I received an email over the weekend, from a disappointed Daily Post reader who referred to this current editorial series, and to the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) board of directors, using terms like “reprehensible” and “potentially corrupt” and “disrespectful” and “hypocritical”.
They wrote:
Finally, I resent the way you are labeling the [San Juan Water Conservancy District] Board, an Empire indeed.
I had originally thought to use the headline, “SJWCD Strikes Back”… but it made me think of an old Star Wars movie, which also dealt with a particular political conflict (though, presumably fictional)…
I thought the addition of the word “Empire” would be seen as humorous, since the SJWCD district is about as far from being an Empire as you can get. I sometimes use humor to try and diffuse a tense situation, but it often backfires, because some people cannot laugh when they are feeling tense.
In 2012, the PAWSD board of directors determined that it would no longer spend customer fees and taxes on building an unnecessary reservoir in the Dry Gulch Valley. This was not a determination that all reservoirs are unnecessary. This was not a determination about whether someone, somewhere, someday, might find a reservoir in the Dry Gulch Valley to be a desirable investment. Rather, it was a determination that PAWSD customers did not want — and would not benefit directly from — a Dry Gulch Reservoir, as planned in 2012.
Since 2012, the PAWSD board has not come across any data or information that suggests a different determination. In fact, the available data and information, since then, has only reinforced the 2012 decision.
But “truth” has a different appearance, depending on your perspective and beliefs. If you happen to believe, for example, that the San Juan mountains will soon cease to receive sufficient snow during the winter, due to human-caused climate change, your feelings of desperation can cause you make decisions that seem crazy, when seen from another person’s perspective.
As a member of the PAWSD Running Iron Ranch subcommittee, I’ve had the privilege of reviewing the confidential contract that a potential purchaser (who prefers to remain anonymous for the time being) submitted to the SJWCD board last week. In my reading for the offer, the potential purchaser was trying to help meet certain desires expressed by PAWSD and by SJWCD, to benefit the Pagosa community as a whole. Different desires, to be sure… but definitely something I viewed as “win-win-win”.
In fact, a very generous “win-win-win”. Or so it seemed to me, from my perspective.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer board member on the PAWSD board of directors, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions, and not necessarily the opinions of the PAWSD board or staff.
The SJWCD Empire saw things differently.
How would the larger community view the situation, if they knew the “truth”? But truth depends on a person’s beliefs and perspective.
In a letter published in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN last week, local activist Lee Stopher wrote:
Last Thursday the PAWSD board decided to entertain an offer on Running Iron Ranch from someone who will be open to having a reservoir — this sounds like a developer wanting to create pricey lake front homes, perhaps excluding public use.
I find this statement fascinating for a couple of reasons. First, the PAWSD board did not “decide to entertain an offer”. Instead, the PAWSD board recommended that a potential purchaser submit an offer directly to SJWCD, and find out if a deal could be struck with them.
Secondly, the PAWSD board never revealed whether or not this confidential offer “sounds like a developer wanting to create pricey lake front homes, perhaps excluding public use.” So I’m not clear how Ms. Stopher obtained confidential information.
Unfortunately, the “confidential information” she somehow obtained was, in fact, “confidential misinformation”. There is nothing in the confidential offer — the “win-win-win” offer that SJWCD has now rejected — that suggests “pricey lake front homes” on the Running Iron Ranch.
But Pagosa Springs does love a good rumor, don’t we?
One huge problem around the potential sale of the Running Iron Ranch — and there are, as we’ve discussed, a whole basket of problems — one problem is the requirement for a tax-funded entity to make decisions in open public meetings. In a democracy, a government entity belongs to “The People” and must, ethically, be transparent in its dealings. Especially, in its financial dealings.
But the American traditions around real estate transactions allow parties to deal confidentially, during negotiations. A buyer, who announces publicly how much they’re willing to pay for a property, risks turning the transaction into a bidding war between competing parties.
A bidding war can be profitable to the seller. And in the case of the Running Iron Ranch, the seller is PAWSD, which is to say, the seller is the “the PAWSD taxpayers and customers”. So the argument can be made for encouraging a bidding war to take place.
Colorado law, however, allows a government board and staff to negotiate privately during a potential real estate deal, out of respect for American traditions around confidentiality. But if a government takes advantage of this legal right to negotiate privately — for the benefit of the taxpayers? — this process can appear to violate the requirement to be transparent.
This can lead members of the public to begin using terms like “reprehensible” and “potentially corrupt” and “disrespectful” and “hypocritical”.
There’s a wonderful old story, from a famous book, in which two young mothers appeared before King Solomon, sitting in judgment. The two women lived in the same house, and they’d both borne babies at the same time, but subsequently, one of the babies died.
Now, each mother claimed that the still-living baby belonged to her.
And the king said: ‘Fetch me a sword.’ And they brought a sword before the king.
And the king said: ‘Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.’
Then spoke the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned upon her son, and she said: ‘Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it…’ But the other said: ‘It shall be neither mine nor thine; divide it.’
Then the king answered and said: ‘Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.’
Since 2012, when PAWSD removed itself as a potential partner on the Dry Gulch Reservoir project, SJWCD has been searching in vain for a partner to help build the Dry Gulch Reservoir.
One finally showed up, and in the spirit of cooperation, the PAWSD board — without making any decisions — recommended to the buyer that they should approach SJWCD with what appeared to be a “win-win-win” offer. Following an hour of closed-door conversation, the SJWCD board voted unanimously to reject the offer, without making any effort to speak with, or negotiate with, the potential partner.
Sometimes there’s just no pleasing the Empire.
But where is King Solomon, when he need him?