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The ball is clearly in Pond's court
I read Commissioner Sean Pond's column in the Mirror this week. I'm reminded why at the Montrose Daily Press we don't give elected officials editorial space. They tend to write about themselves and how they're the hardest working people on the planet.
But there was what could be some news concerning County Manager Frank Rodriguez's position in Pond's column. The newly appointed commissioner stated that he was forced to sit through three hours of finger pointing, accusations and false claims that he was intending to terminate County Manager Frank Rodriguez and Public Health Director Dr. Ahmed. False claims? Well, that's interesting.
Let's talk about the meeting. The meeting lasted an hour and 33 minutes, of which roughly 45 minutes were spent on public comments. Congratulations Commissioner Pond, your exaggeration of the events shows you're officially a politician.
There were some that spoke in support of Commissioner Scott Mijares, but many more that supported Frank Rodriguez — maybe those voices rang in his ears for three hours. Pond also floats the notion that he was set up, that someone orchestrated the turnout for the March 12 BOCC meeting, that they weaponized Montrose County staff against him, that staff showed up early to set up chairs while claiming they didn't know if a crowd was going to show up. Pond seems to think they were in on it. Mr. Pond, that's called anticipation after what happened at the Monday work session. Do you really think people aren't paying attention or is that your hope? Pond is also bewildered because a discussion to terminate Rodriguez wasn't on the agenda. Yeesh man, do you think people are going to wait for your or Mijares' cue to come speak their minds? If they waited until it was on the agenda they're too late. He claims that what the people were speaking about was never discussed and he had no knowledge of what they were talking about. Maybe he slept through the work session, now I'm confused. If he has no intention to or if it's not even on the table to terminate Rodriguez, then he needs to state that this Wednesday before the board convenes into the public health meeting. Commissioner Sue Hansen is firm in her support of Rodriguez, Mijares seems adamant he wants a county manager of his own choosing, it's Pond who can either move this forward or halt it now so the county can move forward. He needs to quit wobbling and get after it.
It's pretty clear that Mijares is fueled by a few radicals that think they can read the Montrose County political temperature. Michael Badagliacco is clearly one of them. In his two letters, Badagliacco asserts that Mijares has the right to choose his manager. That's all well and good if Mijares was a committee of one, but he's not, there are three. He also asserts a strange theory that Mijares is a more popular figure than Hansen because he garnered more votes in his unopposed election than Hansen did in hers. Well Cotton, that's a bold statement if it was relevant and could hold up as factual.
Sit down Mr. Badagliacco and let's do a lesson in the class of Elections 101. Hansen ran unopposed in 2022. There were a slew of unopposed elections that year and if I recall correctly, only HD58 and the school board had contested elections. That year 21,112 voters participated and 15,732 voted for Hansen which was 74.5% of the vote. In 2024, which was filled with contested races and a presidential election year. 25,995 people voted, of which 18,158 voted for Mijares in an uncontested race, for 69.9% of the vote. What does this tell us? Nothing really except Mijares said he had 76% of the vote when he spoke last Wednesday, so another exaggeration by a politician. Facts are tricky. Badagliacco has to stay after class and clean the chalkboard erasers for asserting that it did mean something.
Apparently in rebuking me for describing him as new to the area, Badagliacco wants to live in 1983, which was when he left the area after graduating high school. That 40-year gap is irrelevant apparently. Psst, don't tell him why he can't get his Glen Eyrie reservations confirmed? He was probably going to grab a bite to eat after his workout at the MAC.
Badagliacco and John Brown (another Montrose D.O.G.E member) are convinced they speak for the majority of Montrose — after witnessing the BOCC meeting and the social media backlash, they clearly don't. I have my doubts they even speak for the majority of the Republican Party. Perhaps they speak for the majority of voices trapped between their ears. I did learn a lesson reading Badagliacco's letters. Never take a swig of coffee while doing so. I laughed so hard when Badagliacco labeled Marc Catlin a Rino that I lost some through my nose. Badagliacco couldn't carry Catlin's GOP imprinted boxers.
Then there's the Melatonin-cocktail of a piece David White wrote concerning two people hired by City Manager Bill Bell from his Wisconsin days. According to White, both are well qualified. One has been here since 2017 and doing a good job also according to White. But, White disqualifies them because they know Bell. White also rambles on about how Frank Rodriguez was recruited to the area by Montrose Chief of Police Blaine Hall after they met at a conference. Rodriguez moved to the area to become chief of police in Olathe. He quickly turned that organization around. Dang it, Hall and Bell, how dare you recruit quality people to Montrose.
Back to Pond and next steps. If he truly was caught off guard by all of this fire-Rodriguez nonsense, and he really could be, then he needs to put a stop to it. He's the only one at this point who can. Or, he can continue to walk in the dry river bed, waiting for Mijares' flash flood to sweep him away.
Wednesday morning at 9:30am at the county meeting room on LaSalle there will be a BOCC meeting, after the regular meeting the board will close the meeting and convene as the Montrose Board of Health. Mirza Ahmed, Public Health Director will give a Public Health update. I'll be there and I hope to see you there as well.
Dennis Anderson is the publisher of h
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