Wayne Williams, outgoing El Paso County commissioner, has done a little back-of-the-envelope research and found that El Paso County spends less per citizen than any other Front Range county.

In a brief presentation today, he reported that El Paso County spends $364. 74 per citizen. To get that figure, he divided the county’s total budget (including federal and state grants) by the population. “It’s the purest way of comparing how government is run.”

Most counties spend double to triple what El Paso County spends on its citizens. For example, Arapahoe County spends $556.54 per citizen; Douglas, $819; Jefferson, $886, and Weld County, $922.

Mesa, Boulder, Larimer and Pueblo counties spend $1,002 to $1,172 per citizen; Adams County spends $1,400, and the City and County of Denver are the biggest spenders of all, paying a whopping $3,138 per citizen.

To be fair, Williams pointed out that about $1,000 of the more than $3,000 expended by the City and County of Denver is airport-related.

The story of Roberta, the bobcat, is only one of the heart-warming stories emanating from the Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

For those who didn’t read today’s story, Roberta and her mother and a sibling were struck by a vehicle as they attempted to cross C-470 near Morrison in September of 2008.  

The female was struck by a car but kept on going. One cub was killed. The other had two broken legs.

The cub was taken to the Deer Creek Animal Hospital in Littleton, which repaired the cub’s legs in a complex surgery. Then it was taken to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Ellicott.

Six months later, the cub was returned to the wild.  Click here to see this video of Roberta being set free.

The county commission voted to strip $15,000 in funding earmarked for the center from a $1 million federal block grant.

But take a look at these pictures and video and decide for yourself whether the center is worthy of receiving a few extra bucks for an outdoor pavilion where kids can come and learn about Colorado’s rapidly disappearing heritage.

Focusing on adoption rather than abortion, El Paso county commissioners this morning passed a resolution proclaiming Jan. 17 through Jan. 24 as “Sanctity of Human Life Week.”

“This proclamation has a special meaning for me,” said Commissioner Wayne Williams, who is celebrating his 47th birthday today and was adopted as an infant in California. 

Williams says he knows little about his birth parents, except that his mother was a senior in high school and a newspaper editor and his father went to college on a football scholarship.

 On hand to receive the proclamation was Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church. Boyd’s church, together with Focus on the Family and other area churches, began a coordinated campaign 18 months ago to see that more children awaiting adoption in Colorado found homes.

The effort’s paid off, Boyd told commissioners, adding that the number of kids waiting adoption has dropped from 750 to 550.

“I have such a tender spot  in my heart for adoptions,” said Boyd, who has adopted several children of his own. “It’s such a redemptive process.”

Although ‘abortion’ was mentioned in the proclamation itself and read into the record by Wayne Williams, the commissioners didn’t mention the word in their public discussion.

Despite evidence suggesting that mail-in ballot elections are subject to less fraud and error, the county commissioners this morning voted unanimously to hold  a traditional election during the Aug. 10 primary.

“One of the beauties of a polling place election is that you can vote early, you can vote by mail or you can vote at the polling place,” said commissioner Wayne Williams, who is term-limited and will be running in the primary against several other contenders for the clerk’s job.

Commissioners Williams and Sallie Clark also pointed to  statewide rejection by voters in 2002 of Amendment 28, which would have ended precinct voting and converted to mail-in ballots only.

Commissioner Clark said voters in El Paso County were overwhelmingly opposed to the amendment, with 37.41 percent voting to convert to mail ballot elections and 62.59 percent against. “To me, it’s about giving voters choices,” Clark said.

A longtime precinct judge named Reb Williams told commissioners he favored mail-in elections because there was less chance for error.  ”When you have 2,000 election judges you have 2,000 potential errors,” he said.

After the ballots are mailed back to the clerk’s office, they are scanned in and undergo  a signature verification process.  If there’s a discrepancy that can’t be resolved, the ballot is held and a  letter sent to the voter asking for explanation, said elections manager Liz Olson.

If the voter doesn’t respond, the matter is turned over to the district attorney’s office. One hundred and twenty-eight questionable ballots stemming from the 2009 election were turned over to the DA’s office, she added.

Dennis Hisey assumes chairmanship from Jim Bensberg

The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners this morning unanimously elected Commissioner Dennis Hisey to replace Jim Bensberg as the chairman of the board. Hisey, who has five children and 10 grandchildren, represents District 4, which encompasses  the southern part of the county and includes Widefield, Security, Fort Carson and Fountain.

This will be Hisey’s third stint as chairman. After taking office in 2005, he served as vice chair in 2006 and chairman in 2007 and 2008. Hisey’s the epitomy of a gentleman, quiet and courteous, but not afraid to give his opinion when asked

Amy Lathen, who has served two years on the commission and represents the eastern part of the county, was elected as vice chair. Lathen is much more outspoken than Hisey and often takes the time to comment on controversial topics, such as global warming.  ”I can’t believe how quickly time has passed,” she said.

Bensberg, who is term limited, seemed more than happy to pass the gavel. He  had planned to run for the county treasurer’s job, but pulled out of the race last week. Bensberg said he plans to run for a seat in the state Legislature in 2012.

After we quoted longtime El Paso County administrator Terry Harris as saying that the county commission would never have voted to raze the old courthouse, we got a number of e-mails and clippings from readers that proved unequivocably that the commission did just that.

A copy of the front page of the Nov. 16, 1966 edition of the Gazette-Telegraph sent to us by a reference librarian at the Pikes Peak Public Library shows that the El Paso County Board of Commissioners did indeed vote to raze the elegant old courthouse at the corner of Tejon and Vermijo.

 ”The present courthouse will be torn down, the commissioners left no doubt about that,” the Gazette reported.

The announcement caught Colorado Springs residents by surprise. A group called “Save the Court House Committee” sprang up to fight the plan.

The courthouse was structurally sound and adaptable for many uses, the committee argued. ”To destroy a building of such significance and potential usefulness,” the group wrote, “is a flagrant waste of taxpayers’ money.”

A reader who goes by the name “Geester1″ wrote in to say that people in sandwich boards walked the streets demanding to “save the courthouse” and “move the museum!”

Eventually the judicial complex and jail were built several blocks to the east of the courthouse. The county sold  the courthouse to the city in 1973 for a dollar and it re-opened in 1979 as the Pioneers Museum.

Plans to build a court house began in 1872, four years before Colorado became a state. The commissioners voted to pay Anthony Bott $2,500 for “enlarging and making a satisfactory completion of a fair and ample courthouse.”

In 1899, the town’s founders decided it was time to build a new courthouse. The granite blocks were hauled in by donkey engines and horses. Stone cutters and stone masons, considered the elite craftsmen at the time, were brought in to build the exterior.

The courthouse was presented to taxpayers on May 16, 1903. There were so many speeches that later orators “didn’t bother to say anything because of the lateness of the hour,” one journalist wrote.

El Paso County officials will board a bus on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and tour various projects across the county. Among tham: the new jail buildings being erected on Las Vegas Street, Myers Road improvements, a Falcon Town Center, Judge Orr culvert, Eastonville Road project and the household hazardous waste facility.

It will be a long day, starting at 8 a.m. in front of the County Administration Building, 27 E. Vermijo Ave., and ending at 3:30 p.m. If you’re interested in tagging along, call Pam Podhirny at 520-6812.

The county has been conducting bus tours periodically for several years. Commissioners usually attend, along with several staff members to explain each project. It’s a good way to get updated on how tax money is being spent on the ground.