Wet Mountain Tribune: “I talked to the Board members, and they all said the same thing, that Mark Dembosky should be the new Mayor Pro-Tem.” This statement by Westcliffe Mayor Paul Wenke was tantamount to a confession that he and the Board of Trustees (BOT) had talked with each other outside of a public meeting to come to a decision in secret about who would be the Mayor Pro-Tem after George Mowry resigned. The meeting took place on Tuesday, January 21 with the first agenda item to appoint a new Mayor Pro-Tem.
Further compounding the issue is that Colorado State law also states that it is the Board of Trustees’ right to appoint the Mayor Pro-Tem, not the Mayor. When this was pointed out during public comment by this author, Mayor Wenke stated, “In six years as Mayor, this is how we have always done it.” After the town attorney Clayton Buchner stated that, in fact, it was the board that needed to vote for the Mayor Pro-Tem, not the Mayor, the board hastily held a vote, with no discussion, to appoint Trustee Mark Dembosky as the new Mayor Pro-Tem.
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