The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Who changed the contract over how the money would be spent?
Some Crested Butte town councilmen are very upset with a clause in the Bud Light contract that slipped by them on the Thursday of the final vote approving the Whatever USA event.
Councilman David Owen said at last Monday’s council meeting that when the council looked over the contract on August 25, the $250,000 gift was to be spent on a project “at the sole discretion of the town. And then on August 28 it turned into $500,000 and the money would be spent on a project determined by a joint committee of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte. How did that change? There was no discussion between August 25 and August 28 to make that change. Why was there no communication between the council and the town manager or town attorney about that change? How was I supposed to pick that up? I would have certainly questioned that clause.”
“I don’t know,” said town manager Todd Crossett. “My guess is that the applicant put it in to head off contract inconsistencies between the Crested Butte and Mt. Crested agreements. I would think the language was inserted to head off inconsistencies.”
“Huck discussed it at the Thursday meeting,” said town attorney John Belkin.
In fact, in his summary remarks at the Thursday, August 28 public hearing, Huckstep did bring up the donation situation and used language reflective of the change in the contract.
“The generous offer from the applicant I hope will benefit the community for a long time,” Huckstep said at the time. “There are impacts also in Mt. Crested Butte. They are part of this money. A joint committee of the two councils should suggest how we spend the money. The money is not just coming to Crested Butte. The impacts were spread through the entire upper valley.”
“I am upset the staff didn’t convey that change in the contract,” said an upset Owen.
Huckstep told Owen he wasn’t sure the council meeting was the appropriate venue for a councilman “to point a strong finger at the staff.”
“I agree with David,” said Schmidt. “I was surprised as well. I probably didn’t read the contract as thoroughly as I should have on Thursday. I didn’t catch it. No offense to my friends in Mt. Crested Butte but most of the impacts occurred in Crested Butte. This town took the impacts and this council took the heat.”
“I think Mt. Crested Butte is taking some offense,” said Huckstep. “There were impacts up there. Yes we took the heat. I don’t believe the Mt. Crested Butte leadership has a narrow view on what they’d like seen done with that money. We just agreed to spend $700,000 to help them with open space preservation on Snodgrass and that goodwill is going out the window. There have been no decisions but the concept of spending a chunk on Big Mine has always been okay with Mt. Crested Butte. Working with our neighbors on how to spend the money is not out of bounds.”
“My concern is the change of the contract. I think we should work with Mt. Crested Butte,” said Councilperson Shaun Matusewicz. “My issue is that this was a substantive change and no one seems to know why or how it happened. No one pointed it out.”
“This staff did its level best with what we have,” responded Crossett. “You either have to lower the bar or hire more people in these situations.”
“The wheels have stayed on the wagon through the event. Let’s keep them on the wagon,” said Huckstep.
“This council has shown a willingness to work with the Mt. Crested Butte council,” said Schmidt. “The $700,000 for open space is a good example. Huck, I don’t appreciate being thrown under the bus as the boogie-man up there. The change in the contract language is the issue. I’m not sure where to go with this.”
“I’m not throwing you under the bus,” responded Huckstep. “You always had friction with [former Mt. Crested Butte mayor] William Buck. Look, the way the contract got changed is a material concern. But is control of the money the issue?”
“No,” said Owen. “We approved the agreement and we will abide by the agreement. I just want to know very clearly how the language got changed and why this change wasn’t told to us. This is a big issue.”
“If I had noticed it, I probably would have brought the issue up and let the chips fall where they might have and moved on,” said Schmidt. “But it is alarming that it got changed and we didn’t know.”
“We should have caught it but the issue to me is that no one can tell us where it came from,” said Matusewicz. “That’s my issue.”
Owen asked Belkin to track down where the change came from and report to the council at the next meeting. He said he would do that at the October 6 meeting.
