I first became acquainted with San Juan Basin Public Health’s executive director, Liane Jollon, in 2016, when she climbed up on a chair in the Archuleta County Admin Building meeting room, to draw a diagram of a residential septic system for the benefit of the Board of County Commissioners. (In the photo above, we also see then-Planning Manager John Shepard, at the far right.)
This was back in the days before the big digital screens were installed at the Admin Building. When people still drew pictures on white boards.
I had a special interest in the diagram Ms. Jollon was drawing because I had joined the new ‘Affordable Housing Task Force’ convened by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners and led by then-Commissioner Clifford Lucero. The task force had determined that the cost of residential septic systems had increased significantly over the past decade, making it more challenging for residents to afford new home construction in the more rural areas of Archuleta County.
That is, in the more rural areas where vacant parcels were still somewhat affordable.
The BOCC wanted to learn more about the cost increases, and whether San Juan Basin Public Health (SJBPH) — as the agency responsible for approving septic systems — was responsible to a portion of the increased cost. Or even, for most of the increase.
As many Daily Post readers are aware, SJBPH oversees public health programs in both Archuleta County and La Plata County, and is jointly funded (and to some extent, governed) by those two county governments. The funding is proportionate to the respective populations, with La Plata contributing about four times as much to the SJBPH budget as Archuleta.
The current two-county agreement was approved in 2009.
Under Colorado law, each county government must maintain (and fully fund, or help fund) a public health agency. Some health districts include more than one county; many include only a single county.
The joint agreement between La Plata and Archuleta may be on the verge of coming apart, however. A letter sent on June 7 to the Archuleta BOCC (and to the La Plata BOCC) begins this way:
On April 28, 2022, the San Juan Basin Board of Public Health met in an in-person work session to discuss a number of issues related to the joint health district encompassing La Plata and Archuleta counties. By prior agreement, arguably by all but one of the members, the meeting was held as an in-person-only session so that we could communicate directly as a Board. Members present were Karin Daniels, Shere Byrd, Terryl Peterson, Bob Ledger, Jon Bruss, and Marsha Porter-Norton (La Plata County Commissioner). Alvin Schaaf (Archuleta County Commissioner) was listening via a public internet connection.
The phrase “By prior agreement, arguably by all but one of the members, the meeting was held as an in-person-only session…” relates to the fact that Archuleta Commissioner Alvin Schaaf attended the meeting via Zoom, but was not allowed to participate in the Board discussion.
For the past two years, government boards all around the globe — including the SJBPH Board of Health — had been meeting and communicating more or less successfully via Zoom. For some reason, the Board of Health, on April 28, determined that Commissioner Schaaf would not be allowed to participate in the Board discussion unless he attended the meeting in-person.
The June 7 letter includes the following statement:
Difficulties in communication have been exacerbated by social distancing, changes in the frequency of Board meetings, the challenges of on-boarding of new Board members in a public health emergency, inability to meet in person, and escalated divides between social and political views that have occurred over the last several years. While the Board can now meet in person, it may be that the divides that exist between the two counties now demand that the BOCCs take a closer look at the viability of the combined Health District and its governance structure.
Obviously, “divides” exist between the two counties, and between the two County governments.
And also, between the County government and its citizens?
I had not known about this letter until a few days ago — almost a month after it was received by the Archuleta BOCC. As far as I know, the BOCC never discussed the letter in a public meeting, or released the letter to the public.
I obtained the letter (which you can download here) from an activist group that filed a CORA (Colorado Open Records Act) request, and thereby obtianed copy of the letter.
The day-to-day operations of SJBPH have been guided by Executive Director Liane Jollon since at least 2013. She, in turn, serves at the pleasure of the seven member SJBPH Board of Health, which includes one County commissioner from Archuleta County and one County commissioner from La Plata County.
The remaining five members of the Board of Health are appointed by the SJBPH Appointments Committee from members of the general public in both counties with experience in finance or a public health discipline such as environmental health, health education, medicine, epidemiology, health administration, nursing, public administration, health administration, or a closely related discipline.
SJBPH Board members serve five-year, staggered terms. Board membership is a voluntary position. The Board of Health, in turn, serves at the pleasure of the county commissioners in the two counties, so long as the two County governments keep the joint agreement in place.
The June 7 letter also states:
At a meeting scheduled on April 28, 2022, the San Juan Basin Board of Health made a recommendation to dissolve the Public Health District. That recommendation now goes, via this report, to both sets of County Commissioners to act upon. Each Board of County Commissioners can determine if it chooses to take this recommendation and vote to dissolve the District. Importantly, one County’s decision constitutes a dissolution.
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.