Commission Chair Atchley called the meeting to order under a dramatically revised agenda that was posted to the county website at 8:12 am for a meeting that began at 8:00 am, arguably in violation of the Opens Meetings Act and Sunshine Laws.
Sunshine Laws require full and timely notice to the public. In addition, the notice must be posted in a designated public place no less than twenty-four hours prior to the holding of the meeting. (NOTE: County Commissioners have designated the bulletin board outside of the county administrator’s office as the county’s official posting location. Unfortunately, this location is locked and closed to the public after 5 pm and all day on weekends, while public notices are often posted on Friday morning.)
Meeting highlight:
Staff from Citizen’s for a Healthy Community (CHC), a Paonia-based anti-fracking nonprofit, presented their report examining the financial cons behind oil and gas development in the area.
Although not included on the agenda, David Ludlam, Executive Director for Colorado Oil and Gas Association/Western Slope, came with a lobbyist-style – boarding insulting – presentation that strongly criticized CHC’s report, all while talking about how the oil and gas industry could co-exit with communities.
CHC requested that commissioners conduct an independent study that would take into account all aspects of income and impact without bias or agenda.