One thing is for sure: the Garfield County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) will see some new blood come November. County constituents got a preview of what that might look like at the regional candidate forum in Rifle on Tuesday evening, Sept. 28, where Republican Eric Rudd and Democrat Jonathan Godes went head to head in the Ute Theater and Events Center. The regional forum also included candidates for Colorado House District 57 and Senate District 8, and can be viewed at rifletv.plus
Voters in the Nov. 3 general election will decide whether to elect Rudd, a “green” Republican who has served on the Garfield County Planning and Zoning Commission for the past 13 years, or Godes, who served as Glenwood Springs’ mayor from 2019-2023 and as a Glenwood city council member from 2017-2019 and 2023-2025. One will take the seat of outgoing Republican Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky to represent District 1, and join Republican commissioners Mike Samson and Perry Will on the board.
The commissioner candidates answered questions from the event moderator, KMTS News and Sports Director Ron Milhorn, and began their debate with opening statements.
Godes
Godes listed what he later referred to as his “resume,” saying he has served working families throughout the Western Slope for 25 years. He grew up in rural Iowa, and, after college, he and his wife moved to the area to raise their family. He founded two nonprofits: the Boys & Girls Club of Craig and the Early Childhood Network, and currently serves as director of the I-70 Coalition, which tackles challenges on I-70. He also mentioned his experience as a local public official.
“But that’s my resume,” Godes said. “That’s not my ‘why.’ My ‘why’ is my two daughters; my two daughters who were born and raised here. I want them, and your kids, to have the same opportunity to build a life here that my wife and I had when we moved here.”
But, he said, Garfield County is changing, becoming unaffordable and working families are being pushed away due to challenges in housing, traffic and childcare. He said the county cannot “afford to keep treading water” and needs to act now or it risks “losing what really makes this place special and unique.”
Rudd
Rudd grew up in Carbondale, graduating from Roaring Fork High School before leaving for college. He decided “big city life” wasn’t for him and returned home, he said in his opening statement. He went into the construction industry and served with nonprofits, he said. Currently, he serves on the board of the Cowboy Up Carbondale fundraiser and volunteers with the Mt. Sopris Rec Riders, which maintains winter trail systems.
“[I] really appreciate the Valley, and am concerned with the direction it’s going,” Rudd said. “Economy, our transportation network, our housing, what our future is going to look like and our environment are all key issues for me that I’m hoping, as a Carbondale kid, we can resolve.”
He added that his 13 years on the Garfield County Planning and Zoning Commission have given him a unique perspective into the county’s land use. “Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of major applications that have gone nowhere and it’s stagnated our community,” he said. “I’m hoping to change that, and I’m hoping to move forward with a new direction.”
Following opening statements, Milhorn asked the two candidates what should guide Garfield County’s approach to growth and development.
Rudd
“We can’t have a studio in Carbondale costing $3,000 a month,” Rudd said. “It just doesn’t work.”
He said the county has “NIMBYs” and “YIMBYs,” who it needs to bring together to find “rational solutions to our growth.”
“On the initial steps, it’s from getting people into RVs all the way up to permanent housing.” He added that the county needs to establish the “right kind of housing where it needs to go” and has to see “good projects move forward and give the developers and the public the opportunity to have their say in what’s going to be the future of this county.”
“We can’t keep pushing people to the west; it just doesn’t work,” Rudd said. “We can’t keep having our revenues in one side of the county and our people living in the other. It’s impacting our communities, it’s impacting our traffic and it’s impacting our future.”
Godes
Godes noted that affordable housing has been a challenge and that development has “kind of gone along with that challenge.”
“Part of the problem is that we sit here in a community and we talk about how to make it easier for developers,” Godes said. “I think we need to have a conversation on ‘how do we help developers pay for us?’ Support us. Support our community. I think developers are trying to make a profit. They’re not trying to necessarily help our community.”
He listed things he accomplished while serving the city of Glenwood Springs, including placing restrictions on vacation rentals.
“So there’s actual things we can do. There’s small little things, and there’s big things we can do. But first, it’s ‘do no harm,’” he said. “We have to preserve our mobile home parks. We have to preserve our existing workforce housing.”
Millhorn also asked the candidates if they support continuing funding beyond 2027 for the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s Hogback route, running from Rifle to Glenwood.
Godes
“Yes, I think so — I know so,” Godes said. “The alternative would be the Hogback goes away. Right now, the Hogback route gets eight, 10, 12 buses a day. It’s a bare-bones schedule, but provides a vital community service.”
“The county has $115 million in reserves, and it’s declining certainly, but we’re talking about a county that has cut for the last four years the Hogback route, and now it’s down to only $200,000,” Godes said. “Two-hundred-thousand dollars out of a $100 million budget, and with $115 million in reserves, again, seems really short-sighted.”
Rudd
“I agree that we need to have a fully funded Hogback system beyond what we’re doing right now for at least a year to give the taxpayers the opportunity to see a shift in that direction,” he said. “What the future is … that is up to the taxpayers, but we need to fund it so they can see.”
Rudd added that he’s talked to Union Pacific Railroad about using its rail network between Glenwood and Parachute for transit, saying that we have to “have those conversations now because as we continue to grow, this is just going to get worse, and we don’t have the room or the ability to add additional lanes to our interstates.”
Milhorn asked the two candidates what they believe is the appropriate role of county government regarding federal immigration enforcement.
Godes
“Colorado state law says that municipalities [and counties] are not to enforce immigration,” Godes said. “That is a federal law. That is a federal duty and responsibility. And just from a practical perspective … I don’t want our police force to have to have a whole [other] realm of federal law that they now are responsible for. From a human side, we’ve seen ICE … tear families apart across the country and here in Garfield County.” He said immigration enforcement and secure borders are important, but should not be a focus of local law enforcement.
Rudd
“Our national system on immigration is broken. Period,” Rudd said. “We need to have reform, but it’s also important for me to explain to everyone that county commissioners cannot and should not be responsible for immigration policy. That’s a federal matter. Politically, I will be pursuing immigration reform that works with our federal officials. Locally, I do not agree that we should be assisting any immigration enforcement. That is a federal requirement and duty.”
For the full debate, which included questions about water, workforce housing, oil and gas, data centers, the South Bridge project, regional collaboration, federal land management, Spanish language access and more, visit rifletv.plus