Five counties are paying $1,200 each for a political consultant to help fight a proposal that would allow the state to take over county responsibilities of child welfare and social services.
Since the recommendations from a governor-appointed committee were given to Gov. Bill Ritter earlier this week, counties big and small have been in uproar.
So far, Boulder, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Mesa and Douglas counties have committed $1,200 each toward hiring strategist Katy Atkinson to help them with communications and messaging for the next six weeks.
Ritter has agreed to meet with them before making any decisions. Changing the county-state structure with human services would require legislation.
“Sometimes we’re not the best at telling our own story,” said Barbara Drake, Douglas County human-services chief.
Drake was on the committee that came up with the recommendations. But she said she believes that in a state-run system, local relationships between the counties and advocacy groups to combat, say, domestic violence may be lost.
“I think it’s worthwhile to improve the system within the current structure,” she said.
Jefferson County Human Services Director Lynn Johnson said she’s paying Atkinson out of the county’s general fund because she thought it would be “helpful to have one voice, to herd the cats, so to speak. . . . I thought she can keep us on the high road.”
Atkinson, who has worked on various GOP campaigns and runs her own consulting company, said she sees her job as a “translator as much as anything.”
“Each industry and issue area seems to have its own vocabulary,” she said. “I don’t necessarily see this as an adversarial relationship at all.”
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
