At the beginning of an emotional — and somewhat difficult — discussion at the January 14 work session for the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, Commissioner Warren Brown had asked for an agreement from his two fellow commissioners — current Board Chair Veronica Medina and newly-seated Commissioner John Ranson, that the relatively-powerful Chair position be rotated annually among the three commissioners.
Commissioner Ranson stated that he could support such a policy, although he wanted to see Commissioner Medina continue serving as Chair, at least for the 2025 session, in the interests of “continuity.”
Commissioner Medina then decided to make the discussion personal and subjective, rather than impersonal and objective, by describing in some detail her feelings of being treated dismissively by Commissioner Brown.
“When I came into office, I wasn’t welcomed. And that’s why I insisted so much that John get the red carpet. It was so hard to come into this office. I was treated… professionally, but it wasn’t kind. It was not kind.
“And so that’s past. That’s definitely gone. And then Commissioner Brown was in the [adjacent] office and he decided to move. That was fine…
“And then… the closed, locked door? Had Commissioner Brown ever locked his door, prior to me being in office? From my understanding… no…
“Nobody else except Finance locks their door, and Finance has to lock their door, right? So those are signs of trust and confidence.
“So, if you can’t trust us, why should we trust you? How are we going to work together if we don’t trust each other?”
That’s an interesting question for us to consider.
How are we going to work together if we don’t trust each other?
I have a suggestion, based on my experiences serving on, and writing about, local government and non-profit boards. Stop worrying about “trust” and “confidence”… and focus on shared values, wherever they exist.
“Trust” is, in my humble opinion, merely a figment of a person’s imagination — and a very fragile figment. When we dig down to the actual meaning of the word,”trust”, it means “I expect you to behave the way I think you should behave.” Until you prove me wrong.
If I am realistic and honest with myself, I know that another person is sometimes going to do things I didn’t want, and didn’t expect. They might, for example, lock their door.
I might then claim that my “trust” has been broken. But the “trust” existed only in my own imagination. I expected something that was not realistic.
In my experience, no one always acts the way I want and expect. If I am realistic and honest with myself, my expectation will be that the other person will generally act in their own interests — and not in my interests, unless our interests align in some way.
Does Commissioner Medina wonder why Commissioner Brown began locking his door? Presumably, because he didn’t trust someone in the office?
Where to place the blame for that?
The question posed to Commissioner Medina and Commissioner Ranson on January 14 — about rotating, annually, the powerful position of Board Chair — was not about trust. It was about fairness. Fairness to the taxpayers, and fairness to the commissioners themselves. Each County commissioner represents a different district. One can easily argue that each district deserves a chance to have their chosen representative serve as Board Chair, at least occasionally.
But on January 14, Commissioner Medina framed the discussion in terms of how she personally felt treated by Commissioner Brown, and her individual lack of “trust”.
In 2022, the Archuleta BOCC hired Denver-based Magellan Strategies to survey 1,000 likely Archuleta County voters, and discover how to best sell a tax-increase proposal to the voters.
When the survey results were presented, they indicated that only about 27% of likely voters believed the BOCC to be fiscally responsible.
Then, the three County commissioners and County leadership demonstrated a complete failure to understand the political currents in their own community, and — ignoring the clearly articulated warnings from the people around them — placed the $6.5 million tax increase on the November ballot.
The tax increase went down in flames, with only 27% voting in favor.
We have two serious problems in our community that seem to be getting worse with each passing day. Serious problems.
A lack of road maintenance.
A lack of workforce housing.
Solving these two problems will require money and effort. We will need to put other community concerns on the back burner, and redirect our existing money and effort to these two problems… or face the likelihood of an ever-more-dysfunctional community.
Commissioner Medina:
“For me, the Chair should be a position of the other commissioners being able to trust and have confidence in that position, as well as the public. They should have trust and confidence in the person that is going to lead this County. It should not be political, and it absolutely is not political for me. Because I am comfortable in any one of these chairs… But I need to believe in my leader.”
Commissioner Brown:
“I appreciate you bringing this up and talking about it. When I had this conversation with John, last week, while it was still legal [to have one-on-one conversations privately], what I told John was, we need to get beyond where we are, as a Board. Because we have a lot of things to do.
“And I think, frankly, that not getting along deters us from being able to complete, and get as much done, as we could otherwise get done. So I told John about my idea of making the Chair a rotating position, because I know there are other Counties that do that. And it seems to me, it would take a lot of the politics and pressure off the Board members, to get this done.
“This is not about me being the Chair or not being the Chair…
“I said to John… “We need to do better. I need to do better. Whoever you motion to be Chair. I’m seconding it. Period.”
“And that’s the way I’m going at this… maybe establishing the groundwork for this to be different from how they’ve always been…”