La Plata County Commissioner Matt Salka and Paul Black, the Bayfield rancher trying to oust him, faced off Tuesday at a candidates forum hosted by the Durango Chamber of Commerce and the La Plata Forum at the DoubleTree Hotel in Durango.
For the incumbent commissioner, the event was an opportunity to tout some of his marquee achievements. Salka touted the revolving loan fund used to save affordable housing at the Westside and Triangle mobile home parks, his work to leverage funding for increased high-speed internet access and reliability, and the recent decision to ask voters to redirect lodgers tax revenue toward workforce housing and child care.
Black took the opportunity to criticize what he sees as too arduous and costly a process for residents and business owners to gain approval for development under the county land-use code. He pledged to spearhead revisions to the code.
The rancher, small-business owner and former firefighter is a Republican. He sits on multiple boards, including the Upper Pine Fire Protection District, the Pine River Conservation District and the Schroder Irrigation Ditch Co.
Salka, a Democrat, previously served as a town trustee and mayor of Bayfield. He has a background in IT.
The two men are competing for the seat representing District 3, which encompasses the eastern section of the county and is anchored in Bayfield. The District 3 commissioner was paid a salary of $104,567 in 2023 in accordance with state statute.
Both candidates addressed issues in the land-use permit process – a theme that dominated the 2022 commissioner race in District 1. When the county’s new land-use code was adopted in 2020, the commissioners at the time celebrated provisions that, they said, would streamline approvals.
But four years later, that vision has not been entirely realized, Black indicated to a crowd of about 50.
“If you have anything coming forth, you’re going to need to hire a lawyer, a consultant, architect, engineers on your own just to interpret, and hopefully the county will interpret the code the way you do,” Black said.
He said his Day One priority would be to pick chapters out of the code and start revising them – something Salka implied is already happening.
The Community Development Department staff is currently working through code revisions and held a public work session in June to discuss potential changes.
Salka, who was not on the board when the most recent code was adopted in 2020, said he understood the concern.
“My head is not in the sand,” he said. “I hear it very loud and clear.”
He also noted the department is now fully staffed in addition to the new director brought on a year ago. But mostly, Salka urged the public to float development ideas early, to engage in preemptive discussions with the county and to provide feedback as a part of land-use code revisions.
“I urge you all to reach out to your county commissioners and your planning commissioners – we are not mind readers,” he said. “We don’t know how to fix a problem if we don’t hear about the problem.”
In response to questions about housing affordability, Salka focused on ways he as a commissioner has leveraged grants and funding to support development, while Black said he would try to pave a hassle-free road for private developers.
As far as tax breaks and other incentives for small businesses, Black offered full-throated support for those sorts of programs, while Salka was more measured in his endorsement.
“Anything that we can do to help out small business, we should be looking at,” Black said.
Salka was cautious around taking broad stroke-style measures to support businesses, but said he would entertain all proposals.
As for the candidates’ No. 1 priority?
Salka said his top issue is to address the $10 million deficit in road and bridge funding that has handcuffed the county’s ability to pave and maintain its roads.
Black said he would first address affordability through deregulation of land use.
Ballots go out Oct. 11 and all county residents may vote in the race, regardless of whether they live in District 3 as commissioners are elected at-large.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
