Photo: Archuleta County Water Quality Department staff, from left: Danielle Brower, Katie Neher, Kevin Torrez.
A few years back, during the COVID crisis, the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners got crossways with the La Plata County Commissioners over the best way to operate a public health department. For over 70 years, the two counties had cooperatively funded and overseen a semi-autonomous district, San Juan Basin Public Health, but in 2022, the Archuleta BOCC announced their intention to investigate the possibility of withdrawing from SJBPH and forming its own County-run and County-financed public health department.
The La Plata BOCC then announced that they had lost faith in the Archuleta commissioners and would be dissolving SJBPH. The Archuleta commissioners got cold feet and began negotiating (half-heartedly?) to keep the district intact, but La Plata wasn’t having it. So Archuleta County was required — under state law — to stand up a public health department by January 2024.
One of the new functions that Archuleta County is required to maintain is “Water Quality”, mainly to inspect and approve septic systems. The County had no water quality department, nor staff trained in water quality approvals, so Development Director Pam Flowers was tasked with designing the new department, hiring the staff, and making sure they were fully trained and familiar with state and local regulations.
I mention this series of events because I’ve heard, through the grapevine, that certain people at the County believe the Development Services department may have grown unreasonably large, and are wondering if staff reductions are called for.
Earlier in this editorial series, we shared the resignation letter from Development Director (now ‘former’ Development Director) Pamela Flowers, submitted to the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners on July 14.
The letter indicates serious disappointment — to put it mildly — on the part of Ms. Flowers, regarding the troubled three-way relationship between Development Services, the BOCC, and the general public.
Ms. Flowers wrote about the difficulties faced by a staff charged with enforcing the County Land Use Regulations and the other 10 books of regulations that control how development ought to take place in Archuleta County… noting that, often, someone ends up dissatisfied with the enforcement process.
In such cases, careful reading and enforcement of established regulations are about the only protection afforded the Development Services staff, and the County as a whole.
Ms. Flowers wrote in her letter:
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.
I was particularly concerned about this phrase:
…the depth of your ignorance, laziness, and corruption.
Also:
…profound incompetence…
Strong language. Especially, perhaps, the accusation of “corruption”.
As I wrote yesterday, this letter was addressed to the BOCC, not to the general public, so presumably the Commissioners understood why Ms. Flowers was using strong language, even if they don’t necessarily agree that the BOCC has been plagued by ignorance, laziness, and corruption.
But I want Daily Post readers to better understand the situation.
I reached out to each of our three County Commissioners, inviting them to comment on Ms. Flowers’ resignation. Each declined to comment. I understand that commissioners tend to be careful about making public comments, when personnel matters are involved.
Then I sat down with Ms. Flowers and asked her to explain her decision to resign, and her use of words like “corruption”.
Here’s Ms. Flowers, commenting on her sense that her staff was saddened by her departure:
“It felt good, that they were sad to see me go, and that I had created a department where they could ‘do the right thing’. That they had my support to do the right thing. And that when it gets hard, I’m going to have their backs.”
The right thing being the effort “to maintain the highest levels of fairness, professionalism, and ethical conduct toward the citizens of Archuleta County whom we serve,” as stated on the County website.
“I’ve often said, that the best bosses I’ve had, would stand behind me when I did something right, so I get credit, and would stand in front of me and take the heat, even when I screw up.
“[Development Services] was my department, and everything everybody did was at my direction. If you’re upset with one of my staff, you’re actually upset with me, and I get that. I can take that heat.
“But now that I’m gone, they haven’t even started advertising my position yet. And with [Commissioner] John Ranson’s attitude about cutting staff, I would be surprised if they fill it…”
There comes a time in every organization, when the leadership needs to consider whether a department has become ‘bloated’. Money is one part of that deliberation process; another part is whether the remaining staff will be overworked and suffer burnout, and whether the public will suffer long delays in getting approvals for their projects.
Decisions that get made without reasonable access to “the facts” and without honest advice from managers and employees, can be devastating to an organization, and to a community.
With that concern in mind, I asked Ms. Flowers to explain her use of the term, “ignorance”.