Mesa County Commissioners Pray at Public Meeting, 2/27/12

This is a video of the Mesa County (Colorado) Commissioners praying at their public meeting on February 27, 2012. The Commissioners say the prayers themselves, against the legal advice of the Alliance Defense Fund. (They do not use a chaplain or pastor). Praying continues to be a routine part of their weekly public hearings, but the commissioners have ordered the County's videographer to start recording public hearings AFTER the invocation, and the County no longer lists the invocation on the public agenda (again, on recommendation from the ADF). In an exchange of emails, Mesa County Administrative Executive Assistant Kathy Crane denied that the invocation portion of the meeting even exists. The commissioners claim the prayers take place before the meeting "officially" begins. On this day, the prayers were said by Commissioner Steve Aquafresca, who, after WCAF members complained about the County's unfailingly Christian prayers in 2009, stopped naming a specific deity when it is his turn to say his prayers. The commissioners rotate the saying of the prayers among themselves. The ADF advised them against saying the prayers themselves (pdf) but they continue to do it.