Bruce Rau is one of the most elected men in Colorado.

And it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard of him.

The 48-year-old Centennial resident sits on at least three dozen metropolitan district boards that, if fully developed and put together, would easily rank among the state’s top 10 biggest cities.

Unlike any other public official in the state, however, metro district board members such as Rau — a registered Republican — don’t have to actually live in any of the districts they represent. They wield some of the most broad-reaching taxing authority that impacts tens of thousands of people and can be elected by fewer than a dozen voters at a time – sometimes by none at all.

All of that because Colorado’s Special District Act lets them.

Rau, an executive with Oakwood Homes, is also one of the most conflicted men in Colorado, having registered more conflicts of interest in his elected capacity than any other official in the state, according to documents filed with the secretary of state’s office. He’s done it for every single meeting for every single metro district board he sits on.

Every decision Rau makes for the metro districts he represents also benefits his employer, financially as well as practically. And because the other board members typically are also part of the same firm or tied to them in some manner, no one objects to the conflicts because they all have them as well.

“With metro districts, their purpose is primarily to fund construction of infrastructure,” Rau said in an interview with The Denver Post. “That’s why they are formed, that’s why they operate. My role as an elected official on one of those entities is to implement that purpose.”

In nearly every one of the districts he represents, Rau is considered a landowner and eligible to be on the board because he has a contract to purchase a sliver of land, usually from his employer, barely large enough to park his car.

“It’s true I don’t live in (the metro districts),” Rau said. “I don’t see that as fully relevant, that where they live is at all important.”

Others see it differently.

“Metropolitan district elections are problematic,” said Brian Matise, an attorney who has served on district boards as well as fought them in court. “The contracts to purchase are rarely recorded publicly and the elections are private affairs.”

Colorado law allows anyone who owns land within a proposed metropolitan district – or is someone with a contract to buy the land, no matter how small – to vote and run for its board of directors.

ASK A QUESTION Have a question about our Debt & Democracy investigation? Submit it here and reporter David Migoya could answer it in a coming story.

Because no one usually runs for the seats, and the land is owned by the developers, the board is often made up of developers themselves and a few trusted employees who simply appoint each other.

There are others, like Rau, who serve on multiple metro district boards around Colorado.

Developer Marc Cooper sits on 70 boards that make up 10 different development communities, The Post found. Jonathan Turner is on 48 boards that make up eight communities. Rau represents at least 11 planned communities.

“That whole bit of a developer parcel, a lot they simply split up to make themselves eligible to be on the board is unethical and immoral,” said James Gertson, a former resident and board member of Thompson Crossing Metropolitan District No. 4 in Larimer County. “The whole process was never really in the interest of the homeowners and once the builders and developers could use the system to their advantage, it ran rampant.”

Election officials say they often don’t know how metro district elections are even put together or their outcome.

“If they conduct their own election, they’re supposed to send their numbers to us, but not all of them do,” said Jace Richards, Adams County’s voter-records supervisor.

County election officials don’t check to see if the candidates are even qualified for office because they’re not required to be a registered voter in the district – there was even a failed legislative effort last year to allow out-of-state residents to sit on metro district boards – and the election officers who are chosen by the district to monitor the process often are attorneys working for the developer.

The only proof a board member has that they are qualified for the position is a document saying they either own land or are contracted to buy some.

The land Rau and others contract to purchase typically is owned by the developer, who divides it up among trusted colleagues, according to documents filed with county election officials. Whenever a change in personnel needs to be made, one contract to purchase is simply switched with another and a new board member seated.

“I simply don’t understand how we can have someone elected by only a few people, yet give them the power to tax me and thousands of others without us having a say,” said Kalli De’Anso, a Thompson River Ranch resident whose board is headed by Rau. “Before we ever got here, he was deciding our fate, our future.”

Learn more To find information about individual metro districts, including budget documents, director and election information, and service plans, go to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs website

Citations Colorado Department of Local Affairs, special districts. https://dola.colorado.gov/lgis/ Nonprofit 990 tax returns, at GuildeStar.org. https://www.guidestar.org/ Electronic Municipal Market Access. https://emma.msrb.org/ https://www.sos.state.co.us/Conflict/search