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City elections could be different next time around

April 5th, 2011, 3:44 pm by

  In a municipal election, like the one being held today, leadership at the city of Colorado Springs independently gets to choose who conducts the election. The city typically has decided to contract with a private entity and do some of the work in-house.

But it could be a different story next time a city election rolls around.

El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Wayne Williams, who took office in December, said Tuesday that he is open to playing a “more active role” in city elections. His office runs all other elections, including county-coordinated ballots and general elections.

“It depends on the new mayor and city council, but I’d be surprised if this wasn’t something we looked at more of sharing services,” he said.

 His office did provide voter registration lists and signature verification for the April 5 city election.

Posted in: city of colorado springs • Clerk and Recorder Office • El Paso County • elections • Uncategorized • Wayne Williams • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Wait times now available for motor vehicle offices

March 16th, 2011, 3:44 pm by

Want to know how long it’s going to take you to renew your driver’s license or get your car titled or get new tags for your license plates?

El Paso County’s Motor Vehicle Department has been working on not only decreasing the time it takes for customers to receive basic services but also letting customers know what they’re facing, in terms of wait times.

Check out http://epcclerk.com/internetWT/webinfopageV2.aspx?unitid=0.

The number presented is the longest someone currently has been waiting at the three motor vehicle locations, downtown at Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Ave.; the Powers office at the southeast corner of Powers Boulevard and Airport Road; and at Union Town Center, 8830 N. Union Blvd.

If a location does not appear, there is no real-time wait, said Tony Anderson, manager of the Motor Vehicle Department, which is an office of the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder.

Refining processes and procedures has decreased wait times from an average of 22 minutes in 2009 to today’s average of 8 minutes, he said.

It takes longer, though, on the offices’ busiest days: Fridays and the last days of the month, he said.

Current wait times soon will be posted in all offices on monitors at greeter stations.

“It’s about providing more information to the public,” Anderson said. “We’ve been focusing on service time and  service levels.”

The offices also are gearing up to accept credit and debit cards, beginning April 4. Currently, only cash or check are accepted to pay for transactions at any clerk and recorder offices.

Posted in: Clerk and Recorder Office • El Paso County • Uncategorized • • • • • | 7 Comments »

County commissioner now also clerk and recorder

January 3rd, 2011, 3:00 pm by

Wayne Williams

Quirky Colorado law created a conundrum for El Paso County Commissioners.

Last week, the board appointed Commissioner Wayne Williams as interim county clerk and recorder from Jan. 1 to Jan. 11.

On Monday, Jan. 4, Williams was sworn into the office, to avoid two deputizations of the office staff — during and after the interim. Williams deputized his staff Monday, so won’t have to do it again on Jan. 11, when he and other newly elected county officials are sworn in.

The situation came about when Robert “Bob” Balink, who’s been the clerk and recorder for two terms, ran unopposed for the county treasurer in the November election and won. State statute requires county treasurers to be in office on Jan. 1. But the other newly elected county officials, including two commissioners, won’t take the oath of office until Jan. 11.

Williams is now wearing two hats for the next week, one as clerk and recorder, and the other as county commissioner, which he has been for the past eight years.

Williams and Commissioner Jim Bensberg are term limited so are vacating their seats. By the way, Williams said last week that he will not be collecting two salaries while he’s doing the two jobs.

Posted in: El Paso County Commissioners • Uncategorized • • • • | Post a Comment »

Public Trustee passing big bucks to county

May 4th, 2010, 2:02 pm by

Public Trustee Tom Mowle had some interesting statistics in his quarterly report for April 2010. In addition to the good news that foreclosure starts and sales both seem to be dropping, Mowle also reported that he is sending a record amount of money back to the El Paso County general fund.

That should be good news for the cash-strapped county. But  it’s worth noting that most of the officials who head the county’s elected and non-elected offices are Republican. And Mowle’s a Democrat appointed to the post in 2008 by lame-duck Gov. Bill Ritter.

In the November election,  Mowle will be facing off against term-limited commissioner Wayne Williams to become the county’s next clerk and recorder. Williams, a lawyer,  has strong support in the Republican Party.

Mowle’s job performance is impressive. For the first quarter of 2010, he’ll be sending $313,125.24 back to the county. That’s almost equal to the entire amount returned to the county’s general fund in 2009.

Mowle credits the savings to a number of factors, including a good website, the increased use of electronic transmissions, which saves on postage and paper, and a more productive staff.

When he joined the office, Mowle said there were security cameras pointed at virtually every desk. He removed them.   ”I can’t believe they were good for morale,” he said. “I thought they were incredibly insulting and intrusive.”

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • | Post a Comment »

Republicans question election-reform bill

April 8th, 2010, 3:37 pm by

County Commissioner Wayne Williams has joined the chorus of Republicans complaining about an  election reform measure being pushed by House Speaker Terrance Carroll and other Democrats.

Williams does have a dog in this fight, sort of.  Having served two, four-year terms on the county commission, he  is now campaigning hard  to become El Paso County’s next clerk and recorder.

If elected, Williams would be the one charged with overseeing elections and making sure they comply with the state laws. (There are other contenders for the slot, including outgoing treasurer Sandra Damron, Public Trustee Tom Mowle, and scientist Charles Corry.)

Both Williams and term-limited clerk Bob Balink  question the timing of the bill,  portraying it as a desperate measure by Democratic politicians who will find themselves on the street following the November election.

At the State Capitol on Thursday, rumors were flying that the measure was dead, but Speaker Carroll said otherwise in a press release. “I have worked with the minority leader Mike May to identify a bipartisan group of legislators to guide this legislation.”

Carroll added that the measure has two goals: to promote fraud-free elections and ensure that counties can run efficient elections. “I want to be clear that I am leaving all options open, including running legislation this year.”

In an email to Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, Balink blasted the bill. “It is ABSOLUTELY NOT NECESSARY for this bill to be rushed through in the waning days of the 2010 session.” (The emphasis is Balink’s.)

“This is not an emergency,” Williams added.” This is a power grap by a desperate group of people.”

 Under the draft legislation, voters could register on Election Day instead of a month in advance as is now required by state law; county clerks would send out mail-in ballots to every voter,  and third parties, such as labor unions, could pick up and turn in the ballots.

Williams said the measure  would make the “entire system more vulnerable to attack.”

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

The Price of County Government

March 23rd, 2010, 10:30 am by

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.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • | Post a Comment »

Dem finding support in GOP country

March 15th, 2010, 2:41 pm by

Tom Mowle, appointed a couple of years ago by Gov. Bill Ritter, to head up the El Paso County Public Trusteee’s Office, is finding support among Republican  and undecided voters.

Mowle is the lone Democratic contender for the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder job. By contrast, three Republicans are vying for the slot, including term-limited Sandra Damron, term-limited county commissioner Wayne Williams, and Charles Corry.

Mowle said he knocked on about 100 houses over the weekend in which the occupants were registered as either Republican or independent. Only three of the people he talked to said they wouldn’t vote for him.

“They were very positive,” said Mowle, who by all accounts, has run an efficient operation at the public trustee’s office, processing millions of dollars in foreclosed real estate.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | Post a Comment »

Colorado College has room for voters

February 24th, 2010, 11:35 am by

Jane Turnis, director of communication, said today that Colorado College has space on campus for a polling place for the August 10 primary.

 County commissioners  yesterday blasted the college after it was reported the school had no locations available for the August election. Commissioner Wayne Williams said that it showed how “spurious” charges were two years ago against Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink,who was criticized for issuing erroneous information about out-of-state students’ eligibility to vote.

Turnis said county elections officials were notified today of the availability. “It’s in their court now.”

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | Post a Comment »

A Vote for the Voters

January 7th, 2010, 12:13 pm by

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.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • | Post a Comment »

A Crowded Race

December 2nd, 2009, 2:16 pm by

Five candidates are vying for the District 5 county commission seat that is currently being held by term-limited Jim Bensberg. And a sixth may be on the way “making it an even half dozen,” said Kay Rendleman, chairwoman of the El Paso County Republican Party.

The candidates include Peggy Littleton, state Board of Education member for the 5th Congressional District and a regular at commission meetings; Ed Jones, former state senator and former commissioner from 1994 to 2002; Bill Guevara, a former official from California; Patrick Carter, former precinct leader and Republican chairman for House District 16, and David Williams, UCCS student body president and possibly the youngest-ever candidate to run for the county commission.

By contrast, Darryl Glenn, a city councilor and Republican party favorite, has the field to himself in District 1, which is the seat being vacated by term-limited Wayne Williams.

To recap the other races: Three candidates are vying for the El Paso Clerk and Recorder’s Office, including Wayne Williams, Charles E. Corry, a research scientist and computer expert, and Treasurer Sandra Damron, who is also term-limited.

And three candidates running for the Treasurer’s Office: They include Jim Bensberg and term-limited Bob Balink, as well as Tom Mowle , a Democrat who in February 2008 was appointed as public trustee for El Paso County.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

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