WEEK OF NOVEMBER 21, 2024
VOLUME 23 | ISSUE 38
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Douglas County students to join Macy’s parade State rules that county officials broke labor law Sheriff, commissioners deny any violations in their anti-union push BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
“It was amazing. It’s like one of the best communities of people that I’ve been in,” Marriott said of the other student musicians she performed with during last year’s parade. Arriving in New York a few days before the parade, Marriott said putting on what has become the iconic red-andwhite uniform for the first time was both cool and surreal.
After the Douglas County sheriff sent a stream of anti-union emails to employees and held mandatory “captive audience” meetings — and the county commissioners released a YouTube video using public funds to oppose the effort to form a union at the sheriff ’s office — the state Labor Department has found that county officials illegally committed unfair labor practices. Several top officials took part in opposing the effort to unionize. The state Labor Department found that Sheriff Darren Weekly, Undersheriff David Walcher, and county Commissioners George Teal, Abe Laydon and Lora Thomas committed unfair labor practices. “Indeed, the Commissioners’ claims included an embellishment about how the community as a whole would suffer if the employees formed a union,” the ruling from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment says. “In this context, it is clear that these many comments amounted to a threat that the Commissioners would respond unfavorably to union demands.” For months, county officials have been fighting a proposal to unionize the Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office, a change that would enable employees to negotiate salaries, benefits and other aspects of their jobs through collective bargaining. It’s a fight that’s taking place in a new legal environment. Douglas is one of several counties across the state where employees have voted for, or are considering, unionizing their sheriff ’s office, a possibility allowed by a 2022 state law called the Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act, according to attorney Sean McCauley, general counsel for the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council. Those counties include Arapahoe, Boulder and Elbert on the Front Range, along with more remote counties Grand, Las Animas and La
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SEE LABOR LAW, P6
Douglas County’s Katherine Whitmore, Austin Gorman and Audra Marriott will be traveling to New York to perform with the Great American Marching COURTESY OF TERI WHITMORE Band in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Three selected for Great American Marching Band BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Trading in their black and green marching band uniforms for bright red, three Douglas County students are headed to the Big Apple to perform with the Great American March-
ing Band in the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “It’s quite unlike anything I think anyone really has the opportunity to do,” said Austin Gorman, a senior at Castle Rock’s Castle View High School. Gorman spent the entirety of his high school career playing the trumpet, rising to drum major by his senior year. Joining him to perform in the parade this year are Audra
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Marriott and Katherine Whitmore, who both attend ThunderRidge High School in Highlands Ranch. While playing with the Continental League Honor Band with other Douglas County student musicians, Gorman learned about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade audition process from Marriott, a senior who plays the trumpet, who was selected to play in the parade in 2023.
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