The civil suit filed against the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) and Todd Starr, the county’s legal counsel, has been dismissed by the four residents who recently filed it.
The suit was filed on Oct. 29 by a group of four Archuleta County residents — Greg Giehl, Stephen Keno, Richy White and David West — and involved the legality of the county’s contract with Starr’s law firm, Rose Walker Starr LLP.
More specifically, the case concerned Starr, the former staff attorney for the county, immediately transitioning into the role of contract attorney for the county through the law firm, for which he is now a managing partner.
However, the plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss the suit on Nov. 17 and presented the commissioners with a copy of the motion to dismiss at the BoCC’s regular meeting on the same day.
The motion to dismiss was signed by half of the plaintiffs — Keno and West. West reported that Giehl and White signed the document Wednesday.
The motion to dismiss cites “Personal decisions by each of plaintiffs” as the reason for the dismissal.
“Well, there’s several reasons, one of which, probably the most important, is we figured all they would do was play games based on a civil suit,” West said in an interview regarding the dismissal. “They were in a better position to play games and stretch this out forever than we were.”
West noted that the group is pursuing other avenues in regards to Starr’s contract, but declined to comment further.
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