Local activist Mark Weiler sounded like he was nearing the end of his somewhat lengthy public comments at start of the Tuesday, December 18 Archuleta Board of County Commissioners’ meeting. He was addressing Commissioners Steve Wadley, Ronnie Maez and Michael Whiting.
“The reality is, you can do the ‘safe’ thing. And put a noose around the community’s neck of $850,000 a year for the next 25 years.”
He was, of course, talking about debt for a new jail, which has been proposed and discussed during recent BOCC meetings and work sessions.
“Or, you can do the enlightened thing. Like the things that have caused the County government to go from a fiscal disaster to fiscal health. If you do those things this coming year, 2019, and in 2020 and in 2021, you will display to the community that you are indeed worthy of the mantle of being fiscal conservatives.
The three-minute alarm began beeping on the BOCC dais, indicating that Mr. Weiler had reached the end of his allotted time for public comment.
But he continued speaking.
“The community turned down the proposals for a new jail, twice, by vote. I remember the three of you — the three of you — saying, ‘We will never do Certificates of Participation, because it’s against the will of the voters. We will never encumber the County against the will of the voters.’
“You don’t have to. You can, today, start with a directive to your staff. And the directive would be…”
At this point, Mr. Weiler was interrupted by Commissioner Ronnie Maez, addressing BOCC chair Steve Wadley.
“Mr. Chair, I’m having a problem. First of all, everyone who comes up to speak at the podium is allowed three minutes…”
Commissioner Wadley:
“We’ll let Mr. Weiler finish his thought.”
Mark Weiler:
“You have the opportunity to exercise the same fiscal discipline that took our County from a financial wreck to a financial powerhouse. The amount of cash you have, the amount of reserves you have, is a joy for a financial guy like me to review. I ask you to use the same discipline to fund the jail.
“Start with a gross dollar amount. Instruct your staff. ‘This is the budget that we want to start with.’ Economics is the allocation of scarce resources. You’ve done a marvelous jobs of that, during your eight years of tenure here. Please finish the job. Don’t put a noose around their necks.”
Both Commissioner Wadley and Commissioner Whiting have served for the past eight years. Commissioner Maez, meanwhile, is a relative newcomer. And this was not Mr. Weiler’s first appeal to the three commissioners regarding the funding of a new jail. In fact, Mr. Weiler has testified repeatedly at regular meetings and work sessions over the past two years, urging the BOCC to make a fiscally responsible decision about the need for a County jail.
One wonders when he will be taken seriously?
Mark Weiler continued his December 18 testimony:
“My history is in finance, and guys like me make money off the unsustainable fears of municipal officials. We do. We make millions. There will be $7.5 million [in interest payments] made off the [proposed] Certificates of Participation.”
If the BOCC were to go ahead with the current plan, that is.
If…
“None of that value accrues to anyone in Archuleta County. Zero. $7.5 million goes out of our community. That’s 180 degrees different from what you have done over the past eight years. You inherited a wreck, and you fixed it. You did the hard work of fixing it. You were fiscal conservatives, and you had fiscal discipline. I implore you: have the same level of discipline moving forward.
“Thank you for allowing me to speak. And thank you for allowing me to go past the three-minute limit…”
Commissioner Maez reacted to the ‘three-minute’ comment:
“We set standards. We’ve all accepted them, and we should abide by them.”
Commissioner Wadley:
“That’s on me. I wanted to hear what he had to say.”
Mark Weiler:
“I will make myself available to meet with you and your staff, to do work sessions, to walk you through this plan again and again and again.” He held up a stack of printed sheets. “Now that I actually have the documents that you guys have had since October, I can see the path forward very easily.
“The fact is, you’ve had public hearings, but the documents have not been shared with the public.”
They say there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I can’t verify if that’s true, as I’ve never have the opportunity to skin a cat. But I suspect there’s more than one way to provide a jail in a rural community with a relatively low crime rate.
Between 2012 and 2014, according to the website County Health Rankings, the average crime rate in Colorado was about 309 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, per year. The county with the highest rate of violent crimes was Denver, at 617 per 100,000.
Archuleta County had a ranking of 194. Not the lowest rate (that honor went to Elbert County, with a rate of 22 violent crimes per 100,000 residents) and slightly higher than neighboring La Plata County (175). But still well below the state’s average for violent crime.
At the beginning of his presentation, Mr. Weiler noted that the BOCC’s jail plans have undergone significant revision over the past three years, starting with a $30 million jail proposal… to a $25 million jail, then to an $18 million jail, then to a $14 million jail, and then to a $13 million jail.
He submitted that the ‘magic number’ for a new jail is $10 million.
That magic number, $10 million, didn’t seem terribly unreasonable to our third commissioner, Michael Whiting, when he offered his final comments at the conclusion of the December 18 meeting.
His final final comments… considering that this was his final meeting as a seated commissioner. He will be replaced in January by newly-elected commissioner Alvin Schaaf. Meaning that Commissioner Whiting will not be part of future votes regarding the Archuleta County jail.
We’ll listen to Mr. Whiting’s comments in tomorrow’s installment.