Potterat wasn't allowed in the schools on the north side of town, the district in which Focus on the Family has its national headquarters. "If you believe in monogamous, heterosexual marriage, you don't pass out condoms," declared Paul Jessen, executive director of Colorado for Family Values.
Muth complained about the growing influence of CFV and other groups. He defended Potterat and kept his programs in the budget. But finally he tired of the fight and submitted his letter of resignation. The next day, he received a six-point memorandum from the board of health demanding sweeping changes within the department.
A helping hand: Dr. Tisha Dowe learned early to take responsibility.
Anthony Camera
A helping hand: Dr. Tisha Dowe learned early to take responsibility.
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Although Muth contends he knew nothing about that memo until after he'd resigned, in his resignation letter he cited "a limited ability to speak openly on politically charged health issues" as one of the reasons for his departure.
Muth stayed on in a voluntary capacity while the board searched for his replacement. So when the board of commissioners attempted to disband the board of health and take direct control of the health department, he was still around to protest.
The commissioners claimed they wanted to disband the board because it lacked proper financial oversight and had allowed the health department to overspend its budget. In reality, the department had garnered more revenue than expected and, following tradition if not sound financial practices, had given it to some of its programs without first conferring with the board.
The department's defenders noted that such transfers were not a new practice and charged that the commissioners were using it now only as an excuse to disband the board and impose their social agenda on the department.
Shortly before the budget battle began, the Colorado Springs Gazette had published an article about a gay and lesbian teen support group that happened to meet in a health-department building. Will Perkins, a longtime Colorado Springs car dealer and chairman of the CFV, protested the use of tax dollars for such a purpose.
Kathleen Gamblin, a nurse, social worker and rare liberal voice on the health board, contended that Perkins's letter had inspired the commissioners' complaints about the department overspending its budget. But their real goal, she said, was to do away with programs like condom distribution. "You cannot be a health-care giver and allow your moral beliefs to enter into the type of health care you deliver," she said.
County commissioner Duncan Bremer countered that some department employees, as well as their liberal supporters, were trying to prevent Christian groups from having a voice in public-health policy. He denied that the commissioners wanted to abolish the health board in order to influence the department's programming.
There needed to be a separation between the department and the county commissioners so that the former could deal with epidemics such as AIDS or other issues like the transportation and storage of hazardous wastes without political pressure, Muth said. He was backed by more than 200 people who showed up at the next county commissioners' meeting.
In the face of that opposition, the commissioners backed down. But their critics -- who soon formed the watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Responsible County Government -- worried that they would just look for another way to impose their will.
In March 1997, the board voted to hire Dr. Steven Englender to replace Muth. Three other candidates had already turned down the job.
Nine months later, Concerned Citizens for Responsible County Government were up in arms again when the county commissioners broke a fifty-year tradition and replaced the only physician on the health board, Dr. Ray Stecker, with dentist and former Republican county commissioner Harvey Veith. His appointment was made over the objections of the El Paso County Medical Society.
Bremer answered his critics by saying that the health board had been unwilling to listen to Christian groups regarding public-health decisions. He had no idea of Veith's religious leanings, he added.
In June 1998, attorney Robert LaBree, a former Drug Enforcement Administration administrator, resigned from the health board, and Muth applied to fill the opening. There should be a physician on the board, he said, and he was the one most qualified given his knowledge of the department and public-health issues, as well as his national connections.
But Bremer and fellow commissioner Betty Beedy were pushing another candidate: Dr. Brian Olivier, a physician-volunteer with Focus on the Family who was on the staff of the anti-abortion Colorado Springs Pregnancy Center. Bremer acknowledged that Muth was "highly qualified" but said it was too soon after his resignation as director of the department for him to be involved in department policy-making.
Concerned Citizens saw Olivier's candidacy as another attempt to control the health department. "This is the strategy of the Christian right," said group spokesman Dr. John Burrington. "Their intent nationwide is to take over school boards and boards of public health because of issues like abortion, gay and lesbian support groups and AIDS intervention."
On June 30 the commissioners appointed Dr. Jack Dillon, director of emergency services for Penrose-St. Francis Healthcare, to the opening, a move that didn't satisfy Concerned Citizens. They were still worried about what would happen when Kathleen Gamblin came up for reappointment in December.
