Two Ouray County commissioners publicly reprimanded their fellow commissioner after discovering she secretly recorded an executive session last week. Portions of the audio from that executive session show Commissioner Lynn Padgett initially denied recording the closed-door meeting on her personal cellphone, but later admitted she did it to help her process information due to health problems she blamed on the air quality in county facilities. The meeting, which was held March 24 behind closed doors to discuss ongoing litigation, included the commissioners, County Attorney Leo Caselli and some county staff.

During a special meeting Monday, commissioners Jake Niece and Michelle Nauer read aloud prepared statements about the incident and shared concerns about Padgett’s behavior, then voted to censure her.

Padgett apologized but also argued she needed to record the private meeting with the county attorney because of her “brain fog” and other health challenges, which she alleged are caused by exposure to mold at two county facilities. She had an air purifier perched on the chair next to her in the meeting on Monday.

She also brought up the county’s investigation into a complaint lodged against her by the road and bridge superintendent in fall 2024, something she has done repeatedly since the complaint was filed.

A voice coming from Padgett’s personal cellphone alerted the other meeting participants to the recording during the executive session. Padgett admitted to recording the session after she was confronted, according to segments of the executive session recording released to the Plaindealer in response to a public records request.

Niece and Nauer also formally voted to release part of that recording to the Plaindealer during Monday’s meeting, after the newspaper asked the commissioners to release sections not pertaining to the litigation elected officials are allowed to discuss secretly with their attorney.

Padgett abstained from voting on releasing a portion of the recording, saying she didn’t think the commissioners should set a precedent by making that decision and it should instead be left to the county’s normal administrative process. She voted against the censure, saying the resolution inaccurately depicted her intent.

‘There is no nefarious intent. No confidentiality was breached. Public trust was breached. No retention policy was violated,” Padgett said.

Commissioners confront Padgett

The agenda for the special meeting on Monday listed a possible executive session for the commissioners to meet privately, but Nauer and Niece said they wanted to have a public discussion. Niece said meeting behind closed doors would “just cause more questions than would be necessary, and I just don’t think there’s a legal justification for it.”

Nauer’s written comments expressed frustration with Padgett’s conduct, echoing statements she made in November when she asked Padgett to take a “timeout” and attend meetings remotely, citing concerns with combative and defensive behavior, bullying and micromanaging, among other frustrations.

“I’m appalled at the unprofessional, calculating, cunning behavior,” she said.

She again asked Padgett to attend meetings remotely “until things cool down,” and said she wanted all future communication with her to be in writing, via email or text, with “nothing verbal outside of regular meetings, unless witnessed by others.”

She asked for Padgett to no longer perform staff evaluations or reviews “due to your lack of sensitivity and intimidations.”

She also asked Padgett to only use county equipment for county business, and asked for her to be banned from all future executive sessions.

Nauer also questioned Padgett’s intentions behind her recording of the executive session.

“I feel your actions were obviously intentional and ultimately unforgivable,” Nauer said.

She also said she is no longer willing to participate in a retreat with Padgett, as requested by Padgett’s supporters who said they want the commissioners to get along.

“You and your supporters pleaded to have a retreat to repair and rebuild trust amongst the BOCC and the staff not long ago, and I agreed to honor that request for facilitation, but after your disrespectful behavior, I will not agree to it again,” Nauer said. “It is you that must keep your aggression and allegations and false beliefs in check.”

In addition to written comments, Niece came prepared with a draft resolution to censure Padgett for her behavior in the March 24 executive session.

“Since this is a matter of a commissioner violating county policy and statutory fiduciary duty, there is no higher authority to address these violations than the Board of County Commissioners as a body,” Niece said. “Commissioners cannot be disciplined in normal ways that a non-elected employee can be, and can only be removed by recall election or resignation.”

He said the other commissioners have a duty to document the violations and “make clear that these are the actions of one commissioner and do not reflect the standard of ethics we hold ourselves to.”

Niece’s resolution to censure Padgett detailed her “surreptitiously recording the executive session on her personal mobile phone.”

It also said Padgett “lied to the executive session participants when directly asked if she was recording the executive session.” The resolution also cited multiple violations of county policy and a state statute about public trust and legal and ethical standards of acting in the best interest of the county.

The portions of the executive session recording released to the Plaindealer include Padgett making accusations against others in the room after she was confronted about her secret recording.

“I just have to ask, are you recording this conversation or is AI listening to this conversation?” Niece asked her. Padgett’s response is garbled, but she referred to something going on with Zoom on her computer and mentioned her headphones and a microphone button on her computer screen.

Niece asked her again how the AI voice happened in response to their conversation, and Nauer pointed out it came from Padgett’s phone.

“I record for myself so I can keep track of these meetings because I’m sick of being told that I remember things wrong … I’m making my own recording of (the) executive session to put on my Google Drive,” Padgett said.

Caselli told them third-party recordings are against county policy and could jeopardize the confidentiality of the executive session. He asked Padgett to turn over that recording and any others so they could be deleted.

County Manager Antonio Mendez asked Padgett how long she had been recording these executive sessions. She denied recording any before the March 24 meeting.

During the executive session, Padgett argued with others about making her own recordings as an accommodation, before Niece redirected them to continue with the subject they should be discussing behind closed doors.

Caselli and Mendez said they witnessed Padgett delete her unauthorized recording immediately after the executive session, at their request.

Padgett’s response

Padgett initially responded during the meeting on Monday by apologizing, before attempting to justify her actions and arguing.

“I apologize for breaking a rule,” she said.

She called it a “one-off attempt at self-accommodation on an extremely bad day” and said she had not yet recovered from the exposure to the air quality in the 4-H Center.

She described her mental state that day as poor.

“I wonder if this is how people get behind the wheel of a car when they are drunk driving and they are just in denial of the level of impairment because they don’t feel it,” she said.

She said she didn’t understand how the voice came out of her phone.

“I don’t understand how that voice came about responding to rhetorical questions in the room,” she said, adding that she did not share the recording with others, a concern Niece raised.

“I was not transmitting information illegally for anything, any robots or any third-party actors or states or countries outside of our executive session,” she said, calling it a “lack of judgment.”

She then explained she has been “far too private” with her health problems, and said she has “toxicity issues” with two county buildings where the commissioners hold meetings — the 4-H Center and the courthouse.

She shared her diagnosis of chronic inflammatory response syndrome and said it comes with many symptoms including problems with breathing, concentration and memory issues and difficulty seeing.

She also said she was afraid to share her health issues because of the past handling of the investigation “and because of having a different truth than others.”

She said her health challenges started in 2022 after the pandemic. She first attributed them to long COVID, but then was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition in 2025.

She provided the group with printed test results of mold and biotoxins she said she personally conducted at both facilities in October 2025. Separate tests of both facilities show levels of one type of mold, aspergillus versicolor, which she said affects people with her condition who are exposed. She said her symptoms were especially bad during the executive session and said she was seeing black spots, calling it “an all-time low.”

“I was not present in vision, in mind, in mood. I was not present, and this is on me,” she said.

During the recording of the executive session, Padgett also said she was recording the meeting because she hadn’t been able to get recordings of executive sessions from Caselli in the past.

“You’ve never asked,” Caselli said in the recording.

Padgett repeated that claim during Monday’s meeting, saying she wasn’t able to get a recording of an executive session from September.

On Monday, Padgett also alleged her colleagues have denied her requests for accommodations for her health conditions in the past.

“I think we can remember when I asked to get a blanket and was denied,” Padgett said about a past county meeting when she said she was having trouble regulating her body temperature.

Both Nauer and Niece shook their heads in response. She also said she didn’t feel she had all the necessary doctor’s notes ready to ask for accommodations.

Padgett told the Plaindealer she has not attended meetings remotely, despite believing the exposure to the county meeting locations has adversely affected her health, because she’s experimenting with portable air filtration systems. She also said she doesn’t believe she can do her job as effectively when attending remotely.

During Monday’s meeting, Niece said the county could conduct mold testing and perform mitigation if necessary before redirecting the conversation to Padgett’s unauthorized recording.

Other recordings

Padgett on Monday repeatedly denied recording or possessing other recordings of executive sessions. She also denied having more recordings during last week’s executive session and in response to a public records request filed with her by the Plaindealer.

But in all three cases, Padgett said she recorded a phone call between her, Caselli and former County Manager Connie Hunt about hiring her own legal representation during the investigation into the harassment complaint Road and Bridge Superintendent Ty Barger filed against her in 2024.

Padgett said she recorded that conversation when they called her to inform her of Barger’s complaint. It was not an executive session.

“I do have baggage over how the investigation was handled,” she said Monday, again raising the issue of how she hired her own attorney, which she tried to bill the county $11,000 for and was rejected.

Padgett has cited that phone call repeatedly over the last 18 months, long after a third-party investigation did not make conclusive findings about whether Padgett harassed Barger or created a hostile work environment.

“I have a recording of you telling me to get my own attorney. I do have that recording,” she said in the executive session. “And I will play it publicly if I need to.”

The others asked again if she had other executive session recordings.

At several points in the executive session, Niece and Caselli tried to redirect others and said they were off-topic for the private meeting. The group briefly discussed what they needed to address in public and what the next step would be.

“I don’t know if we need to have another executive session about the integrity of executive sessions. I don’t know if we’re allowed to do that,” Mendez said.

“No,” Caselli responded. Padgett then returned to accusing Caselli of being dishonest with her and brought up the investigation again.

“Lynn, you’re the one who just violated all our trust right here,” Niece said.

Padgett provided the Plaindealer a copy of her recording of the conversation with Hunt and Caselli in response to a public records request.

In that recording, Caselli informed Padgett of the complaint and advised her to get her own counsel.

“I was following a direct order from the county attorney,” she said Monday.

“The fact that I have that recording, I cannot be told it did not happen, no matter how many times it’s been denied at these meetings,” she said.

Niece redirected the commissioners to handle their current business, considering the resolution to censure Padgett. She continued to argue about her intent and said she was making her own recording to “better serve the public.” She said the resolution implied there was nefarious intent, which she denied.

Censure and other consequences

Niece and Nauer’s censure of Padgett is largely a symbolic gesture, expressing disappointment and publicly admonishing her.

They also directed Padgett to only communicate with Caselli in writing, as he requested for his “personal protection,” referring to ongoing conflict.

Padgett asked for all the commissioners to be held to that same standard, but they didn’t agree.

Nauer and Niece instead addressed broader issues with Padgett’s behavior and potential further consequences.

Niece said he consulted with the county’s outside legal counsel, Chris McAnany, who specializes in employment law, about the censure resolution and next steps.

McAnany recommended that the board address Nauer’s broader issues concerning Padgett’s conduct, such as having her attend meetings remotely, at a future meeting.

Click here to watch the recording of the Ouray County commissioners’ special meeting on March 30. Note: the audio in this meeting was not working for the first four minutes.

Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.