Photo: Development Director Pamela Flowers presents her semi-annual report to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, March 19, 2024.
Yesterday, I shared Page One of a three-page resignation letter sent to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners from Development Director Pamela Flowers.
Or rather, from former Development Director Pamela Flowers.
Here’s a bit more of the resignation letter, which begins to explain the frustrations that resulted in the County government losing its Development Director.
…My team understands that it is a core tenet of their job to explain [to applicants] the rules and standards adopted by the Board that apply to their circumstance. We hear them out, we empathize with their feelings, and we educate them about the meaning of the various rules. Then we strive to find a way to help each person get to ‘yes’, if possible.
But common sense should tell you that in some situations, a ‘yes’ for one person may amount to a ‘no’ for another.
For instance, if someone comes to us for a setback variance in a floodplain area, the staff makes sure they have complied with every standard adopted by the Board and then comes to you with a staff report showing how they meet the criteria for that ‘yes’. But perhaps the neighbors come to you in private and in the public with an emotional and irrational argument that 15 feet would essentially destroy their lives, so you vote ‘no’. It should be clear to you that in many cases, we can’t just get ‘them’ to a ‘yes’… because there are usually two sides to the matter. No matter the decision, someone will be disappointed.
This is why we focus on following the rules explicitly. This way, we avoid being arbitrary and ensure we treat every person equally.
I recently wrote about a six-part editorial on the theme of ‘liberty and justice,’ and I mentioned that the Town Council starts each regular meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.
“…and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners also recites this pledge at the beginning of each regular meeting.
Each of us may have our individual concepts of what ‘liberty’ and ‘justice’ mean. One possible interpretation of the word, ‘justice’, would be that the authorities who are charged with administering the law — judges, police, elected officials, government employees — do so with integrity; that the law is enforced upon Tom the same way it’s enforced upon Dick and Harry, and that it is enforced according to the most intelligent and reasonable interpretation of the law’s meaning.
When the law is regularly enforced upon Tom, but Dick and Harry are allowed to skirt the law, we have a failure of ‘justice’, and we no longer live in a nation with liberty and justice for all.
I attend a lot of government meetings, and many of the discussions I listen to concern the proper application of justice. A few months ago, Development Director Flowers was giving the BOCC an update on her department, and mentioned that her staff was working to change the public reputation of County Development Services from an “enforcement agency” to more of a “service agency”.
As she described the ongoing transition to meet that goal, she said her staff would be developing better ways to help applicants understand the law, and would be engaging in active efforts to find the most economical and practical ways for applicants to successfully meet the regulations…
…with the understanding that the regulations would be met… but would be met through creative problem solving rather than through oppressive, top-down enforcement.
Hearing that presentation, I felt hopeful that our County government and our community were moving in the direction of cooperation, rather than into the dark pit of divisiveness.
I still cling to that hope, but the resignation letter from Ms. Flowers makes it more difficult to remain hopeful.
More of Page Two:
When the BOCC ignores the carefully detailed facts showing what the rules say, the conditions of approval to ensure full alignment with those rules, even detailed summaries of the neighbors’ comments compared to the facts provided to inform your decision, you demean and disregard the careful efforts of my staff by giving in to the pressure and reacting emotionally anyway.
Unfortunately, this sort of decision-making fits perfectly with the self-serving, shady, and weak-minded actions I have unfortunately come to expect of this Board.
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…
The word, “corruption”, is not a word I use lightly, but I have used it on rare occasions here in the Daily Post. On those occasions, I have typically been referring to situations where elected or appointed officials have alledgedly ‘bent’ policies or laws to benefit themselves or their friends, or have ignored policies or laws when they should have been applied.
If Ms. Flowers has witnessed corruption at the County, I hope she will someday let the citizens learn, specifically, what she has witnessed. Ignorance and laziness are easy enough to observe when they’re present, but corruption usually happens out of public view.