In this editorial series, I’ve shared a few comments that I found on social media, from a local businessman Joel Hellwege sharing his impressions from Archuleta County’s March 25 ‘Interactive Community Forum’.
Sometimes, ‘community forums’ are nothing more than an opportunity for government leaders to tell us what they want and why the taxpayers should provide them with more money. But thus far, these community events hosted by the County have truly been ‘interactive’ and have provided a chance for the public to ask questions and make suggestions.
The next ‘Interactive Community Forum’ is scheduled for this coming Monday, April 13, at 5pm at the PLPOA Clubhouse at 230 Port Drive. It will be hosted by Commissioner Warren Brown and County Manager Longinos Gonzalez Jr. (His first name is pronounced “Low-HEE-nos”.) The agenda includes discussions about building code changes, the Community Plan update, a potential Lodging Tax increase on the November ballot… and “Your Ideas & Concerns”. These are some of the same topics discussed at last month’s forum event.
From Mr. Hellwege’s thoughtful summary of the March 25 meeting, posted on March 26:
The objective of the meeting was to encourage participation from we citizens in what we want our Archuleta County Commissioners to focus their efforts and our money on…
There are upcoming meetings and the leaders of our county sure seem like they are trying very hard to get our input and then to process it within the insanity of our state. My new curse word is going to be “Unfunded Mandates.” Unfunded mandates is when the state tells the counties that they have to do various things; like build a water processing plant that will meet state rules, but then they don’t fund what they require.
I pointed out that that is like me wanting to buy a brand new pick up truck, because I think I need it, and my wife looking at me and saying, “And where is the money gonna come from?”…
Mark Weiler stood up and vigorously advocated for saying “NO!” to the state. And I think that the majority of the room agreed with him. I certainly did. Even if it involves a lawsuit, the absolute insanity of the lawmakers in Denver making the counties do things without providing the money for whatever they dream up is just wrong.
I consider businessman Mark Weiler to be a friend, and we have worked together on several political, and semi-political, projects.
Mr. Weiler appeared at yesterday’s Archuleta Board of County Commissioners meeting, and once again urged the commissioner to Just Say NO to unfunded government mandates and requirements coming from Denver.
But it’s one thing to say “NO” to drugs, and quite another to say “NO” to the state government. Especially when you are part of the state government.
Yes, Archuleta County — unlike the Town of Pagosa Springs — is legally a division of the Colorado state government. The residents of Pagosa Springs created a municipal government by incorporating in 1891… but the entity known as Archuleta County was never “incorporated”. It was instead created by the state government to administer state policies at the local level.
To use Mr. Hellwege’s metaphor of a husband and wife discussing a new truck, Archuleta County is legally “married” to the state government. For the County commissioners to refuse to follow state law would be roughly the same as the Colorado Department of Transportation refusing to follow state law, or Colorado Parks & Wildlife refusing to follow state law.
Case in point: a recent state law — SB23-166 — led to the creation of a new Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (CWRC) partly in a reaction to increasing fire insurance costs in the state. The CWRC aims to improve community safety by mandating fire-resistant building materials and practices in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas, thus reducing the risk of forest fires spreading to structures, and structure fires spreading to forests.
The CWRC was officially adopted by the state government last summer, and local jurisdictions had to adopt the code by April 1, and must comply with its regulations by July 1. The Code requirements will likely add 10%-20% to the cost of a new structure built in or near a forested area — like, for example, almost everywhere in Archuleta County. It might also increase the cost of County building code enforcement.
BOCC chair Warren Brown expressed his displeasure with the requirement to adopt the CWRC last month, at the meeting where the BOCC did, in fact, adopt the Code.
“It’s always rural Colorado — the real Colorado — trying to explain to the Eastern Slope, and the administration of the state, that we’re different, and that being here is a choice, and choices comes with inherent risks.
“And trying to mandate that we comply to the point where they are withholding… essentially, you’re going to go ‘carbon neutral’ if you don’t.”
Commissioner Brown was here referring to a possibly unpleasant outcome, if Archuleta County didn’t adopt the CWRC. The state government could (and would?) require new buildings here to be ‘all electric’ — prohibiting the use of fossil fuels for heating in new construction.
Commissioner Brown:
“We don’t even have enough electricity to allow for a sizable housing unit, let alone to go ‘carbon neutral’. I’m just so sick of the government making sure that they can shut our power on and off, no matter what we’re doing, if we don’t comply…
“While I’m certainly in support of safety and health issues that come along, this is far too much. It will, and already has, cost us — the taxpayers in Archuleta County — money. It will continue to cost us more. It’s making homes more expensive. We’re going to have fewer people who can afford to stay here, live here, work here…”
Of course, it’s an easy thing for the frying pan to call the kettle black. Without any “unfunded mandate” from the state government, Archuleta County has itself imposed hundreds of pages of building codes on construction companies and homeowners — for decades — in the interests of “health and safety”. These codes must be followed, and are, in a sense, similar to the mandates the state government imposes, except they put the added financial burdens on individual property owners.
Now, the state government has passed a law, requiring counties to adopt the latest version of the International Building Codes.
Apparently, this requirement will be discussed at the April 13 ‘Interactive Community Forum’?
From Mr. Hellwege’s March 26 posting:
Folks, there are serious things going on, and we all need to be able to give a little to get a little and work hard to get along in the process. There are a bunch more meetings coming up and I know I’m maxed out and I know most of you are as well. But I’m gonna try my best to be attending these because it sure seems like we have county leaders who are trying to thread-the-needle in doing the right thing.