I'm offended that you're offended.
At the Wednesday BOCC meeting, Scott Mijares had the opportunity to calm the seas, but it just wasn't in him.
He opened the public comment period with seemingly the most important voice in his own mind: his. He apologized for his actions at the Monday work session when he had asked if County Manager Frank Rodriguez was sexist for not hiring the female candidate who was a qualified finalist. But, Mijares contended, it wasn't his fault. Instead, he laid the blame on fellow commissioner Sue Hansen.
When the Monday attacks on Dr. Mirza Mashrur Ahmed by a couple of people turned heated and impugned Dr. Ahmed's character, Commissioner Sue Hansen stated that the discussion started to smack of racism. She wasn't wrong — at the very least they were discriminatory.
Take a look at Dr. Ahmed's LinkedIn page, take a look at the resume and you'll see that it's beyond impressive. But, as I wrote in the last op-ed, there seems to be two items that have caused a small minority to have a burn for Dr. Ahmed, his time with WHO and his legal immigration status. Did I say legal?
During his unapologetic apology Mijares spoke about his family history, which was interesting. His family immigrated from South America and his grandfather ran a circus. He spoke of the diversity of the people that stayed at his family home. But apparently those lessons from his childhood seem to be lost when it comes to Dr Ahmed. Mijares spoke of being elected in the general election with 76% of the vote. He failed to mention he ran unopposed. He also spoke about his support of Donald Trump. Okie-dokie.
Over the past 10 years I've seen local officials here and in Alaska try to govern in the mold of Trump. It always fails. Trump is an entity to himself. Boards and councils are greater than one person. When Mijares maneuvered his way to the chair of the BOCC he overestimated the role. As Hansen pointed out during the Wednesday meeting, Mijares is still one of three and the only difference between him and the other two is he gets to conduct the meetings — a skill that seems to be eluding him. The meetings are clunky.
Mijares is trying to be so transparent that it feels like the rides in county commissioner meetings are in a vehicle driving on square tires. Mijares campaigned on making the county transparent, again taking his cue from a small group of malcontents. I have a news flash for Mijares: the county and the previous board were transparent. He's mistaking the board of the last eight years with the board of David White and his band of brothers during his reign that lined the pockets of lawyers with all of the litigation they drug the country through. The difference between now and then is he had some on county staff who were complacent. Now Mijares has a county manager who has integrity and accountability to the people.
Don't believe me? Then engage people in conversation about Rodriguez. I have yet to hear a negative word. Watch the video from Wednesday's meeting, fast forward to the ladies who presented about Haven House. Have your tissue ready, their testimony to Rodriguez was powerful. I watched Rodriguez's reaction when his stone jaw quivered a bit.
Jim Anderson, during public comment, gave a lesson in how the county government structure works. How the manager and attorney work for the board. That's true, but maybe Anderson needs a sit down with Mijares to teach him that he is not the supervisor of the county employees. That responsibility lies with the other elected officials and those who don't fall under those officers report to the manager, Frank Rodriguez. Anderson also failed to mention the obvious, the county commissioners work for the citizens as a whole — not just for the ones who believe they are the county ombudsman.
That brings me to Montrose DOGE. The group who has turned the acronym into a four letter profane word.
Michael Badagliacco spoke to what offends him. If you're not familiar with Badagliacco, he's a member of Montrose DOGE, the self-appointed Montrose government watchdog group that no one asked for. Every time I hear the group's name mentioned my eyes roll so hard I can see my brain.
Apparently, I offended Badagliacco and his family by calling Dr. Ahmed a doctor in my last column, because he comes from a long line of doctors. It's apparently a slap in the face to those members in his family.
Badagliacco, it appears, is a law enforcement expert as well. Going before city council, he told the city officials that Trump's executive order on illegal immigration means if local law enforcement pull over an immigrant here illegally for running a stop sign then they are to arrest them immediately and call ICE. Sorry Agent Badagliacco, that's not how that works. But hey, the conversation Monday concerning Dr. Ahmed wasn't bigoted at all.
When complaining about my reference to Dr. Ahmed, he referred to me as the editor of the Montrose Daily Press. My turn to be offended, my title is publisher. Get it right, mister! Maybe in Badagliacco's long line of physicians there's a proctologist. Badagliacco may need surgery if he ever sees the light and wants to join the rest of us.
If the local DOGE group thinks they have any power, it's only coming from someone who entertains their flawed thinking. Yes, we're back to Mijares.
Mijares is like a gangly teenage boy who meets his girlfriend's parents for the first time and tries so hard to impress that he makes the rest of the family uncomfortable. Mijares is working too hard to impress those who seem to have his ear.
So far, for Mijares' modus operandi is to hear, react and then get information, or not bother to get the information at all. Maybe try putting the information before the reaction. Do your research, get specific details and avoid generalizations, then draw a conclusion and react if appropriate. When someone says 'did you know?' That's a clear sign not to take what they're saying as gospel.
A statement was made to me that Sean Pond was an unknown commodity in all this. Despite his leaning back in his chair with his resting smirk-face and not contributing much to the conversations, an email we received through a CORA request that he referenced Monday is clear he's of the same reaction-before-you-get-information rationale. Pond also needs to keep in mind that 25 people appointed him commissioner, he's not there on a mandate, despite his Facebook post prior to his selection in which he claimed Montrose County is dysfunctional. He didn't give an example. The dysfunction arrived with him and Mijares. He took down the post after he was selected.
The Montrose Daily Press will publish the entire email he sent to his fellow commissioners, Frank Rodriguez and Emily Sanchez. It's clear that he stands with the thinking of those who are disparaging Dr. Ahmed's name, questioning his citizenship, which shouldn't be an issue because it's not a requirement for the position. Don't get lost in rhetoric between illegal and legal, Mr. Pond. Full disclosure, my mother carried a green card during her 40 years of living in the United States, until she passed away in 1998. She worked in this country in management positions. Her immigration status was irrelevant to her job performance. Dr. Ahmed should be judged by his performance and not by nationality or his willingness to work for an organization that afforded him the opportunity to do good work in countries that needed it.
Badagliacco has stated more than once that Dr. Ahmed worked for WHO for 24 years. It was five years, seven months, but who's counting? And that if he didn't agree with his employer he should have quit. Dr. Ahmed stated in an email to the commissioners that he didn't agree with WHO on their COVID implementation, particularly masking and a rushed vaccination. Mijares on Monday said that Rodriguez claimed Dr. Ahmed co-authored books, but he couldn't find them. Rodriguez said he co-authored several publications. He's right, I searched and there they were. Siri is your friend Mr. Mijares. Dr. Ahmed published several reports with other public health officials working around the world to eradicate or treat diseases such as smallpox, measles and HIV. He published reports on COVID response in Somalia, too. He was on the front lines and now he's here.
I also sat and listened as these same small voices tried to use the fall back that Montrose County votes in a conservative majority and Dr. Ahmed's past employment doesn't play here. Montrose does vote conservative, but these people are confusing conservatism with their own populist thinking. Badagliacco is new to these parts and what he fails to realize is that Montrose is a pragmatic-conservative and moderate-liberal community. In this case the two agree and they drown out the populist. They have no issue with the hiring of Dr. Ahmed, in fact they applaud it.
Marc Catlin is a popular politician here because he is a real conservative and despite how Lauren Boebert tries to spin it, George Soros and the Hollywood elites didn't put her on the midnight train to the 4th District, it was the conservatives who did, preferring Jeff Hurd or even Adam Frisch to her populist antics. This seems lost on Badagliacco, Mijares and Pond. Pond's mouth runs dry from the amount of times he tends to drop Boebert's name. We get it. You know her.
It is time … it is time for Mijares to back off his vendetta with the past board and publicly support Frank Rodriguez. It is time for him to work with and not against current county management. It is time to move on to better things and the greater good of Montrose County. As the Montrose Republican County Chair Monty George stated, it is time to come together and work together.
Dennis Anderson is publisher of the Montrose Daily Press and Delta County Independent.
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