Mesa County residents got a good close look last week at how crony appointments work with the Board of Mesa County Commissioners (BOCC), at least when it comes to boards that actually matter to them, like ones that may be able to influence the Republican culture wars.
The Commissioners’ Tuesday, 12/16 public hearing about appointing two people to sit on the Mesa County Library Board was so packed that it required not one, but two overflow rooms, and both of the overflow rooms overflowed, with people standing around the perimeter of the rooms and and sitting on the floor.
What was all the concern about?
The commissioners had quietly placed the issue of appointing the two people to the Mesa County Library Board of Trustees on the consent agenda, which is reserved for items that are “generally perceived as non-controversial” and that “can be approved by a single motion” with little or no discussion. But when people discovered the Commissioners sought to replace two existing, experienced, well-functioning, non-partisan library board members with a conservative podcaster and an author of Christian romance novels, the potential for the commissioners’ choices to inflame the Republican culture wars at the Mesa County Public Library grabbed a lot of people’s attention (and inflame them they did.)
It was clear by the end of the meeting though, that, as usual, the commissioners had made their final decision about who they wanted to appoint well in advance of the public hearing, and that the hours of public testimony people took time out of their day and came to give to air their concerns didn’t matter one bit to the commissioners.
About 38 people commented publicly at the meeting, and their comments told the story of how crony appointments are engineered in the County. Person after person commented that they, too, had applied for the open seats on the Library Board, but never heard anything back from the County beyond an auto-responder email message saying their application had been received. Among those who applied were people with vast library experience, advanced educational degrees, people who had worked at the library and others who’d spent time volunteering with programs at the public library, had skills in finance and other useful areas. Among the most frequent comments were different versions of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but also “Where is the criteria for choosing people to appoint to county boards?,” “Are there any written policies for choosing people to sit on county boards?,” and “What is the process for selecting people to sit on boards?”
The unspoken answer is, of course, that there are no set criteria and no written policies for selecting people to sit on county boards. This helps the commissioners appoint only people who share their political ideology, without regard to applicants’ knowledge, experience, education, background, level of expertise or propensity for commitment to the subject matter of the board. We can assume that the commissioners would rather not be constrained by policies, procedures and processes that would require them to choose the most qualified, knowledgeable, ethical or committed people to sit on these boards, and they certainly don’t want to appoint anyone who doesn’t agree with their Republican ideology. That’s how it’s been in Mesa County for decades. It’s not about qualifications. It’s about ideology.
Mesa County citizens in general have a long history of choosing people for offices based solely on their ideology instead of on qualifications — and they have paid a big price for it.
The way board appointments are currently set up in Mesa County, qualified, knowledgeable, honest and truly non-partisan county residents who want to serve can apply for seats on county boards, but at the same time, that setup allow the commissioners to ignore qualified applicants and continue to select their favored appointees based purely on political ideology.
Crony appointments in action
I had an opportunity to observe how Mesa County’s crony appointment system works close-up in 2019 after I applied for a seat on the Airport Board.
After I sent in my application, I got a letter back telling me to attend an airport board meeting at which interviews were to be held. Five or six other applicants besides me showed up for the meeting. All of us were given a turn to stand up, introduce ourselves and say why we wanted to serve on the Airport Board.
I’ll be the first to say that all of the other applicants there were far more qualified than me. They had either airport or airport-adjacent experience, pilot’s licenses, or experience with businesses that leased space from the airport. One applicant was a member of the Kempton family, which had long operated a flight school out of the Grand Junction Regional Airport. We all took our turns to speak and then were dismissed.
A day or two later the announcement was made that the vacant seat on the airport board had been awarded to Linde Marshall, who is married to Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall, and who didn’t even bother to show up for what turned out to be essentially fake “interviews” with the airport board. Linde Marshall’s resumé revealed that she had zero experience with anything have to do with airports or aviation. Linde Marshall is now chair of the Airport Board.
Another person now sitting on the current Airport Board is none other than Quintin Shear, who owns about 180 acres of land surrounding the proposed location for the 29 Road Interchange Project — most of it immediately adjacent to land owned by the Airport Authority. Shear is the single person most likely to benefit financially from the proposed 29 Road interchange project, and yet, as a member of the Airport Board, he has decision-making capacity over the disposition of lands owned by the Airport Board. Despite there being no shortage of qualified people in the County who would like to serve on county boards, Shear also currently occupies yet another seat on another county board whose members are appointed by the County Commissioners: the Mesa County Federal Mineral Lease District (MCFMLD) Board of Directors. Like the library board appointees, Shear’s appointment was also on a consent agenda. His most recent term the FMLD board is up in April of 2029.
Attending that meeting, it was a true display of partisan rigging. Right after all the public outcry, they appointed exactly who they wanted. No qualifications what so ever, typical to Trump appointments. These guys are big Trumpsters and need to go!
Cody and Bobbie Inc. needs to be run out of town!