It wasn’t the “who” of the Garfield County library board appointment, it was the “how” that prompted several people to air their grievances against the Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) on Monday, May 6. Library board president Adrian Rippy-Sheehy spoke up after the BOCC announced Myrna Fletchall as the new library trustee. Rippy-Sheehy said her remarks had nothing to do with the candidate selection.
“I just want to make a public statement that when I was asked to sit [on the interview panel], the only reason I sat up there was because the library had no voice,” she said. “We do not agree with you taking over the appointment of the library trustees.”
She also referred to last October when only one trustee candidate was put forward by the library board but was denied by the BOCC. “If [the library board] did not approve of this particular candidate, we would never have presented that for your support,” she explained. She added that an apparent lack of trust for the library board was a slap to the current trustees. Commission Chair John Martin replied that appointments are made by the BOCC, not by the library board. “That’s the way it is,” he said.
“Well, it hasn’t been that way for 18 years, and I would just question why it’s changed,” said Rippy-Sheehy. “I believe it is political.” Commissioner Mike Samson countered that the decision of the BOCC to make the trustee appointments was not political and that Rippy-Sheehy’s comments are confusing “the electorate.”
“We, the three commissioners, have the authority to appoint. Now did we change the way that was done? Yes, but I think the electorate thinks, why did they just take over and now they’re appointing?” he said. “That’s not the case. The case is we appoint them, correct?”
“No,” replied Rippy-Sheehy. “It’s ambiguous and our attorneys have been speaking with each other, so hopefully we can come to an intergovernmental agreement.”
Carolyn Howard of Carbondale said the ambiguity lies in the library district’s bylaws. “[They say] that the library board does appoint [board] members and presents them to the commissioners for approval,” she said. But, Martin maintained that nothing has changed in terms of who appoints the library board.
“It is a recommendation for approval and [the BOCC] still makes that approval,” he said. “It has always been that way. It has never changed since the district was formed.”
Howard pointed out that the BOCC appointed current trustees. “You’ve trusted the management of the library, so I don’t know what changed in a very short time,” she said.
Jankovsky jumped in. “Oh, there was a petition of 1,200 people in this county,” he said. He added that the library board is in “groupthink” which drew the ire of Susan Use, library board secretary.
“There’s diversity in the library board. But I don’t think you understand who the library board is made up of, individually,” she said. “It was really Orwellian for you to say ‘groupthink.’ That is a bad, bad word to use.”
“There are 1,200 citizens of Garfield County who put up a petition,” Jankovsky exclaimed. “Those individuals are not heard and they need to have a voice.”
Pat Bingham of Carbondale clarified, among other things, that the 1,200 petition signatures represent less than 1% of the county’s population. “So if you call it a groundswell, it might be a groundswell of very passionate people from a certain part of the county,” she said. “But I don’t think it represents the entirety of Garfield County.”
Debbie Bruell, also of Carbondale, was not convinced that the BOCC’s stance was solely influenced by the 1,200 petition signatures. “You talked about being responsive to your community,” she said to Samson. “So, are you waiting for a petition? Like, if we get more than 1,200 people on our petition, would that sway your views? If we get 300 people calling you and saying, ‘please go back to how the library trustees were selected before,’ would that influence you?”
Samson dug in his heels. “I’m not going to change my mind that I really think it’s important to remove such materials from easy access to minors,” he said.
In other news
The BOCC heard updates and funding requests from local organizations. Andrew Browning of the Western States and Tribal Nations Natural Gas Initiative, a coalition promoting natural gas in the western U.S. and Canada, talked about the natural gas market. The BOCC approved the $5,000 annual membership fee on the spot.
Commissioners honored a request from Sheriff Lou Vallario for two full-time mental health and substance abuse treatment positions at the jail paid for by a state grant. They approved the consent agenda, a liquor license for the 2024 Carbondale Wild West Rodeo and the final plat and land use change permit for the Cooper Minor Subdivision behind the Glenwood Springs Mall. They appointed Ken Brenner of Steamboat Springs to represent Garfield County on the White River, Yampa River and Green River Basin Roundtable.
Commissioners also authorized a resolution to join litigation against the State of Colorado initiated by Douglas and El Paso counties last month. At issue are two state laws. HB 19-1124, signed into law five years ago, prohibits law enforcement officers from honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, it also prohibits probation employees from providing personal information about individuals to federal immigration authorities. HB 23-1100, which became law last summer, bans local governments, including county sheriffs, from contracting with the federal government to detain immigrants. The lawsuit claims the laws are unconstitutional.