Montrose's two clerks say they want to work together again
In April, the last 83 ballots of Montrose's city election never went through the county's counting machines. City Clerk Lisa DelPiccolo had them counted by hand at City Hall, and when a councilor asked why in August, she said she'd had questions about whether certain county elections staff were impartial. That set off a month of accusations. Nobody has claimed the outcome changed, but until this week only one side had spoken.
Montrose County Clerk Tressa Guynes told KVNF the city ran late that night. A group watching results at a closing coffee shop asked to wait in the county's observation room, as candidates and media often do. "It ended up being about eight people probably," Guynes said. Two were candidates.
Three of them can now be named. Then-candidate, now Mayor Michael Badagliacco told the Montrose Daily Press he was there. "We were just watching," he said, confirming that Montrose Mirror columnist David White was with him. On Thursday, DelPiccolo confirmed to KVNF in writing that Badagliacco, White and then-candidate, now Councilor Adam Woodden were in the viewing area, along with three other people.
When the city explained the clerk's concern on Aug. 31, it said two candidates were in the room while ballots were being scanned. Guynes says they were in a waiting room, behind the windows, and this week DelPiccolo agreed: "There was nobody in the scanning and tabulating room except election judges and election officials."
So what was the problem? "I didn't have control of that space. I always feel it's really important that all candidates are treated exactly the same," she said. So she moved the last count to City Hall. City elections are nonpartisan by law, and that night, she said, "I felt like it became partisan."
Guynes also volunteered that before the election she signed nominating petitions for some city council candidates. "I thought maybe that was a bad judgment on my part," she said. The Colorado Secretary of State's office told KVNF there is "nothing in law preventing an elected official from signing a petition," and that it has no jurisdiction over municipal elections. DelPiccolo declined to weigh in: "I don't want to throw stones at Tressa."
The city says its own employees have served as election judges since 1994; Guynes says her office uses "bipartisan teams of judges from the public." White has reported that 15 of the 16 city judges this spring were city employees, which KVNF has not been able to verify. On how the ballots left: "We traveled as a group," DelPiccolo said. "No one was in the custody of those ballots alone, ever."
It's notable that the same people and candidates that were present that night back in April (David White, Michael Badagliacco, and Adam Wooden) are the same people who brought this to the public's attention, White wrote expose piece in the Mirror about it, Badagliacco requested an investigation, and Wooden was the first to raise the question in a City Council Meeting.
"We've never had a problem at all," Guynes said of their years working together. Both say they want that back. "I think it's going to take a little repairing of our relationship, but I'm willing to do that," DelPiccolo said, adding, "And I hope she hears it as well." They'll have to, in November, when Montrose votes on whether to move its city elections to the fall.
Montrose Superintendent Dr. Carrie Stephenson resigns
Dr. Carrie Stephenson, the Superintendent of Montrose County School District, has officially resigned. The board issued a short statement Thursday morning, writing, “The Board has accepted her resignation, and the Parties have resolved matters relating to her employment through a mutually agreed separation agreement. The Board thanks Dr. Stephenson for her service to the District and wishes her well.”
Stephenson was placed on leave in May following the resignation of Olathe Elementary Principal Jennifer Hesse. Board members who voted to place Stephenson on leave said the move was intended to protect district employees from potential retaliation while a third-party investigator examined Hesse’s conduct and Stephenson’s response.
Stephenson subsequently filed a grievance alleging governance violations, problems with the superintendent evaluation process and retaliation. She specifically pointed to Board President Neisha Balleck in her explanation of the grievance.
Following a lengthy executive session last month, Vice President Ted Valerio moved to adopt the board’s response to the grievance. The motion passed, with board members Jody Hovde and Tom West voting against it.
The board’s response acknowledged that it could have handled some communications better, but said it did not find any evidence of most of Stephenson’s allegations.
Then, last week, Dr. Stephenson was asked to voluntarily resign at a special meeting. The board voted unanimously for her resignation, though member Jody Hovde expressed some concern, saying, "I want it to be on record that I have concerns about the process... and how we came to this decision.”
The investigation, leave, and subsequent resignation appear to have only deepened divisions within Montrose. In the absence of many public details about what led to Stephenson’s departure, speculation has filled the gap — with community members offering sharply different interpretations of what happened, and who was responsible. For some, the resignation is a sign the district needed new leadership. For others, it raises questions about the board’s process and treatment of Stephenson. And with both sides largely left to interpret limited public information, the controversy surrounding the district is unlikely to end with Stephenson’s resignation.
