Turmoil at Yampa Town Hall: New administrator sent home on paid leave; trustee's removal hearing put off

Key points

• Yampa's Town Board voted 4-1 on Nov. 2 to put Town Administrator/Clerk Charles "Chuck" Reid on paid administrative leave, Steamboat Radio reported. He had been hired Sept. 16, the station reported, and the board's Nov. 2 packet held a 30-day improvement plan that warned of possible termination.
• Two nights later, after public comment in a packed room, the board put off its hearing on written charges against Trustee Ken Montgomery and set a Dec. 2 status update so attorneys could discuss a possible resolution, the station reported.
• The charges, in Resolution 2026-26, accuse Montgomery of treating women on the town staff differently than men and creating a hostile work environment, and the resolution says an outside investigation found the allegations substantiated. The board has made no finding, and 18 of the 19 people who spoke Nov. 4 backed Montgomery, Steamboat Radio reported.
• The town has posted no minutes for any of its 14 Town Board meeting dates since July 22, so the outcomes reported here come from news reports. The Independent is asking the town to confirm them.

YAMPA — Yampa's Town Board hired Charles "Chuck" Reid as its town administrator and clerk on Sept. 16, Steamboat Radio reported. On Oct. 28, the board called a special meeting to review his job performance. Its Nov. 2 meeting packet held a 30-day plan for him to improve. By the time that night's meeting adjourned, at 6:21 p.m., the board had voted to put him on paid administrative leave, the station reported.

Two nights later, the same board was set to hear written charges that one of its own members, Trustee Ken Montgomery, treated women on the town staff differently than men and created a hostile work environment. The board's resolution says the charges, if proven, could be grounds for removing him from office. The room was packed, and 18 of the 19 people who spoke during public comment backed Montgomery, Steamboat Radio reported. After public comment, the board set a status update for Dec. 2 so attorneys on both sides could discuss a possible resolution, the station reported.

The two matters are separate items on the board's agendas. Both follow July's resignations at Town Hall. That month, the town's administrator/clerk and its then-treasurer resigned after filing harassment complaints against Montgomery, Steamboat Radio and the Steamboat Pilot & Today reported at the time. Reid was hired into the job she left.

In four months, two senior town employees have resigned, the board has hired a replacement administrator and put him on leave, and it has charged one of its own trustees with misconduct. Both matters remain unresolved, with the town's top staff job in limbo and the case against Montgomery open at least into December.

The outcomes can't be checked against Yampa's own records. The town has posted no minutes for any of its 14 Town Board meeting dates since July 22, as of Thursday, so the outcomes in this story come from Steamboat Radio's reporting. The Independent is asking the town to confirm them.

Six weeks to a performance review

Reid's offer letter, dated Sept. 4 and on the board's Sept. 16 agenda for final approval, sets his pay at $72,027 a year, adds a $3,000 relocation stipend and makes him an at-will employee who reports to the board. It calls for his first performance review within an initial review period and "no later than the date six months for [sic] hire."

The board's special meeting to review his job performance came Oct. 28, 42 days after the meeting at which it hired him, by the Independent's count. The records don't say whether that was the review the letter describes; the letter allows one sooner than six months.

At that meeting, Mayor Stacey Geilert told Reid he regularly disappeared and did not seem to know his job duties, and Mayor Pro Tem Hailey Shoptaugh told him he needed a specific plan for mending relationships in town, Steamboat Radio reported. Geilert also said Reid had stepped into a hard job after the July resignations without the support he needed, and Montgomery and Trustee Sue Walker said he deserved a chance, the station reported. Reid acknowledged that his arrival had been disruptive from the start, said he appreciated the feedback and could work on it, and said he wanted to stay, according to the station.

The plan

The board asked Reid to draft his own improvement plan, Steamboat Radio reported. Instead, Geilert wrote one with Treasurer Jennifer Hewes. Geilert told the station that what she heard at the meeting convinced her Reid shouldn't draft his own. Hewes had been the town's interim administrator/clerk before Reid was hired, according to the draft resolution appointing him.

The plan in the board's Nov. 2 packet runs 30 days from its "Date Issued" of Nov. 2, with a "Mid-Point Review: November 16, 2026 or Before." It asks Reid to answer emails "within a 4 hour time frame," to be "at the office 7:30-4 Monday to Friday" and to "Allow staff to do their daily duties with no interference from the Clerk." It tells him not to change anything on the town's server or delete files without authorization, not to keep official records on personal computers or thumb drives, and to "Refrain from sharing personal information with the public and town staff." It also says, "Do not take credit for others' work."

Failure to improve by the mid-point review or the end of the 30 days "may result in additional disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment," the plan says. The signature lines for Reid and his supervisor are blank in the packet copy.

The packet also holds two emails that residents sent the mayor on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, after the performance review, urging the board to replace or fire Reid. One called the decision to give him another chance through a 30-day plan "another mistake." The other put it in capital letters: "CUT YOUR LOSSES SOONER THAN LATER!"

Steamboat Radio's reports differ on the plan's status. A Nov. 2 story said its approval came Friday, Oct. 30, the day Hewes sent it out, without saying who approved it; an earlier story said the board would review it at the Nov. 2 meeting. The Nov. 2 agenda listed "Consider Approval of Town Clerk/Administrator Job Performance Improvement Plan." The Independent is asking the town to clarify.

Sent home

When the board met Nov. 2, Geilert opened the discussion by proposing paid leave, according to Steamboat Radio. Walker said what she had learned about Reid's work over the previous week led her to support it, and Shoptaugh cited formal complaints from staff and the public, the station reported. The vote was 4-1, with Montgomery the only no; he said he had not spoken to staff, according to the station.

Geilert told Reid he is barred from town property, and town staff will cover his duties while he is on leave, the station reported. Reid thanked the board for the chance to work for the town and said he was looking ahead to whatever comes next, according to the station.

At the same meeting, Geilert and Montgomery clashed over staff working from home. Geilert said staff had told her they could not work in the office with Reid, so she let them work from home after confirming it with Shoptaugh, according to the station. When Montgomery asked who had approved that, Geilert said she had, to keep the town running, the station reported. Montgomery said she lacked the authority and that he hadn't been told, the station reported. A town employee on the Zoom call said he was the first board member she had called, and Geilert said she should have had each staff member tell each trustee, according to the station. Geilert also voiced frustration with the extra work she had taken on since the former administrator left.

The charges against Montgomery

The charges grew out of the complaints the administrator/clerk and then-treasurer filed before resigning, Steamboat Radio has reported. At the board's July 15 meeting, the administrator/clerk, who had held the job since 2020, read aloud a resignation letter that ran more than 11 minutes, accusing one board member of a pattern of discrimination, retaliation and treatment based on gender, Steamboat Radio reported. The town hired special counsel to investigate.

The board scheduled an executive session Oct. 1 to get legal advice on "options to address conduct identified as a result of a 3rd party investigation," its agenda shows. On Oct. 7, with Montgomery not voting, it adopted Resolution 2026-26, a written statement of charges against him, 4-0, Steamboat Radio reported.

The resolution, in a copy Steamboat Radio published, says the board authorized an outside investigation of whether Montgomery violated its code of conduct, treated town staff differently based on gender and created a hostile work environment, and that a summary of the investigation found the allegations "were substantiated."

Its first charge says Montgomery "committed malfeasance" by "repeatedly bringing up the termination of a former Town employee during public Board meetings," by "making false statements regarding an employee's engagement in illegal activity" and by "consistently and aggressively accusing two Town employees of wrongdoing."

The second accuses him of "treating women differently than men," "making negative gender-specific comments," "raising his voice at women" and "interrupting women." As examples, the resolution says the results of the investigation indicate that he questioned "the wages of [a] female employee" but then said the men are "earning their wages," and that he questioned the investigator about why he was being interviewed by a woman instead of a man.

The third says former employees described a workplace that the investigator found "objectively hostile and abusive," conduct that could support a hostile-work-environment claim under the state's Protecting Opportunities and Workers' Rights Act.

The board has made no finding on any of it. The Aug. 31 investigation report is confidential; the resolution authorized a limited waiver of attorney-client privilege so Montgomery or his lawyer could get a copy.

After a hearing, the resolution says, the board may find malfeasance and remove Montgomery effective immediately, find malfeasance and impose "another remedy" under its code of conduct, or find that the conduct "does not rise to the level of malfeasance" and that removal is not appropriate. It gives Montgomery the right to respond, to call and cross-examine witnesses, and to hire his own attorney. State law lets a statutory town board remove a trustee by a majority vote of all its members, but only after a written charge and a chance for a hearing.

When the resignations became public in July, Montgomery declined to comment to Steamboat Radio, then said he hoped the town could get past it, the station reported. He told the Pilot that he did not consider an elected official asking questions in a public forum to be harassment.

A packed room

The Nov. 4 agenda listed "A Hearing pursuant to CRS 31-4-307 and the Yampa Town Board Code of Conduct," with "Items to be handed-out at the meeting." Montgomery, who owns a store in Yampa, has hired attorneys Vance Halvorson and Tammy Stewart, Steamboat Radio reported.

The meeting room was packed, with more people listening online, and the meeting opened with public comment, according to the station. Nineteen people spoke, and all but one backed Montgomery, the station reported. Two Routt County sheriff's officers were there.

The attorney presenting the town's case then asked for a continuance so the lawyers could discuss a possible resolution, and Montgomery's attorneys said they wanted time to talk, according to the station. The board set a status update for 6 p.m. Dec. 2.

Montgomery thanked his supporters and said they would have to see how things go over the next month or so, adding that he hoped the attorneys could reach a conclusion without another big meeting, according to audio Steamboat Radio posted.

Missing minutes

The newest minutes Yampa has posted are from July 22; the July 15 meeting has none. Since July 22, the town has posted agendas or packets for 14 meeting dates and minutes for none of them, as of Thursday. They include the meetings at which the board hired Reid, adopted the charges against Montgomery, reviewed Reid's performance and put him on leave.

Draft minutes are usually approved at a later meeting, so the newest wouldn't be posted yet. But the Oct. 7 agenda listed draft minutes from Sept. 2, Sept. 16 and Oct. 1 for approval, and none are posted. Counting the whole year, 15 of the board's 27 meeting dates have no minutes on the town's website, by the Independent's count.

What's next

• Wed., Nov. 11: Steamboat Radio reported that a status report will be presented that day, without saying what it will cover or where. The town's website lists no meeting that day.
• By Mon., Nov. 16: the improvement plan's mid-point review, "or Before," if the plan still applies.
• Wed., Nov. 18, 6 p.m.: regular Town Board meeting, at Crossan's/Town Hall, 101 Main St., and on Zoom, meeting ID 872 7922 1896. Agendas set aside time for audience participation early in the meeting.
• Wed., Dec. 2, 6 p.m.: status update on the charges against Montgomery, Steamboat Radio reported. It is also 30 days after the plan's "Date Issued," by the Independent's calculation, and Steamboat Radio reported before the leave vote that the board would review Reid's plan again that day.

Agendas and packets are posted on the town's website, townofyampa.com, under Agenda and Board Packets.

Responses

The Independent is asking Mayor Stacey Geilert and the Town Board, and Montgomery, for comment, including when the board's minutes will be posted, and is trying to reach Reid. This story will be updated with their replies.

This story is based on Town of Yampa agendas and meeting packets; Resolution 2026-26, from a copy published by Steamboat Radio; and Steamboat Radio's and the Steamboat Pilot & Today's reporting on meetings for which the town has posted no minutes.