Thomas’ lawsuit against DougCo commissioners has cost the county $120,000 so far

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published in the Douglas County News Press.

LITTLETON | After years of bitter public feuding among Douglas County’s three elected leaders — a dispute that grabbed headlines across several local news outlets — one of the three commissioners, Lora Thomas, is no longer in power.

But a lawsuit from Thomas against her former colleagues, Abe Laydon and George Teal, has racked up more than a hundred thousand dollars in costs to the county, and the suit continues to unfold.

Even with Thomas returning to private life, a member of the group that advises county leaders about property development decisions recently resigned in protest, he said, of the way Thomas had been treated by Teal and Laydon.

“Rather than being treated as an equal by Teal and Laydon, former Commissioner Thomas has been constantly bullied (and) antagonized,” Jay Longmire’s statement of resignation from the county Planning Commission said.

County leaders’ yearslong feud wound through investigations of Thomas and acrimonious words lobbed at each other, along with disputes that played out in public meetings. Thomas and her two former colleagues are all Republicans.

“The county’s reputation was very damaged,” Thomas said about the division among the commissioners, adding: “It was hard on staff and it was hard on me and it was hard on the public.”

That rift reached the point where two commissioners spoke to an outside mediator in an attempt to smooth over their working relationship — a process that ultimately broke down amid more disagreement, Thomas said.

Teal, who still serves as a commissioner, said, “Thomas is a bully.”

“There’s no two ways about it. And when you say “no” to her, well then, she’s not going to keep it in a boardroom,” Teal said, claiming there is a “toxic workplace that she creates everywhere she goes.”

Laydon did not respond to a phone call and specific questions from Colorado Community Media about how friction among the commissioners played out over the years, but he provided a statement for this story, pointing to the county’s new board of commissioners.

Kevin Van Winkle, a Republican former state senator, recently replaced Thomas on the board of three leaders.

“We are focused on the future and the good work of the people of Douglas County, succeeding on key issues like public safety, immigration, homelessness, and property taxes with collaboration and respect, even when we may disagree,” Laydon said. “Our citizens expect results, not drama, and results are what our new board will continue to produce for the amazing citizens we serve.”

A rift between Laydon and Thomas dates back to a deal between them amid Laydon’s 2018 campaign for his county commissioner seat, according to Thomas.

“I had asked both Abe and Diane Holbert, his opponent, if each of them would support my tax proposal,” Thomas told CCM this February.

Thomas wanted to move some of the sales tax funding for the county justice center to transportation projects, including what was known as the Interstate 25 south “gap” construction in the Castle Rock area, she said.

“Abe said yes, he would support my proposal because one of his platforms was a traffic solution, and that was a traffic solution,” Thomas said. “But when it came time, Abe did not support my proposal.”

Laydon did not respond to a question from CCM about Thomas’ description of a deal.

“I did a mail piece in June of 2018 with my picture and my signature endorsing Abe Laydon for commissioner,” Thomas said, adding: “I kept my end of the bargain.”

Eventually, then-Commissioner Roger Partridge, Laydon and Thomas did come together to put a proposal on the ballot, but it “was not the proposal that Abe promised me he would support,” Thomas said.

Later, after the 2020 election, Teal became the third commissioner on the board, and he and Laydon made an agreement to back each other’s agenda, Thomas claimed.

They decided “that they were going to manage the county and that they didn’t need my input at all,” Thomas said.

Laydon did not respond to a question about Thomas’ description of an agreement between him and Teal.

Teal pushed back on that anecdote, saying he and Laydon at one point selected Thomas to be chair of the board. They later removed her from the chair position.

“Her concocting this thing that Abe and I worked out an alliance to marginalize her, it just doesn’t (stand up) to facts,” Teal said, adding: “It’s just not true.”

Thomas took issue with what she generally described as disrespectful conduct from Laydon and Teal.

In a meeting, Teal once said Thomas doesn’t have the mental “capacity to be a commissioner,” Thomas said.

“Can you imagine someone telling you that in a recorded meeting? The employees saw that. The public saw that,” Thomas told CCM.

Thomas claimed Laydon treated county staff disrespectfully.

“You don’t treat employees like that in public,” Thomas said.

Laydon has in the past had positive words for Thomas.

“I know from working with you, Lora, that you are deeply committed to the service of our citizens. You’re punctual, organized and you want to do what’s right. And you’re committed to the truth, and I get that, and I respect that, and I respect your service,” Laydon said in a work session meeting. “But I think the way you go about approaching it is often very detrimental to your interests and the county’s.”

But interactions between the commissioners also became bitter or coarse.

In a public meeting punctuated by loud interruptions from the audience, several area residents in March 2023 spoke against what they said is unjust treatment of Thomas by Laydon and Teal.

Laydon told the audience he supports strong leaders, “especially women,” pointing to some county staff.

But he characterized Thomas as causing problems in different government workplaces over the years.

In response to the audience’s complaints, Laydon said: “This woman will get whatever she wants when she starts acting with respect.”

Conflict among the commissioners also spilled into the legal world, with Thomas being investigated and later filing a lawsuit against her colleagues.

The investigations of Thomas often came up in the world of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, and the disputes on the board form a complicated story.

One accusation dates to 2022 when, Laydon has said, Thomas attacked first responders by sharing an anonymous letter.

On the other hand, Thomas has said that an investigation was “exonerating” of her.

Here’s a look at the ins and outs.

Teal and Laydon initiated an investigation after accusing Thomas of circulating an anonymous letter that criticized specific employees in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, allegedly creating a hostile work environment. They also accused her of emailing county legal representation with a request not authorized by the full board.

The investigation into Thomas by outside legal counsel found that while Thomas had distributed the letter, doing so did not create a hostile work environment. Separately, it also found she did draft correspondence to legal counsel without informing the board.

See more details on the investigation in CCM’s earlier coverage at tinyurl.com/ThomasInvestigationLook. The investigation report is available at tinyurl.com/ThomasReport.

Thomas appeared in a CBS Colorado news story in July 2022 discussing the confidential report that showed the results of the investigation, prompting the Douglas County government’s attorney to find that Thomas could have broken the law by doing so.

Thomas had asserted multiple times in meetings and in her newsletter to constituents that she believes the privileged nature of the document had already been broken by Laydon discussing parts of it publicly, CCM has previously reported.

When asked by CCM, Thomas declined to answer whether she shared the report with CBS.

Another investigation — this time conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office — did not find probable cause to believe that Thomas committed the crime of first-degree official misconduct. (Because of the conflict of interest that would come with investigating a commissioner, then-Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock asked the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office to conduct the investigation, according to Spurlock.)

“The Colorado criminal code does not specifically prohibit a waiver of privileged and confidential information by a privilege holder. In this case, as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, Lora Thomas is a privilege holder,” Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Bruce Peterson wrote in a memorandum.

Laydon has argued Arapahoe County “got it wrong” in evaluating Thomas’ actions, saying “the privileged holder of a confidential document is the board” and not just one member of the board. He based his point on the understanding of the law of Chris Pratt, then interim Douglas County attorney.

Thomas’ stance has been that there’s a lack of evidence to justify Laydon and Teal’s actions toward her.

Laydon has argued that “there is a difference between criminal liability and civil” wrongdoing.

Eventually, Thomas filed a lawsuit against Laydon and Teal in August 2023, seeking to recover the attorney fees she incurred amid the allegations against her.

Thomas’ legal counsel amid an investigation cost her about $5,700, according to the lawsuit complaint in Douglas County District Court.

“And so far, I have paid in excess of $80,000 of my own money because it’s about the principle here, that two commissioners cannot silence a third,” Thomas said about the lawsuit.

Costs of the lawsuit have also stacked up for the county.

“Think of all the money” the county has been charged due to not paying her earlier legal bills, Thomas said.

“In just three months YOU, the taxpayers of this county-have been invoiced for $26,480.16 to avoid paying $5,800.00,” Thomas’ email newsletter said in November 2023.

When asked how much money the county has been invoiced for due to the cost of outside legal counsel defending against Thomas’ lawsuit from the start of the suit through mid-February this year, a county spokesperson said: “Our total invoiced has been: $124,351.96.”

For a look at the legal argument behind the lawsuit, see CCM’s earlier coverage at tinyurl.com/ThomasLawsuitDouglas.

Ultimately, the rift among the commissioners reached a point where Laydon and Thomas attempted to smooth things over, according to Thomas.

The conflict had resulted in more moves to punish or take action against Thomas than just being investigated. Those actions include the following:

• Laydon and Teal voted to censure — or formally disapprove of — Thomas at a meeting in response to what one of the leaders has called public shaming of county volunteers with inaccurate information. For a look at the arguments behind the censure vote, see CCM’s earlier coverage at tinyurl.com/ThomasCensure.
• Laydon and Teal voted to remove Thomas from outside boards, or committees, that oversee organizations in the community. See more details in CCM’s coverage at tinyurl.com/ThomasBoards.
• Teal and Laydon voted at a meeting to cancel Thomas’ county credit card, to suspend her travel and mileage allowance, and to take other action regarding Thomas’ expenses. The county credit card covers spending for items like hotel rooms and airline travel on county business, according to county staff. See more details at tinyurl.com/ThomasExpenses.

Around early 2024, county commissioners and staff had a retreat at the Cherokee Ranch and Castle in the Sedalia area, Thomas said.

“I met with Abe and tried to work things out,” Thomas has said.

“We had a mediator … and Abe told me he would resolve it and then he did not, both times. He said he would pay my legal fees,” Thomas told CCM.

The dealmaking did produce some changes, Thomas said.

“In the January agreement, they gave me back my county credit card. For about four months, I had to pay for all my own expenses for doing my job as a commissioner, whereas George and Abe got theirs paid by the county,” said Thomas, also noting that the agreement also restored her driving mileage reimbursement.

On the other hand, Thomas was asked to “tone down” her email newsletter, she said.

“I continued to report the facts like I always had in the newsletter, but I toned it down a bit. And I kept my end of the bargain until they broke theirs,” Thomas said.

Commissioners had a work session meeting where they voted to remove the censure from Thomas and “we said nice things about each other,” Thomas said.

But the deal ultimately broke down, she said.

“Abe wanted a statement to go out” about he and Teal removing the censure, Thomas said. But “Abe refused to let me write my statement … and that’s when that agreement fell apart … (he) insisted on writing my statement for me.”

“Abe wanted the statement to reflect my praise and appreciation for my fellow commissioners,” Thomas said previously.

Teal was never in any of the discussions between Thomas, Laydon and the mediator, Thomas said.

When asked about the mediation attempt, Teal said: “I was not a part of any talks to that substance. I mean, maybe that was something that Commissioner Thomas and Commissioner Laydon engaged in.”

The symbolic punishment of Thomas — the censure — was never lifted, according to Teal.

“In the end there was a falling out, and the conditions that the resolution was to be drafted around were not agreed to by Commissioner Thomas and Commissioner Laydon — therefore, no resolution was actually done to lift the censure,” Teal said.

In December last year, Thomas resigned after alleging her colleagues were pushing her out of her office space at the county headquarters — more than a month before her term was set to end.

Thomas claims Teal and Laydon directed county staff to “evict” her from her office space on Dec. 9.

The development came after Van Winkle, a former state senator, won election in November to be a new county commissioner.

Laydon said: “We did offer to fully accommodate Lora with office space right next door on the same floor.”

When asked whether Thomas thinks that the way Laydon and Teal treated her will continue to affect the county government, she said: “I just really don’t know.”

Thomas talked about the commissioners’ division and the county’s reputation.

“When I would go to meetings across the state, people would say to me, what is going on in Douglas County? What is up with George and Abe?” Thomas claimed.

Teal claimed other government bodies are willing to partner with Douglas County without Thomas.

“We’re taking the opportunity to partner with people who would never touch us,” Teal said, adding: “We’re not radioactive anymore … it’s not about us as individuals and egos anymore.”

The commissioners’ rift reverberated when Longmire, the former county Planning Commission member, resigned from his post in late January in protest over treatment of Thomas.

“The cruel nature of Teal and Laydon’s actions are beneath the dignity of a Douglas County commissioner,” Longmire’s resignation statement said.

Teal said Longmire was Thomas’ nominee for the planning commission and that he was a critic of Laydon and Teal “no matter what decision we made.”

“He was always a constant critic in favor of Commissioner Thomas,” Teal added.

Teal felt that discussing the working relationship with Thomas was a matter of “beating the dead horse.”

“The horse is dead, buried and turning into compost, man,” Teal said.