CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Douglas County commissioner Lora Thomas has resigned from her position on the board, just five-and-a-half weeks before the end of her second and final term, claiming she was “forced out” of her post by fellow commissioners.
Thomas announced the decision in a Friday news release, which was accompanied by a press conference she held without informing her colleagues.
"I’ve been the target of unrelenting attacks and harassment and vindictive punishment by my two fellow commissioners which culminated last week when they ordered staff to evict me from my office," Thomas said Friday.
Thomas said the decision came after she was ordered on Wednesday to vacate her office space by Dec. 9 in order to make it available for State Senator and commissioner-elect Kevin Van Winkle, who in November was elected to replace Thomas. Fellow commissioners George Teal and Abe Laydon jointly made the order, the press release said.
In her Friday announcement, Thomas questioned the "appropriateness" and legality of the decision to open county office space to Van Winkle, who remains a sitting state senator.
Douglas County’s three commissioners, who collectively act as the county’s policy-making board, are limited to two terms. Thomas’s term had been set to end on Jan. 14.
"It has always been my intent to fill out my term to the very end," she said. "But I find it utterly impossible to serve the people who elected me."
Thomas, Teal and Laydon are all Republicans. Teal and Laydon sent the following statement to Denver7 in response to Thomas's resignation:
"It is tragic that our censured colleague with whom we made countless attempts at reconciliation, chose to repeatedly violate our policy manual, and then host a press conference when the County was honoring the Kendrick Castillo family. It is entirely normal and customary after a November election for boxes to move, and transitions to begin. We are thankful for the peace, positivity and collaboration that Commissioner-elect Kevin Van Winkle will bring to Douglas County."
- Watch Thomas's entire Friday announcement in the video player below:
For the last eight years, Thomas represented Douglas County District 3, which is located in the northwestern corner of the county and includes Highlands Ranch.
Thomas’s resignation, which is effective Friday, marks the end of a tumultuous few years rife with conflict with her fellow commissioners. In 2022, she was suspended as chair of the board following a politically charged kerfuffle over a water project and questions about her conduct. In 2023, Thomas sued Teal and Laydon for legal fees she incurred defending herself during investigations conducted by the county, according to The Denver Post.
In the press release announcing her resignation, Thomas referred to the infighting as “a four-year onslaught of false accusations, slurs, defamation, harassing and baseless investigations, suppression, censorship, marginalization and outright cancellation as a duly-elected county commissioner.”
Earlier this year, a report from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment found Thomas and the other commissioners violated state labor laws by discouraging employees to vote on a collective bargaining agreement with the state’s Fraternal Order of Police.
Thomas was elected county commissioner in 2016. Prior to that, she served as the Douglas County coroner.
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