Skip to main content
Rodney B. Proffitt announces he will seek the nomination of the Archuleta Democratic Party for County Commissioner.  Rod has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees from Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University), and holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law.  He studied for a Ph.D in public administration at the University of Colorado – Denver, completing coursework and all but the dissertation.

Rod sits on several boards, including Rotary District 5470 (Membership Chair), San Juan Water Conservancy District (President), Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (Treasurer), Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (Advisory), the coordinating committee for Relay for Life, and the Archuleta County Democratic Party (Secretary).

In addition, Rod has previously been active locally by holding several offices in the Pagosa Moutain Morning Rotary Club, appointed to a seat on the Governor’s Southwest Regional Water Roundtable, past president of Colorado Housing, Inc., and selected to be on the charter board for the Archuleta County Veterans’ Memorial Park board.

After harvest on the farm, the reward was to spend six weeks of each summer at Big Springs Ranch for boys outside Florissant, CO. For a kid with hayfever, the mountains provided both relief and opportunies for adventure allergies prevented in Kansas. It was natural to move to Colorado following law school – settling in Cripple Creek. It was a John Denver move “…in his 27th year”. Since then, Rod has sought to stay in the mountains living in various communities from Crested Butte to Red Lodge, MT.

In 2007, Archuleta County hired Rod to re-write the comprehensive plan and land use rules with the intent of eventually combining building and planning operations with the Town of Pagosa Springs. The Great Recession intervened to side track things, and the County has been dealing with those issues ever since. The biggest challenge this County faces is putting the Great Recession and the crippling financial issues the recession brought on behind us. The County needs to look forward by setting a strategic course to nurture future growth and sustainable prosperity.

Changes to the custom, culture and character of the community have only accumulated since the comprehensive plan was adopted in 2001. With the economy on the rise, the County is ready to take stock of itself, and set a forward thinking agenda.  If elected, my primary goals will reflect a community involved forward thinking foundation that provides the means to move ahead. Those goals are outlined as follows:

  • The County needs to codify the various resolutions and ordinances it has accumulated over the years. This process assures there are no gaps or over-lapping policies and regulations. It also provides more transparency and better public access; and

  • Local businesses need to be on the same footing with businesses outside the County. I will propose a use tax to compliment the sales tax to assure local businesses can adequately compete for business; and

  • Adopt a new comprehensive plan to replace the 2001 plan that fails to reflect the community’s custom, culture and character.

  • Adopt a five (5) year Capital Improvement Plan (“CIP”) to better prioritize and outline the funding for projects moving forward. Obviously, roads, a courthouse, and jail facilities need to be accounted for in this process.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sychohants

“All organizations are merely conceptual embodiments of a very old, very basic idea – the idea of community. They can be no more or less than the sum of the beliefs of the people drawn to them; of their character, judgments, acts and effort.” Dee Hock from The New Transitional HR Model About twenty-five days out from the 2008 national elections I wrote an article for the Daily Post endorsing Ron Chacey. I lamented over concerns I had for the direction the County might take under a majority consisting of John Ranson and Bob Moomaw. After the election, and as a result of the ambush and assault on the County’s planning commission, I wrote another article lamenting concerns that Archuleta County continued to disregard good process, policies and predictability. Since then, I have pelted Bill Hudson and Glenn Walsh with information, but refrained and even refused to write anything myself. A couple of weeks ago, I re-introduced myself to Terri House at a Rot...
Post a Comment
Read more
Editorial to the Pagosa Daily Post Re: You don’t get to Have Your Own Facts The San Juan River Headwaters Project (“the Project”) is the official name given what was the Dry Gulch Project. San Juan Water Conservancy District (‘the District”) has made no secret of the reason for the name change so why Mike Church think it is disingenuous is odd. First, “Dry Gulch” was never an official name of the Project, but rather simply referenced what the project area was referred to on topographical maps. Second, Dry Gulch referenced a project led by Pagosa Area Water & Sanitation District (“PAWSD”), which is no longer the case so it has no say in the project name, the name of the road into the project area, the reservoir, the islands in the reservoir, the ridge above the reservoir, or anything else. PAWSD gave up whatever rights it had as part of the 3 Way Agreement that PAWSD and the District entered into with Colorado Water Conservation Board (“the CWCB”). Finally, the Project ...
Post a Comment
Read more