By Peggy Carey
On Monday August 18, submitted the signatures needed to put the recall on the ballot for November. They needed 4540 signatures to get the recall on the ballot, and the grassroots coalition turned in 4,942 valid signatures. –editor—
When carpetbagger and Montrose County Commissioner Scott Mijares is called out on his misconduct, he is often heard to trill: ‘but I have a mandate, I was elected by 18,000 people’. One minor factor that Scotty fails to mention is that he ran unopposed. (The Montrose Democratic party did not stand one candidate in any race in the 2024 election cycle).
Scott Mijares is from Florida, by way of Hawaii. It’s not difficult to trace his travels because of the trail of destruction he left behind. In case number 96-1043 Civ-Ord-19, Mijares entered into a consent decree that resulted in a permanent injunction prohibiting him from engaging in any SEC trading, using any means of communication or transport to sell securities, and engaging in any fraud (well, duh). In Hawaii, he was involved in an altercation that resulted in an assault charge.
That seems like ancient history when compared with the chaos he has sown since taking office as a County Commissioner. In what appeared to be a MAGA-like move, Mijares, acting in concert with his sycophant, Sean Pond, asked for the resignations of the County Manager, Frank Rodriguez, and County Attorney Marti Whitmore, and refused to fix a clerical error in the hiring of the county health officer, Mizra Ahmed, resulting in the termination of his contract. (They relented on this after the public went ballistic and allowed Ahmed to remain as “interim health officer’).
The greatest irony of this racist-appearing move is that Mijares, pronounced with a hard J, is of Venezuelan descent.
Montrose is a county where the partisan divide runs deep, but where civility and respect have been the rule of the day. After the county commissioners hired a locally known rabble rouser, David White, as “interim county manager,” Don Gladwell, former Mayor and city council member of Montrose, wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper, decrying the actions of Scotty Mijares and his sidekick, and calling on the community to get rid of them.
Luckily the effort was already underway; Recall Commissioner Scott Mijares, a bipartisan recall effort, was launched July 15, 2025, the first date that Scotty was eligible to be recalled. The grounds cited in campaign literature include lack of transparency by making decisions in secret meetings as prohibited by 24-6-402 C.R.S.; poor fiscal responsibility including pointing out that half a million dollars has been spent on severance packages and unnecessary outside legal fees; and violation of the public trust by limiting public comment, and often closing public comment completely, on important issues, sowing chaos, and creating a toxic and fearful workplace. The last of these items has resulted in the loss of two long term employees, Emily Sanchez, assistant county manager, and, most recently, Lesley Quon’s resignation as interim county manager, although she kept her job as HR director. Ms. Quon was quoted as saying she had been harassed and that she feared retaliation.
The Recall Commissioner Scott Mijares movement is moving along at warp speed. The committee reports that they are 55% of the way to their goal in the first two weeks of gathering signatures, and that they are on the fourth printing of the petitions. By statute they must gather signatures constituting 25% of the total votes cast for a candidate in the previous election. Using Scotty’s declaration that he received 18,000 votes, the committee needs to gather 4,500 signatures. Circulators have been active, and the committee has presences at all public events. More information on the committee’s efforts can be found at recallscottmijares.com, including calendars of places and times to sign.
Scotty is not taking the challenge to his “mandate” well. At a public event, he was seen confronting one of the circulators and haranguing people trying to sign. At the July 17, 2025 commissioner’s meeting, he began defending himself against the allegations in the recall petition during public comment time. When fellow commissioner Sue Hansen tried to speak up, saying “It’s not appropriate to talk about a recall in the county meeting,”
Mijares, the body’s chairman, began tapping his gavel. “We have rules,” Hansen said as Mijares declared her out of order. Hansen turned to the county attorney for a ruling. Despite the county attorney’s caution that the item had not been noticed, Scotty’s tantrum continued, where he blamed everyone but himself for the current situation, ironically not seeing that he was demonstrating the behavior that brought this all about.
While the video of the meeting is being widely shared as an example of Mijares’ tantrum-like behavior, to me, as someone who started out as a public defender/criminal lawyer, it shows something far more sinister. This is a man who does not believe he has to conform to any rule or moral imperative. Who, in fact, is willing to use his public position to his own benefit, using the rules not for the purpose intended but to restate his unsupported position.
For more information on this issue be sure to visit recallscottmijares.com.
The Revolutionist 