| It's difficult to keep up with the shenanigans revolving around the Montrose County BOCC. I feel as though I could crank out an opinion piece daily if only I had the energy. The two boys on the board can wear you out with their on-the-dais, off-the-dais behavior. They didn't find chaos when they came on board, they created it. Scott Mijares, who is currently facing a recall, wants you to believe that the liberals, RINOs, wishy-washy unaffiliates and a socialist millionaire are all out to get him. All he's done is speak the truth. That's a pretty diverse group to get on the same page to go after lil' ol' innocent Mijares. Accountability for his own behavior is escaping his scope of responsibility. Mijares — propped up by a dysfunctional Republican Central Committee executive board and a few others — believes his press clippings published in the Montrose Mirror. Write whatever you want and send it to the publication. It'll make the pages, facts be damned. I try not to dive too deeply into it. I care too much about my mental health. There are three places I would rather not see my name: Dear Abbey, the obituaries and the Mirror. But this week there I was in one of three Michael Badagliacco-columns in the Mirror: "The publisher of the Montrose Daily Press has questioned the recall's motives, pointing to the fallout from forced staff changes under Mijares and Vice Chair Sean Pond, which led to further resignations and instability. This turmoil hints at deeper issues in county governance that Mijares is bringing to light." Well, that came out of left field. Did HR Director Leslie Quon's resignation letter as interim county manager fly over everyone's head? In it she cites targeting, retaliation and Mijares' lack of understanding of what his role is as county chair. Mijares has a temper he has a difficult time controlling. There's no deeper issue in the county right now than a commissioner who bullies and shames staff in public and private so they'll submit to his whims of poor governance. He's propped up by fellow commissioner Sean Pond, who has destroyed almost every relationship outside of the county through his actions on the board and attacks on social media. Badagliacco and others have created the fictitious Colorado DOGE, a website designed to supposedly expose government corruption throughout the state. A website that is published by a company named Uncompahgre Media LLC. Whose mailing address is a box at Mailing Solutions in Montrose, but is registered as a business on the Wyoming state website. So much for transparency. This website last week pushed out breaking news that Commissioner Sue Hansen met in secret with Congressman Jeff Hurd to tour the fire damage of the South Rim for a photo op. Secret but yet it's a photo op? Shouldn't the sitting representative of our district take a first hand look at the damage and the continued efforts of extinguishing the fire? The reason Hansen was asked to coordinate the tour is Pond and Mijares have ostracized Hurd, including attending a Gunnison County Republican fundraiser along with their buddy Rep. Larry Don Sukla in support of Hurd's opponent in the next primary, Hope Scheppelman, whose political tagline is "Hope For Colorado," but I think she forgot the word "no" in front of "hope." Another populist without a platform, she echoes everything Pond posts on his Facebook page. There's no hope or depth to Scheppelman and at some point she will be a political footnote. The DOGE story describes a secret meeting between Hurd, Jim Neiman and Hansen concerning the GORP act. Neiman's company owns Montrose Forest Products, one of, if not the largest, private employer in Montrose. Pond, in sharing the Colorado DOGE story, describes Neiman as supporting GORP. Where did he say that? There's no verification of the meeting actually happening, but if it did that's good news. Neiman needs to be in the conversation to protect his business and the 90-plus people he employs. Pond — like Mijares, Sukla and Scheppelman — has no platform other than being an obstructionist without solutions. They all just fold their arms and complain. For a quick minute I thought maybe Pond was going to be his own man when he told Quon to stop negotiating with the lone county manager candidate Bradley Mitchell. Hansen also told Quon to end negotiations. Mijares was livid and went on a rant at one of the commissioner meetings, reading Mitchell's words as to why he should be county manager. Another meeting, another rant for Mijares. But then Pond came to Mijares' defense with the recall. Regurgitating the same conspiracies Mijares has. On Monday, the commissioners met in executive session to review applications for county manager. One of Mijares' assertions against his recall is that the committee is claiming that his and Pond's forced resignations of former county manager Frank Rodriguez and County Attorney Marti Whitmore did not cost the county $500K, that their total severance compensation was less than $200k. Mijares and Pond's inexperience is not limited to county government. Mijares apparently has no clue what the true cost is for replacing employees, particularly those in leadership. Don't forget that those resignations led to Assistant County Manager Emily Sanchez's resignation as well. While there was no severance for her, the county staff is still recovering and trying to navigate moving forward without her. Interim County Manager David White is playing catch up on all of the projects in the county, learning departments while trying to manage day-to-day operations. He might get a grasp on his duties just in time for the next county manager to take over. County Attorney Julie Andress is also learning her new position. Several employees are trying to fill Sanchez's shoes. No sir, Mijares, $500K doesn't even cover what it is costing the county in time, money and stress from the loss of those three people. Meanwhile Badagliacco and Jim Anderson are pushing the narrative that the problem isn't Mijares, it's the employees. Ugh. Mijares pushed the narrative that opposition to him removing Rodriguez and Whitmore was about popularity. It wasn't. It was about removing competent people from crucial positions for no other reason than a vendetta against the previous board. We're on the second round of resumes for the county manager. Did Bradley Mitchell apply for a third time? Will Mijares push his name to the top again? Anthony Russo, a candidate, was told by Mijares during a phone call on July 9 not to bother applying because he's convinced Pond that Mitchell is the right candidate and he's going to support his hiring this time. Hmmm, when did Mijares and Pond have that conversation? It wasn't in a public meeting. Russo included the details of that conversation in his cover letter. Mitchell might be the best candidate for Mijares, but if this happens it's another example of collusion between the two. Another example to support the reasons for recalling Mijares that was placed on the ballot by the recall committee. Now, the county is faced with the moratorium for renewable energy power generation stations. For over two years the planning department and planning commission has worked on a reasonable special use code. It will be rejected at the Wednesday meeting and a very restrictive code will be sent back to the planning commission. A stall tactic to keep the moratorium in place? Standard Solar, who has a 20 megawatt solar project ready to go, believes so and they have millions of dollars at stake. I spoke to one of their attorneys Monday evening. The lawsuit is already written and will be filed when the commissioners reject the code before them. It won't be hard for them to prove bias against solar power generation stations in Montrose County. Pond's and Mijares' Facebook pages and rhetoric on the dais is all the proof Standard Solar needs to prove their case. And when these decisions are removed from local government after the next legislative session you can thank Mijares and Pond. That action has already started. If they think their hero Larry Don is going to stand in its way, they can stand and watch with their mouths open as he gets steam rolled. Does anyone have a couple of copies of 'Building Relationships for Dummies' they can pass on to the two populist commissioners? What they're doing isn't working. Dennis Anderson is the publisher of the Montrose Daily Press and Delta County Independent. | 
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