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The missing $1 million was squandered

Concerning the recent Herald article, “How to save $1 million” (March 1), it seems the county administrators have contributed to a portion of the dire financial situation we currently occupy. Not six months prior, they apparently squandered a significant portion of the million dollars they seek to recover in the coming year.

An article titled “REWRITE; Firm chosen to write land-use code” (Herald, Oct. 3, 2016) stated that “La Plata County staff members have found a firm to rewrite the county land-use code.” Does that even sound right?

The article refers to the company, Kendig Keast Collaborative, which is a community-based planning firm out of Texas. For a mere $250,000, over a 16-month process, the firm would conduct the rewrite for us.

Seriously?

At the time of this article, a contract had not yet been formalized. However, the following statement from Commissioner Brad Blake cites “... some accomplishments of 2016 and early 2017 ...” including “a complete overhaul of the county land-use code is well underway and will be completed in early 2018,” which would suggest the contract was subsequently finalized. That money has been outsourced and is now long gone.

Upon review of the currently approved 2017 county budget, it would appear as though we are already spending a substantial amount of money to fund the planning department, whose task, among other things, is to rewrite the failed land-use code again.

Salaries and wages alone come to $717,954. Add the remaining personnel, operational expenditures, etc. and the total annual planning department costs come to a whopping 1,032,575 one dollar bills. One might surmise that for that kind of money we would not have to spend yet another $250,000 to achieve a workable land-use code for this community, let alone request one from another state altogether. I suppose at some point, it might make sense to hire someone else to plan for us if we ourselves are found not capable. But to spend our taxpayer dollars on both, and at the same time, is ludicrous.

Here again is another example of poor financial strategies in the face of the foreseen budget constraints. One would hope that in the future, serious consideration of more appropriate and affordable options will become the rule rather than the exception.

Jennifer McKigney

Durango