Former Grand Junction Mayor and City Councilman Gene Kinsey died on May 6, 2026, at the age of 77.
Kinsey was a stand-out on City Council because he displayed integrity and had an understanding of, and respect for the law. He also believed the City should comply with the law. Unfortunately, that was also why he was a one-term city councilman.
Kinsey served on city council from 1999-2001, when the old G.J. City Hall was being torn down the new City Hall was being built in its place. While tearing down the old building, workers found a stone Ten Commandments tablet that was almost completely covered up by overgrown landscaping. It had been given to the City in 1958 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a civic group whose founding documents say that “No person shall be eligible to be elected to membership in any Local Aerie unless such a person is a male, is of good moral character, and believes in the existence of a Supreme Being.” When the new City Hall was completed, City Council decided to put the Ten Commandments tablet back on City Hall property, and this time in a prominent location.
A group of citizens recognized that a religious display on taxpayer-funded public property was a clear violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Citizens met with then-Mayor Gene Kinsey (pdf) and asked the City to remove the tablet, while the American Civil Liberties Union drew up a lawsuit ([df) that they were poised to file if the City did not remove the Ten Commandments from City Hall property. Kinsey knew the City was in violation of the law and would lose any lawsuit brought over the issue. He wanted the City to do the right thing, comply with the law and remove it. Kinsey said, “I may not agree with the laws, but I am sworn as a council member to uphold them.” The Methodist church across the street from City Hall offered to take the tablet and install it on their grounds in a prominent location on the corner, at no cost to City taxpayers, to solve the problem.
It would have been a quick, simple, free solution to the problem at hand and allowed the City to avoid a lawsuit.
But five G.J. City council members would have none of that.
Five G.J. city council members were hell-bent on keeping the religious tablet on City Hall grounds. They didn’t feel they had any duty to uphold any laws. One of those council members was Reford Theobold, who found a way for the City to do an end-run around the Constitution: display the Ten Commandments alongside a set of historic documents, like the Mayflower Compact and the Bill of Rights, thereby allowing the City to argue that the Ten Commandments tablet was being displayed in a historical, not a religious context. But that solution would cost City taxpayers $65,000 — the equivalent of about $123,000 in today’s money — to build a new, beefed-up display with a bunch of other stone tablets.
Gene Kinsey believed the City should comply with the law and voted with one other Council member, Jim Spehar, to give the Ten Commandments to the church across the street and save City taxpayers the cost of building a whole new display. But five members of Council voted to circumvent the Constitution by building the newer, bigger display.
The City built the big display and named it the “Cornerstones of Law and Liberty Plaza.” To this day, the City insists the big display is not an endorsement of religion, even though overbearing Christian religious fervor is what drove the City to keep it on public property in violation of the law. Many people now call the display “The Graveyard in Front of City Hall,” because it looks like headstones in a cemetery. Locals point out that the Bill of Rights is the only monument in the Plaza that the City positioned flush with the ground, allowing people to trample on it. That’s the document that contains law the City sought to violate — the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause that says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Thus people also call the display “The Trample on the Bill of Rights Plaza.”
In April of 2001, Gene Kinsey was voted off City Council by a resounding margin, assumed largely to be because he voted for the City to comply with the Constitution and to save City taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
Reford Theobold went on to earn the nickname “The Ten Commandments Mayor.” He started wearing a neck tie to City Council meetings with the Ten Commandments on it. Theobold had a skybox at Suplizio Field named after him and in 2014, he was voted Lion of the Year.
Thou Shalt Not Steal
On October 31, 2015, Theobold was arrested for shoplifting maps and Big Hunk candy bars from Cabelas.
Theobold was sentenced on January 8, 2016, was ordered to attend petty theft education classes, perform 8 hours of public service and pay $125 in fines and court costs.
So much for Theobold’s belief in the Ten Commandments.
Gene Kinsey went on to live a moral and ethical life. He was friendly, he was my neighbor, he baked me homemade bread, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to tell him how much I respected him and appreciated his integrity on Council for trying to do the right thing.
People like Gene Kinsey are exactly what this country needs now, as more and more elected officials than ever are working to circumvent our Constitution and pull off end runs around the law, like Grand Junction City Council did in 2001.
Thank you for explaining how the unconstitutional erection of religious etchings came to be on our city property. My father’s ethos of “never trust someone who flaunts the Constitution,” has guided me and protected me when dealing with greedy leaders throughout my life.