Montezuma County’s commissioners all are officially unaffiliated, but voters should not mistake them as independent. All three — including Keenan Ertel and Larry Don Suckla, who are seeking re-election — are well connected to the conservative agenda prevalent among Republicans across the Western United States.
Over the past term, their legacy has been mixed.
They have promoted solar energy, recycling, recreation trails and improved broadband internet. They took control of the county fair budget after disastrous overspending in 2014, tackled the local weed issue, and have received good feedback on road maintenance and snow removal.
They stood with farmers against a disruptive Kinder Morgan plan for power lines, losing the legal battle but convincing Kinder Morgan to place the lines on current Empire poles. They pressured Kinder Morgan to be more responsive to residents who have concerns about gas releases.
They also have improved transparency in several ways: providing a video screen for public documents, streaming meetings live on the website, offering public comment periods twice a day, and arranging quarterly meetings in places other than the courthouse.
They did, however, fight against publishing legal notices in the local newspaper of record before backing off. They lunch together on many Mondays, in an apparent violation of the state’s Open Meetings Law.
They were unprepared for a state deadline for a sales-tax question related to broadband. They have not been open to recreational marijuana sales in the unincorporated areas of the county, a popular decision among some constituents but also one with negative revenue and job implications.
They have been impatient with and reluctant to work within Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service procedures and unrealistic about the costs of taking over federal lands. They have refused to re-open a historic road through the county landfill to access BLM lands, in contradiction to their stated position on access to public lands. They also were the lone local government voice against the BLM’s Master Leasing Plan.
The commissioners’ flap with the Mosquito Control District was disturbing, especially as the nation began to confront the threat of the Zika virus.
Overall, this crop of commissioners are reasonable, well-intentioned leaders who are willing to consider different perspectives and negotiate solutions.
Future goals for them could — and should — include access to landlocked BLM lands in the county, pushing for and participating in the cleanup of the old M&M Truckstop property at the south entrance to town, promoting the Path to Mesa Verde (including figuring out incentives for the private landowners whose property it would cross), addressing the opioid epidemic and coming up with a solid plan for the provision of high-speed Internet service in the rural areas of the county.
