GVCA Journal for 06/05/05
Summary:

I have not taken the time to add Council member Ken Medina to the Alliance
list, but I am copying him on this e-mail and will see about getting him
added to the list sometime this week.

As a result of our meeting today, we tabled our strategic planning process,
since we seem to have found some projects that we as a group seem interested
in.  The planning process is only on hold, and if you have some burning
issue you want the GVCA to consider, I guess you'll need to get it on an
agenda and come to one of our Sunday meetings.

Topics covered today:

1) Farmers' Market
    Interest seems high and the numbers so far seem do-able, so the group is
forging ahead, aiming for a target date of the Saturday after July 4.

2)  Meeting with HCCA
    We are sending one or two representatives to the High Country Citizens'
Alliance board meeting on June 15, at HCCA's request.

3)  Western State College
    The campaign against Referedum C has already started. President Helman
is interested in attending one of our meetings, and may meet this week for
lunch with Richard.

4)  Wal-Mart
    Although "thestreet.com" listed Wal-Mart as a bad stock investment,
anticipating that thiings will get worse before they get better for the
mega-retailer, Chris Burton of the Legend Retail Group appears to be gearing
up to comment on the design standards.

5)  Health Insurance
    We had an exciting meeting with Terry Bonney, whose biggest news was
that we already have local options other than Anthem Blue Cross, but very
few know this yet.  Her goal is to provide competition for Anthem so as to
make premiums and coverage more affordable for valley residents.

Details:

1) Farmers' Market

    The Gunnison Farmers' Market will incorporate as its own non-profit
entity, using a donation from the GVCA to do so.  The GVCA may provide some
additional funds -- perhaps as a loan -- for other start-up costs, and
volunteers may be called on to lend a hand this year.

    But with at least seven interested vendors, and some cost questions more
or less answered, the group is going forward, targeting July 9 (if that's a
Saturday) through the second week in October, in the same location as last
year's market (the first block of East Virginia).

Mike Avery, formerly of High Attitude Bakery, has volunteered to be the
interim market director, and he's already done a lot of legwork.  The permit
will end up in front of city council, hopefully on June 14, and we'd ask
that those of you supportive of the market put in an appearance.  There may
be a call before that for letters of support.


2)  Meeting with HCCA

    HCCA has requested that the GVCA meet with its board.  They were hoping
for such a meeting at their regular June meeting, but we didn't think we'd
have any available representatives. Now, however, Narcissa has volunteered
to serve as a "scout," and Vikki may be available to attend with her.  This
way, we can see what HCCA is thinking might be some collaborative projects
and perhaps schedule a larger meeting between the two organizations.

Sue Navy of HCCA said she sees us as interested in the socio-economic issues
of the valley, which could complement their interest in the environmental
health of the valley.

3)  Western State College

    Despite Governor Veto's rare backing of an initiative (sorry -- was that
my political opinion showing through?), his fellow Republicans are ramping
up an aggressive campaign against the Econnomic Recovery Act, which will
appear on the ballot as Refereda C and D this November.  I understood from
Jay Helman that John Andrews, former Senate majority leader, was on the
governor's bandwagon, but apparently his thinktank, the Independence
Institute, didn't get his memo, because that's the entity funding this
initial $30,000 campaign opposing C and D.

Why this is important: if you talk to the Republicans, such as Dave Owen,
who have been on the Joint Budget Committee for several years, you will
learn that the ratchet effect of TABOR is going to put Colorado in a funding
crisis. Other states who have or are trying to implement something similar
to TABOR have modified it to avoid the ratchet effect, but these groups are
still committed to seeing any changes here in Colorado fail.

Funding for higher education will be the first of many sacrifical lambs if C
does not pass, although all of those cuts combined will only provide a
fraction of the hundreds of millions that will need to be cut from the state
budget.  The grassroots campaign needs to begin now to support C.

Butch and Richard are still gearing up to work on their fiscal impact study
of Western Staet, which hopefully will help all of us locally realize how
dependent our economy is on Western State.

And whenever Jay Helman has some time on a Sunday, we are hoping he'll drop
by to discuss what he perceives are issues at WSC that the GVCA might be of
assistance with.


4)  Wal-Mart

    The May 15 edition of the Rocky Mountain News, "Wall Street West"
section, carried an article suggesting Wal-mart stock would not be a good
investment right now, due to the successful competition causing slumps in
Wal-Mart's sales.

However, Chris Burton of Legend Retail Group has sent the city some sort of
notice that his firm intends to comment on the design standards.  This is
the same Chris Burton who commented on the standards in November, provoking
the remark from the standards' original author, Richard Grice, that Burton
obviously hadn't bothered to read the tandards before commenting on them.

There was no indiciation of how or when Burton plans to comment.  We're
assuming P&Z will be at the vanguard, and we'll be in attendance at all P&Z
meetings.  Don't forget the master plan and LDC processes, which are also
upcoming.

And for more news of interest in the Rocky Mountain News, Saturday's paper
carried a story about Mike Rock's questionable work ethic as city manager of
lakewood.  Some of you may remember Mike as the Gunnison County manager, and
some of you might even remember him as the AMAX spokesperson for the Mt.
Emmons project.  But now he's spending more time on days off than days on,
and while his mayor isn't questioning it, other constituents are wondering
what exactly he's doing to earn his $196,000 salary.


5)  Health Insurance

    We had a very lengthy discussion with Terry Bonney today that we feel
gives us some avenues to explore better and more comprehensive health
coverage.  We're still well removed from any form of a universal payer, but
there's still the potential for a good domino effect if options to Anthem
Blue Cross are opened up locally.

The good news:  many of those options already exist.  The not-so-good news:
most people don't know they exist.  The bad news:  So far, there's not a
local agent you can consult.

So our first task is to check with local agents to see why none of them are
interested in carrying other health policies.  Our next task is to line up a
meeting with Brad O'Neill of the Community Health Plan of Roaring Fork
Valley.

Terry is not yet familiar with their program, which serves Glenwood, Aspen
and Vail, but it sounds like it offers a group option to individuals. Terry
is being very careful to get programs that benefit both consumers and health
care providers in the valley, so she's treading a bit cautiously, but we are
all interested in hearing about this possibility.

In the meantime, it sounds like anyone, business or individual, can join the
Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce and then be eligible for group coverage
offered through a national company with an office in Denver.

Terry is not interested in finding a single replacement for Anthem, because
what she wants is to foster competition.  As she detailed it, back East the
premiums may be similar to what we're seeing here, but the coverage is much
better.  Deductibles are lower, and 80/20 splits are for out-of-network
expenses, not in-network.

The main reason she is on the warpath against Anthem, other than its
arbitrary and frequent premium increases, is its poor pay-out to doctors.
Dr. Chamberland was the first local doctor to stop accepting Anthem, and
it's because Anthem will pay only $400 on a surgery for which she should
receive $4,000.

Terry explained that our low population means that any specialist who comes
here is looking at part-time work.  There are only so many gall bladders
that will need to come out in a year.  The only hope of attracting
specialists lies in targeting middle-aged doctors who are more interested in
their quality of life than money, but they still need to be compensated for
their work, and it needs to be at $4,000 a procedure, not $400, she said.

If the doctors received more money than they do under Blue Cross, there
would be more possibility of addressing indigent care on a sliding fee
scale. 

She has found brokers in Montrose and Denver who are willing and interested
in breaking into our market, although so far no one locally has shown any
inclination to go after this.  She has got five or seven plans in place that
are already accepted by local physicians.  And she is still looking into
options that will allow more coverage for more people.

Everyone present expressed interest in assisting her with this project, so
it looks like this will be the next big thing for the GVCA to sink its teeth
into.

And now I ned to sink my head into a pillow.  If I explained this all poorly
because I'm tired, let me know, and I'll try to make it make more sense.

TL