I am attending a funeral in Tucson. This was an honest mistake on my part alone. I will send an apology for you to place in the Daily Post as soon as I have access to a computer. I will send this to the Sun as well. I am tempted to ask you for an apology for the attacks you have made on my integrity, but won’t.
— Email from John Porco to Bill Hudson, July 7, 2018
Mr. John Porco has been serving at the President of the San Juan Water Conservation District (SJWCD) since the resignation of the District’s long-time President, Rod Proffitt. Mr. Proffitt resigned rather suddenly after our local media outlets reported on some potential legal and ethical problems related to payments made to Mr. Proffitt out of SJWCD’s taxpayer-funded budget over the past several years.
The honest mistake mentioned in Mr. Porco’s letter, above, involved my application to fill one of the vacant seats on the SJWCD Board, and an email Mr. Porco sent to another local reporter on July 2.
As editor of the Pagosa Daily Post, I’ve been an outspoken and consistent critic of the (ridiculous?) Dry Gulch Reservoir project that Mr. Proffitt had been promoting since 2012 in spite of evidence that the Pagosa taxpayers have an overwhelming distaste for the monstrous project. (SJWCD is the only public board that uses the name “San Juan River Headwaters Project” rather than “Dry Gulch.”)
We’ve also published, in the Daily Post, articles praising other projects undertaken by SJWCD, such as their cloud-seeding efforts, and the Blanco River restoration project.
But as indicated in the email quoted above, Mr. Porco has cultivated a grudge about my published suggestion that Mr. Porco had put his personal friendship with Rod Proffitt ahead of what is best for the community’s taxpayers.
At a recent SJWCD special meeting, the district’s Board had met to approve a formal motion to Water Court Judge Jeffrey Wilson, urging the judge to deny my application to the Board. Mr. Porco provided a nasty, attacking, draft motion that was rejected by the rest of his board. That mean-spirited draft, written by Mr. Porco, included, for example, the following complaints:
“Mr. Hudson repeatedly and incorrectly asserts that the District has developed the San Juan River Headwaters Project (Project) against the will of the taxpayers; that it has been funded through injudicious loans; that it is based on faulty population estimates; and that, due to the expense of the Project, it cannot be built and that the District and the Board are somehow illegally benefiting from the loans for the Project…
“Without offering factual proof, Mr. Hudson repeatedly relies on inflammatory language to call into question the integrity and independence of [SJWCD] Board members. By repeatedly referencing various Board Members’ political affiliations, Mr. Hudson insinuates that the Board is dominated by political cronyism…
“His vehement attacks on the District, its Board members, and other related persons are hardly calculated to prove goodwill or any intent to uphold the District’s statutory mission. As a result, the appointment of Mr. Hudson to the Board of Directors will be harmful to the District itself and counterproductive to its ability to fulfill its statutory mission…”
Contrary to Mr. Porco’s allegations, the articles published in the Daily Post over the years have cited numerous facts — drawn from public documents — which suggest that the Dry Gulch project was a boondoggle invented by former SJWCD President Fred Schmidt for his own personal financial benefit, and that former President Rod Proffitt likewise accrued generous financial benefits from promoting this unpopular water project.
Mr. Porco’s attack on the integrity of the Daily Post editor (and SJWCD Board applicant) was rejected by Mr. Porco’s fellow board members, and a very different (and more respectful) motion was approved by the Board and submitted to Judge Wilson for his consideration.
When Chris Mannara — reporter for the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN — asked Mr. Porco for a copy of the Board’s approved motion, Mr. Porco sent, not the approved motion, but rather his own draft letter which the SJWCD Board had rejected.
Mr. Porco states that his actions, in sending the wrong version to the SUN, were accidental.
Much to everyone’s dismay, the SUN published excerpts from Mr. Porco’s letter, representing those comments as the final, Board-approved motion. I say “everyone’s dismay,” because all of the SJWCD Board members, including Mr. Porco, have since apologized to me personally — and the Board this week approved a letter to the editor of the SUN, apologizing to the SUN and to the Pagosa community for the error. That apology letter, signed by the full SJWCD Board, reads:
“The San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) Board would like to issue an apology to Mr. Bill Hudson, Pagosa residents, and the Pagosa SUN due to the motion released last week to the SUN regarding Mr. Hudson’s potential appointment to the Board by Judge Wilson. The motion printed was not the version approved by the Board. This was a mistake resulting in an incorrect statement being published that did not reflect the Board’s viewpoint. We take responsibility for our error and further state our intention to support our community and to take concrete steps to prevent such errors in the future.”
A couple of centuries ago — back in December 1791 — the first amendment to the new US Constitution was ratified, stating:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This amendment guaranteed the right of American citizens to worship freely, to speak freely, to assemble peaceably, and to petition the Government.
The First Amendment also protects the people’s right to publish books and newspapers, without risk of censorship — a valuable right which has since been applied to electronic forms of communication. Our Founding Fathers understood that a free press is essential to democratic government. A nation that does not allow the press an unfettered right to report upon and question government actions and decisions, is a nation where liberty and justice are at risk.
The Daily Post takes this duty seriously. We do our best, five days a week, to give our readers the facts they need to understand the workings of local Archuleta County government agencies. That’s our primary job: to explain, as best we can, the political decisions that affect our community.
The job of a water district President, on the other hand, is to treat his fellow Board members and the entire community with the utmost respect, and to accommodate the desires of the district taxpayers. A government leader who feels compelled to attack members of the Constitutionally-protected free press is unsuited to the job of President, and should step down and allow someone with a more even temperament to assume those duties.
We hope Mr. Porco will consider this suggestion.