As most of you probably know, Commissioner Hilary Cooper has stepped down from the Board of County Commissioners to become the Director of Innovative Funding for Housing Programs at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) under Gov. Polis.
With Cooper leaving, the job goes to the San Miguel County Democratic Party to pick her replacement in a very short period. There are five people officially running in this race: Anne Brown, Kevin Jones, Doug Sanders, Robert Weatherford and DeLanie Young. You can click on the links to read their statements of interest and qualifications.
The candidates’ forum will occur Tuesday, May 16, at 6-7 pm by zoom only, and we encourage you all to listen in. We know that issues such as growth and affordable housing will be at the top of the agenda for questions.
If members of the public would like to suggest questions for the forum, they may do so here or email the committee. The committee will consider but may or may not use the suggestions.
On Wednesday, May 17, at 7 pm the vote will occur on zoom. The vacancy committee consists of 18 members of our community who will each have one vote. The names and contact information for all the vacancy committee members is on their website and can be found here. They encourage you to contact them with any thoughts on who you believe is the best candidate for the job.
As far as the vote goes, if any one person does not receive more than 50% of the vote, the lowest vote receiver will be removed, and the vote continues until someone receives 50%.
This is representative democracy (with a small d) at its greatest, and we hope you all participate by making your thoughts known to the vacancy committee before the May 16 forum. While everyone who is a member of Last Dollar Collective likely has strong personal opinions about who would be good or not so good for the position, we as a group are not making any endorsement. We encourage you to read the candidates’ statements, share your views with the vacancy committee members, and zoom into watch the May 16 forum and May 17 vote.
If you’d like to talk about this with one of us, feel free to email info@lastdollarcollective.com.
