The Telluride Watch
Published:11/4/05
By Seth Cagin

In the past two municipal elections, Telluride voters chose change, defeating incumbents running for reelection and electing challengers who were sharply critical of the way council was doing business.
This year the pendulum stopped swinging.

The three incumbent members of the Telluride Town Council who were running for new terms all won on Tuesday. Stu Fraser, Andrea Benda and Mallory Dimmitt will be joined the next time council convenes by Jill Masters, a longtime Telluride resident making her first bid for public office, who campaigned like an incumbent by telling voters that if elected, she would help stay the course with respect to current town policy on major issues.

In addition to choosing a majority of the Telluride Town Council, Telluride voters handily approved bonding for a new municipal water system in Bridal Veil Basin and narrowly rejected an initiated ordinance that would have directed the Telluride Marshal’s Department to give the enforcement of marijuana laws with respect to adult possession its lowest priority.

Voters in the Mountain Village Metro District gave strong support to bonding for a proposed $18 million Family Adventure Sports Facility. In the Telluride R-1 School District election, board president Jenny Patterson was returned to office for another term, joined by Margaret Cruzzavala.

“I’m so pleased that the town supports what its council has been doing,” said Fraser, who took the most votes in the council election, with 408. “The results are a positive affirmation of what we’ve been doing for the past two years.”

“We have a very dynamic and constructive team and that’s what we need for the challenges that face our community,” said Benda. “I encourage everyone to keep us on our toes.”

Mayor John Pryor, though his name was not on the ballot, could not help but see the election returns as an indication of support for his administration.

“I’m extremely pleased with the election results,” Pryor said. “Our voters can clearly see the benefit of a government that works together collaboratively. It was refreshing to have such a civil and constructive election process. There was really no negative advertising or campaigning. I’m very proud of our community.”

With the shifting tides in local politics over the last four years, Ibis was gracious in defeat.

“I’m very happy for the four candidates who won and I’m looking forward to their positive contributions,” Ibis said. “It was a clean campaign and I’m proud of that.”

Also defeated, in his first bid for public office and having lived in Telluride for just one year, was Justin Clifton, who wrote to his supporters that he will remain involved in civic affairs.

“I plan to continue my involvement in Telluride and will work to promote many of the campaign issues I raised,” Clifton wrote. “I remain committed to diversifying our economy and working toward sustainable energy in Telluride and look forward to working with council to make these necessities a reality.”

Ballot Questions

Perhaps most notable about the two town ballot questions were the margins of victory. Voters were close to overwhelming in support of $10 million in bonding for the new Bridal Veil Water system, with 69 percent voting yes on Question 1B.

Question 200, on the other hand, seeking to relax enforcement of marijuana laws, narrowly lost, with only 51 percent in opposition.

Water may have won so handily, in part, because the new system will incur debt that can be supported with only a minor tax increase. That is because the town is due to retire water and sewer bonds next year, when new bonds will be issued. Moreover, the town has worked for better than a decade to plan the system. Town councils during that period have made numerous public presentations outlining the reasons for the system. There was no campaign against Question 1B.

Question 200, on the other hand, was strongly opposed by a number of citizens, who raised money to run ads against it. Given the strong lineup in opposition to the measure, it did not lose by much.

In San Miguel County, voters easily approved a ballot measure, by 61 percent, to relax TABOR restrictions on county spending. The local act of so-called de-Brucing – named after Douglas Bruce, the author of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights – was consistent with local voters approval of state referenda C & D, which won 65 percent and 60 percent of the local vote. Referendum C won 53 percent of the vote statewide, allowing the state to forego five years of TABOR tax refunds and keep some $3.7 billion in revenue. Referendum D, authorizing $2.1 billion in state borrowing, narrowly lost.

The 58 percent margin by which voters in the Mountain Village Metro District approved $14 million in bonds to pay the biggest share of the cost of the proposed new Family Adventure Sports Facility will not end discussion about whether the structure should be built.

Chuck Horning, owner of the Telluride Ski and Golf Co., has raised questions about the operating budget for the facility, asking whether it will require too large a subsidy from Mountain Village taxpayers. Telski has commissioned consultants to review the work of the consultants that Mountain Village commissioned in the first place to evaluate the sports facility’s operating plan. Horning has vowed to block the project from going forward if it is not financially feasible.

Whether Horning will decide to pursue that path or whether he could block the project if he chose to try are open questions. The Mountain Village Metro District board of directors and the Mountain Village Owners Association board of directors will meet jointly next week to discuss the matter. Horning controls three of five seats on the owners association board, and Telski owns the open space where the center has been proposed to be built.