BoCo Commissioners keep hassling church

(Letter to editor, published 12-09-10 in the Longmont Times-Call.)

As if it’s not questionable enough for the Boulder County Commissioners—after being foiled by a federal judge and jury whose verdict of unequal treatment was upheld at the appellate level—to dig deeper into the taxpayers’ pockets to take their fight against the Rocky Mountain Christian Church’s expansion project to the Supreme Court, other tax-supported groups are joining the fray.

Two of the more familiar organizations filing supporting briefs as to why the Supreme Court should hear this case are Colorado Counties, Inc. and Colorado Municipal League. For those of us who live in incorporated areas, lucky us: we get to pay dues into both the CCI and the CML. There is no law against their filing of briefs, but the quid pro quo seems clear: “You send us your membership dues and we will scratch your back.”

The commissioners defend the considerable legal costs involved in trying to stop the RMCC expansion--a project that appears to be of little or no harm to anyone or anything--as being covered by insurance. But there are many other expenses to the county besides legal fees, and any premiums or cash contributions by the county into an insurance pool (or company) would still have to come from the taxpayers.

Local governments have the authority to write and enforce building codes, but there is no guarantee against their making mistakes or overreaching. That’s where the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act enters this picture and makes it doubtful that the Supreme Court will take this case.

Since the church in question is located at Niwot, is its site rural or urban? Remember that the county itself built a rather large office building/vehicle storage facility in a rural setting just west of Longmont with neither a whimper heard nor a lawsuit filed.