Quasi-judicial Role Precludes Any Commissioner Comments Until Application Filed
During their Tuesday, August 8 regular meeting, the Chaffee Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) made a point of diverging from their usual practice of not responding to comments received during the open public comment period at the start of the session. The timeframe is allotted for comments about items not on the meeting agenda.
This participant in the BV 4th of July Parade stops to explain a petition to reject a geothermal power plant on Rodeo Road. Photo by Carly Winchell
In this case — as in several prior weeks, many of the comments referenced opposition to a geothermal energy production site concept. They expressed anger that such a project would be considered, fear of the impacts of a geothermal energy project, grievance that neighbors weren’t consulted, as well as several misconceptions regarding who is responsible. Also, how it could be stopped, and frustration that the BoCC hasn’t put a stop to it.
“I have a nine-page flyer from Mt. Princeton Geothermal – I would call this an article, from 2022; ‘Held holds geothermal’s promise’ … it says “we believe, we are optimistic”,” said one of the many commenters, Tom McCrackin. He went on to quote an earlier Ark Valley Voice article on the topic.
“The county does not have a geothermal project,” said Commissioner Keith Baker, adding a rare commissioner’s response to the comment period. “To add clarity to this, the proponents of it are the Mt. Princeton Geothermal group. There are no applications before the county. None have been submitted to the county. There is nothing we can act on.”
“When I used the term ‘misinformation’ — there is a big difference between disinformation and misinformation – there is a void of information out there and there are misconceptions,’ Baker added. “Rather than spending five minutes trying to list all of them, suffice to say; once there is a proposed application submitted, we can then review it. We have a 1041 permit process. We have a land use code. We will give this project a serious review, but until we have an application, we can’t address it.”
Baker did confirm that the BoCC will be coming out with a statement that reiterates the county’s response; adding that the county review process includes 1041 permitting and the Chaffee Land Use Code.
This proved not enough for some of the commenters, with one man blurting out “Why are the flags out there? You know nothing about it?”
“We don’t,” responded Baker. “There is no permit required to put flags out there. Ask Mt. Princeton Geothermal.”
“They have some permit with the state,” said Commissioner P.T. Wood. “I’ve read about different geothermal plants around the country and right now we can’t do anything about it. We can’t talk about it. If something comes to us, we need to be unbiased to assure that there is a fair hearing. We’re not trying to discount the fear.”
“It can seem from the outside as if we are being evasive, and the fact is that there has been no application,” said Commissioner Greg Felt. “We have nothing to work on this in a formal sense, and we can’t work on this informally. Our duty is quasi-judicial. We have to work [based on] the record presented at that time … to have a valid legal hearing.”
“We understand how frustrating it is, but we are trying to preserve our impartiality – for your protection and theirs and that is required by the law,” added Felt.
Chaffee County Attorney Daniel Tom explained the legal parameter saying, “I don’t want [the BoCC] to be conflicted – that would allow the applicant to imply that one or more commissioners has a conflict of interest. We can’t allow the BoCC to be seen as biased. This would fall under a 1041 permit, similar to the situation with Nestlé.”
“I can’t give you an opinion on what that would look like, because we don’t have anything,” he added. “This is state land, we don’t have a copy of the permit. Those are state records.”
There was a moment of silence, then one last question was lobbed at the BoCC asking, “Can you tell us how big the well is?
“Once again, we have to say consult with Mt. Princeton Geothermal,” responded Baker, ending the comments.
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