September 13, 2020 – Julie Formby

Just yesterday Emperor Polis extended the mask mandate for ANOTHER 30 days! How ridiculous! There have only been 5 COVID deaths statewide over the last two weeks! Compare Colorado’s numbers to South Dakota’s where Governor Kristi Noem has NEVER locked down her state or issued any mandates (because she knows the Constitution, honors the Constitution and honors The People). In spite of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of visitors from other states all summer long, South Dakota has had fewer deaths per 10,000 people than Colorado!

To make matters worse, a local contact recently passed this bad news on to us: Governor Polis intends to lock us down again in October. It may only be a rumor, but now is the time to rally against this and demand our counties boycott his lockdown and abuse of power.

Keep Colorado Free & Open has been meeting with local officials to find out what kind of recourse we have as Coloradans against these unwarranted restrictions. One Weld County Commissioner explained to us that the County Health Department has to bring a violation to the Board of County Commissioners who would first try to find a way for the business to stay open. If the business were to remain non-compliant, then the board would have to establish a code change for fines which would require a public meeting where they would take comments. After this, if the business is still non-compliant, then the business could be shut down (with a court order). This is the general process for Weld County and may vary between counties here in Colorado. We also spoke with one Weld County Attorney, and she said that as far as she knew, ONLY ONE Colorado business has gone to court so far: Bandimere. What this seems to mean is that businesses have been threatened and put into fear for something that is not even law and is not being enforced except in one single case! Even Polis himself said that these mandates are not enforceable on the day before he issued the July mask mandate.

We are partnering with FEC Colorado to get businesses, schools and churches opened completely and normally. Here are a few of the ways we are taking action:

1) We are drafting a Business Bill of Rights for businesses to know with confidence what they can do to stand up during these crazy times.

2) We have created this survey to help us determine how COVID-19 has affected local businesses and how we can help. We will share the results we receive in our subsequent updates and plan to follow-up with a meeting where you will be invited to learn about how we can work together to get your business back to normal. This data will help us verify how widespread threats, fines and shutdowns and revocation of business licenses actually are here in Colorado. Are businesses really being fined and shutdown or only threatened? If only threatened, this should give businesses a lot of boldness to stand up and re-open en masse at 100% capacity.

3) We are sharing this is a list of questions from Peggy Hall that you can ask your county commissioners. Find your commissioners and their contact information HERE. Send a series of emails to your county commissioners that contain ONE SIMPLE QUESTION from this list at a time. That’s it! We have already employed this tactic with our county commissioners, and we have received some VERY HELPFUL responses, specifically that the Larimer County Commissioners and Health Department are SUPER FRUSTRATED with the guidance and lack of clarity they are receiving from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) about how to file a variance and what it will take to get our county re-opened completely.

4) SAVE THE DATES: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER, 27TH &SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11TH FROM 3:00-5:00PM at a location TBA in your county!!!

COUNTIES AGAINST COVID CHAOS: HOLDING OUR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ACCOUNTABLE

We have formulated a plan with former Mayor of Parker & current gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez to bring accountability to County Commissioners across the state. To begin with, we are focusing on Larimer, Jefferson, Douglas & El Paso counties. We need as many people as possible to show up from each county at the location to be announced in order to send a strong message to our commissioners that enough is enough! Let us know if you want to partner with us to get your county re-opened– we will give you a kit to make it happen. You will need volunteers to help with:

• Being a lead person for your county
• Connecting with the county commissioners in your county
• Connecting with speakers to share about what it means to be an American and what a government of The People, by The People & for The People is all about
• Printing & distributing flyers
• Social media to get the word out for a BIG SHOWING at each county event
• Sound equipment & technicians– could just be a portable speaker with a microphone

5) Weekly FEC NoCo Chapter action meetings. These groups are working on specific action items to get churches, schools & businesses re-opened 100% and operating normally.

These groups meet weekly on Wednesdays:
FAITH: 7-8PM Contact: Tim Avery

EDUCATION: 3-4PM Contact: Allison Baker or Cyndi Fronapfel

COMMERCE: 7-8PM Contact: Carl Edmunds or Terri DeSandre

This group meets weekly on Thursdays:

POLICY & POLITICS: 6:30-7:30PM Contact: Donna Walter

To keep informed, you can sign up by texting to 89517:

FECNOCOFAITH to get involved with churches

FECNOCOEDU schools

FECNOCOCOM businesses

FECNOCOPP policy & politics

6) Keep Colorado Free & Open and FEC Colorado – NoCo Chapter hosts Community Action Meetings/ Members Meetings on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month from 6:00-8:00pm at Message of Life Church in Loveland. Tomorrow we will be hearing from My Faith Votes Founder(s) Jason and/ or Mick Yates about Voter Registration Sunday coming up on September 20th and how to take action to get more churchgoers out to the polls on November 3rd.

Ready, set, go! Take action now!