“Shame on you Commissioner Martin and Commissioner Samson for changing, without public notice or input from either the library trustees or the residents of Garfield County, the practice of allowing our library trustees to nominate candidates to serve on the library board of trustees.” Glenwood Springs resident Ellen Dole on Monday ripped into the Garfield Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) decision to take control of the Garfield County Library Board of Trustees appointment process. 

“This established practice has been delegated for many years by the [BOCC] to the library trustees and is memorialized in both resolution 2006-111 and the library’s bylaws and other resolutions,” she continued. 

Dole, who was overlooked during the open public comment period at the beginning of the meeting and waited 40 minutes to be heard, spoke up via Zoom. 

“When you couldn’t intimidate the library trustees last fall with respect to the banning of certain books unpopular with a particular county constituency, you’ve decided to try another method to browbeat and bully the residents in this county,” she said.

Dole was the only person to voice opposition on Monday to the BOCC library decision. On Feb. 26, the BOCC approved a letter to the library board, stating that the BOCC planned to take control of the trustee appointment process, from advertising the position through the actual appointments. A week or so later, the library board responded with its own letter (obtained by The Sopris Sun via an open records request).

The library’s letter pointed out that on Feb. 19, 2008, under the auspices of then-county attorney Don DeFord, the BOCC agreed with an amendment to Resolution 2006-111 that “appointees to the library board shall be recommended by the Board of Trustees for the consideration of the [BOCC]” and that the BOCC will act on the recommendations “instead of a committee” appointing library board members. During Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Mike Samson said that the 2008 agreement was before his time. “I was not even aware of this verbal 2008 agreement and, I guess, thank you to the library board for bringing it to our attention,” he said.  

At the end of the meeting, after an executive session, the BOCC voted unanimously (sans an absent Commissioner Tom Jankovsky) to approve a resolution “rescinding the verbal 2008 amendment to Resolution  [20]06-111 and setting policy and procedure for Garfield County Public Library District Board of Trustee appointments.” 

The resolution also states that the BOCC will be “acting as a committee” to appoint a trustee whenever a vacancy occurs.  

A special meeting has been scheduled for April 2 specifically to interview trustee candidates. There are seven candidates so far. The application period is open to the public until March 25. The April 2 meeting is open to the public but, according to County Manager Fred Jarman, the BOCC will not be taking comments.

In other news, the BOCC heard from the county Department of Human Services that the total EBT/EFT disbursement was $1,086,380 for February. The BOCC also heard updates from Catholic Charities, Advocate Safehouse and the county’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), signed a proclamation for Red Cross Month and approved the consent agenda and the annual fireworks restrictions. 

Commissioners approved $11,000 from the Nonprofit General Fund for Community Counts, an oil and gas industry response group, $60,000 from the Conservation Trust Fund to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) for improvements to the Sam Caudill State Wildlife Area/West Bank boat ramp, and a supplemental request of $50,000 to Program Management Services for Airport Development at the Rifle/Garfield County airport.

CPW officials also gave an update on the status of the 10 gray wolves released into the state in December. Matt Yamashita, CPW district wildlife manager, told the BOCC that the collared gray wolf activity map is based on historical data, meaning that the data comes in after the wolves have moved through an area. “We don’t know what we know until it’s done,” he said.

You can watch this week’s BOCC meeting in its entirety at the Garfield County website, garfield-county.com