Photo, from left: County Commissioner Veronica Medina, legal researcher Rachel Suh, and County Attorney Todd Weaver at an August 24 presentation about the petition to recall Commissioner Medina.
Some of our Daily Post readers may have noticed, yesterday, the quarter-page advertisement in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, purchased by EXIT Realty, touting the benefits to the community of a proposed tax-funded property purchase by the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners. The property in question is being marketed by EXIT Realty.
The advertisement concludes:
The developers are committed to fostering healthy growth that locals can be proud of, ensuring that Pagosa Springs remains a vibrant, welcoming, & prosperous community for generations to come.
We’ve heard this argument from realtors and developers for at least the past 30 years, and their promises have now brought us to a point where the “generations to come” can no longer afford to live in our community.
As I wrote in Part Two, the August 24 public presentation at the library began at 11am with everyone seemingly committed to treating one another respectfully, in spite of the controversy. Unfortunately, that commitment soon dissolved into personal attacks and shaming attempts from the audience, before anyone had heard the presentation they’d been invited there to hear.
Finally, 45 minutes into the meeting, things had calmed down enough for legal researcher Rachel Suh to begin her presentation.
Ms. Suh began with information about the Independent Ethics Committee, the committee that rules on alleged ethics violations by government officials in Colorado. A complaint about Commissioner Medina’s alleged violation of government ethics is currently being considered by the IEC and the case has not been ruled as “frivolous”, Ms. Suh told us.
Commissioner Medina noted that two other Archuleta County commissioners have had cases before the IEC for many months now: current commissioner Warren Brown and former commissioner Alvin Schaaf. The wheels of justice turn slowly. And expensively.
Ms. Suh then stated that she had spoken with the Colorado Association of Realtors and said they are aware of the alleged ethics violations. No ethics complaints have been filed with that association — concerning Ms. Medina or her broker, Shelley Low — but such complaints might be filed in the future, said Ms. Suh. The Association told her that Commissioner Medina “is misrepresenting her agency with EXIT Realty. I will go into the definitions here, from DORA (Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies), and the Division of Real Estate, and the law.”
If you’ve spent time reading Colorado Law, or local regulations here in Archuleta County, you’ve noted that most laws or regulations either start with, or end with, a substantial list of definitions. These definitions are useful when deciding whether to circulate a recall petition, for example, or when deciding whether to file a complaint about a local government, or government official.
During the first part of the August 24 meeting, both Commissioner Medina and County Attorney Todd Weaver had argued that the Commissioner is indeed a real estate agent with EXIT Realty, but she is not the particular agent handling the proposed property sale on South Pagosa Boulevard, and thus would not financially benefit from such a sale by EXIT Realty. Therefore, her actions on June 4, promoting and voting on that property sale were not a violation of law, or of ethics.
However, neither Commissioner Medina nor Attorney Weaver presented, nor quoted, any actual definitions. It was left up to Ms. Suh to share the actual state laws and definitions, based on her conversations with the state agencies responsible for enforcing real estate and government ethics.
From what I gathered from the presentation, Commissioner Medina and Attorney Weaver had presented incorrect information at the meeting… and have been presenting incorrect information in other meetings, and online.
Here’s one of the slides shared by Ms. Suh. (You can view all 20 slides at the Reclaim Archuleta website; scroll down on the home page.)
For me, this question turns on one particular section of one particular Colorado statute:
CRS 24-18-109
A local government official or local government employee shall not:
Perform an official act directly and substantially affecting to its economic benefit a business or other undertaking in which he either has a substantial financial interest or is engaged as counsel, consultant, representative, or agent…
(My emphasis)
In the legal world, the language “shall not” is generally understood to mean “is forbidden under any and all circumstances”.
Ms. Suh made a compelling case that Commissioner Medina is “engaged as…agent…” for EXIT Realty. Obviously, the sale of a $6.9 million property by EXIT Realty, hinging as the sale seems to be on the County’s participation, would substantially benefit EXIT Realty.
My experience observing Commissioner Medina at work — as a reporter who has attended dozens of BOCC meetings — suggests that she is extremely conscientious about understanding the issues brought before the BOCC. Typically, she does thorough research and comes to meetings fully prepared. Very few elected officials, in my experience, work as hard at their jobs as Commissioner Medina does.
So it’s a bit confounding that she was not able to dispute the definitions and information presented by Rachel Suh at the library meeting. Nor was Attorney Weaver able to argue with the definitions, apparently.
Nor was anyone in the audience able to argue with the presentation, in spite of their passionate expressions of support for Commissioner Medina.
Attorney Weaver told us that no final decisions have been made, about which property to purchase for the proposed County Administration Building. He also stated that the developer in question, Colorado Outdoors LLC, has applied for state grants to assist with the construction of “workforce housing” but has not yet received any grants.
I asked Mr. Weaver if he would recommend to the BOCC, to delay any purchasing decision until Colorado Outdoors hears back on their grant applications. Mr. Weaver was non-committal about advising the BOCC in that regard.
On August 6, the BOCC had a chance to approve a purchase agreement for approximately five acres, of the 99-acre parcel being represented by EXIT Realty.
Purchase And Sale Agreement With ArenaLabs, LLC
This agenda item is to approve a Purchase and Sale Agreement to go under contract with ArenaLabs, LLC for the purchase of approximately 5 acres of land located at X W Highway 160, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147 for the purpose of constructing a new County administration building.
All three commissioners voted to table consideration of this agreement until their September 3 regular meeting.
That’s happening this coming Tuesday at 1:30pm.
Another opportunity for Commissioner Medina to review Colorado law and definitions, and make the choice to recuse.