Sheridan Republicans to create committee overseeing government spending

SHERIDAN — The Sheridan County Republican Party’s central committee aims to keep an eye on local government spending.

Precinct committeeman David Iverson sponsored — and the central committee approved — a resolution last week. It directs the party chair — newly elected James Temple — to create a standing committee to report to the Sheridan County Republican Party’s central committee on spending by the Sheridan County Board of County Commissioners, Sheridan City Council and the Sheridan County School District 2 Board of Trustees.

“I think that everybody knows, or at least they should know, that there’s waste and abuse of the taxpayer dollar at all levels of government,” Iverson said.

The resolution, Iverson added, helps to uphold a core Republican value of fiscal responsibility.

Iverson took issue with Sheridan County’s Brooks Street greenspace project and the city considering General Purpose Excise Tax allocations to local nonprofit organizations.

Including design costs, Sheridan County spent just more than $2.7 million on the greenspace; construction costs totaled just more than $2.3 million while engineering and design costs totaled just more than $386,000.

Iverson specifically called out the county spending $750,000 in capital facilities tax funding for the project.

“I find it wonderfully ironic that we used road and bridge money to remove a road in the city. It wasn’t necessary,” Iverson said.

Iverson was critical of the Sheridan City Council considering whether to allocate GPET dollars to Second Chance Cat Rescue. He said it’s “ridiculous at the city level” to consider allocating funds to the cat rescue when the city already has a contract with the Dog and Cat Shelter of Sheridan.

City Councilor and Republican precinct committeeman Terry Weitzel said he thinks the committee is unnecessary. In Weitzel’s opinion, the city council and the county commission spend money responsibly.

“We don’t just spend money willy-nilly,” Weitzel said.

Weitzel added the city resurfaces roads as the needs to do so arise and generally appropriately prioritizes how taxpayers’ dollars are spent. An example, he said, would be the city’s current preparation to purchase two new fire engines.

“Our department heads, our fire chief, try to find the best deal,” Weitzel said.

Sheridan County Republican Party Chair James Temple said he hasn’t yet formed the committee to attend local government meetings and keep an eye on spending. The county party’s executive committee is set to meet next week to discuss the potential makeup of the committee.

There will likely be some challenges associated with creating the committee, though, with so many meetings to attend.

“Finding people that really want to commit to that timewise, whether it be your county and city meetings, or whether it be your school board meetings or even something like (Sheridan County) Conservation District or (Sheridan Area Water Supply) board meetings,” Temple said. “I think there’s a vast gamut of things that we should keep our finger on the pulse of.”

Temple added he’d like for multiple people to attend each meeting to ensure actions are reported accurately to the county party’s central committee.

The benefits of the committee, though, are helping to cut out hearsay within Sheridan County’s political community.

“There are different things that I think could be clarified so that we’re not getting three different stories. I think that’ll be a good thing going forward because information is power,” Temple said.

Following the executive committee’s meeting next week, Temple said the party’s leadership will begin reaching out to members of the central committee who might be interested in serving on the standing committee reporting on how taxpayer funds are spent.

This story was published on April 16, 2025.