Dear editor:

I found Mr. Bell’s letter of June 4, 2026 interesting, yet disappointing. He brings out a single issue that took place during a meeting of the Republican Party, a meeting to select a replacement for a retiring assessor. However, he leaves out other significant issues which would leave one to scratch their head about.

He alleged the “task that was marred by an inaccurate voting count — trying to keep Terry Call’s name from being forwarded to the commissioners”. Not so, I’m sorry. Had Mr. Bell been present his perspective would have been his and not one provided by his spouse.

However, what we in the Republican Party experienced was the outgoing assessor “lecturing” us on who we should pick to be his successor as if this was a royal succession. It was that lecturing which set the tone for the upcoming selection process.

As such, numerous people came forward to throw their hat in the ring, all of whom met the qualifications for the position. Yet, they had not been given the blessing of the outgoing assessor and as such were not deemed worthy by the chosen few.

The process took place and yes there were issues. Nonetheless, a process took place, three names were selected, and presented to the board of county commissioners.

This is where it gets wonky. At that meeting to select three people for replacement there were three county commissioners present. Yes, three county commissioners participated in the process to vote on replacement names while they were precinct committee members. Yet they were also the very people who would make the ultimate decision to choose a replacement, or in this case, punt the decision to a district court judge to make the decision despite their statutorily mandated duty. Also, complicated by the fact they were in a quorum of the board of county commissioners at a Republican Party meeting to decide the very issue which would be coming before them a couple of days later.

Also, there were a number of persons confusing the process of tallying the votes by taking photos, trying to engage in conversations with the tellers while they were counting ballots, these were lawyers, commissioners, school board members (past and present), and other “prominent persons” in Park County confusing the situation. It appeared and was most likely premeditated, but just my opinion based on observation.

Moving forward, one county commissioner requested the ballots to help him make his own decision for the upcoming meeting. Why is that even proper? After some considerable pushback he relented and withdrew his request.

What we had at that point was the Park County Board of County Commissioners had not declared a conflict at the Republican Party meeting to select persons for presentation to the commissioners to select one to fill a vacancy. Instead, they directly injected themselves in the process and the BOCC chair invited the then PCRP chairman to come before them and have him speak against the votes cast by the members of the Park County Republican Party. Essentially overturing the will of the people.

It gets better: As soon as the commissioners voted down the three names and decided to punt their statutory duty to the district courts, Mr. Bell’s spouse presented a legal document to the chair of the county commissioners, petitioning the court to take action to appoint a replacement.  Right after the vote! A multi-page legal document prepared by an attorney, who happens to be on the central committee, for Mr. Bell’s spouse. Talk about a task being marred. The fix was in! This legal document was prepared in advance of the vote! I had no idea so many people had the ability to foretell the future, and to do so accurately.

Later after submitting an open records request, I learned the aforementioned legal document, which the chair of the county commissioners accepted was sent back to Mr. Bell’s spouse, when I don’t know (I guess that was not part of the script).

Mr. Call is a very competent assessor, and his credentials are without dispute.

Sadly, we see a criticism of a statutory requirement of a process for a major political party being eviscerated more than a year and half after the fact and the actual atrocities of what took place in the background ignored.

Moving forward, we do have a change in leadership in place. Processes within the Party are moving very well and I do not see a repeat of the mistakes of January 2025. In fact, we recently had a vote, with paper ballots, and a hand count that was flawless!

I wish Mr. Bell, a neighbor of only a few blocks away, had returned my phone call so we could have had a conversation about this. Thus, here we are playing dueling letters.

Vince Vanata

Cody