State Fair Board appointments cause friction at State Capitol

Colorado’s agricultural center is the State’s Eastern Plains, where whence comes 84 percent of the State’s gross agricultural sales.

The Colorado State Fair is among the biggest events every year that celebrates that agricultural impact.

But you wouldn’t know it to look at the State Fair’s Board of Directors. The only alleged representative of the Eastern Plains lives in Boulder County.

That’s not sitting well with Republican lawmakers at the State Capitol and a fair number of Democratic lawmakers aren’t pleased with it, either.

On the last day of the 2020 legislative session, the Senate, which confirms the Governor’s appointments to various boards and commissions, came grinding to a halt over who the Governor has picked — or in this case, hasn’t — to represent Colorado’s agricultural Eastern Plains on the State Fair Board.

The issue on June 15 was the State Fair Authority, but it’s only one appointment among many that are raising concerns that Governor Jared Polis is doing his best to make sure the voice of the Eastern Plains is left off of boards and commissions that he controls.

The three appointments to the State Fair Board had been awaiting confirmation from the Senate since they were approved in February and officially on the Senate calendar on May 27.

Among the nominees: Brian Coppom, Longmont, who runs the Boulder County Farmer’s Market. His appointment is listed as unaffiliated, but he’s made seven campaign contributions in the past four years to Democratic House lawmakers who later ran for Boulder County Commissioner. This year, that includes term-limited Representative Jonathan Singer, Longmont.

The delay game began on May 27, with the Senate Majority Leader, Steve Fenberg, Boulder, laying over the vote on those nominations. That happened for the last 20 days of the session.

In the meantime, Senator Don Coram, a Montrose Republican, was racking up votes against Coppom’s nomination and that of two others, both from the Western Slope. By June 15, he told this reporter he had at least five votes, perhaps as many as 10, from Democrats willing to vote down the nominations, based on those concerns about lack of Eastern Plains representation.

On June 15, Fenberg asked for the confirmation to be laid over to the next day, in effect killing the vote.

That led to a dustup in Senate President Leroy Garcia’s office that included Garcia, Fenberg, Coram, Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Parker and three of the Democratic senators likely to vote against, including Sen. Nancy Todd of Aurora, the Senate President Pro tem, the number two in the Senate.

While the meeting was behind closed doors and unannounced, this reporter invited herself in under the State’s Open Meetings Law, which states that any meeting of two or more lawmakers discussing State business is a public meeting.

The sparks flew.

Coram accused Fenberg, in sometimes not so polite language, of “rolling him.” Fenberg fought back, accusing Coram of trying to embarrass the Governor.

“If standing up and doing the right thing is an embarrassment,” an angry Coram replied, he said it would be “an education for the Governor.”

Todd pointed out during the meeting that Coram had reached out to the Governor’s Office back in February with his concerns and the Governor didn’t respond until two days before the blowup. She said that was concerning and opined that the only reason Polis reached out was because he knew Coram had the votes to kill the appointments.

Eventually, Polis became part of the meeting, when Holbert called him on the phone. Polis pledged to put someone on the Board from the Eastern Plains with his next round of appointments but refused to pull the ones he’d already submitted. That’s because the State Fair Board is in the midst of figuring out how to hold a State Fair in a pandemic, Polis said.

Polis also asked that lawmakers help him find nominees from the Eastern Plains for boards and commissions. However, sources have told this reporter that they submit nominees from the Eastern Plains and Polis asks other people to apply instead.

For example: In February, the Parks and Wildlife Commission got Senate approval for an Eastern Plains representative who had only lived in the area for a few months.

Betsy Blecha, Wray, was asked to apply for the parks and wildlife commission in May 2019, just a few months after moving to Wray from Jackson County. All of her recommendation letters came from Jackson County residents, where she had been a county commissioner. Blecha was chosen as a representative of hunting and fishing, but admitted she had little experience in that area.

At that time, Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources chair Kerry Donovan of Vail raised concerns about several commission appointments. Two more slots will become open in July on the commission and she warned the Department of Natural Resources, and by extension, the Governor, that she’d be watching.

Donovan was among the five Democrats in Garcia’s office and among the five likely “no” votes against the State Fair appointments.

In other news:

The State’s revenue picture improved slightly, but not enough to save the State from another year of budget cuts.

Kate Watkins, the Legislature’s Chief Economist, said the nation entered a recession in March, which she called one of the “deepest and shortest recessions” in history. “Our expectations for recovery is consistent with [the May 12 forecast], with as lower rate of growth for 2021,” she said.

Business and manufacturing activity continue to be on the downside Watkins told the Joint Budget Committee on June 19. Unemployment remains at historic high levels, with the State’s unemployment rate at 10.2 percent in May. The highest unemployment is in counties that rely heavily on tourism, but the Eastern Plains have had the lowest unemployment in the State. The 10 counties that border Kansas and Nebraska show unemployment at under 5.1 percent.

The forecast lists risks that could make things more difficult, such as a strong resurgence of COVID-19, additional layoffs and a possible double-dip recession.

The good news, if you could call it that, is that revenues hadn’t dropped quite as much as the May forecast had predicted. The State could take in an additional $526.1 million in general fund dollars in 2020-21. That’s the money that comes from income and sales taxes and makes up a substantial portion of the operating budgets of K-12 education, higher education and corrections, for example.

The General Assembly approved a budget that cut $3.3 billion from the general fund portion of the budget, about $12 million in 2019-20. The total budget for 2020-21 is $30 billion, which includes cash funds and federal dollars.

The forecast noted that farm commodity prices are in sharp decline and disruptions from the pandemic have resulted in lower prices for corn, wheat, milk and live cattle. The disruptions are compounded by pandemic outbreaks at meatpacking plants. Depressed demand for corn could mean the largest supply on record this year, the forecast said. Milk prices also have collapsed, due in part to a surplus related to school and restaurant closures. For cattle, wholesale beef prices soared in March as consumers “began stocking up ahead of statewide stay-at-home orders,” but the pandemic outbreaks, which closed some plants have modified that.

Demand for wheat-based products at grocery stores, however, have been strong, the forecast stated.

The forecast noted the federal Coronavirus Food Assistance Program will send $16 billion in direct financial assistance to agricultural producers “who have suffered COVID-19-related price declines or losses due to supply chain disruptions. Eligible commodities include key Colorado crops such as corn, millet, wheat, cattle, lambs, peaches, cantaloupe and dairy products.”

As of June 3, Colorado farmers and ranchers had received $5 million of that, the forecast said.

The slowdown in travel, both for tourism and from stay-at-home orders where many people worked from home, have continued to depress oil markets, where production dropped by 19.4 percent between March 13 and June 12.

The recovery will impact economic sectors and geographic regions differently, the forecast said.