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Pierce, Jackson and Holt Elected to Council |
Glenn Walsh | 4/9/08
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A modest turnout of voters in Pagosa Springs returned only one of three incumbents — Stan Holt — to the Town’s seven-seat governing board during Tuesday’s Town Council election. Two incumbents, Tony Simmons and John Steinert, failed to win re-election. In their stead, the 198 voters who cast valid ballots selected Historic Preservation Board chair Shari Pierce, and former Town Councilor Jerry Jackson. Continued...
Town voter Glenn Walsh, left, gets an explanation of the voting process from election judges Sarah Sutton, center, and Cindy Lucero. Photos by Bill Hudson. |
Town voters were permitted to vote for up to three of the six candidates. Pierce was the leading vote-getter, with 122 votes. She was named on 62% of the ballots. Jackson ran a strong second, named on 58% of ballots for a vote total of 115. Incumbent Stan Holt took the final seat with 98 votes (49%), while Simmons, Steinert and newcomer Bobby Hart were chosen by 84, 71 and 60 voters, respectively.
Pierce ran a strong door-to-door campaign supported with direct mail appeals to local voters. Pierce is the advertising and circulation director of the County’s most widely read newspaper, the Pagosa Springs Sun. Interestingly, she ran no advertisements in the weekly paper. When this reporter expressed some surprise this evening to Pierce that she had not traded on her position and her sister’s (who owns the publication) for a month of full page ads, Pierce reacted with unaffected, and appealing, disdain for such politicking.
In addition to the Historic Preservation Committee, Pierce is a member of the Land Use and Development Code rewrite committee. With this election, Pierce can now vie with Councilor Angela Atkinson for the distinction of being the most widely involved and underpaid member at Town Hall. Continued...
Election judge Heidi Martinez, right, hands Mr. Walsh his ballot. Voters were allowed to vote for up to three of the six candidates on the ballot.
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Jerry Jackson returns to the Council, where he served from 2002 to 2006. Jackson based his campaign on newspaper advertising, telephone canvassing and a number of endorsements from prominent Town residents. Jackson returned to Council chambers this summer to oppose a proposed $20 million recreation center, arguing that the Town needed to promote rather than compete with the private firms that provide its sales tax base. He returns to a Council contending with flat sales tax growth and very credible claims that recently enacted Town and water district fees have created a poor business climate.
Jackson has also served as an Archuleta County Planning Commissioner. This raises two questions. Will Jackson play a role in resuscitating plans for greater cooperation between the Town and County Planning Commissions? And will Jackson seek to replace the outturned Simmons on the Land Use and Development Committee, which is establishing height and density standards for the most 'developable' properties in downtown Pagosa Springs. Continued...
Is Assistant Police Chief Jim Saunders making sure Walsh is voting legally... or just passing through?
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Holt was thought — by this reporter, at least — to be more vulnerable than Simmons. Simmons displays a dramatic political personality and lives is a crowded South Pagosa neighborhood. He was recently involved in a petition drive which enlisted more than 200 supporters. Holt lives in the sparsely populated Piedra Estates subdivision and has been an effective and moderate legislator whose only natural constituency are those familiar with the patient and detailed work he has devoted to important compromises on controversial issues.
Simmons’ loss will surprise many. He has earned a reputation as an advocate of affordable housing and an opponent of intensive redevelopment of his home district in South Pagosa. Controversially, Simmons pushed for a town-wide moratorium on three-story buildings in residential districts after a 39-foot home was constructed next to his on South 6th Street. While the home in question is set back from Simmons’ direct views, and Simmons’ own position was perfectly consistent with public positions he has made for years, the first-term councilor was roundly criticized for failing to declare a conflict of interest and recuse himself. Had Simmons gained only half the votes of those who signed the petition supporting his moratorium, Simmons would have won a second term.
Steinert’s loss is perhaps less surprising. He was appointed to fill out Bill Whitbred’s term last summer and had little time to stake out positions which might have attracted a constituency. On the most controversial topic decided during his tenure — downtown building heights — Steinert earned compliments for recusing owing to a possible conflict with a personal project, but also lost an opportunity to win supporters.
Bobby Hart, son of developers Bob and Mary Hart, is a relative newcomer to the town political scene. He's been attending Town Council meetings regularly in recent months, but is probably less well-known to town residents than the rest of the candidates. Our hats off to him, for getting involved in a somewhat long shot effort.
 It may seem odd to devote much analysis to a vote total more characteristic of a junior high school election than that of a small city. However, Pagosa Springs is uncharacteristic on many counts. It oversees a business tax base ten times the size of other comparably sized towns. And it is perhaps entering a period of annexation and development which may add more than 2000 acres to its perimeters and hundreds of luxury condominiums and hotel rooms to its largely undeveloped core along Hot Springs Boulevard.
If these annexations and developments are successful, the Town may also gain the political and financial wherewithal to attempt the aggressive annexations within the Pagosa Lakes area that Town Manager Mark Garcia has called for. If those annexations are successful, thousands of voters will join the 198 whose votes Tuesday chose the leaders who will be making almost every meaningful legislative decision about economic development in Archuleta County for the foreseeable future. |
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