Just after noon Tuesday, David Black led a handful of people gathered outside the courthouse in reciting The Pledge of Allegiance before announcing he will seek a seat on the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners.

“I’m running to be a strong voice for the east side of the county and a good representative for the entire county,” Black, a Democrat, told supporters.

It isn’t the first time Black, a former schoolteacher and longtime local business owner with an educational background in political science, has set his sights on the District 3 post. County Commissioner Wally White, who will soon step down from the job because of term limits, defeated Black in a race for the job eight years ago.

Since 1994, Black has put in several years serving on volunteer public-service boards in the county, including multiple terms as a regular and alternate member of the county’s Planning Commission.

Planning is a key issue in the Bayfield resident’s campaign platform, he said Tuesday.

Black’s term on the volunteer Planning Commission ended in January last year, just months before controversy erupted and a proposed comprehensive plan that took more than two years to write and cost more than $700,000, was shelved. He called the outcome an “unconscionable waste of money,” and said a new makeup of the county board with planning-minded representatives is needed.

Commissioners get “broad powers to regulate land use,” Black said, and the issue is a “big crux in this county.”

La Plata County needs strong and clear zoning, Black said, adding, “If we write our new code based on the old (comprehensive) plan, we’ll end up with another subjective code.”

Longtime friend and Democratic Party supporter Dick Dahl agreed.

Dahl called development “one of our biggest industries” and said “developers want rules, and they don’t have it here.”

Dahl said Black “knows the county” as a lifelong resident who has lived in each of the three county commissioner districts and would help return “sanity” to local government and politics.

If elected, Black also hopes to protect services for the elderly and impoverished, advocate for responsible oil and natural-gas development and push fiscally conservative budgeting.

Black will run in the primary later this year against Julie Holligan Westendorff, another local Democrat who announced plans to run for the seat late last year.

The District 2 commissioner seat also is up for grabs this year. Incumbent Republican commissioner Kellie Hotter and Democrat Gwen Lachelt have announced their campaigns for that post.

County commissioners serve four-year terms and earn $72,500 per year.

hscofield@durangoherald.com