Tensions between Archuleta County Commissioner Michael Whiting and Pagosa Springs Mayor Ross Aragon are not confined to issues surrounding the Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation board (see related article), having been spread to a project near and dear to the hearts of both politicians — geothermally heated greenhouses.
Interestingly enough, it was Aragon who invited Whiting to serve on the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP) board back in early 2009.
After Aragon was disappointed by a lack of progress by the Archuleta Economic Development Association on fulfilling the mayor’s dream of building geothermally heated greenhouses in the downtown area, Aragon approached former resident Sheila Berger (at that time, Special Projects Manager for the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District) to see if she would be interested in heading up the project.
Berger declined the offer, but agreed to serve on a committee for the project if the mayor would bring several area residents into the fold.
By spring of 2009, the GGP had taken on its current name. With Berger, former interim town manager Tamra Allen, local business owner Kathy Keyes and former county Director of Community Development Rick Bellis forming the core of the group, Whiting (not a commissioner at the time but executive director for the Southwest Land Alliance) appeared to have taken active leadership of the group, with Aragon serving in a more passive leadership role.
Aside from bringing on civil engineers Scott Farnham and Dan Burkhardt to provide initial surveys and designs for the project, Whiting also worked with the offices of Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. Mark Udall with the hope the two senators could offer some support.
Whiting also offered to have the SLA provide fiscal sponsorship for the project. Considering that the GGP had no tax status, the SLA’s fiscal sponsorship (with its 501(c)(3) designation) allowed the group to apply for grants and federal appropriations it would not normally have been qualified to pursue.
In early 2009, Aragon and the GGP board accepted the offer.
For his part, Aragon convinced the Pagosa Springs Town Council to lease almost two acres of town land (on the west side of Centennial Park), as well as 450 gallons per minute of town-owned geothermal effluent to the GGP.
Early progress and enthusiasm for the project appeared to wane over the next two years, despite numerous presentations to the community by the GGP (including a visit by Bennet to voice his support for the project).
In fact, it wasn’t until the middle of last month that the GGP appeared to have firm plans to erect a greenhouse on the proposed site (slated for this summer, according to Aragon), even if those initial plans did not include geothermal heating.
It was a day before that meeting that Aragon informed Whiting that his, “services were no longer required with the GGP.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Whiting said, “The Mayor called me a few weeks ago to inform me that he had decided to exclude me from the GGP committee, a decision he is not in authority to make. This fact does not seem to matter to Ross. He doesn’t like me, so he kicked me off. That is a dictatorship, not the three-plus years of democratic consensus and collaboration that has built the GGP. It also violates the Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement that the GGP operates under. My only doubts about our eventual success are connected to this type of action.”
Whiting also stated that several items required for the GGP’s 501(c)(3) status were outstanding, including necessary articles of incorporation, bylaws and needed information for the Internal Revenue Service.
Aragon denied that on Tuesday, saying that “We’re working with Allison Ulmer (from the town’s law firm, Collins, Cockrel & Cole); she’s working on finalizing all the paperwork. We’ve almost got it nailed down and we’re just about ready to file with the IRS.”
When asked if he had asked Whiting to step down from the GGP, Aragon responded, “That is a big affirmative, because we’re going nowhere.
“He was getting way out in front of this. Nobody can do anything by themselves, it needs team work.”
Aragon also denied that the decision to remove Whiting from the GGP board was a unilateral decision. “I talked to almost everybody on the board and they agreed with me, that he had to go,” Aragon said.
“Everything he gets out in front of, he screws up — that’s pretty well known,” Aragon added. “The fact that he’s aligning himself with Bill Hudson goes to show that Michael is grasping at straws (Whiting recently granted an interview to Hudson). I had a number of people call me about that (the interview) and ask me how I felt about it and, frankly, I don’t care. Hudson has no credibility, he sensationalizes everything. He went after the schools and now he’s going after this with Michael.”
Whiting responded by saying, “Granting an interview with Bill isn’t aligning myself with him no more than it is with The SUN. Using the media to get my point across is not aligning myself with anyone. The more people that know what’s going on, the better.”
Whiting added that Aragon had overstated progress in pursuing nonprofit status and that, furthermore, items such as articles of incorporation and bylaws had been composed without the benefit of board scrutiny.
“The mayor operates below the radar,” Whiting added. “He works the back channels, and I refuse to do that.”
jim@pagosasun.com
