{"id":261,"date":"2026-05-13T23:32:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:32:54","slug":"boulder-county-canceled-public-input-meetings-on-parks-and-open-space-for-months-during-controversial-decisions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=261","title":{"rendered":"Boulder County canceled public input meetings on parks and open space for months during controversial decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"136px\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_NKDzNi0G7pP?client=wp&amp;client_version=3.1.7\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Since last fall, Boulder County has gone months without holding meetings of its primary forum for public input on parks and open space decisions, raising concerns among some former advisory board members about transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=259\">Boulder Market Meals: Simple Colorado cornbread with local grains, eggs and honey<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee (POSAC), a community board that advises county commissioners and serves as a key venue for public comment, held no meetings from November until its annual retreat on April 17, which does not include an opportunity for public comment. The next meeting open to public comment is scheduled for May 28.<\/p>\n<p>The gap came during a period of heightened public interest, as the county paused, resumed and paused again a controversial herbicide spraying plan at Red Hill, and began hiring a new Parks and Open Space director.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Read: Boulder County pauses Red Hill drone herbicide spraying again amid backlash<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For decades, POSAC has helped shape how Boulder County manages its open space, giving residents a formal way to influence decisions about public land.<\/p>\n<p>But for several months, that forum was not convened. Some former members said the absence of meetings limited opportunities for public input. POSAC is\u00a0supposed to meet , though meetings can be canceled if there are no agenda items.<\/p>\n<p>The gap coincided with county commissioners\u2019 review of the first year of a new weed management plan, a process that would typically be reviewed by the advisory board and include public input.<\/p>\n<p>That plan called for spraying Red Hill with herbicide during the 2025 season. Commissioners delayed a decision, saying they needed more information, and the spraying window passed. The latest report again recommends spraying, this time during the 2026 season, which begins in December.<\/p>\n<p>When commissioners reviewed the new report in February, they said they plan to revisit the issue before any spraying occurs. <\/p>\n<p>The report did not go before POSAC this year, according to Tony Lewis, who served on the committee from 2020 to March 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should\u2019ve come to POSAC first,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cThat\u2019s why POSAC exists in part \u2014 not only to review these important plans and strategies, but to solicit public input on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis said the lack of meetings made it harder for residents to raise concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow can you affect any policy or get any concern addressed? Other than sending an email to Parks and Open Space, which is probably not going to get you very far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former POSAC member Derek Turner, a water resources attorney with the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office, said the cancellations were unusual.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of a shock to see that they just simply canceled all of these meetings,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was essentially a quarter of the year where all of these meetings were just canceled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>County staff said meetings were canceled because there were no agenda items and staff capacity was limited. The county\u2019s Parks and Open Space director, Therese Glowacki, retired last fall, as did its POSAC liaison and 12 other people across the department, according to staff emails. Agenda items are set by county staff.<\/p>\n<p>Emails obtained by Boulder Reporting Lab indicate that interim director of Parks and Open Space Heidi Wagner discussed canceling \u201cPOSAC meetings for a while\u201d in October, in light of Glowacki\u2019s retirement. A county hiring freeze added to the staffing strain, according to staff emails.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=257\">Boulder City Council to consider accepting federal money for city airport, rekindling debate over its future<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would support that 100%!\u201d Natalie Springett, a deputy to the county commissioners, wrote in a Feb. 12 email about canceling POSAC meetings until April. \u201cUnless there is a burning advisory item that needs to come to the BOCC, but I don\u2019t see that we are waiting on anything from POSAC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis did not dispute limited staff capacity but questioned the idea that there were no agenda items. \u201cThere\u2019s always important issues to talk about,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A long-standing advisory role<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>POSAC was established in 1967 and helped shape Boulder County\u2019s first open space plan, laying the groundwork for one of the nation\u2019s most prominent open space programs.<\/p>\n<p>Summer Alameel, a spokesperson for Parks &amp; Open Space, said POSAC\u2019s role is to provide nonbinding strategic advice and recommendations to the county commissioners. She said staff bring items to the board only when a recommendation is needed. In this case, she said, there were \u201cno agenda items requiring a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Turner said that, in practice, POSAC was at times asked to weigh in without the information needed to do so fully.<\/p>\n<p>During a November 2025 POSAC meeting, member Joan Lutz asked whether the board could review the terms of a conservation easement before making a recommendation. Staff said no.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are giving you an outline of what\u2019s in those documents, but they are long, legal agreements. It is not your job to read through them and parse them,\u201d said Janis Whisman, a county real estate division manager. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have the Board of County Commissioners review these documents, because that\u2019s our job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whisman said the approach has been in place for decades because the terms are part of confidential negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to know what we\u2019re going on,\u201d Lutz responded at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Turner also said members were unable to obtain year-to-date financial reports before weighing in on real estate decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>County officials did not respond to a question about whether members are entitled to review year-to-date financial reports. County spokesperson Gloria Handyside said she had nothing to add to Whisman\u2019s comments on the issue of easement terms.<\/p>\n<p>Both Turner and Lewis said they had limited direct communication with county commissioners during their time on the board. The only direct outreach they recall was a letter seen by Boulder Reporting Lab instructing them not to draft a proposal on workforce housing on agricultural land leased by the county, instead requesting they act as a stakeholder in Boulder County Housing Authority\u2019s efforts to address the housing shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs members of POSAC, the focus on your committee should remain on Boulder County Parks &amp; Open Space plans, programs, and actions specifically,\u201d commissioners wrote in the May 2024 letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were many times on POSAC where I wondered what our role was,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Were we] accepting public comments, carefully considering the spending of public dollars, setting the priorities,\u201d he added, \u201cor were we hearing informational presentations about the status of rare wildflowers found this summer and how are the tadpoles and the salamanders doing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=255\">Boulder City Council moves to keep airport open indefinitely, limiting future housing options<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The county\u2019s open space advisory board went months without meeting, a gap some members said limited public input.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-government","tag-parks-and-open-space"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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