Palmer Lake’s trustees told the town administrator on Oct. 22 to find a 2027 budget with no deficit, after he said that cuts so far, including leaving the fire chief’s job unfilled, still leave it about $500,000 short. They also adopted an ordinance limiting when trash, pet food and bird seed may sit outdoors where bears can reach them, and a rule that the town will plow routine snow only once more than four inches has fallen.
The budget came near the end of the meeting. Town Administrator Patrick Davidson told the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees that staff had pulled about another $200,000 out of the draft 2027 budget, and that he expected new figures early next week. Asked what the 2027 shortfall would now be, he said it would be similar to this year’s, about $500,000. Mayor Dennis Stern replied that the town “cannot continue to propose a budget that has any deficit spending, period,” and that “we need to get ruthless.” Trustees agreed to hold a budget workshop before their next regular meeting, on Nov. 12, which is also the date of the budget’s public hearing.
The budget
Stern said that from 2022 to 2027 the police budget had grown by about $1 million and now makes up about 28% of the town’s budget, the fire department’s by about $650,000, to about 19%, and administration’s by close to $500,000, to about 19%. Davidson agreed with each figure. Stern proposed finding the $500,000 as a share of those three areas. The draft 2027 budget Davidson gave trustees on Oct. 8, posted in that meeting’s supplemental packet, bears out the shares: of $6.13 million in general-fund department spending, police account for about 29%, fire for about 19% and administration for about 20%, with a deficit of $573,942. That draft predates the latest cuts. The increases since 2022 are as Stern stated them.
Davidson said cuts on that scale are policy choices for the board and asked for a workshop to make them. He said the police department’s standard of two officers on duty is the norm, that maintenance on fire trucks is a $50,000 to $60,000 item that would be hard to cut, and that removing part-time firefighters “would need to be explored.” Administration’s costs include the town’s insurance-pool charges, which are based on claims, and “lots of attorney’s fees,” which he called beyond any budget’s control. Residents should expect less service, he said: “citizens will not be happy,” and the complaints “are legitimate.”
Davidson told trustees the 2026 budget, which planned a deficit of $503,000, will end “closer to” $700,000 to $900,000 short. A trustee said the true gap had always been about $900,000, because the budget counted on a property sale of about $385,000 that did not happen, and Davidson agreed. On Oct. 8 he had put the 2026 shortfall at about $988,000 (the Independent’s account of that meeting). The amendment to the 2026 budget, handed to trustees on paper at the meeting, comes back for a vote on Nov. 12.
Another trustee went through the 2026 figures line by line. The town’s books show nothing paid so far this year on a loan from the general fund to the water fund, the trustee said, and the loan agreement raises the interest rate to 18% if a payment is missed. The trustee also noted that the Spruce Mountain Road project shows less than $1,000 spent this year against roughly $1 million budgeted for design and construction. Davidson said the town has about six months of the contractor’s invoices still to receive.
The fire chief and the restructuring
The cuts Davidson described include a restructuring he announced to trustees in an Oct. 15 memo in the meeting packet. The town will not refill the fire chief’s job or that of the public works supervisor. Police Chief Glen Smith becomes the town’s public safety supervisor, coordinating police and fire; an interim fire chief will be appointed from within the fire department, in part to help with talks on a merger with the Monument Fire District. Public works and the water department now run as one department under the water supervisor. One water job is eliminated, and one full-time public works job is cut to about 20 hours a week.
During the budget discussion Trustee Atis Jurka asked whether the 2026 amendment reflected the salaries and benefits of the two positions, “since Chief Vincent isn’t with us anymore.” Davidson said it did, but that the effect for “only two months at the most is pretty minimal,” partly because the town must still pay out accumulated vacation. Fire Chief John Vincent last addressed the board on Oct. 8. The town’s online staff directory now lists Weston Oesterreich as interim fire chief. The Independent asked Davidson on the night of the meeting when Vincent left and in what form, and this article will be updated with his answer.
Bears
Ordinance 06-2026 passed on a voice vote. It follows an Oct. 12 workshop the trustees held with the Planning Commission and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Davidson called it “the first step.” Year-round, food-bearing trash, pet food, animal feed, bird seed and suet may be outdoors where wildlife can reach them only between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.; overnight they must be inside a garage, shed or similar building, or in a closed bear-resistant container. The rule applies whether or not a bear has visited, and to homes, short-term rentals and businesses alike.
A container counts as bear-resistant only if it meets the standards of the Wildlife Management Institute or the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee; straps, bungee cords and clips do not make an ordinary can compliant. Trash may go out no earlier than 6 a.m. on collection day and must be back in by 8 p.m., even if the truck has not come. Fines are $100 for a first violation, $250 for a second and $500 for a third. Davidson said police had asked for discretion on a first offense, and that “the goal is education,” not citations. Asked by a trustee whether compost counts, Town Attorney James Godbold said he thought it was covered as “food-bearing material.” The ordinance takes effect after it is published.
Snow
Resolution 39-2026 passed on a voice vote. Routine plowing of town streets will start only once accumulation exceeds four inches, counting snow left from earlier storms but not snow that has melted or been cleared. Plowing overtime is limited to emergencies, and weekend plowing to storms over four inches or emergencies; police or fire may call out a plow for a crash, a blocked emergency route or a threat to life at any hour. Asked whether this changes anything, Davidson said it does not: the internal standard has been “two to four inches,” based on what public works had time for, and the resolution puts it in public. With no public works supervisor, he said, Water Supervisor Charles Roubidoux will decide when the threshold is met.
The removal hearing
Godbold said the hearing on whether to remove Moseley from the board is tentatively set for Monday, Nov. 16, at Town Hall, with notice posted in advance. A presenting officer for the town is likely lined up but not yet engaged, he said; the hearing officer is in place. Trustees may attend but may not ask questions at the hearing, he said, “in the same way the jury can’t sit and ask questions during a jury trial,” and he strongly discouraged sending questions beforehand. Trustee Michael Beeson, who said he had about 16 questions for the hearing officer, asked how trustees could raise concerns about due process; Godbold said that role belongs to the town’s presenting officer and to Moseley or his attorney.
A trustee asked whether Godbold had authority to retain the hearing officer, citing Resolution 31-2025, which names the town officials who may enter contracts. Godbold said the board gave him that authority at a July 23 meeting, but that he would prefer Davidson sign the hearing officer’s engagement letter, which arrived late last week.
Other business
Elephant Rock. Before the regular meeting, trustees met in a special session and spent about an hour behind closed doors on a proposed lease, with an option to buy, of part of the town’s Elephant Rock property at 350 Highway 105. The agenda names the other party as Twenty5One LLC. The board took no action when it returned. On Aug. 27 trustees voted 6–0 to have the town attorney prepare an access agreement with the company for the part of the property that had been for sale, about four acres with three buildings. The proposed lease has not been made public.
Consent agenda. The consent agenda read aloud by the mayor carried five checks over $15,000, three more than the two in the posted packet. Trustees approved it 6–0 on a roll call but held back two checks. One was $24,308.25 to Lyons Gaddis, the town attorney’s firm; the other was $27,729 to Buc-ee’s, described in the packet as a reimbursement. Moseley said the board had approved the firm’s previous bill on condition of receiving detailed time records, and had not seen them; Godbold said he had prepared itemized, partly redacted invoices for trustees to review in executive session. Moseley also said the Buc-ee’s figure was wrong, citing errors he had found in the town’s reimbursement records, and that the town was underpaying the company slightly; Davidson said the calculation predated him and he would follow up. Godbold said the money had always belonged to Buc-ee’s and the check could have gone out months ago, but the board had chosen to wait while it sought assurances from the company about its future plans, which the company had no obligation to give. The approved checks were $26,090 to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, which staff said covers unemployment benefits for former town employees, $26,241.80 to Core & Main, and $47,036.50 to Bradley Excavating, a contractor the town uses for water and road work under what Davidson called on Oct. 8 an “emergency contract.”
Agenda requests. Resolution 37-2026 passed on a voice vote. A trustee may ask the clerk and the administrator to add a topic to a list of requests; three trustees must agree, each telling staff separately, before staff begins work; and the clerk reports the full list to the board at least every three months. Davidson said trustees may email a request to the whole board as long as no one replies to all.
Social media. Resolution 38-2026, a social media and electronic communications policy for trustees and the members of the town’s commissions, passed on a voice vote. It separates personal accounts from town accounts, bars deliberating town business by email, text, comment threads or emoji, and requires town accounts to moderate comments without regard to viewpoint. At a trustee’s suggestion, the board asked Davidson to bring an amendment on deepfakes and other AI impersonation by the end of January.
Shade shelter. Trustees added Resolution 40-2026 to the agenda and passed it on a voice vote. It authorizes Awake Palmer Lake to build a shade shelter on town property. Davidson described it as about 20 by 30 feet, with a concrete floor and room for about six picnic tables, south of the restroom near the pickleball courts, with the exact spot to be set by staff. He said the group would pay for the project, which he put at $25,000 to $30,000, hopes to finish it by Thanksgiving, and that the town’s cost would be maintenance and insurance of perhaps a couple of hundred dollars a year.
Property tax. A memo from Davidson answering Trustee Elizabeth Harris’s Oct. 8 request says 15 more general-fund mills would raise about $938,000 a year and add about $583 to the tax on a home at the $634,580 median sale price the memo takes from Redfin for August. It puts the earliest election at Nov. 2, 2027. A trustee disputed that a tax increase must wait for a November election and urged the board not to wait another year; Davidson said he would provide the statutory citations.
Requests. A trustee asked for a future agenda item on concealed weapons in town offices and meetings, and two other trustees agreed. Another entered a memo into the record questioning why legal expenses one trustee had put at $174,605 appeared as $137,000 in the year-to-date figures at the end of August. Davidson said the two figures were taken at different times and he would check.
Public comment. No one spoke.
Trustee Tony Beltran was excused; the other six members attended. The meeting ran about an hour and 40 minutes before trustees went into executive session to receive legal advice on the town’s legal invoices, including questions of attorney-client privilege. The stream carried nothing after that, so any action on the two held checks is not on the record the Independent has. The board’s next regular meeting is Nov. 12.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: Palmer Lake Adopts New Board Rules as Its Administrator Warns of a Million-Dollar Shortfall, the Oct. 8 meeting, where the agenda rule was continued and the draft 2027 budget first presented · Palmer Lake Sets Bear Workshop as Administrator Warns of Two-Year Cash Runway, the Sept. 24 meeting, where residents asked for action on bears
Town record: Draft 2027 budget, in the Oct. 8, 2026 supplemental meeting packet (CivicClerk) · Oct. 22, 2026 regular agenda and 49-page meeting packet, and special-meeting agenda (CivicClerk) · Minutes of the Aug. 27, 2026 special meeting, in the Sept. 10 meeting packet · Staff directory, Fire · Notice of proposed budget for 2027, Oct. 20, 2026 · Town budgets page
Other: Colorado Parks and Wildlife · Wildlife Management Institute · Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee
Methodology
This account is built from the town’s agendas for both Oct. 22 meetings, the 49-page regular-meeting packet, read in full, the minutes of the Aug. 27 special meeting, the town’s staff directory, and the Independent’s own recording of the town’s live stream of the meeting, which it transcribed with automatic speech recognition software. Machine transcription misrenders names, garbles figures and carries no speaker labels, so names in this article were checked against the agenda and the town’s own record, and every quotation was compared against a second, independent machine transcription of the same passage. Trustees named as speakers were identified on the town’s video of the meeting; the town administrator and the town attorney are identified from the context of the recording. The ordinance, the resolutions, the restructuring and the property-tax figures come from the town’s documents. Budget figures, the three checks not in the posted packet, and the police, fire and administration shares are as stated aloud at the meeting; the shares of the 2027 budget were checked against the draft in the Oct. 8 supplemental packet; the revised 2027 draft and the 2026 amendment handed to trustees on Oct. 22 had not been published when this was written. The town did not stream either closed session, and the recording ends when trustees went into executive session at the end of the regular meeting.
Using this reporting? Credit The Monument Independent and link to this article: https://monumentindependent.com/government/palmer-lake-trustees-budget-bears-snow-oct-22/. Our guidelines are at Using Our Reporting.
