MCPH communications specialist Sarah Gray gave KREX more insight into why the 4 previously sitting public health board members resigned saying Mesa County Commissioners threatened to fire them because they refused to fire sitting health department executive director Jeff Kuhr. Commissioners wasted no time appointing replacements appointing founder of the local Joseph Center Mona Highline, Doctor Michael J. White, and ex-Mesa County Coroner and EMT Viktor Yahn to temporarily fill board seats until Mesa County commissioners say they will select new board members to serve 5-year terms.

A set of bylaws should ensure commissioners only select the most qualified candidates. But because some commissioners publicly released controversial stances against widely accepted public health policies there are legitimate questions left to answer. Among them, whether Mesa County Commissioners may ignore bylaws and play politics to choose future health board members, whether commissioners who planned to meet with former health board members about their potential termination ever had the legal right to fire board members without cause in the first place and finally, whether commissioners will push prior attempts to fire director Jeff Kuhr on new board members even after the district attorney has found commissioner’s claims of potential misuse of funds unworthy of prosecution.