According to club president Carol Mellberg, the Archuleta County Republican Women will be sponsoring a “Share the Love” event on February 12, during which the ACRW members will assemble food boxes for 12 local veterans who are having difficulty affording groceries in Archuleta County.
She announced this upcoming food-sharing event this past Tuesday, January 8, at the monthly ACRW luncheon at Boss Hogg’s Restaurant.
Not much love was shared at the January luncheon itself, however, when Archuleta County Commissioners Ronnie Maez and Steve Wadley presented their plan to put the community’s taxpayers $13 million in debt — without any voter approval — to build a 54-bed jail in Harman Park. Actually, $20 million when you include the interest payments.
Many of the Republican women at the luncheon spoke in support of this plan, which would require the County government to redirect perhaps $850,000 a year — for perhaps the next 20 years — from other necessary government services in order to pay off investors through a ‘Certificates of Participation’ funding scheme.
We also heard from County Sheriff Rich Valdez, talking about the difficulties faced by his law enforcement staff. Following some alleged air quality issues in 2017, Sheriff Valdez moved his office out of the historic County Courthouse, downtown, and into a very small, crowded space near the airport. Earlier, in April 2015, the Sheriff had abandoned the County Detention Center, also located in the Courthouse, following a roof leak. Since 2015, detention inmates have been transported back and forth from the La Plata County jail, an hour away.
Sheriff Valdez wanted to assure the Republican ladies that his staff was still providing a full complement of public safety services, despite the inconvenience of overcrowded office quarters.
“We’re here for you. We’re 100 percent. We’re moving forward.
“A couple of the questions that we do have for the Commissioners, coming out of this. We know you’re doing the feasibility study for the [expanded court facilities.] You know, that leaves [the Sheriff’s Office] without an office space. So that’s something that we all have to sit down with the Commissioners and, like, where am I going to be, now? I mean, for the courts… and there’s a part of me that’s, like, how come the courts before your own staff?”
I’m not sure how many of the Republican ladies were able to follow the Sheriff’s thinking, because the ladies may not know about the actual plan that’s been discussed quietly at numerous sparsely-attended Board of County Commissioners’ work sessions.
Here’s a more complete picture, as I understand it, based on various public discussions I’ve heard.
The BOCC currently has about $12 million in savings, stashed away in various bank accounts. The BOCC has been telling the public that they cannot spend these funds, because the savings are necessary in case of an unexpected economic downturn — such as we experienced during the Great Recession.
In other words, the BOCC could feasibly build a jail with the money they already have, in savings. But Ronnie Maez told the Republican ladies that the savings cannot be used for a jail.
He didn’t explain, however, that the savings will be used for new court facilities.
The Sixth Judicial District — the folks who, up until 2017, had held court in the historic County Courthouse — abandoned their downtown offices and courtrooms, claiming that the Courthouse had dangerous air quality issues. Chief Judge Jeffrey Wilson made it clear that the Sixth Judicial District would never move back into their previous quarters, even though thousands of dollars in scientific testing by the BOCC showed no dangerous chemical levels in the Courthouse.
Never.
The court’s issues went beyond air quality, and included insufficient space and insufficient security.
In work sessions, the BOCC discussed the problems — the abandoned jail, the abandoned Sheriff’s offices, and the abandoned court facilities — and looked at the money they had in savings. (In 2017, the amount in their savings accounts was closer to $8 million, I believe.) Not enough money to make everyone happy. (Everyone, being the various government agencies.)
The Commissioners agreed among themselves that the voters would be likely to approve a tax increase for a new jail, because — I suspect — they felt the aging population of Archuleta County (median age, 50 years) wanted to ensure that bad people are safely locked up. The BOCC agreed that the voters were unlikely to support higher taxes to build a new Courthouse to accommodate judges and lawyers.
So the plan, in 2017, was to get voters to approve a one-percent sales tax increase to fund a 54-bed jail, and then use the money in the savings accounts to provide a new Court facility. Most likely, the BOCC thought, the courts could be accommodated in the existing (but abandoned) West Wing of the Courthouse.
Where the jail and Sheriff used to be.
When Sheriff Valdez mentioned a ‘feasibility study’ at the luncheon, he was referring to a $200,000 grant from the Colorado Judicial Branch ‘Underfunded Court Facility’ program. The BOCC has hired the architects from Reynolds Ash + Associates to perform the study (…without ever putting the $200,000 job out to bid. Ouch.)
From the October 16, 2018 BOCC agenda:
J. Consideration Of Submitting An Application For The Underfunded Court Facility Grant Program
The BoCC is being asked to consider approving the submittal of an application for a grant to help eligible counties cover costs associated with courthouse master planning services, repair and remodeling, or construction projects. Regardless of the outcome of the November Jail ballot, it serves the County’s purposes to apply for grant funding for court construction costs.
So we have a Board of County Commissioners unwilling to use their generous savings accounts to build a new jail for the community, but willing to use those same taxpayer funds to remodel the abandoned West Wing of the Courthouse into a new and modern court facility. Or so the story goes.
Which would apparently leave Sheriff Valdez and his staff in a tiny, overcrowded metal building on Piedra Road.
Sheriff Valdez:
“And that’s a little bit frustrating, because you’ve got the Courts who have more [political influence and grant funding] than I have, going at it. And I’m kinda stuck in the middle here, trying to do the best with what we’ve got.
“So on one side, I’m saying, ‘Those dang Courts.’ And on the other, I understand where they are coming from. They have needs. So we all just need to come back together, we all need to work together, we all need to figure out a plan.
“And you know, at this point, we need to go back to the drawing board. We’ve got new people in the [County] administration. I think it’s time we all just suck it up, take some deep breaths, step back, and start again.”
But Commissioners Ronnie Maez and Steve Wadley were very clear, at the luncheon. They intend to plow ahead with placing a new, $13 million debt on the backs of the local taxpayers, without their approval vote. Or rather, $20 million… Must not forget to mention the interest payments.