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Where did home rule go?

Don Rogers

Along with commissioner-in-running Peter Runyon protesting last fall that he wasn’t really an anti-growth candidate, we recall that the idea of five county commissioners was a big part of the plank for Runyon, Buz Reynolds and incumbent Arn Menconi. Their apparent fervor for exploring “home rule” designation as a county with five non-partisan commissioners elected from specific districts swept along candidates Richard De Clarke and A.J. Johnson, as well. If memory serves, only Johnson warned that five commissioners might not be the swell idea it sounded like.Funny thing, the heartfelt stumping for home rule pretty much died with the results of the election last November. When’s the last time you remember hearing a word about it from the county’s elected?Perspective no doubt changes when you go from odd man out to in charge, thanks to a single change on a board with as much sway as the county Board of Commissioners. It’s February, early yet, for putting campaign platforms into practice. And goodness, so much work as it is.Still, at least from this vantage, the home rule gantlet is arduous enough that it needs to begin sooner rather than later, assuming all that earnest talk about putting the idea to the voters wasn’t just so much smoke.Besides, there’s a lot in the concept to think if might be an improvment for Eagle County. Partisanship has at times poisoned the commissioners chambers. Commissioners have often seemed to have an undue fealty to the greatest population center, which really does need to incorporate. The Roaring Fork corner of the county has never had proper representation. Three is too subject to whim and folly. It’s time to get started. Vail, Colorado


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