Thursday, January 17, 2008

Task force blasts BoCC

By James Robinson
Staff Writer

Dwindling employee morale linked to allegations of commissioners micromanaging county departments, recent resignations and threats of more to come, and key recommendations that have gone unheeded, led members of the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Task Force to issue one of its strongest recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners yet: Shape up, or step down.

The message came during a special meeting of the board Tuesday, when the commissioners heeded a previous task force recommendation and approved the hiring of an interim county administrator. In addition, the board approved via split vote — Commissioners Bob Moomaw and Ronnie Zaday in favor, Commissioner Schiro against — contracting with an executive search firm, Slavin Management Consultants, to hire a county administrator to replace former administrator Bob Campbell, who resigned Dec. 18.

Moomaw was acting as interim administrator, but said, however, “It’s very difficult to make policy and then have to implement it. It puts you in an untenable situation.”

Despite the fact that board action on the interim administrator issue followed the task force’s recommendation, the task force cautioned the commissioners that, “ ... the choice of that individual should be the result of a thorough and thoughtful selection process, not the result of a snap decision.” And the issue provided a segue for the task force to voice other concerns on staff morale, and commissioner behavior.

Reading from a prepared statement, task force member Bob Nordmann, said, “The task force is greatly concerned that the morale of county employees has fallen to a very low point and as a result, we may continue to lose key employees. Such loss can seriously jeopardize the county’s financial recovery because, without qualified people in key positions, costly mistakes will be made. A major cause of this morale downturn is direct interference with their jobs by the BoCC (Board of County Commissioners). Task Force members have received feedback from many county employees that all three commissioners have at times bypassed the normal chain of command to give them instructions or request information. This practice is not only damaging to morale, it can create conflicting direction and diminish organizational effectiveness.”

Nordmann, speaking for the task force, urged the commissioners to cease all direct contact with county employees and to use appropriate communication channels through either the interim county administrator when hired, or department heads.

“The task force believes that any commissioner who cannot comply with this basic rule of organizational management should step down,” the task force statement reads.

A case in point comes in an e-mail dated Jan. 14 from Archuleta County Commissioner Robin Schiro to planning and building director Rod Proffitt. In the e-mail, Schiro threatens Proffitt with law enforcement action should he fail to meet her demands.

“I look forward to the county documents that I loaned you being placed in my in-box by the end of today. If you do not return them to me by then, I will contact the Sheriff’s Department and report this issue,” Schiro writes.

After reviewing more than 20 e-mails from Schiro to various employees, the electronic correspondence to Proffitt appears to be one of the most recent in a wave of similar missives sent by Schiro since 2005 to her fellow elected officials, department heads, county employees in administration and otherwise, and to legal counsel past and present.

And the behavior appears symptomatic of an administration the task force says, has gone horribly awry.

“Perhaps all of you should resign,” said task force member Larry Allen, “and let some people with experience step in and try to pick up the pieces. I’m very disappointed with all of you.”

Allen challenged board members to consider what kind of legacy they might leave behind.
Task force member John Ranson said the board’s leadership issues were negatively affecting the local economy.

“It is already devastating our economy. Nobody wants to do business in this county. We need your leadership desperately. You need to put your differences aside and work together,” Ranson said.

But concerns of deteriorating morale went beyond the task force, and Kenneth Cowen of the sheriff’s department alternative sentencing program said, “Morale is at an all- time low. It is at rock bottom.”

In addition to urging the board to meet with task force and set ground rules for how they will interact with employees and department heads, the task force urged the commissioners to heed their recommendations, and if not, to provide an explanation of why not. Secondly, once an interim administrator arrives, the task force asked that a timetable be established for other recommendations.

And if not?

“The task force will have no alternative but to resign and pursue other means of assisting the county,” Nordmann said.

james@pagosasun.

Energy prices skyrocket

By Chuck McGuire
Staff Writer

As days of bitter cold and heavy snow add up this winter, Pagosa Country consumers face higher heating costs. Unfortunately, skyrocketing energy rates have compounded the matter, putting a real squeeze on most everyone’s pocketbook.

As of Jan. 1, La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) increased electric rates to residential consumers by 9.6 percent over 2007 rates, marking the second significant hike in as many years. The typical household will now see monthly electric bills average $7.10 more than a year ago. Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, LPEA increased its residential rates an average of 8 percent over 2006 rates.

According to the LPEA Web site, “the rise in rates is predominantly a result of a wholesale power rate increase of 11.7 percent from Tri-State Generation & Transmission, from which LPEA purchases its electric power.” A portion of the increase is also attributable to “some increase in LPEA’s cost of doing business.”

“Gasoline prices have soared. Heating oil and natural gas prices are high. The last thing our members want to hear is more bad news about their energy costs,” said Greg Munro, LPEA CEO. “Despite the best efforts of electric co-ops across the country to hold the line, the monthly electric bills are unfortunately heading up.”

Local natural gas prices, meanwhile, increased 27 percent as of Nov. 1, 2007. In its annual Gas Cost Adjustment filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in October, SourceGas — the newly-named natural gas provider for the Bayfield/Pagosa Springs area — announced the increase in order to “recover the cost it pays to purchase natural gas on behalf of its customers on a dollar-for-dollar basis, without realizing any profit or loss.”

“Natural gas continues to be the best energy value for customers, offering substantial cost savings over propane and electricity, as well as reliability and convenience,” said Dan Watson, President and CEO of SourceGas.

According to a SourceGas press release issued in October, “For customers in the Bayfield/Pagosa Springs service area, the new rate will be $0.69145 per one-hundred cubic feet (CCF). Based on average monthly usage of 86 CCF, the typical household will now pay an average of about $65 per month instead of about $51 for their natural gas service.

“Residential customers who typically use 180 CCF in January (when bills are usually the highest) will pay approximately $130, an increase of about $29, or approximately 28 percent, for their bill in January 2008, compared to January 2007.”

SourceGas, formerly known locally as Kinder Morgan, is headquartered in Lakewood, Colo.

Propane users appear hardest hit in the latest round of escalating energy prices. Since autumn, local bottled gas prices have climbed 47 percent, from $1.70 to $2.50 a gallon. Some area distributors attribute the increase to a Nov. 28 explosion and fire at Williams Partners L.P. near Ignacio, but others aren’t so sure.

Until the blast took out a cooling tower, torched outbuildings and burned a vital control room, Williams had produced roughly 90 percent of the propane sold in Archuleta, La Plata and Montezuma counties. Now, with propane production temporarily shut down, tanker trucks must obtain the fuel from refineries as far away as La Junta, Gallup and Albuquerque. Hence, transport costs are, and will remain, much higher until the Ignacio plant returns to full operating capacity sometime during the first quarter of 2008.

Earlier this week, Selph Propane Manager Angela Geistman described transport costs as extremely high, having gone from 2 cents a gallon to 10 cents a gallon with deliveries from La Junta.

“We do have other places to pull from,” Geistman explained, “but our margins aren’t very high and commodity costs are higher. We’re trying to keep costs down by doing most everything ourselves and not hiring extra employees, but we will have to pass at least a portion of the cost on to consumers.”

When asked if recent weather played a role in higher propane prices, area dealers largely rejected the notion. Most agreed that, while snowbound driveways and paths (to tanks) make deliveries more difficult and time-consuming, county and town snowplowing has been sufficient to help them avoid getting stuck in the snow.

Instead, Bob’s Propane manager Bruce Sivers explained that natural gas refineries determine propane prices, and retail distributors build allocations and relationships with them, based on year-round purchases.

“Weather has nothing to do with it,” Sivers said in a Tuesday phone interview. “The problem in Ignacio didn’t have anything to do with real prices, either. If I knew why the prices are rising, I’d be in the brokerage business instead of the propane business.”

While Rick Taylor of AAA Propane says finding good propane is difficult right now, he claims to have an adequate supply. He too, acknowledged dramatic increases in transport costs, but, like Sivers, denies the Williams fire had any influence on current pricing.

“High pricing is everywhere,” he said Tuesday. “It’s in Texas, California, everywhere. It’s about $3.30 (a gallon) in Grand Junction and Arizona is over $3.00.”

With little change on the horizon, Taylor believes only the arrival of summer will bring relief to consumers … and retail distributors of liquid propane.

For now, all the area propane distributors insist the gas is in good supply. Obtaining it may cost a bit more and the price per gallon has certainly risen, but all agree, people should not panic, place large orders and arbitrarily hoard gas. That, they say, could cause further rate increases.

Meanwhile, propane distributors remind their customers that container laws prevent one distributor from selling gas to a consumer with a leased tank from another distributor. Citing safety, liability and insurance issues, only those who own their own tank can purchase propane from different providers. But even then, the tank must be cleaned and inspected for safety, before the vender will dispense the product.

NEWS

COUNTY

Airport manager, advisory commission chair resign

The resignation of former Archuleta County Airport Manager George Barter has left another leadership vacuum in county upper management, and some say the departure is symptomatic of a county government on the verge of implosion and an indicator that employee morale has hit rock bottom.

According to Archuleta County Commissioner and Board Chair Bob Moomaw, Barter submitted his resignation Jan. 10, after Barter learned he was under investigation for charges of sexual harassment leveled by Archuleta County Assessor Keren Prior.

Moomaw said an investigation into Prior’s allegations revealed no misconduct on the part of Barter, and Moomaw said he was bolstered by the findings and attempted to encourage Barter to stay on, giving Barter until Jan. 14 to make his final decision.

“I tried my best to get him to stay. He has been a very good department head. He took a bad situation at the airport, and turned it around,” Moomaw said.

Nevertheless, and despite Moomaw’s attempts, Barter said he has decided to maintain his resignation and will use sick time and vacation leave until his official departure date Jan. 31.

“I’m a simple guy,” Barter said. “I wanted to go in and do the best job I could do. When I was confronted with something outside of my work and beyond my control, I wasn’t able to get past it.”

Moomaw said Barter has offered to help the county through the transition, and once an interim county manager arrives, that individual will handle airport management.

Beyond the airport however, Barter also managed the county’s information services and transportation departments, and Moomaw said those duties have been transferred to other department heads and employees. For example, Finance Director Don Warn will oversee the information services department, while transportation will be handled by a management team from various county departments. Chris Torres will handle day-to-day maintenance and basic operations at the airport until the interim administrator arrives.

Barter’s resignation marks the second major resignation in as many months. The first came Dec. 18, when former Archuleta County Administrator Bob Campbell tendered his resignation following a Board of County Commissioners executive session. But Barter’s might not be the last, and members of the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Task Force have warned of a growing malaise in employee morale and the possibility of a domino effect.

And it appears at least one domino in the chain has already fallen.

In correspondence dated Jan. 16, Elmer Schettler, chair of the Archuleta County Airport Advisory Commission, submitted his resignation to the Board of County Commissioners, in protest to events related to Barter and the board’s governing abilities.

In a prepared statement Schettler writes, “Commissioners Moomaw, Schiro and Zaday utterly ignore or fail to recognize their participation in the problems. They demonstrate an inherent inability to work together, they currently fight to maintain their illusion of power and control, they generate acrimony where harmony is necessary, they compete and foster negative competition, when what is desperately needed is competence-based cooperation. The current BoCC actions and reactions have forced competent individuals to leave county employment, i.e. Robert Campbell, George Barter and many others ... Bob Moomaw, Robin Schiro and Ronnie Zaday should resign as county commissioners immediately.”

And Schettler’s tone bears a striking resemblance to statements made by members of the Citizens’ Financial Advisory Task Force during a special commissioners’ meeting Tuesday. (See story on A1.)

Schettler added that the charges leveled against Barter could have been politically motivated.

“There is a money trail and a political trail that leads to Barter’s resignation,” Schettler said.

TOWN

Dates set for town council election

An election to select members for the Town of Pagosa Springs Council will be held Tuesday, April 1, 2008, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall, 551 Hot Springs Blvd.

There are three at-large council seats that will be open. They are currently occupied by Stan Holt, Tony Simmons and John Steinert. 

The first day for potential candidates to pick up a petition is Monday, Feb. 11.  The first day a petition can be circulated is Monday, Feb. 11.  Twenty-five signatures of registered electors who reside in the Town of Pagosa Springs are required. 

The last day to file the petition with the Town Clerk at Town Hall is Friday, Feb. 29, before 5 p.m.

Voters can register at the clerk’s office in the Archuleta County Courthouse. The requirements are the same as those governing general elections except the voter must have lived in the Town of Pagosa Springs 30 days immediately preceding the ele