CB Council expresses frustration

TA and ORE under the spotlight

Some local community organizations are getting under the skin of the Crested Butte Town Council members. At the September 17 meeting, one Crested Butte councilperson expressed great frustration with the Office of Resource Efficiency (ORE), while the mayor again expressed his frustration with the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association.

The ORE staff came to the meeting with its quarterly report. Executive director Maya Silver and ORE home energy advisor Bart Laemmel told the council it had been a great year for ORE, with growth in the Energy Smart program, which is showing a steady stream of new sign-ups, resulting in more home energy assessments and thus energy improvements.
Councilmember and town representative to the ORE board Glenn Michel asked Silver and Laemmel what the status of ORE would be after next summer when a three-year, $4.9 million Department of Energy grant expired. The grant was awarded to Eagle, Pitkin and Gunnison counties and the Gunnison County portion is being administered by ORE.
“You have a pretty big, pretty well paid staff at ORE. When next August comes and the money runs out, what are you going to do? Is it time to start pulling in the sails?” Michel asked.
Silver admitted there would be some changes on the horizon. “ORE won’t probably ever be this big again,” she said. “We are starting to look for new revenue sources for the future.”
“It looks like you are living pretty high on the hog at ORE,” said Michel. “You know some constrictions are coming.”
“That’s true,” responded Laemmel. “I won’t be working at ORE next year. There are no illusions.”
“ORE has been small before,” added Silver.
Silver said ORE currently has three full-time and one part-time employee in Gunnison County along with a part-time farmers market manager in Paonia.
 In response to a question from Michel, Silver said the organization would continue to seek local government funds as part of their on-going revenues.
“We are looking at everything under the sun right now,” said Laemmel.
Later in the council meeting, during the “council reports” section and after the ORE representatives had left, Michel continued to express some frustration with the organization to his fellow council members. He said the large board appeared to be made up primarily of figureheads. He said he’s rarely attended a board meeting where more than 25 percent of the board showed up. He said it appeared Silver was hired as the new executive director primarily through the board president, Alison Gannett, who he has never met or seen at a board meeting. She currently lives in Paonia.
“Maya might be the perfect director but after dealing with other boards where there are strict protocols, this is too loose in my opinion. Frankly, I would reconsider the town having a council representative on that board. There are more productive ways for a councilmember to spend time. I would investigate appointing a member of the public who might have a passion for it or send a staff member.
“It’s a great organization with a great mission statement but they aren’t based in reality right now,” continued Michel. “It’s out of whack and not very transparent. Decision-making is arbitrary. They will have a big problem when that grant money goes away in August and I don’t see them being grounded in reality at the moment.”
Mayor Aaron Huckstep said it would “be interesting” to see what happens in August.
Huckstep took the same council reports time to once again voice some frustration with the local Tourism Association (TA). He said he had attended a recent county commissioner work session and the “underlying attitude” of current TA executive director Jane Chaney was that elected officials could not make a decent decision without politics coming into play. “Despite each of our unique backgrounds, it appears the TA doesn’t believe we have any valid opinion worth expressing,” he said. “It is very frustrating.” He said it was stated as much by the director and some board members that it is best if elected representatives don’t have a vote on TA board.
Huckstep was also frustrated that while Chaney was concerned about creating an “unwieldy” board by adding more voting members, the TA created several subcommittees with new additional members to look at various issues. He questioned how this would help the “transparency” of the board.
As he has in the past, Huckstep said there was no attempt to bring more of the TA money to the north end of the valley but he did want to see the TA money spent more effectively. He wanted to feel comfortable that the TA knew who their customers were and how to get more of them. He also advocated a more modern, electronic approach to marketing.
The council’s representative to the TA, Shaun Matusewicz, concurred with Huckstep’s view. He said until the new executive director began her job and Chaney stepped down completely, which would be later this fall, he didn’t expect any changes in attitude or direction from the TA.
“I invite you to come to the meetings,” said Matusewicz. “See for yourselves.”
There were no immediate takers from the council.