His successful election to the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees this past fall has not stopped resident Roger Moseley’s legal action against the town. He has two active lawsuits, filed in October and December of last year.

The latter suit alleges procedural mistakes. Filed on Dec. 5 in El Paso County District Court, it claims the town did not follow the rules when appointing current mayor Dennis Stern to his position.

“It’s not against Dennis personally,” Moseley said in a trustees meeting on Thursday. “It’s against the process that we might have screwed up.”

Stern was appointed mayor at a meeting on June 12, shortly after the resignation of former Mayor Glant Havenar. The lawsuit alleges that, in resigning from his position as “mayor pro tem” but not trustee, Stern did not properly resign before his appointment.

In a counterclaim, the town denied the allegation, saying the recording of the June meeting “speaks for itself” and that there are “inconsistencies” between Moseley’s account of the meeting and the official record.

A next date has not been listed yet in court documents.

The second lawsuit is a revival of a complaint Moseley and fellow plaintiff Martha Brodzik brought to District Court earlier in the year concerning Palmer Lake’s finances. The case was filed with the Colorado Court of Appeals on Oct. 15.

Moseley alleges that the town made false statements about the appropriation of state and federal grant money. In the original suit, Moseley and Brodzik also alleged that the town used state and federal funding for projects other than those applied for and allowed under the granting agencies’ criteria.

Havenar, the mayor at the time of the lawsuit’s first filing in May, called the allegations “absolutely frivolous.”

An El Paso County District Court dismissed the suit earlier in October. The town argued that it could not be a valid defendant under the Colorado law through which Moseley made his claim, and that Palmer Lake also qualified for government immunity in such cases under Colorado law.

After the dismissal, Palmer Lake requested over $12,000 in attorney fees be paid by Moseley and Brodzik.

Moseley’s appeal alleges the lower court “erroneously analyzed the scope and purpose of the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act” in its dismissal finding.

Moseley was elected to the Palmer Lake Board of Trustees in a special election that included the recall of two former trustees, Shana Ball and Kevin Dreher, last September.

His election is part of a wave of recalls, resignations and appointments that have hit the town since disagreements about a proposed Buc-ee’s travel center boiled over in late 2024.

Palmer Lake has seen one mayoral resignation, two trustee recalls, three trustee resignations and the resignations of the town’s clerk and attorney.