The Arrival of Spiffy Spiraltree
Spiffy Spiraltree loved order the way some people love music.
Not because it was easier. Because it was true. A place for everything. Everything humming quietly in its place. The world, for a moment, making sense.
His spice rack was alphabetical. His inbox had eleven folders. His car keys lived on the third hook from the left, equidistant from the door and the kitchen counter.
He was not rigid. He would push back on that word. He just believed — quietly, with the certainty of a man who had been proven right about this more times than he could count — that when things are organized correctly, life gets easier for everyone.
This is why the county websites bothered him so much. Not for him. He could find things. The clicking was more than it needed to be. The PDF opened sideways. But he managed.
The Wall
Clara Spiraltree had been using a screen reader for eleven years. She was faster with it than most people are with their eyes. But the El Paso County assessor's website stopped her cold.
Not because she wasn't capable. Because the site wasn't built for her. Unlabeled buttons. Images with no alt text. Navigation that assumed a mouse. Forms that required a sighted person to complete them.
So Spiffy helped. Every time. He sat next to her, found the thing, read it to her, filled in the fields.
He was glad to do it. He just kept returning to one thought:
The county assessor's website uses Spatialest — mapping software estimated at $150,000–$350,000 per year. The mapping is largely duplicated by free state tools. What most people need is a plain-language search. Clara's screen reader cannot navigate what exists.
Clara had said it once — quietly, the way she said the things that mattered most: "When I couldn't do things, people helped me. I always thought when I could, I'd help someone else. I'm just waiting for the part where I can."
One Sunday Afternoon
Nobody commissioned what happened next. Nobody paid for it. Nobody held a meeting or issued an RFP.
One person. One Sunday. A few hours. New tools.
The result: a working prototype of a plain-language assessor search — ADA compliant, screen-reader compatible, fast, no mapping software required.
Spiffy found it on a Tuesday evening. He checked it twice — once for himself, once the way Clara would. Then he slid the laptop across the table without saying anything.
Clara put her hands on the keyboard.
She found what she was looking for. Not all at once. But enough.
The Math
The prototype exists. The question is whether the county is willing to look at what it cost to build — and compare that to what it pays every year for what doesn't work for Clara.
The mapping the county pays Spatialest for is already available free through state tools. The gap is plain-language search. That gap was closed in one Sunday afternoon.
| Option | 10-year cost | County owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Current Spatialest contract | $1.5M–$3.5M | No — never |
| Build once + maintain | $700K–$1.1M | Yes — forever |
| Savings over 10 years | $800K–$2.4M | Plus full ownership |
Spiffy closed the laptop. He put it on the third shelf from the left. Equidistant. Outside, the Colorado sun was doing what it always did — showing up, reliable and generous, indifferent to whether anyone had left a door open for it.
Clara was already writing her second question.
Spiffy & Clara's List
Clara found what she was looking for. Not all at once. But enough. When enough people have the same question, that question becomes very hard to ignore.
What have you been looking for?
What information about your property, your taxes, or your county have you tried to find — and couldn't?
"We're keeping a list.
Yours is on it now."
Made a mistake or want to add something? You can submit another entry below.
Something went wrong submitting your question. Please try again in a moment.
Compiled by pattern — which questions appear most.
Submitted in writing to the BOCC and Assessor as a public record.
Evidence behind the ADA-compliant search tool request.
Covered on The Dais — hear your question in the next episode.
Three asks. Thirty minutes total.
Most Tuesdays, 9 AM. Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade Avenue. Public comment is open. No appointment. Three minutes. One question on tape.
Nothing in county policy requires morning-only meetings. Email the BOCC Clerk and ask for an evening meeting — two sentences, your address, your request. JackieAllred@elpasoco.com
Colorado Open Records Act. No lawyer required. Three business days to respond. Their response is itself a public record.
A formal request to evaluate the prototype. An offer to participate.
Questions You Can Ask Tonight
Tap any question to copy it to your clipboard.
The Rooms Where It Actually Gets Decided
Assessor: ASRWEB@elpasoco.com
Open Records — Mike Madsen: MichaelMadsen@elpasoco.com · 719-520-6403
ADA Compliance: ADACompliance@elpasoco.com
BOCC Clerk: JackieAllred@elpasoco.com · 719-520-7276
Official agendas: agendasuite.org/iip/elpaso
Meeting video archives: clerkandrecorder.elpasoco.com — meeting archives
Send Us What You Find
A response email. A timestamp. A screenshot before a page changes. Ground-level detail is what tells us where to look and what question to ask next.
If you record something, grab something, or notice something — send it to us.
"The system doesn't respond to noise. It responds to clarity, consistency, and participation."
The Dais · The Map · Special Edition · Episode Three · El Paso County, Colorado · March 2026