“As they leave office, they’re leaving it a better place than when they came in,” Commissioner Gary Ellis told a crowd of well wishers at a farewell luncheon for the other two men Tuesday. “It’s a full-time-and-a-half job.”
“I am the one who gained,” Belt said, while Patterson expressed pride in everyone who worked to move Montrose County forward.
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When the new commissioners arrived in 2005, they found the minutes of public meetings six months behind, a sunsetting sales tax and a climate, Belt said, of mistrust.
“It seemed to be go along to get along,” Patterson said. “Nothing got out to the people.”
The county changed that by surveying residents on numerous topics, among them a master plan update, which is still under way.
“That was why we’ve worked so hard to get the story out, so people knew what was going on,” he said.
Patterson also said the commissioners succeeded in getting revenue caps under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights lifted, thereby allowing the county to seek and receive more grant funding, as well as to implement impact fees to pay for new infrastructure within developments.
After voters defeated the county’s first attempt to extend the sales tax that expired in 2006, commissioners learned their lesson and reached out to citizens for a grass-roots effort, eventually forming the Citizens for Funding Our Future.
The new tax proposals, for public safety and road and bridge, passed handily in 2007.
Tuesday, former FOF member and current planning commissioner David Laursen praised Belt and Patterson for theirs and Ellis’ foresight in creating the committee. “You’ve left it better than what you came in with,” Laursen said.
County resident and newly appointed citizen’s advisory committee member Jim Anderson said the biggest change since Patterson and Belt took office was transparency in government.
Belt on Wednesday said there was another change between how things were when he began as opposed to now.
“When I came in, the county was in the middle of a lawsuit with the Daily Press, which is absolutely a worst-case scenario. After that, we began to start mending fences with the newspaper, which was critically important,” Belt said.
The Montrose Daily Press brought the suit in 2004. The newspaper sought a judge’s review of portions of former county manager Dennis Hunt’s diary, arguing that Hunt recorded in its pages pertinent information about his decision to fire an airport manager.
Hunt prevailed before the Colorado Supreme Court, after lower courts sided with the Daily Press.
Belt also said the creation of a public relations position had helped and he praised communications coordinator Ana Mostaccero.
Both outgoing commissioners were concerned with ongoing litigation between the county and JetAway Aviation, an off-airport user that wants to become the airport’s second fixed-base operator.
The county recently obtained a temporary restraining order against JetAway and revoked its access for alleged safety violations.
“We should have been far harder on JetAway,” Patterson said. “We allowed them to control the situation.”
Belt said one of his biggest disappointments was being unable to successfully mediate with JetAway. “In spite of the lawsuit, there may be enough opportunity to find common ground to reach an agreement.”
Belt asked the public to give the new commissioners a little time to get into the swing of things. “Until you sit in the seat, you simply do not know. In that token, I hope the public gives the new guys a little bit of slack,” he said.
Belt is headed for California for fishing, surfing and spending time with his grandchildren.
“I feel proud we are leaving Montrose County’s governmental side, and many other aspects, in better shape than when we came,” he said.
Patterson will return to his local engineering business and travel on behalf of his company.
He said his time in office was bittersweet. He faced down a recall attempt over airport finances in 2007, but was defeated at the ballot box by Ron Henderson this past November.
“I think I made a positive difference in county government,” he said.
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