
The motion was made by the Swearing Pastor Bradshaw to Create the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) and appoint Brad Ptashkin to that position at the same time, without any notice to the public:
It was after this that there were more issues and complaints brought of wrongly implanted and installed software onto county computers, which triggered a lawsuit in the county that has yet to be resolved.
Due these multiple issues, and the legal ramifications they brought, the HR department was removed from the control of the BoCC and placed under the Prosecutors Office.
Last summer, Luke Omodt finagled a fast “Special Meeting” in which the two CommissionMEN ran roughshod over the lady Commissioner, the county employees and the county residents.
See: CommissionMEN Power Grab for Control of County Employees
They took complete control of the HR department without any real reason to do so. They now held and pulled all of the strings for every hire/fire within the county.
The current situation that Comrade Omodt specifically has placed the county in, with the IT department removing super-user privileges from Marcus Robbins, has become reminiscent of the previous board, which included the Swearing Pastor Bradshaw.
See: BREAKING: Comrade Omodt Locks Electeds Out of County IT Systems
There are rules to be followed. Comrade Omodt does not seem to understand that there are boundaries which must be adhered to. He has unilaterally taken control of all the Information in the county, and refuses to allow any law-side electeds access to this data.
Comrade Omodt has turned this county into a Communist-Dictator-controlled region. Nothing can be accomplished without his specific approval.
A Notice of Official Investigation was served on IT Director Jacob Storms by Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, on Feb 12th with copies to the BoCC.
Comrade Omodt responded by completely disallowing any information to be given to the law-side of the county. This includes active investigation information, victim information, and death investigation information (emphasis added):
“If there is a request for records, submit a PRR in the appropriate manner or contact our attorney Bill Wilson.”
Omodt included this note in his response, presumably to stop Commissioner Williams from interfering in his plans.
“Director Storms, please wait upon guidance from the BOCC not any single commissioner.”
It was certainly not directed at the Swearing Pastor Bradshaw, as he weighed in on this conversation with his agreement to Omodt’s actions.
The irony of this statement is that Attorney Bill Wilson had this to say to Omodt:
“This kind of unilateral action (removing Marcus as a super-user) is the reason we have our dual-track IT system in the first place. In a way, this is very similar to the events which started the whole beef between Scott and Dan way back before you took office. Back then, Dan instructed Brad to install certain software on PCs in Mike’s office without Mike’s consent. Scott objected on Mike’s behalf, and here we are.
Now, removing Marcus without notice to Daryl, Louis or Beers essentially makes the same case; i.e., the Board controls all access to data and can direct IT to manipulate control of that data as it sees fit.”
And he continues:
“As things stand now, the law-side Electeds cannot access their own data via the Google Vault (at least that is my understanding), which is not a viable outcome. My recommendation is to restore Marcus’s privileges ASAP and hope this doesn’t escalate any more than it already has.”
On Feb 13th, when asked by Prosecutor Marshall, “where is the statutory authority that gives the BOCC dominion over information and information technology?”
Comrade Omodt blew him off with the following statement:
“…the BOCC will now address this next week in an executive session for records exempt, you and Daryl are invited to make your case. I will be back on Tuesday for the RBM and will schedule the executive session for later in the week.”
The problems that occurred under the previous board seem like featherweights compared to this massive overreach.
Was Omodt raised with never having to hear “No” for himself? Did he never get taught the definition of laws and boundaries? Did this former teacher of government not understand the checks and balances built into the constitution? The separation of powers?
In the days of our founders, this man would never have been allowed to get this far, he would have been tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
When will the powers-that-be finally cuff-and-stuff this man and show him true accountability?
Thanks for the excruciating details in your article above. I don’t have an inside track to understand the entire history. But, in summary relative to Commissioner Omodt and what you’ve explained above, perhaps Luke feels threatened by ‘forces’ (unknown to me/us) to have caused him to behave in this manner. Again, IDK. mf