A consultant is usually an expert or an experienced professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter… By hiring a consultant, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be financially feasible for them to retain in-house on a long-term basis. Moreover, clients can control their expenditures on consulting services by only purchasing as much services from the outside consultant as desired…
— From Wikipedia
Housing consultant Bill Simpson never appeared at the July 3, 2018 Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meeting. Commissioner Steve Wadley asked several times during the meeting if Mr. Simpson had arrived, but alas, he never showed up.
I doubt anyone in the audience that afternoon (other than myself and former Commissioner Clifford Lucero) knew who Bill Simpson was, or why his appearance was seemingly so important to Commissioner Wadley. Mr. Simpson does not live in Pagosa, but has come to town a few times to consult with Mr. Lucero and the Archuleta County Housing Authority on a potential affordable housing project.
But on July 3, he never showed up.
As we mentioned in Part One, there were two very important items on the July 3 BOCC agenda. One item concerned new approval processes and fees for Short Term Rentals (STRs.) As a reporter who has written extensively about STRs and the impact they are having all across the US since the arrival of AirBandB.com and HomeAway.com, I considered the BOCC’s new regulations a sensible compromise between totally accommodating to STR owners and the real estate industry on the one hand, and addressing the concerns of the long-term residents of Pagosa Springs, on the other hand.
Not a perfect set of regulations and fees, but a good start, at least.
The second very important item — a BOCC discussion about funding for local affordable housing programs — left me feeling very sad. I want our local governments to make reasonable, transparent decisions, and one of the very important decisions made by Commissioner Steve Wadley and Ronnie Maez on July 3 was neither reasonable nor transparent, in my humble opinion.
The discussion began with a proposal to fund the Archuleta County Housing Authority (ACHA) to the tune of $50,000 — with the BOCC to contribute half ($25,000) and the Town Council to contribute the other half. This action had been recommended by both the official Housing Advisory Committee and the official Joint Strategic Priorities advisory group. This money would accrue to an organization directed by former County Commissioner Clifford Lucero, per a proposal submitted several months ago. The $50,000 — if awarded — would pay for design and planning services, to help ACHA someday build a Low Income Housing Tax Credit housing complex.
Former County Commissioner Clifford Lucero, on July 3, explained why ACHA wanted the community taxpayers to contribute $50,000 to his proposed housing project:
“Yeah, we’re trying to do a 40-unit project, for the beginning of what we want to do. Permits, application fees, infrastructure. Bricks and mortar type stuff. According to the Housing Needs Study that was done by the Town and County, that’s the type of stuff we need. And this will help us move forward. Bricks and mortar.”
Certainly, the ultimate goal of any housing program is the creation of buildings of some type, but as everyone knows — at least, everyone who’s ever built a house — the first phase involves a lot of thoughtful planning. The first phase also typically involves negotiating a construction loan. That’s the phase ACHA is in, with their proposed 40-unit LIHTC housing project.
ACHA has a staff of three people who manage the existing Casa de los Arcos senior housing complex on South 8th Street — but none of the staff are experts in the construction of multi-million-dollar LIHTC projects. That’s why Mr. Lucero has been meeting with consultant Bill Simpson… to get expert advice. ACHA could never afford to hire a housing expert like Bill Simpson as a full-time employee, but using him as a consultant makes good sense.
If we look at the ACHA budget as presented to the BOCC, we will note that the proposed budget does not involve any actual bricks or mortar, despite Mr. Lucero’s repetition of that particular phrase on July 3. What the budget does include is a lot of money for various services that will be provided by expert consultants.
The LIHTC planning and design services will most likely be performed by outside experts who are not permanent ACHA employees.
If you add up those items, it appears that ACHA will be spending at least $36,000 of their requested $50,000 on consultant services. This request was approved by County Commissioners Ronnie Maez and Steve Wadley on July 3, without a word of discussion.
Next item on the agenda was a matching request for $50,000 from the Pagosa Housing Partners, the new non-profit group hoping to create a multi-faceted, self-funded, community-wide housing program — something recommended in the Housing Needs Study referenced by Mr. Lucero.
Like ACHA, Pagosa Housing Partners has a very small staff — two people — who are not housing experts, but who are educated and intelligent and intensely interested in seeing Pagosa begin solving its housing crisis.
The PHP budget provided to Commissioners Steve Wadley and Ronnie Maez on July 3 also involved the services of outside consultants. Those items total almost $28,000 of a $68,000 budget.
Building a plan to begin solving a housing crisis — a plan that will ultimately be embraced and implemented by the larger community — is not a simple matter, and probably could not be formulated successfully without the help of an expert consultant.
In a sense, the construction of a workable plan is something like the construction of a complex LIHTC project. They both require the help of consultants.
Like the ACHA proposal, the PHP proposal contains some funding for consultants, but unlike the ACHA budget, the PHP budget also pays for permanent local employees who are not “consultants.”
Here, we are listening to County Commissioner Steve Wadley on July 3, as he prepared to vote — alongside Commissioner Ronnie Maez — to reject the funding for Pagosa Housing Partners. He’s addressing PHP staff member Lynne Vickerstaff.
“When this [Joint Priorities] money was set aside, it was stated at the outset that the money wasn’t to pay for consultants. And in your budget — a $68,000 total budget — $56,000 of it is for consultants…”
This is, of course, nonsense. Less than $28,000 of the PHP budget was for ‘consultants.’ Meanwhile, at least $36,000 of the ACHA budget is earmarked for consultants.
Mr. Wadley, addressing Ms. Vickerstaff:
“I appreciate that there is value in what you’re proposing, but I don’t… In this community that is so strapped for tax money, and potholes and other problems that we have, I didn’t think we needed to spend more money on consultants…”
Commissioner Ronnie Maez then weighed in, complaining that the PHP effort didn’t appear to be “sustainable”. Perhaps Mr. Maez had not actually read the proposal?
From page 7:
Develop a long-term funding plan to ensure long term, sustainable success of the workforce housing development program and the administration of the program.
Funding for projects will include but not be limited to:
- Local, state and federal grant options
- Applications for matching grant funding for all parts of a project.
- Attend Philanthropy Days in Cortez this fall to find collaborations and opportunities
- Explore long-term funding in terms of a portion of the Lodging Tax and other tax options
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.