2021 Year in Review: Government Oversight and Accountability
The Laramie Reporter looks back at 2021. This is the second entry in a four-part series.
Government bodies continued to meet virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and nearly every elected board saw engaged participation.
The county commission hosted several well-attended meetings regarding wind development, including a five-hour public hearing. The city council drew crowds whenever it addressed policing or housing. Even the Albany County School Board played host to large, animated meetings when it instituted its masking policy.
In 2021, Albany County saw a number of high-profile resignations while an advisory committee continued to work on police-community relations.
The Year of Resignations
Near the end of 2020, Albany County named Aaron Appelhans its next sheriff, appointed to fill out the term abandoned by former Sheriff Dave O’Malley. This resignation and appointment served as a preview of the year to come.
Four elected officials resigned in 2021, triggering replacement processes to determine their successors. In all cases, the replacements will serve only until the next election and must run and win in 2022 to keep the seat to which they were appointed.
Peggy Trent resigned for her position as County and Prosecuting Attorney in May. She left behind a mixed legacy. Trent was praised by progressives for spearheading juvenile justice reform and for establishing a special victims unit to prosecute the notoriously difficult-to-prosecute crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence. But in 2019, she did not bring charges against then-Deputy Derek Colling for shooting and killing an unarmed man. She was criticized both for that decision and the way she handled the case, having convened a grand jury that met behind closed doors and came to its decision in secret. Laramie lawyer Kurt Britzius was named as Trent’s replacement later the same month.
Derek Colling himself, no longer working for the sheriff who had hired and defended him, resigned in June. Colling is still active in the community as a landlord and real estate broker, recently appearing at a Laramie City Council meeting to speak against rental regulations.
The Laramie City Council also lost one of its own. Jessica Stalder resigned from her position as a Ward 1 representative in July. As Laramie of Hospice director and as a single mother, Stalder said the other demands on her time had to take precedence. The council appointed Fred Schmechel to serve out the remainder of Stalder’s term, selecting him from a field of eight candidates.
The Albany County School Board saw an even more crowded field of candidates when it sought to replace a resigning trustee. Then-Board Vice-Chair Mark Bittner stepped down from the role in October, citing health concerns, and 16 individuals applied for the position. The board narrowed the field to five and eventually selected financial advisor Steve Gosar to fill the seat.
At the other extreme, the Albany County Democrats struggled to find three candidates for the Albany County Assessor's Office. Longtime County Assessor Grant Showacre left the office in October, with a little more than a year left on his fourth term in the role. Only two people applied for the position. The Democrats added a third “filler” candidate to meet their statutory obligation of providing three names to the Albany County Commission. Showacre’s deputy, Chelsie Mathews, was appointed to the position in November.
Police Oversight
The city of Laramie is also working toward possible action on the issue of police accountability. The city council agreed to take up the issue following the protests of summer 2020.
Laramie Police Chief Dale Stalder had been tasked with researching citizen oversight boards across the United States and presented his findings in late February. He pointed out that no two oversight boards are the same, but are usually the result of a breakdown of trust between police and community following a use-of-force incident. A key takeaway was that Wyoming law probably forbids the sharing of personnel files.
The council soon after voted for the establishment of a working group that would meet over the course of a year and examine oversight and other police issues. The group was tasked with returning to council with recommendations that could include the creation of a citizen oversight board. A petition signed by hundreds of residents opposed the creation of any such board.
There were several heated city council meetings as members of the public and members of council hammered out the make-up of the working group, arguing specifically over the inclusion of law enforcement members. Eventually, the council agreed to make members of law enforcement one-third of the working group. The group also includes civilians, some engaged in social work and at least one a member of a local police accountability group.
The working group soon after voted to meet behind closed doors, citing a need to have more frank, open discussions about sensitive topics. “Group memories” — anonymized bullet point lists of topics covered — are published in lieu of meeting minutes on the city’s website.
The group has met more than 10 times since its formation.
Since Thanksgiving, the group has hosted three public forums, seeking input on two main topics of focus: police oversight and mental health response. The forums drew only a handful of commenters. Now, the group is preparing its final recommendations, which it plans on bringing before council in the coming weeks.