County sets administrator's start date after check delay
Montezuma County commissioners called a special meeting Thursday afternoon over what the county's own agenda called a significantly delayed background check, and voted to have Michael Rime start Monday.
The Montezuma County commissioners held a special meeting on Thursday afternoon to settle when the county’s incoming administrator can start, and voted to have him begin on Monday.
The county published a one-item agenda for the 3 p.m. meeting: “Prospective County Administrator Michael Rime start date; significantly delayed outstanding background check from California.” The county did not say what the check covers, why it has been delayed, or what remains outstanding, and nothing in the agenda or the recording describes any finding, allegation or concern about Mr. Rime.
On the county’s recording of the meeting, one commissioner asks whether the start date should carry a contingency, and whether the background check has cleared. It has not. One commissioner says that if the check came back negative, the board would need to have a discussion about it; another answers that county policy already provides for that. The board does not attach a contingency, and one commissioner says the county simply needs to make a start.
A motion was then made and seconded to set the start date for Monday, Nov. 9. The board called the vote and aye votes are audible on the recording, with no audible opposition. The county’s captions run out before the chair states the result, so the Cortez Current could not hear a tally and is not reporting one. One commissioner says during the discussion that Mr. Rime has already been told the date.
The county has not posted a written notice about the meeting or the vote, and its minutes are usually approved and posted one to two weeks after a meeting. The Current is taking the start date from the motion as it was read on the recording; the county has published no written confirmation of it.
How the county got here
The commissioners announced on Sept. 22 that Mr. Rime had been selected as the finalist for county administrator, and held a public event to introduce him to residents and county employees at the commissioners’ meeting room on Oct. 6. The county administrator runs the county’s departments day to day and reports to the three commissioners.
The commissioners have been working through a budget season, a flood recovery and an election in the meantime; the county’s 2027 proposed budget went up for public review in October.
Thursday’s meeting ran about seven minutes on the county’s YouTube channel, most of it before and after the business. The agenda, the video and the vote are the only public record of the decision so far.
Sources: Montezuma County, “Montezuma County BOCC Workshop November 5, 2026,” meeting video and published agenda · Montezuma County news release, September 2026