A traditional approach to defining and managing organizational goals, especially in County governments, is to list out known problems, make the “solution” of each problem a specific project, and then execute those projects as quickly as possible. While this approach is easy to understand and digest, it sometimes creates serious long-term problems, because of its focus on immediate short-term solutions. In 2016, Archuleta County shifted its considered time frame from “short term” to “long term”. At the same time, it shifted away from a laundry list of projects, to the continual development of people and core processes, in hopes of getting better long-term results, and in a more sustainable manner…
— from the proposed 2025 budget for Archuleta County
I mentioned in Part One, that I’d been contacted in the past week by several local residents, looking for suggestions about the best way to address issue they may be having with the Archuleta County government.
Interestingly enough, only one of the issues of concern seemed directly related to how the Board of County Commissioners spend our money.
I also mentioned previously that, according to a 2022 survey, voters don’t trust our County government to be fiscally responsible. Only about one-quarter of survey respondents either “strongly agreed” (4%) or “somewhat agreed” (23%) that Archuleta County is fiscally responsible.
Almost two out of three local residents surveyed in 2022 — 63% —stated that they did not feel the Archuleta County government acts in a fiscally responsible manner.
The question of the County’s fiscal performance was addressed yesterday, at the beginning of the BOCC’s special meeting, by local resident Joseph Yoklavich. I suspect his comments reflect the sentiments of a wide swath of our taxpayers.
As he spoke to the three commissioners — Veronica Medina, Warren Brown and Ronnie Maez — he occasionally turned and directed some of his comments to Public Works director Mike Torres and Road & Bridge manager Eric McRea, seated in the audience.
“I’m here to thank Eric McRea and Mike Torres for a job well done. Since July 2, we’re had a lot of problems on Skyline Drive. And I really got to know Eric and his team. He had a supervisor by the name of Mike, a guy by the name of Walt. I sat back and I listened to what their problems were. And that’s another reason why I’m here.
“These guys… they need more money. The road that they finally finished, last month, up to Skyline, needed one last thing. Gravel.
“They are out of gravel.
“Here it is, September, and these guys need more infrastructure. I talked to every single one of the people that worked there. All of them said, ‘We are out of materials’. They needed more help. More skilled labor. And they needed the ability to do their job properly. It’s obvious. These guys need more help, to maintain the infrastructure of this county.
“So, thus, the one thing I bring to you today. I thank Mike, and I thank you for supporting him.
“I’m only one vote… but I want to tap you guys. Put more time into the infrastructure of this county and less on tourism.
“Do what you can to help the people of our county. If you need more money, tax the tourists. Tax the STRs. Tax the hotels.
“But, help these guys.”
He turned to Mike Torres.
“Mike, you met us there. Hopefully, this resonates. I want you to know, I’m deeply thankful…”
Presumably, Mr. Yoklavich was not telling the commissioners anything new or surprising, although we don’t often hear praise for the Road & Bridge Department so eloquently expressed. I’ve been hearing taxpayers complain about unsatisfactory maintenance of County roads since I first started writing for the Daily Post in 2004.
Archuleta County put all of us deeply in debt building an oversized jail in 2020 (without voter approval) and the resulting expenses — the loan payments and operating costs — have had a effect on the overall County budget, including Road & Bridge. Other “long-range” decisions have also had their effect.
The cost of the Sheriff’s Detention department operation has increased… from $1.0 million in 2016 to $3.4 million in 2025, according to my review of the relevant budgets. You can access County budgets going back to 2019 here.
The overall Sheriff’s Office expenditures have increased… from $3.0 million in 2016 to $7.0 million in 2025. Yes, we’ve had some inflation during that time, but… does the BOCC really have justification for more than doubling the Sheriff’s Office budget over eight years?
All of the County departments have seen increased expenditures since 2016, but none of them come close to the percentage increase seen in the Sheriff’s Office budget, from my cursory review.
Perhaps we all feel safer as a result…
Until we drive the roads?
The BOCC — ignoring the 2022 survey results that indicated our community generally doesn’t trust the way they spend our tax money — requested a 37% increase in the local sales tax, with a vague promise to spend some of the extra taxes on road maintenance.
The Town government, with whom that increase sales tax would have been shared, threw its support behind the tax measure, named Ballot Issue 1A.
Not everyone on the Town Council thought the measure would succeed.
Here’s Town Council member Brooks Lindner, addressing his fellow Council members two months before the vote.
“I don’t think this has a chance of passing. Period. And I’ll just state that, and give you the reasons why I believe that.
“For one thing, I don’t think we have enough information and enough research about the sales tax, and its impacts on a community. So, I think we’re flying blind, right there.
“Secondly, I’m not sure of the exact voter numbers, but I believe at least 80% of our community is either registered Republican or Unaffiliated, and our Unaffiliated voters tend to be conservative. So we have about 80% of our community who are fiscally conservative. You put a sales tax on the ballot, you’re going to wake those people up, and they are going to be looking at this very hard.
“They’re going to be looking at all this ballot language; they are going to be looking at the research regarding the impacts of sales tax; and they are going to be coming out of the woodwork.
“Do we have enough momentum and enough information to combat that, at this point?
“The numbers from the [recent Magellan Strategies] survey were not that great. They really weren’t. Especially the part about trust…”
Disregarding Mr. Lindner’s perceptive (and ultimately accurate) prediction, the Town Council nevertheless passed a resolution supporting Ballot Question 1A.
The voters vigorously rejected the tax increase.