Courtesy And Cooperation On Display

TELLURIDE – The Town of Telluride Council held it’s first post-election meeting on Tuesday in a session marked by multiple unanimous decisions, absent major conflict or drama, and tending mostly to administrative matters.

“Typically the organizational meeting has a relatively light agenda,” explained Town Manager Frank Bell, who described the inaugural meeting with new members Ann Brady, Chris Myers and Brian Werner as, “A nice smooth transition to a new council.”

Unlike two years ago when a split vote over the mayor pro-tem appointment threatened to derail the meeting, this year council swiftly and unanimously placed incumbent Bob Saunders in that position.

“I wasn’t really looking for it, but it sort of makes sense,” said Saunders, who won the most votes among a field of nine council candidates in the recent election and is now the second longest serving member of council after Mayor Stu Fraser.

Although his new role makes him responsible to serve as mayor in Fraser’s absence, Saunders said he has no future aspirations to that position.

“I have no ambition to be mayor,” he said. “When this is over I’m done, I think; seven years will be enough.”

Much of the meeting was dedicated to assigning councilmembers to the various town boards, commissions and committees – a task Bell called “critically important” because so much of the government’s work is achieved there.

Among the appointments included Werner as the new council liaison to both the Open Space and Ecology Commissions, and Brady to the Telluride Regional Airport Authority.

Brady will also take over for Councilmember David Oyster on the Commission for Community Assistance, Arts, and Special Events.

When pressed by fellow CCAASE board member Carly Shaw about what she viewed as an ill-timed decision to leave that board, Oyster indicated that “fundamental philosophical differences” with the chair of that commission led his decision.

Oyster will remain the council liaison to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and Saunders will continue in that role with the Historic and Architectural Review Commission.

While the town had contemplated eliminating the Marshal’s Citizen Advisory Board that serves as an interface between the public and law enforcement community due to consistent community recruitment challenges, both Myers and Werner felt strongly that it should continue and volunteered to serve on it.

As a result council determined to advertise openings on the board for another six months in an effort to resuscitate interest in it.

Council also set Dec. 16 as the date of its upcoming retreat, which Bell will facilitate.

“One of the questions we’re going to try to get to the heart of is what do you want,” he said.

While Councilmember Thom Carnevale declined to attend the retreat in the past because he felt that certain activities conducted there were akin to “personality tests” and amounted to “an invasion of privacy,” this year he indicated that he would be amenable to attending a more informal gathering designed to help the new council get to know each other.

“Meeting in this kind of social setting would be very good and has my full support,” he said.

(In a telephone interview Bell described the activities as “team building work” designed to “better understand how each [councilmember] deals with conflict”).

“I think this is going to be a good council,” said Saunders following the meeting. “There are people with good ideas, people who can move things forward.”

“I’m optimistic and I think it went very well today,” said the newly-elected Myers.

“We’ve got some serious issues before us,” he continued, alluding to the town’s financial condition in particular. But, “There’s a good set of heads in there to work for the town,” he said.