In April 2023, in an audacious move almost no one supported except the councilors themselves – and perhaps overworked staff – Durango City Council voted to consolidate boards and dissolve three long-standing advisory boards that had served the community well for decades. Sixteen former city mayors opposed the decision (Herald, Mar. 10, 2023).
Yes, the boards took staff time to manage and councilor time to vet applicants, but that is exactly what a public body representing its citizens is supposed to do. It seems those councilors – then-Mayor Barbara Noseworthy, Kim Baxter, Melissa Youssef, and Jessika Buell, who voted in favor (Herald, April 14, 2023), with only Olivier Bosmans opposed – lost sight of that purpose, or perhaps never fully understood it.
The Herald’s editorial board has since surmised that if Parks & Recreation, Multimodal Transportation, and Natural Lands advisory boards were still in place, we might not see the level of community frustration (exasperation is closer to the truth) that has poured out through letters to the editor and the new Engage Durango platform and meetings that replaced the boards. Projects like Next Steps and Speed Management could have benefited from the kind of conversations and deep thinking that took place during those monthly advisory board meetings – where citizens felt truly heard.
We are encouraged that Mayor Gilda Yazzie and Councilors Kip Koso and Shirley Gonzales are now leading the effort to revisit the issue (Herald, Aug. 22). That is a step toward repairing the damage.
The rationale for dismantling the boards was disingenuous at best, resting on costs measured in staff time and dollars – the latter, modest at $228,000 – compared with the inefficiencies, delays, cancellations, and lack of deliberation we have seen since. At worst, the move seemed designed to eliminate advisory board members’ institutional knowledge, take power from the people, and concentrate it at City Hall.
Ironically, one argument for dissolving the boards was that staff once had too much influence. Yet the April 2023 vote all but guaranteed that staff and council would consolidate power, erasing decades of volunteer service by hundreds of citizens. The expertise Council should have welcomed was dismissed in the name of “efficiency.” This from a body that lists “Engaged & Collaborative Governance” as a goal in both its 2022 and 2024 strategic plans.
Although staff defended the 2023 action as something long planned but delayed by COVID, advisory board members, the public, and former mayors felt blindsided. When many people say “hold on, slow down” and ask “why,” yet are ignored and given no opportunity to weigh in on a new strategy, something has gone awry.
We are cautiously optimistic that council may be moving back toward an era of truly representing its citizens. But the upcoming Oct. 7 study session, like regular council meetings, does not provide the space for the kind of open conversation our community needs. We urge council to hold a genuine community dialogue beforehand, to revisit the unfinished conversation from 2023 about why meaningful engagement matters -- and what it looks like -- as Durango continues to grow.
The alternatives now being floated – an expanded Finance Advisory Board mission and a Parks and Recreation subcommittee – fall short. Their scope is limited, and as Koso himself pointed out, the FAB does not have the expertise the issues demand and our community deserves.
We want to believe the tide is turning back toward genuine engagement. But Durango’s recognition from the International Association for Public Participation as “Organization of the Year” may look good on paper, yet it means little if our own citizens feel shut out.
Durango doesn’t need more awards or talking points about engagement. It needs real public engagement – the kind that advisory boards once offered, where citizens had a seat at the table, not just a place on an online platform. Restoring those boards, or creating equally robust alternatives, would be the strongest signal yet that council is serious about representing the people it serves.
Editor’s note: Ellen Stein, Opinion Editor and Editorial Board member, served on the Multimodal Advisory Board from 2019 to 2021.
