I don’t fully understand the resignation letter by Archuleta County Development Director Pamela Flowers, sent the the Board of County Commissioners on July 14. Not fully.
But I think I understand the ‘gist’ of it, as well as a person can, who lives outside the County government but who spends much of his time thinking about and writing about County government.
For example, I think I understand, pretty well, this part of the letter, discussing the efforts of Development Services employees to avoid lawsuits:
Our team has avoided accepting any risk or legal liability for the County by focusing on the words in the governing documents you have given us and mandated that we enforce. Our daily mantra is “what does the regulation say?” That is how every single decision is made by our staff. If it is in the regulation, we must do it and if it is not in the regulation, we cannot do it. No emotions, no favoritism, no looking the other way. That is the job!
During my 20 years reporting on County government, I’ve seen numerous lawsuits filed against the County. I’ve even filed a couple myself, when I believed County officials were violating state laws. But the County also makes ordinances of its own, circumscribing the behavior of community members, and of County officials. One of the presumed tasks of elected officials and employees at the County is to behave in alignment with the adopted regulations, to avoid — as much as possible — lawsuits. Ms. Flowers is referring to that obligation.
If it is in the regulation, we must do it and if it is not in the regulation, we cannot do it. No emotions, no favoritism, no looking the other way.
There are other aspects of the letter that I believe I understand. But I cannot clarify some of the statements without knowing certain details that were not included in the letter.
I am hopeful that, at some point, I can sit down with Ms. Flowers and learn more about those details.
We should note that Ms. Flowers does not, in her letter, call out any particular Commissioner, but instead addresses all three — Warren Brown, Veronica Medina and John Ranson — as “this Board”. It’s worth mentioning that she has worked with the different commissioners for different lengths of time: 6 months with Commissioner Ranson; 2 ½ years with Commissioner Medina; and 4 ½ years with Commissioner Brown.
Here are the concluding comments from Ms. Flower’s resignation letter:
It has, therefore, become painfully obvious that each of you lack the capacity to understand your role and your responsibility as a County commissioner. You are not kings and queen of the County. You do not have unlimited power. You were not elected to protect your ‘friends’ from the very rules you have adopted.
The role of those rules, and the difficult and thankless work undertaken every day by Development Services, is to ensure that every single citizen of Archuleta County is treated fairly and consistently. You have been reminded many times that if you don’t like the rules, you have the power to change them. The fact that you have made no effort to make rule changes and instead choose to actively work against and pressure my staff to behave unethically in favor of your pals, shows the depth of your ignorance, laziness, and corruption.
Instead of acting with courage to protect the County, you have chosen to belittle, attack, and demonize your employees for doing the difficult work. One day you scold me in a public meeting for not enforcing the rules, then behind closed doors you name call and insult me, and the dedicated professionals who work with me, because we won’t ignore the rules for one of your friends.
These unfortunate facts show me that my future here is bleak. Though I am not perfect, I am a person of great personal and professional integrity. Standing by and watching you disrespect and threaten the people in this County who are trying to do the right thing because we won’t get in line is no longer tolerable to me. I cannot continue to be associated with the profound incompetence and dishonesty shown by this Board on a regular basis.
You believe I am the problem, so I will step aside so you can look for your ‘yes man’. I can only hope and pray that someday you will realize the value of people like me, my staff, and the many other people working for the County that are experts at what they do — people who approach each citizen with respect and consistency and strive every day to protect you from yourselves.
Archuleta County has been on a good path of late, but this corruption will most definitely derail the efforts of the many outstanding people who live and work here and just want to do their part to make the County better.
Pamela Flowers
I’ve not spent a great deal of time at Development Services since Ms. Flowers was hired, 5 ½ years ago — and when I did visit, I was almost always in Ms. Flowers’ office, getting clarifications around this or that land use issue, or kicking around ideas.
My sense is that she often ‘ran interference’ for her staff when they were criticized by officials outside the department, and that her staff repaid that effort with loyalty, while also maintaining the ability to express their own opinions.
But don’t quote me. I am definitely an ‘outsider’ in this situation.