Just what level of influence an alternate board member has came under fierce debate during Monday’s Aspen City Council meeting, during what started as routine appointments for council boards and commissions.
But when it came time to appoint the voting and alternate members representing council on the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority, things became, as more than one councilmember put it when having to make a decision, “difficult.”
That’s because APCHA Chair and voting member Skippy Mesirow — whose initial campaign for council largely hinged on his passion for tackling affordable housing and who was a founding member and two-term chair of Aspen’s Next Generation Advisory Commission — and alternate Rachel Richards — whose three-decade tenure in civic service includes roles as mayor, county commissioner and city councilor — don’t see eye to eye with one another in their working relationship, as became clear Monday.
Mesirow, who will remain in his current position as APCHA chair until at least September, oversaw the housing authority through a time of transition and change. Diane Foster, also the city’s assistant manager, has been serving as the interim executive director since Mike Kodrovsky resigned in August last year.
While Mesirow said he felt that “all the setup is finally there” for ACPHA to take meaningful action in the community and expressed his wishes to fellow councilmembers that he be able to “continue the work that we’ve been putting forward,” he was open to a suggestion made by freshman Councilmember John Doyle — in his second meeting in the role — that Mesirow and Richards split the two-year term, with Mesirow serving as the voting member for the first year and then switching with Richards.
It would be a compromise, Mesirow noted.
“Rachel’s interested in having this both years; I’m interested in having this both years,” he said. “I’m comfortable with the split, is what I’m saying.”
But despite assurances to Richards that her role as an alternate has been influential to the overall direction of APCHA meetings — indeed, Richards bemoaned the fact that in her absence, “this last example of not realizing how both publicity wise and policy wise it would look for APCHA to start saying people who do not work in Pitkin County [could be paying rent as significant others]” was a final straw in her “losing trust” in the position.
That’s in reference to a “significant other” provision that the APCHA board soundly defeated during its June 2 board of directors meeting. That it even made it to a first reading led Richards, who perhaps was most vocal in her dissent of the would-be provision, to ask her fellow councilmembers to be appointed as the voting member on the board.
Mesirow was reluctant to respond with in-kind complaints of Richards, but he did then allow that “the amount of knowledge that you come in with is tremendous, and I think you exercise that every meeting — as evidenced by the thing you just said,” he said. “It is also the case that when I took over the chairmanship and I spent a lot of time … when I asked what can we do to improve meetings, what I heard most was we don’t get things done, we talk in circles, we focus on little things instead of the big things. The feeling was that you took up a significant amount of conversation and kept things from moving forward.”
Richards twice said that, not wanting to “split the board,” she would rescind her request for the appointment.
“I don't want to be part of splitting a board apart, and Skippy wants it. I have two meetings coming up where I was going to be leaving at 7 and driving that night for other meetings. All I do is commit, and it’s gotten a little very tiring,” she said. “If I don’t have a vote, I can’t make amendments, I can’t make votes. I can understand where it’s going.”
Councilmembers Ward Hauenstein and Doyle both wrestled with their decision on the matter. Hauenstein seemed to like Doyle’s proposed compromise of splitting the voting-member role after a year.
“I value both of your input. I wonder, Rachel, if you would be willing to sit out one more year as the alternate and then take over next year?” Hauenstein posed.
“Sure, if that will satisfy Skippy. He will be choosing the executive director,” she replied.
“I think you’ll have a lot of influence,” he returned.
“I don’t think so,” Richards said.
Mayor Torre, for his part, had suggested from the outset of the discussion that Mesirow remain in his role as chair as the one “driving the bus,” as it were, with Richards serving as the voting member in order to maximize the number of people representing council, in his estimation.
“The advantage is we have Skippy as the chair. He has an integral role right now, and he’s doing great work there. The voting member, we can only serve by advantage by having another person that represents us as our voting member,” Torre noted. “[The] strongest team on the field is him chairing the board and Rachel as the voting member.”
Ultimately, that’s what occurred. City Attorney Jim True noted that a resolution will have to be drafted at the next meeting in order to ensure a mid-term transition between the two, giving everyone time to mull it over.
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June 15, 2021 at 04:00PM
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City council opts to split term of APCHA board voting member - Aspen Daily News
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