Photo: Outgoing SJWCD president Diane Bower congratulates incoming SJWCD president Rod Proffitt, 2013.
I thought I was done writing about “trust” issues for a while, when I finished Part Seven yesterday. I’d written about trust issues faced by the Archuleta County government; and the trust issues involved in a current campaign by Archuleta School District looking toward a possible bond issue; and some trust issues related to two local water districts, Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) and San Juan Water Conservation District (SJWCD) around ownership of the Running Iron Ranch.
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.
We also have to consider trust issues related to our local news media… the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, and the Pagosa Daily Post..
Can we trust our local journalists to report the truth… however unpleasant the truth might be, occasionally?
Here’s part of a comment posted on Facebook by Rodney Proffitt, a member of the SJWCD board of directors, forwarded to me by a friend.
“Trust” comes in all flavors and sizes. Bill [Hudson] uses “trust” as a sword here to impugn the work being done on behalf of the citizens of this community. With so many short term needs, this community has pushed a new reservoir to the back burner a number of times. It’s hard to sell people on a project they may never be able to utilize in their lifetime. It’s harder still when the few news outlets relaying what’s going on with that project consistently mislead the public.
Rodney Proffitt was recently appointed to a seat on the San Juan Water Conservancy District board. He’s here referring to the Dry Gulch Reservoir project, first proposed by SJWCD in 1989. You can download that 1989 report here.
Some of our Daily Post readers may recall that Mr. Proffitt resigned from SJWCD in 2017, shortly after the Pagosa Springs SUN revealed documents showing that Mr. Proffitt had been receiving thousands of dollars in tax-funded payments, through a contract with SJWCD, in apparent violation of his oath of office…
…an oath in which he swore not to have a contract with SJWCD.
The contract payments were paid to Mr. Proffitt, purportedly so that he could promote the Dry Gulch Reservoir. These unethical payments were of course justified by Mr. Proffitt as “work being done on behalf of the citizens of this community.” Profitable work, you might say.
Following Mr. Proffitt’s resignation, a modest tax increase sought by SJWCD to move the Dry Gulch Reservoir project forward, was rejected by the voters by a 3-to-1 margin.
From an article in the Pagosa Springs SUN, November 2017:
Ballot Issue 5A, the San Juan Water Conservancy District’s (SJWCD) request for an increase to 1 mill to help with the land acquisition for and support the San Juan River Headwaters Project reservoir, was soundly defeated Tuesday, with 75.44 percent of voters against the measure (2,697 votes).
A total of 878 voters, or 24.56 percent, were in favor of the measure.
Even though the tax increase requested was extremely small, the defeat was overwhelming. Apparently, the citizens didn’t approve of the “work” Mr. Proffitt and SJWCD had been doing “on behalf of the citizens of this community.”
A lack of trust, perhaps?
Mr. Proffitt has had struggles with unethical behavior before. He was, for example, disbarred and prohibited from practicing law in Colorado in 1993, by the Colorado Supreme Court Grievance Committee. You can download that court ruling here.
But Mr. Proffitt seems to believe he’s has something to tell us about “trust”, in spite of his apparent willingness to violate his oath of office, and his apparent willingness to insult the Supreme Court Grievance Committee.
And while we’re on the subject of insults…
In his Facebook posting attacking the local media, Mr. Proffitt made reference to a potential partner who recently submitted a plan to SJWCD, with an offer to help SJWCD finally build the reservoir they have been unable to build since 1989. SJWCD rejected the offer without even talking to that potential partner.
As a member of the PAWSD Running Iron Ranch Subcommittee, I had a chance to read the confidential offer. I found it very exciting.
Mr. Proffitt wrote on Facebook:
The buyer is not anyone’s partner. In fact, this Texas carpetbagger may be angling to use water rights presently held in public trust to build a reservoir and then sell back the very water this community already has the rights for. That’s no partner, that’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing…
Is this truly the way we want our tax-supported San Juan Water Conservancy District board to treat a potential partner, who has offered a plan to help build a community water reservoir, while also relieving PAWSD customers of over $10 million in ongoing debt payments?
A SJWCD board member, publishing unsubstantiated public insults on Facebook?
That’s certainly not my preference.
Unfortunately for the Pagosa Springs community, the board members serving on the San Juan Water Conservancy District — spending our tax money, and insulting potential partners — are not elected to their positions. They are appointed by a judge, without voter input. So for the time being, we are stuck with SJWCD board member Rodney Proffitt.
Which means, we are stuck with a lack of trust.
I suppose the rest of the SJWCD board of directors could vote to censure Mr. Proffitt, and could refuse to listen to his advice. Lord knows, they could even ask him to resign.
Maybe they could thereby restore some of the trust they’ve lost over the years.