This Sopris Sun interview with Garfield County District 3 commissioner candidate Steven Arauza has been edited for length and clarity.
Get to know Samson’s opponent, Republican Mike Samson, here.
Why are you running for Garfield County commissioner for District 3?
Steven Arauza: The short version is because I believe that Garfield County needs to have more authentic representation reflective of the population in our community.
The working people in Garfield County have been facing increasing economic pressures that I think have not been represented adequately over the past four terms. That leads us to a position where, as we’ve seen with the [NBC News] Homebuyer Index, Garfield County is one of the most difficult counties in the country to buy a home.
In addition to my day job, I am an officer, executive board member and steward for Colorado WINS Local 1876 (Colorado Workers for Innovative and New Solutions). We have two parent unions — the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers.
We desperately need the kind of leadership in local government to advocate for the needs of our community workforce who predominantly live in District 3 and drive as far as Aspen, Eagle County or Mesa County to serve economies and communities throughout the region.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a Latino on the board of county commissioners, and yet we make up over 30% of the population in this county. We are in difficult situations in terms of local and national politics, so it’s really important that we have authentic Latino representation.
My background in oil and gas regulation and my history of service to the state’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board offer technical expertise that is essential in Garfield County and particularly in District 3.
What have been the board’s two best decisions in the past four years? How were these decisions in the best interest of Garfield County?
I would say number one, hands down, the Shoshone decision to support the effort to acquire water rights. We’re competing with very powerful interests on the Front Range. It’s really important that, regardless of where we fall along the political spectrum, folks acknowledge the importance of that water to keep our communities healthy, to support our economies as well as communities down the river.
I support the [county’s] commitment of [$150,000] to the Habitat for Humanity development to secure one unit for a county worker. It’s an acknowledgment of the difficulties of acquiring homeownership here, of the importance of affordable housing accessibility and the need to support folks who work for the county.
What were two decisions in the past four years that you would say were not in the interest of Garfield County?
The decision to take over and politicize the appointment of trustees to the Garfield County Public Library Board concerns me. We’re continuing to see the ramifications of that hostile takeover of the library board. There are folks who work in the library system who are actively targeted by extreme, hyper-partisan cyberbullying. So for the Board of County Commissioners to effectively compromise the integrity of leadership there, to encourage supporters to engage in very hostile, dehumanizing rhetoric, attacking folks for the sin of just being servants to their community, I think is still playing out.
When this board [approved] a resolution that library employees not issue controversial material to minors, they’re really directing library staff and volunteers to police what people are checking out, to profile people on the basis of their ages, to perhaps make a determination on material that [the commissioners] themselves are not familiar with. If I’d been working behind the library counter when that resolution was issued, I’d suddenly be concerned for my job. I would question everything that folks are checking out, including the self-checkout system.
The second thing has been another decision to politicize the entire county — mostly scapegoating our Latino and migrant communities. This started with the non-sanctuary resolution that was drafted by Commissioner [Mike] Samson. I took issue with the language, painting migrants with racist, harmful stereotypes of promoting disease and crime in our communities — rhetoric that’s being echoed in [this year’s] presidential debate. We’ve never had Latino representation on this board of county commissioners. If we had authentic representation on the board, that language would have been challenged.
All [Latinos] became subject to scrutiny with the passage of the resolution. But joining Douglas County and the pursuit of bringing Immigration and Customs Enforcement back into Garfield County is a threat still hanging out there.
What is the most important issue in the county that either has not been addressed or inadequately addressed?
The biggest pressure we face is economic pressure on the workforce, retirees and young families. We need pragmatic leadership in the interest of our community, regardless of their political affiliation. It’s the willingness to collaborate across political lines and on a regional scale as well as across levels of government to identify programs and policies that satisfy the needs of our communities.
How do you approach working with someone whose political views differ from yours?
It’s very important [to] acknowledge the need to work together and the pitfalls of a hyper-partisan, two-party system. You’re elected to represent folks throughout the community so the way to work with somebody who you disagree with politically is to meet on that bridge of the desire to serve the community. That’s what I hope to bring to the Board of County Commissioners.
Anything else you’d like to add?
What we’ve seen from my opponent on the non-sanctuary resolution and of bringing politics into the library conversation is this divisiveness, this desire to represent a specific portion of our community, but not to be open to the conversation from others who come from different walks of life. So the choice this November is divisive politics or electing somebody with a history of working across the political spectrum to achieve real accomplishments in the interest of working people.