Prior to the Tuesday, December 4 regular meeting of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, the BOCC had held a morning work session, where they’d met with representatives of the Ruby Sisson Library. It seems that our local ESL program — English as a Second Language — has lost its previous sponsor, and no classes have been held thus far in the 2018 school year. The Library District wants to pick up sponsorship of the program for the rest of the school year, but doesn’t have room in their budget to pay for the additional instructors and such. Or so it seems.
Would the BOCC be able to help fund this necessary community program in 2019? Considering that we want people in the community to have a strong command of the English language?
Commissioner Steve Wadley:
“If we could lend any support, as far as letters of support for grants and that kind of thing, we’d love to do that. But we have a big cash-flow need, to build a jail. And in my view, that has completely evaporated our bandwidth to do much of anything for community programs. We were only able to do it on a limited basis before.
“We’re at the point now where, you know, like in a family where somebody loses a job and you have to make the cuts you have to make. We’re down to buying the 14-ounce bottle of Dawn detergent.
“In my view, we’re going to be stripped down to where we were, when [Commissioner Michael Whiting] and I came into office.”
As some Daily Post reader may remember, back in 2009, the County was in near-bankruptcy, and the state government was threatening to assume control of the County’s functions.
Since then, a different approach to government spending has resulted in millions of dollars stashed away in various bank accounts, with at least $5 million unallocated for any specific purpose in the proposed 2019 budget, and at least another $6 million set aside for cash-flow purposes, or for new “Justice System” facilities.
It’s a different situation from when Commissioner Wadley took office. Completely different, you might say.
And how did all these millions of dollars land in hefty unassigned bank accounts? Well, it wasn’t by cutting staff salaries. The Commissioners are now making more than they were in 2009.
In my humble opinion, the savings accounts were generated by deferring maintenance on roads and other County facilities. And by cutting support to local non-profit organizations.
For example…
The December 4 regular meeting. Jan Santopietro, Project Coordinator for the Archuleta County Education Center — and thus, also the Project Coordinator for the planned childcare center that will be named ‘Wings Early Childhood Center’ — is continuing her presentation to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners. She’s just stated her appeal for $25,000 in funding for 2019, knowing full well that two of the three commissioners have made clear their intentions for the 2019 budget. They are determined to build a new jail, come hell or high water, and therefore no money was going to be available for the support less-important things like childcare centers. For quite a while, it seems.
Nevertheless, Ms. Santopietro bravely continued her appeal.
“The coming years will be focused on expansion, affordability and quality, as always. We need to focus on children, birth up to Kindergarten. According to our 2017 study, the greatest need is for infants and toddlers…
“We want to establish tuition assistance and scholarship programs to guard against the ‘Cliff Effect.’ Where parents don’t make enough money to be able to afford to send their children, or to participate in quality parent education programs. Where they make just a little too much money to where they can’t take advantage of federal and state assistance programs.
“We want to support the ‘Colorado Shines’ quality rating system for programs and the individuals that work there. Providing them with incentives.
“So, I believe the lack of early childhood programs is one of the reasons [the BOCC] chose early childhood care as one of your joint priorities. It was adversely affecting the local economy.
“Opening up ‘Wings’ as soon as possible will have immediate economic benefits for Archuleta County. Parents can go to — or return to — work. Young families will be attracted to Archuleta County, and hopefully stay here.
“Thank you very much.”
The County Commissioners typically do not respond to public comments offered from the podium at the beginning of their regular meetings, and they did not respond to Ms. Santopietro’s appeal, but rather continued to invite additional public comment.
So I offered a few thoughts at the microphone.
“It’s been a little bit painful, the past couple of weeks, listening to the Commissioners essentially blame the voters for failing to support Plan A.”
Plan A, of course, referred to the $19 million jail and Sheriff’s office project, and the $44 million sales tax increase, that the BOCC had put on the ballot this past election season.
“And it’s been painful to listen to the Commissioners turn down numerous requests from community groups, who are trying to do good work in the community. It’s especially painful, after talking with your Finance Director and finding out that you have over $5 million in unallocated funds, for which you’ve not defined a specific use. And you are turning down requests for $25,000, or $10,000.
“It seems what we are hearing, at work sessions and in public discussions, is a plan to put the taxpayers deeply in debt to build a jail.
“The Archuleta School District spent a year with a citizens advisory group, studying the tax increases that they were proposing. And they actually listened to the citizens. They actually had meetings every month with a mixed group of very intelligent, local folks, who debated — actively — how a tax increase might be put before the voters.
“And at the end of that process, they actually voted not to proceed with the plan they’d been talking about for the past year, which was to build new school buildings for the District. Instead, the District listened to the citizens they’d assembled, and they went with a Mill Levy Override for staff salaries, on the ballot.
“And they won that tax increase by almost a 2-to1 margin.
“I would suggest that they won, because they actually listened to the community.
“The BOCC appointed a similar citizens group back in May of 2016, but when the citizens started to question Plan A, you dissolved the group after its second meeting. And you never again assembled a citizens group until just the past few month. And you appointed only people who were willing to support Plan A.
“Now that the voters have spoken, by a larger margin than in the previous election, it seems like you’re going to turn around and put us in debt anyway [using Certificates of Participation,] for something similar to Plan A.
“I think that’s the wrong approach, in a community as small as ours. I think you should convene a real citizens committee, to include people on all sides of the jail issue, and have them consider the options.
“Before you put us millions of dollars in debt…”
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.