In late August, the duly elected Adams County commissioners followed Douglas County’s elected commissioners in opting out of the excessive school mask mandate issued by the unelected bureaucrats at the Tri-County Health Department.

Just days later – and a day before the elected Arapahoe County commissioners was set to meet and consider their own opt-out measure – Lucy pulled the football out from under us.  TCHD voted 5-3 to expand its original order and rescind each county’s ability to opt-out.

As I wrote then, “An unelected body of bureaucrats just voted to strip power from elected officials in Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties to make decisions on behalf of their county and voters.”

In arrogantly overruling elected county commissioners and school boards alike, TCHD was both astounding in its audacity and stunning in its hubris.

“We must now take the statutory responsibility and authority given to us by the Colorado Legislature to reduce the spread of communicable diseases and keep our communities safe,” declared Dr. John Douglas, TCHD’s Royal Executive Director.

Back in April 2020 – when the lockdowns were raging, in what now feels like another lifetime – I interviewed Douglas on my KNUS radio show.  While I appreciated his time, I was struck with one inescapable conclusion: He had never once completed a cost-benefit analysis for his policies.

Now, a year and a half later, it’s even clearer: Douglas still hasn’t completed – has never even considered – a meaningful cost-benefit analysis for his actions.

During the lockdowns and partial shutdowns of Spring and Fall 2020, the costs of government restrictions were massive, including but not limited to (as I listed in November):

Excessive job losses and lost wages;

• Permanent loss of businesses in our communities;
• Life-shattering mental health strain;
• Dramatic spikes in life-sapping substance abuse;
• Increased domestic abuse of partners and children;
• Incalculable setbacks in young children’s academic, social and interpersonal growth due to inferior remote learning;
• Irreparable cracks in public confidence in our leaders;
• And so much more.

Later, when the debate over TCHD’s school mask mandates raged in August 2021, they again ignored the harm their decisions would have on children as young as 2 years old.  I documented how the mandates would “stifle children’s emotional growth even more” than pandemic policies already had by pointing to multiple studies and scientific articles (which predated COVID-19) on the critical role of learning to read facial expressions in a young child’s development, especially in a “situational context” such as “that of a school environment.”

Alas, TCHD overruled the will of elected officials and their constituents and discounted the shaky nature of the scientific evidence for masking young children, irrespective of the “potential academic and social harms for children.”

“Will the commissioners in Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties allow this usurpation of their authority to go unanswered?” I asked.  “Or will they firmly rebuke TCHD for their excesses by refusing to implement the order within county boundaries – or, even better, vote to withdraw from TCHD altogether?”

I first posed the idea of leaving TCHD on April 25, 2020, following my radio interview with Douglas.  The Facebook response was palpable, but it’s best summed up by the words of my wise friend, Keith Nobles: “We need to rethink all of this and what power we give unelected bureaucrats.”

Following TCHD’s usurpation of elected officials with their mask mandate for children as young as 2 – at all schools as well as childcare centers – it didn’t take long for DougCo’s commissioners to unanimously vote to withdraw.  Adams County soon followed, leaving Arapahoe with no choice but to set up its own health department as well.

While it’s plausible a county may seek great public health powers in the future, this is an important moment in resetting the balance of governance in Colorado.  As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51, “[Y]ou must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

For far too long, TCHD has embodied government uncontrolled.  Now, elected officials in three Colorado counties – who are directly accountable to the people – are retaking their rightful authority.

The demise of Tri-County Health has been a long time coming.  For a year and a half, they refused to consider the plethora of harms their policies were inflicting, focusing solely on their perceived (and oftentimes dubious) benefits.  They defied the elected officials – county commissioners – who appointed them.  And executive director Douglas, chose to use force rather than persuasion, while failing to offer any meaningful reassurance or semblance of compassion.

In truth, TCHD’s own policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic led to its end.  Its board and its executive director have no one to blame but themselves.

As Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas Counties begin forming their own health departments, it is imperative they remember the right lessons from TCHD’s collapse.  They must also keep Dr. John Douglas and his fellow Tri-County Tyrants leading it far away from the new agencies.