Last week, Summer Gathercole's seemingly final resignation was officially announced (she has resigned from the BHA three times, documented by JFM in previous drops). According to sources within the JFM network, Gathercole's departure was described as leaving on the best terms. Given her involvement in harming Dr. Medlock, it seems that departing on the best terms may involve some form of compensation for her participation in removing her Black supervisor.
Gathercole quit working at the BHA on April 13 (the second resignation) under Dr. Medlock, with an annual salary of approximately $151,398.
She was rehired by Michelle Barnes on April 17, the morning of Dr. Medlock’s dismissal.
A JFM network source shared a recent Colorado Open Record Act (CORA) response that reported Gathercole’s current salary at $160,715, a nearly $10,000 raise since April 2023.
Additionally, it's possible that Interim Commissioner Michele Barnes' team may have manipulated the CORA response by presenting significantly divergent data points compared to what is publicly accessible through Openthebooks.com.
Furthermore, they seem to have reported net salary for some individuals while indicating gross salary for others, signaling another failure in transparency.
Last week, on the same day of Gathercole’s resignation announcement, three replacement deputy commissioners were named via internal promotions: Christen Lara, Stephen Peng, and Thomas Miller.
The current salaries of these newly promoted leaders according to Barnes’ team are reported as Lara at $139,752, Miller at $135,696, and Peng at $135, 696, respectively.
However, this appears to be another possible falsification, given that one of those leaders, Christen Lara, was reported to have a salary of $144,196 one year prior according to Openthebooks.com.
Openthebooks.com is a public accountability tool for government salaries, nationally. Read the full drop with salary charts and CORA response on the JusticeForMedlock.com blog: