Joint council meeting actually worked

Looking at the glazed eyes of the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council members last Wednesday evening just after 9 o’clock, it was obvious they were experiencing something they aren’t often familiar with: a three-hour meeting. The Crested Butte Town Council members, on the other hand, seemed to just get rolling when the cold pizza was put away and mayor William Buck called an end to the proceedings. The downtown politicos retired from the Mountaineer Square conference room to the nearby bar to keep talking politics.

Now, it’s not every meeting that can be called fruitful. In fact, as a guy who attends a lot of public meetings, I’d say many aren’t. But the joint meeting between the two town councils held last week actually was productive.

The Concept: The two towns are three miles apart physically and sometimes it feels like they’re three light-years apart philosophically. But that doesn’t mean they can’t find some common ground and work toward some common goals. Like it or not, we are all in this together. So just the idea of sitting down together is a good step. And council members sat down together last Wednesday evening with an aura of mutual respect and knowing that they might not always agree. Good on ‘em.

The conversation included some touchy topics. Airlines, cops, the Chamber of Commerce, the Tourism Association. These guys (and they are all guys) dug into some hot button issues. They didn’t dig down super deep but they started the excavation process. Some hard questions were asked and some interesting ideas thrown about. That’s how progress starts. Good on ‘em again.

The meeting lasted more than three hours. Nothing was solved but factual information was shared. Many of the politicians seemed downright surprised at some of the facts laid out on the table. Reasoning was explained. Ideas were batted about. It was an actual demonstration of how local politicians can come together and start a process of progress. It was such a success that they plan to do it again.

My one piece of advice might be to limit the heavy-duty topics to not more than two and dig down deeper to move toward mutual decisions. But overall, the people representing this end of the valley did a good thing coming together to talk. Talk is where progress and change starts. I’m glad they are planning to do it again.
Good on ‘em.

—Mark Reaman