"1. The appointed deputies of the defendant Harold Andrews, as Sheriff of Weld County, Colorado, other than the Undersheriff, are employees within the meaning of the Home Rule Charter of Weld County, Colorado.
"2. The employment and dismissal of such deputies, other than the Undersheriff, are governed by the provisions of the Home Rule Charter for Weld County, Colorado, providing for the establishment of a personnel system, and the policies and rules relating to such personnel system adopted by the Board of County Commissioners of Weld County, Colorado.
"3. The Weld County Personnel Policies and Procedures presently in effect are as set forth in the Weld County Policy Manual under date of April 28, 1980, and said policies and procedures govern the employment and dismissal of such deputies, other than the Undersheriff.
"4. The provision of the Home Rule Charter for Weld County, Colorado, and the policies and procedures adopted pursuant thereto supersede general Colorado statutes relating to the employment and discharge of deputy sheriffs."
"The charter was adopted by the people of Weld County pursuant to the authorization contained in Article XIV, Section 16 of the Constitution of the State of Colorado. That Section is as follows:
"Section 16. County home rule. (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15 of this article, the qualified electors of each county of the state are hereby vested with the power to adopt a home rule charter establishing the organization and structure of county government consistent with this article and statutes enacted pursuant hereto.
"(2) The general assembly shall provide by statute procedures under which the qualified electors of any county may adopt, amend, and repeal a county home rule charter. Action to initiate home rule may be by petition, signed by not less than five percent of the qualified electors of the county in which home rule is sought, or by any other procedure authorized by statute. No county home rule charter, amendment thereto, or repeal thereof, shall become effective until approved by a majority of the qualified electors of such county voting thereon.
"(3) A home rule county shall provide all mandatory county functions, services, and facilities and shall exercise all mandatory powers as may be required by statute.
"(4) A home rule county shall be empowered to provide such permissive functions, services, and facilities and to exercise such permissive powers as may be authorized by statute applicable to all home rule counties, except as may be otherwise prohibited or limited by charter or this constitution.
"(5) The provisions of sections 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15 of article XIV of this constitution shall apply to counties adopting a home rule charter only to such extent as may be provided in said charter.
"Sections 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 15 of Article XIV of the Colorado Constitution are those sections which set forth the officers who shall be elected in each county and how they shall be chosen and compensated.
"By these constitutional provisions the people of a home rule county are given broad discretion in setting up the organization and structure of their county government. They are limited only by the requirement that the organization and structure be consistent with the constitution and statutes enacted pursuant to it.
"In terms of the functions which the county government may perform in a home rule county the constitution is much more restrictive. A home rule county must do the things that all counties must do and must provide the services all counties must provide. It may also do such additional things and provide such additional services as are specifically authorized by statute for all home rule counties.
"In response to the constitutional directive, the Forty-eighth General Assembly enacted Chapter 105, Article 28 of the Laws of 1971 governing county home rule charters. This legislation forms the basis of Colorado Revised Statutes, 1973, Title 30 Article 11 Part 5, which is still in our statutes.
"This legislation again emphasized the wide discretion possessed by the qualified electors of any county to establish the organization and structure of a county government. Few restrictions were placed upon this discretion, other than those set forth in the constitution, except that any charter was required to contain procedures for initiative, referendum, and recall. The legislation was, however, quite vague on the question of the functions which a home rule county might perform, and really added
nothing to the constitutional provisions. This led to some question concerning which, if any, of the permissive county powers possessed by nonhome rule counties might also be exercised by a home rule county.
"This was the legislative situation which existed at the time of the adoption of the Home Rule Charter for Weld County, Colorado, in 1975.
"Shortly after the adoption of the Weld County Charter the legislature partially remedied the defect in the statute regarding the permissive functions which might be exercised by a home rule county by enacting certain amendments which are now part of C.R.S., 1973, section 30-11-511. These amendments essentially provided that a home rule county might exercise all of the mandatory and permissive functions of a nonhome rule county, but none others.... [O]ne of the purposes of this amendment was to validate certain provisions of the Weld County Charter which had been attacked as being beyond what was previously authorized by law.
"This legislative framework remained substantially unchanged until 1981 when the Colorado County Home Rule Powers Act, C.R.S., 1973, Title 30 Article 35, was enacted. This act appears to broaden the powers granted to home rule counties and to grant to such counties certain powers not available to nonhome rule counties.
"The court has set forth the foregoing legislative history of county home rule in Colorado, and in Weld County particularly, to stress the dual nature of the constitutional and legal basis for county home rule. The home rule counties are given broad discretion in the area of structure--creating of a frame of government, designating county officials, and establishing their relative duties within the county government. They are given much less freedom in determining what functions they may choose to have their county government perform. Until recently this area of county government function has been no broader in home rule counties than in nonhome rule counties.
"The establishment of a personnel system governing the selection, tenure and dismissal of county employees relates to structure and organization of county government, not to the functions of that government. At the time of the adoption of the Weld County Charter nothing in the Colorado Constitution prohibited or was inconsistent with the establishment of such a personnel system. Accordingly, it was within the power of the qualified electors of the county to provide for such a system in their charter, at least if it was not contrary to other provisions of general law.
"The sheriff contends that his power to select and discharge deputies is governed by C.R.S., 1973, section 30-10-506. This provision of our statutes is as follows:
"Each sheriff may appoint as many deputies as he may think proper, for whose official acts and those of his undersheriff he shall be responsible, and may revoke such appointments at his pleasure. Persons may also be deputized by such sheriff or undersheriff in writing to do particular acts; the sheriff and his sureties shall be responsible on his official bond for the default or misconduct of his undersheriff and deputies.
"In Denver v. Rinker, 148 Colo. 441, 366 P.2d 548 (1961), the Supreme Court of Colorado determined that the foregoing statute did not prohibit the City and County of Denver from changing the method of selection and tenure of deputy sheriffs by provisions of its charter. A merit system was approved.
"In the area of governmental structure and organization the electors of Weld County are granted similar authority to that possessed by the electors of the City and County of Denver. Accordingly, if they chose to...
