Elected officials in Dolores highlighted a larger-than-usual crowd at a regular Board of Trustees meeting on Monday evening and applauded public participation, yet inexplicably did not ensure recording was active during the meeting’s opening public comment portion.
Dolores’s smaller size didn’t hinder a strong show of public engagement Monday night during a meeting that addressed such matters as increased bear encounters, problems with a town insurer audit and electrical equipment upgrades.
“We had a wonderful turnout on Monday night,” said Dolores resident Michael Sawyer. “It was unfortunate that they had technical difficulties and the citizens’ comments were not recorded.”
Sawyer posted on Facebook the night before the meeting to encourage local attendance.
“We need community involvement,” he wrote in the post. “I feel like in the last year, we have lost Transparency, Accountability and Integrity. Please Support your Local Firefighters, Law Enforcement and Community.”
The handful of comments that occurred during the first 20 minutes or so, according to Sawyer, were not uploaded into the YouTube recording of the meeting.
The YouTube video included a description that read “Due to technical issues, the first half the meeting was recorded intermittently, both audio and video were impaired. The video uploaded here begins prior to Staff/Committee reports.”
Looking to prevent another recording mishap, Town Manager Leigh Reeves told The Journal that Dolores would be reaching out to their contracted IT company, with plans to switch over from using Zoom to Microsoft Teams for future recording.
“We once and a while unfortunately do have an issue,” she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trustee Sheila Wheeler took to the Dolores Gazette Facebook page to apologize and describe the recording mishap.
“It was just discovered the public comments made at Monday’s Town meeting were not recorded!,” Wheeler wrote. “Recording did not begin until the Sheriff spoke. So, the first 25 minutes or so, were not recorded! Not sure what REALLY happened, but you are all owed an apology.”
“To all of you, who took the time to come to the meeting and make your voice heard, and even to those who did not comment, Thank you!! It is my opinion it is your right to be informed by your municipality, and to inform your municipality as well!”
Other Dolores elected officials said that they appreciated the public presence during Monday night’s meeting.
“I just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight,” said Town Trustee Mark Youngquist. “Seeing a lot of new faces. It's always a pleasure to see community involvement here.”
Youngquist said that he’s open to hearing any questions or suggestions from constituents. Longstanding infrastructure projects with extensive oversight paths could always use the inclusion of volunteers, he said.
“We’re all just trying to make this town the best we can with sometimes the little we have available to us,” said Youngquist. “Certainly budgetary constraints are something that we consider a lot.”
“Some meetings feel like we’re all alone in this process,” he said.
With unanticipated challenges emerging for the town, community input can only help, he said.
“We all are here with open ears, open heart,” said Dolores Mayor Chris Holkestad. “We're trying to do the best we can for the town that we live in and we love. So, the more you can share with us about what you want, it prevents us from guessing what the town wants.”
In perhaps a turn of irony, one portion of the meeting was spent discussing the choice to record town meetings generally.
Dolores attorney, John Kelly – who also separately announced his resignation effective for late October – described the Colorado statute pertaining to recording public meetings.
Under the state’s open meeting laws, “minutes are required for all meetings at which a policy, position, resolution, rule, regulations or formal action occurs or could occur.”
The laws do not specify that local offices must make digital recordings, however; only that they must create minutes.
“I like to tell people you cannot give folks too much due process,” said Kelly. “Nor can you be too open and transparent to the public.”
Meetings in which formal decisions are not made – like workshop discussions – are not required to be recorded, according to the laws.
A Trustee workshop on Aug. 25 workshop addressing a contract with the Sheriff’s Office and public safety was not recorded. An agenda packet for that date read “Our workshops will no longer be recorded as there are no votes taken.”
But Town Manager Reeves told The Journal differently.
Reeves said that out of courtesy to the public, Dolores will be continuing to share public recordings of workshops, where formal decisions are not adopted, only discussed.
“I think we all have agreed we will take minutes, we will record,” Holkestad said during Monday night’s meeting.
