GVCA Journal for 01/15/06
Summary:

Carpet layers are coming to my house this morning, so I could get chased out
at any time. We'll see how far I get.

We actually covered a fair amount of territory despite two extra
presentations, but we will have to get back next week to large chunks of our
regular agenda.

As someone noted, every week we are confronted with another excellent issue,
but resources and energy can only go so far. What's interesting/amazing,
however, is just how interconnected everything really is. As our guest,
Police Chief Anderson, noted, "it's like a spider web."

So:

1) 9 Health Fair Fund-raiser
    Dates ranged anywhere from March 11 to April 1 before we decided to
consult with the hospital on its proposed advertising timeline.

2) Farrells' Other Fund-raiser
    You can whet your appetite for Patrick's chili on Feb. 11, when the
restaurant stages a benefit supper for Erik Engquist, a Gunnison-grown man
(whose folks now live in Saguache) with pancreatic cancer. For more
information, or to make a donation, stop in at Farrells'.

3) Detention Facility
    GVCA members made up a quarter of the 16 people in attendance at the
county's meeting, and all four came away a bit dispirited, because the
meeting seemed less about getting the best quality project for the least
amount of taxpayer money than it did about making something palatable for
the voters this November. Pat and Ellen also toured the new detention
facility in Conejos County, which cost about $3 million and was done on
lease-purchase rather than a bond.

4) Chief Anderson on Landlord/Tenant Training
    My sense is that several of us were skeptical about the chief's proposed
plan before his presentation, but I believe we are now very interested in
seeing if we can't help out with his quest to bring in a national expert,
who will train local stakeholders on landlord/tenant issues that will -- if
the pattern repeats itself from the chief's last tour of duty -- also result
in reduced crime rates and increased economic development.

5) Immigrant Legislation
    In addition to the Catholic Church and now a fairly broad-based business
coalition, the International Association of Chiefs of Police are coming out
against national and state legislation to criminalize illegal aliens for
their presence in this country. Greg Anderson, a member of the Chiefs, said
the legislation would adversely change the manner of policing. He did also
note that if the legislation should pass, he is duty-bound to enforce the
law, whether he agrees with it or not.

6) Housing Forums
    The county is hosting two more, in Crested Butte this Wednesday
(tomorrow) and in Gunnison (county commissioners' room in the courthouse)
Thursday at 7 p.m. This is your opportunity to comment on the proposed
Essential Housing addition to the Land Use Regulation. Richard did note that
all who have opposed the proposed regulation have not bothered to read to
see what it actually says. (Does this sound familiar?) I believe Don has
provided a link from our website (gunnisonvalley.org) to the proposal.

7) The Everyone Meeting
    The city council, the city planning commission, and the city master plan
steering committee, along with city officials, will all gather tonight at 7
in city council chambers to discuss the master plan and the Land Development
Code. This meeting is open to the public but will not be televised (logistic
issues), and you might want to go early to insure yourself a seat.

8) All Other Items Mostly Tabled
    So, no reports from last week's meetings, or previews (other than those
listed above) for coming meetings. New items didn't get touched; and we'll
have to discuss next week our presentation to the school board the following
night (Jan. 23), but you might mark your calendars to plan to attend the
board meeting in support of our request to better publish meetings, agendas
and minutes.

No carpet guys yet, so on to details:

Details:
1) 9 Health Fair Fund-raiser

    Once again, Patrick and Judith Farrell are not only donating the use of
their restaurant and culinary skills, but they will be providing all the
food without compensation. Volunteers are needed to assist them with dish
washing, table waiting, money collection and possibly food prep (for
experienced volunteers only). Patrick will get back to me with a body count
so we know how many volunteers to solicit.

    We also discussed making a dollar commitment to the Fair, and the GVCA
would make up any shortfall, but we decided to see how many vouchers are
available from other sources first. In fact, many of our decision,s
including the date of the benefit, hinge on answers Karen gets from Daniel
Marshall at the hospital. Dano has already offered to assist in advertising
the benefit.

Don will once again make posters and tickets, which will be for sale at
Farrell's and Pat's Screen Printing for sure, as well as any other business
willing to help sell them. GVCA members will also be asked to take five
tickets each to see if they can sell those.

The price will be $10 for chili, bread and ice tea. All proceeds (since the
food is donated, that means $10 per ticket) will go toward vouchers for
folks who can't afford the tests at the Health Fair.


3) Detention Facility
    The county commissioners and Sheriff Murdie invited interested parties
to a breakfast meeting last week in Almont, and 16 showed up, including four
of our members. However, I think our four were disappointed that the meeting
seemed to be less about getting the best product for the money than about
paring back the same proposal put forth last November and drumming up
broad-based support.

While the GVCA (with the exception of Butch, I think) doesn't feel strongly
opposed to siting the new jail at the courthouse, we do have concerns about
growing out of the new space possibly even before it gets built and with
parking issues. The current plan banks a lot on the Masons and the Community
Church being cooperative and willing to sell property at fair market value.
Traffic studies have not been conducted.

The GVCA has heard the county attorney say that as long as the county is
diligently working toward a new facility, lawsuits can be fended off. So
while we appreciate the sense of urgency shared by law enforcement and
county officials, we would like to make sure the taxpayers are funding
something useful and long-lived rather than an expensive stop-gap.

Pat and Ellen toured the new Conejos County facility late last week (and
drove past a new Wal-Mart in Alamosa that conforms to all of Gunnison's
big-box design standards). That facility cost one-third of the projected
cost of the Gunnison facility as currently designed. I neglected to write
down all the figures they provided, but I recall the county got a $1 million
grant, and found some other source for partial payment, and then did a
lease-purchase for somewhere around $3 million. The building is very plain,
but has a stucco-looking facade that blends in well with other buildings in
the area.

Officials invited them to return, because there wasn't time to show them all
the spiffy new features. Sheriff Murdie is aware of this facility as well,
since he called ahead and made arrangements for Pat and Ellen to take the
tour.

There will be another meeting of the 16 interested citizens on Jan. 23, I
think. (I thought it was the Wednesday of that week, and without a calendar
in front of me, I thought school board was on Monday, which is also supposed
to be the 23rd.)


4) Chief Anderson/Tenant-Landlord Training

In only his fifth month here, Greg Anderson is seeking support for a project
that he thinks will address issues on several fronts: he wants to bring in
John Campbell, whose program is certified through the Federal Department of
Justice, to train locals who can then train/educate other locals on
landlord/tenant law. The program lasts 2 1/2 days and costs $6,700,
including airfare and hotels for Mr. Campbell, who has a website that
Richard will post as soon as he gets it from Greg.

Greg sees this program as beneficial for three primary populations: our
foreign-born population (he specified illegals, but I'll bet it could be of
assistance to those here legally as well), students, and senior citizens.
The program should be of benefit to all municipalities within the valley.

By showing both tenants and landlords what their rights and responsibilities
are, Greg hopes to curtail clashes between partying students and the
families they live among and to keep folks, both white and hispanic, from
taking advantage of the immigrant population. The nicety of this program is
that it's designed to be on-going, with locals doing all of the training and
educating after the initial seminar.

So far, Greg hasn't found much buy-in for his idea, and although he was
hesitant to use the term, he finally settled on "apathetic," for the
response he's gotten so far.

But he is very excited about it because of the success he witenssed in
Hermiston, Ore., his last place of employment. (Prior to that he worked for
the federal government for 10 years, and before that spent 11 years as a
Phoenix cop.)

Hermiston, including its 'burbs, has a population of about 25,000, 33
percent of them hispanic. The area was well-known for its meth labs and drug
trafficking. (When questioned, Greg reported that so far, he's not seeing a
big meth lab problem here in Gunnison.)

Using what he termed "problem-oriented policing," which uses non-police
techniques such as landlord/tenant training, Hermiston went to work
educating landlords and cracking down on drug traffickers. Drug arrests went
from 160 in a year to over 1100. At the same time, the buglary rate dropped
30 percent and all other crime rates were below the median index level.

As PR officer, he was able to go on local television and report the
crime-drop statistics, and the end result, he said, was that people wanted
to move to Hermiston rather than surrounding areas -- and businesses began
relocating/establishing there as well.

Now, we are not 33 percent hispanic -- yet. Greg's figures, taken from the
Department of Human Services, show that our immigrant population has grown
at a 24 percent annual rate since 2002, and the growth rate of 2005 is
projected at 52%.

Which is not to say hispanic equals criminal. But the reason we started
looking at this issue in the first place is because a local landlord has
tenants who are getting beaten and shaken down by other immigrants and who
are afraid to request help.

And as development continues at the north end of the valley, development
that prices out the work force and puts them squarely in Gunnison, this will
impact us, possibly adversely. So far, Greg said, the number of police calls
hasn't increased, but the seriousness of the calls has.

And, in part because of the cost of living, his force is not fully staffed
at the 16 budgeted for.

So, this is a lengthy report, but it was an interesting perspective we don't
usually get at GVCA meetings. I think there was a general sense, although we
didn't have any time for additional discussion, that we would be interested
in looking further into John Campbell's program and possibly assisting Greg
with a September presentation in Gunnison.

Still no carpet guys. Onward I press . . .

6) Housing Forums
    Richard already sent a report, but added that he attended the forum in
Crested Butte the following night, where the tenor of the discussion was
entirely different, and the audience was overwhelmingly in favor of the
proposal.

He, and the others who attended the first Gunnison meeting, encourage the
rest of us to put in our own appearance. They further encourage us to at
least look at the proposal as its actually written, rather than getting
angry (as many Gunnison audience members did) about their perception of the
legislation. For instance, the proposed regulations do NOT set aside 30
percent of any development for the county; it requires that 30 percent of
the units be deed-restricted. They will still be sold by the developer.

Okay. Carpet guys at last. If there's anything else I need to cover in
detail (please, no, you beg), I'll get back to it later.

TL