The San Juan Water Conservancy District board of directors will hold a public meeting at 4pm this coming Monday, July 25, at their office at 46 Eaton Drive, Suite 5.
Here is the Zoom link, for attending online:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84727425620?pwd=VmFmRjlHODJ6RnpMbUpYK3BFMmRPUT09
On the agenda, are two items I’m personally interested in. Number 7 and number 9.
5. New Board Members and Four Oaths of Office
6. Consideration of Election of Secretary
7. Consideration of Wilson Water Group Supply and Demand Study
8. Consideration of PRS Three Communication and Outreach Events
- Archuleta County Fair, August 6 and 7, Fairgrounds
- Public Stakeholders Meeting, August 9, Aragon Community Center
- Business After Hours, August 24, Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership
9. Discussion of SJWCD Facebook Page
Item number 7 has considerable importance to the community, because — depending upon how the SJWCD chooses to use the data provided — the Wilson Water Group analysis might be used to try and move the Dry Gulch Reservoir boondoggle forward, with significant financial impacts to the community.
Item number 9 is actually somewhat humorous, and concerns the fact that someone… a mysterious someone… with a political interest in promoting the Colorado water industry… has been making unauthorized use of the SJWCD Facebook page.
One of the four ‘New Board Members’ who will be asked to take their oaths of office is Rodney Proffitt.
The photo above is from 2013. Outgoing San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) president Diane C. Bower is congratulating incoming SJWCD president Rod Proffitt.
I often start a Daily Post editorial series on a specific topic without knowing where, exactly, the series will end up. In such cases, I view my journalistic efforts rather like stroll along an unfamiliar trail in the woods. What awaits us around the next curve?
It’s a pleasant enough experience, generally.
In the case of this editorial series, “Hope for the San Juan Water Conservancy District?” I purposely included a question mark in the headline, because I assumed this would be one of those unfamiliar trails. And recent events have supported that assumption.
Yesterday, Terri House — editor of the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN — posted a 1,200-word essay about the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD). I have to thank Ms. House for her willingness to track the curious progress of the SJWCD Facebook account, and to raise interesting questions about ‘who’ has been posting to that account — considering that no one on the SJWCD Board claims to have access to the account, nor does anyone on the current SJWCD board know who is posting comments and links on the District’s official-looking Facebook account, which was (as I recall) supposed to be deleted years ago.
Ms. House’s editorial begins:
What if your business’ or organization’s Facebook (FB) page was taken over by someone you didn’t know and you have no control over social media communications that are made by that person?
What if someone was posing as your business and posting things on your FB page contrary to what your business believes and unrelated to what your business does?
What if you have no idea who that person is and you have no power to stop them?
What do you do when FB tells you that only an administrator can solve the issue, and you have no idea who that admin is?
Apparently, that is the position that the San Juan Water Conservancy District (SJWCD) finds itself in these days.
Earlier this month, SUN staff became aware of multiple posts pertaining to abortion and politics posted on SJWCD’s FB page…
According to Ms. House’s editorial, her staff has been unable to discover who, exactly, was posting articles on the official-looking SJWCD page, except that it is apparently no one currently authorized by the board of directors.
A number of curious coincidences uncovered by SUN staff point to the possibility that former SJWCD president Rodney Proffitt is the culprit. From the SUN editorial:
The SUN reached out to FB pertaining to the page two weeks ago with no response.
We also reached out to a former admin of the page, Rod Proffitt, and he directed us back to the SJWCD board “for any questions you might have.” Proffitt left the district back in 2018 and was recently reappointed to the board.
Ms. House was careful to state that she is not accusing anyone of anything.
As far as I recall, speaking as an investigative report, the last person to have administrative access to the official SJWCD Facebook page was Rod Proffitt, who was at the time the president of SJWCD. Prior to my appointment to the SJWCD board in 2018, there was some confusion among the board members about who the heck was posting articles and comments on the District’s official Facebook page, and — as I recall — SJWCD’s then-president, John Porco, was instructed to tell his friend Rod Proffitt to cease posting on Facebook, since Mr. Proffitt was no longer a SJWCD board member.
The last Facebook posting of 2018 took place on May 1. Then, the mystery person posted another comment on March 30, 2019.
The next FB post from the mystery person was dated April 16, 2022. It reads:
San Juan Water Conservancy District
April 16
Nothing says “hypocrite” quite like Republicans touting small government while using government to force women to take a pregnancy to term no matter the circumstances. Nothing says “hypocrite” like Republicans touting patriotism while plotting sedition and violence to overthrow the will of the people. Nothing says “hypocrite” like Republicans demeaning “activist” judges while trying to stack the court with judges that think money is speech and corporations deserve to be protected by the Constitution just like people. I could go on and on. Democrats have their faults, but there is now no real Republican Party; only a cult of Trump with no political platform and no pretense to support democracy in any form.
We might mention, in passing, that Mr. Proffitt was, for many years, a member of the Archuleta County Democratic Party Central Committee, along with Mr. Porco.
As our readers might imagine, I am looking forward to a (lively?) discussion about the mystery Facebook poster — or shall we say, ‘imposter’ — at the Monday SJWCD meeting.
We might also mention that the mystery imposter has been linking, recently, to this very Daily Post editorial series.
All somewhat humorous, if it didn’t raise questions about the ethics of certain incoming SJWCD board members.
But the more important discussion on Monday might — and the more important questions — might be focused on a new “Water Demand” report submitted by the Wilson Water Group.
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.