Park County tables Cook City Water District resort-tax request after missing invoice documentation

Chair opened the Park County Board of Commissioners meeting March 11, 2026, to consider Culver Pass/Cook City/Silver Gate area resort-tax applications for 2026. The board paused action on one application after staff and public commenters identified inconsistent figures and missing invoice documentation.

Eric Strickland, finance director, told the commission the county had $302,882.80 available for the round and read a list of applications. He flagged one item — a Cook City Water District request listed in the packet as $18,548.81 — as having conflicting numbers in the record and said staff could not find a clear original invoice or proof of payment tied to that amount.

Lindsay Charleston, a Cook City Water District board member, said the district’s underlying principal was $13,000 and that accrued finance charges had increased the total to roughly $18,000. She said the district had previously asked the sewer board to split responsibility and that the water district would accept a $9,000 compromise if the commission wished to resolve the matter sooner: “If the commissioners are willing to pay that, we would accept the 9,000.”

Multiple participants and commissioners said they were seeing different figures in the packet and in email correspondence — the finance director cited numbers including $9,000, $5,400, $13,000 and $18,548.81 — and several speakers said they could not find a vendor invoice authorizing the engineering work the charge covered. Vic Taber, who had followed Sewer Board discussions, said the public assumes the work was performed but that the sewer board had been unable to locate a written authorization: “The only question on the Sewer Board was documentation and being able to stand an audit on where the $9,000 was authorized.” Bill Grover, also a local participant, backed that account and urged the commission to obtain paperwork.

Staff suggested contacting the engineering firm (Performance/Performance EC) or revisiting the email record to produce invoices; other staff said Mary Anne had provided some invoice copies but that discrepancies remained between those copies and the figures presented in the application materials.

Commissioner Jen Vermillion moved to table the Cook City Water District application for one month so all parties could review the same documentation; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote. The chair said staff and applicants should reconcile invoices and proof of payment before the item returns to the board.

The meeting proceeded to consider and approve the rest of the applications.