Photo: The Archuleta County Detention Center, on a spring day.
I assume Commissioner Veronica Medina did not yet know — at the start of the Tuesday, September 3, meeting of the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners — that the citizen group called Reclaim Archuleta had decided not to submit their petitions seeking an election to recall Commissioner Medina.
The Daily Post received a press release from Reclaim Archuleta, announcing that decision, only after the BOCC meeting was over.
I also assume that some of the Reclaim Archuleta members were among the packed audience at the Tuesday afternoon meeting, curious to witness Commissioner Medina’s actions regarding the EXIT Realty property proposal.
In sharp contrast with the June 4 BOCC meeting — where Commission chair Medina had rather aggressively (in my opinion) pushed her fellow commissioners to move ahead with the proposed EXIT Realty property offering — Commissioner Medina remained fairly quiet and non-committal on Tuesday, and even ended up voting to table the two property purchase proposals on the agenda — while her managing broker at EXIT Realty, Shelley Low, sat in the front row of the audience, watching the decision unfold.
Commissioner Medina remained calm in spite of being addressed by several passionate members of the audience. She even, unexpectedly, opened the floor to the audience for additional testimony during the discussion of the property proposals.
The County official who most obviously lost his cool during the meeting was County Attorney Todd Weaver, who rudely and aggressively interrupted and talked over one of the citizens testifying at the podium.
Meanwhile, the commissioner who had the hardest time keeping his cool was Ronnie Maez, who repeatedly criticized his two fellow commissioners for failing to make a definite choice at the Tuesday meeting. We will note that Mr. Maez is term limited, and will leave office in January.
One of more passionate exchanges:
Maez: “If this is the direction you guys are going, I can see it. Hey, you know, it’s going to be yours to do it, next year. I just promised the community I’m going to work hard until I’m done. But if you guys want to push this decision out, then push it out. ‘Cause that’s what it sounds like, where it’s going. If that’s what you guys want to do, then let’s do it.
“We’ve wasted other people’s time and money, coming back to the table. You guys have time and money invested in this. I know that [Aspen Village property owner Dan Sanders] has a ton of money invested in this. The only purchase I think is the wisest to move forward on, is the one in Aspen Village, simply because it’s already developed, the water, the sewer, the electric, everything is there, and we don’t have to build a road…”
County Attorney Weaver noted that, if the commissioners chose to delay a decision, “one of these two properties may not be available in the future.”
Maez: “I’ve been down that road before, on other stuff with the County… Are we stepping over a dollar to save a dime? Or are we going to start doing business, like we’re elected to do?”
Medina: “Well, I don’t think that it’s a matter of trying to push the decision down the road, or to not make a decision. I think my point in asking what I asked last Tuesday — because I heard the community loud and clear, and [audience member Marybeth Snyder] is one example of what’s being said — is to have a community meeting so they can come forward and present their ideas.
“Todd has explained that we’ve been talking about this since June of last year…”
Maez: “I spoke about it in 2020…”
Medina: “And I know that we are the ones who make the decision, but I feel like it would be prudent of us to get a financial advisor, to show us what the cost would be. Then we can show our constituents what it would cost to renovate a building, if that’s how we decided to go. Or if we were going to purchase property in Harman Park, or Aspen Village, or [South Pagosa Boulevard]… I think it’s a reasonable request. Because even we don’t know how much it’s going to cost…”
Maez: “I don’t think it’s reasonable at all, because you know, the thing is, Veronica, the previous commissioners did this with the old jail…”
(We then heard Commissioner Maez rehash a well-worn rant about the failure of the voters to approve a sales tax increase for a proposed, oversized County jail…)
“People coming to us, telling us, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t spend the money.’ We did it. But we’re still ahead of the game, financially. So if you want to keep talking about it for years, you can keep talking about it for years.”
Medina: “We’re discussing it now. That’s why we’re having this conversation, so we can discuss it… not so we can push it down the road…”
Maez: “That’s what you guys are telling me…”
Medina: “We’re having that discussion. So if you will just open your mind and hear what’s being said…”
Maez: “My mind’s pretty open.”
Regardless of whose mind was open, or not open, Commissioner Maez voted against a motion by Commissioner Warren Brown to table a purchasing decision until December, and in the meantime, engage a financial advisor to analyze the available options and their likely costs, and also to hold at least one public community meeting to hear from the taxpayers.
Commissioner Medina voted in favor, and the motion carried.
By the way, the County is not “ahead of the game financially” as Commissioner Maez likes to claim, unless perhaps the game is to put the local taxpayers as deeply into debt as possible.