As mentioned, 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 apparently having a difficult time affording groceries in Archuleta County. Club president Carol Mellberg announced this upcoming food-sharing event at the monthly ACRW luncheon at Boss Hogg’s Restaurant on January 8.
Ms. Mellberg did not go into any detail about how these 12 veterans had fallen on hard times. Possibly, some are suffering from PTSD, or have been caught up in the housing crisis plaguing so many individuals and families in Archuleta County. We were told only that the Republican women intended to share the love with them.
There are people with whom we can share love, of course, and those who we are inclined to treat with contempt.
For example. Some of the folks at the January 8 ACRW luncheon were openly contemptuous of some local folks willing to spend their personal funds — not taxpayer funds — educating the voters about last November’s 1A tax increase measure. That education process involved a website and about $2,000 in display advertising in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN — such as this full-page ad that argued against the need for a 54-bed jail:
Here’s one of the Republican ladies at the luncheon, indicating her discomfort with citizen participation in election campaigns, and with voters who may have been influenced by the privately-funded educational campaign.
“We had a group of people, before this election, who put great big ads in the paper, against this jail, and I think that is one of the major reasons that [the measure failed.]
“Now, I’ve heard who those people are. You couldn’t tell who they were from the little line at the bottom of the ad. But I think it was very effective.”
The little “Paid For” line at the bottom of the ad looked like this:
“There’s obviously a group of people out there, very dedicated to making sure [the tax increase and jail debt] didn’t happen. And I think they won…”
Another Republican lady:
“I know for a fact that there are people out there who voted ‘No’ to a jail, just because of the ads. Not because they came and listened, or went to any meetings or anything. They just read what was in the paper, and they voted ‘No.’”
County Commissioner Ronnie Maez:
“If you want the information on the people who were on that committee — the [Citizens for an] Affordable Jail — I know there’s one of them in this room, right now. But I can get you that information.”
It’s not immediately clear how Commissioner Maez will provide the Archuleta Republican women with the names of the people who funded the “Affordable Jail” display ads. The committee — classified as a ‘Small-Scale Issue Committee’ — was not required to make contributor names public, because they spent less than $5,000 during the campaign.
But, apparently, many people in the room had forgotten that the Board of County Commissioners — including Commissioner Maez — had themselves allocated $5,000 in taxpayer funds to pay for yard signs and full-page SUN advertisements, to promote the 54-bed jail and the $44 million tax increase. Complete with patriotic flags.
The little “Paid For” line at the bottom of the ad did not reveal whether any private citizens had contributed money to the committee’s overall effort, but it was very clear about who had paid for the full-page ad:
“This ad was place by the Citizens for a New Jail, and paid for by Archuleta County.”
You and I paid for the ad. Whether we wanted to or not.
We can assume that many people who read the privately-funded “Citizens for an Affordable Jail” ads in the SUN also read the taxpayer-funded “Citizens for a New Jail” ads. But we cannot possibly know why Ballot Measure 1A failed to garner the support of a majority of Archuleta County voters.
Was the jail too big, perhaps? Or was the tax increase misaligned with the cost of the jail facility? Were the citizens angry that their taxes had been used to fund a political campaign?
Or… did the BOCC fail to fully explain the plan to the voters?
Here’s Sheriff Rich Valdez, speaking at the luncheon:
“Nobody is looking at the money we are saving — the millions of dollars we are saving now — by having 76 to 80 people on alternative sentencing. We’re saving that money. Do the math. Do the math of what it would cost for those 76 people to be housed in La Plata County. That’s some of the numbers that the people aren’t looking at.
“So when it comes to the jail, you’re absolutely right. That’s a pretty big facility. It’s absolutely big.
“I grew up in this community. When I got into office, I thought, ‘Where’s our plan?’ I sat down with the Commissioners, and said, ‘What are we going to do, moving forward?’ There was no plan.
“We’ve done a terrible job, as administrators, planning for the future of our community. And now it’s finally time that we’re stepping up, and finally doing something.
“Okay, a 54-bed facility. It’s extremely expensive. I can guarantee — you can go to any county in this state, and their most expensive building that they’ve built, that they have money invested in, is the detention facility. I can honestly guarantee it.”
I doubt anyone is going to hold Sheriff Valdez to his guarantee, but we do know that jails are truly expensive, per square foot. Which might suggest that jails should be as small as possible, while still serving the needs of the community.
That seemed to be the suggestion — so displeasing to some of the ACRW club members — offered in the “Citizens for an Affordable Jail” ads: a jail sized to our actual average number of local inmates. As we learned last summer, that average number— between 2010 and 2018 — was less than 19 per day, according to data provided by Undersheriff Tonya Hamilton.
When the average inmate count is 19 per day, but you’ve hired architects who tell you that you need a 54-bed jail — well, we can understand that people might end up feeling confused about the whole process.
And also confused by Commissioner Maez’ claim that the BOCC has no other choice, but to put the citizens $17 million in debt without their approval. And then pay off the debt by reducing other County services… for 20 years.
Commissioner Maez:
“I don’t want to have to circumvent the voters. I don’t want to. But we’ve asked twice, and now we’re in a position where we have to make a decision.”
But do they have to make the wrong decision?
Read Part Four, tomorrow…