Last month, San Miguel County Commissioner Art Goodtimes made a very public departure from Club 20 after a decade-long relationship with the lobbying organization soured. Last week, the other commissioners discussed how to proceed, and whether they should continue the county’s membership in the organization.
Commissioner Elaine Fischer characterized Goodtimes’ resignation as “awkward” in that it was a personal decision that may have been construed as a message from the county. Nevertheless, Fischer and Commissioner Joan May shared Goodtimes’ frustration with the lobbying organization, its purported coziness with the oil and gas industry, and its inadequate representation of the interests of some of its member counties and tribes.
““I’ve never been a fan of Club 20, while I was involved with Sheep Mountain Alliance,” said Joan May, who used to head the environmental organization. “I have to say my only hope for Club 20 over the years, Art, was that you’ve been involved in it. Even though you’ve been successful, it’s been a lot of work for a little progress. I think Club 20 mostly represents Montrose and Grand Junction.”
Fischer and May agreed to send a letter to the organization spelling out how they would like the region’s interests represented, and perhaps get support for the letter from the coalition of progressive counties built by Goodtimes during his tenure. Goodtimes charged that while more Democrats and liberals were elected in communities like San Miguel, San Juan, Hinsdale, Pitkin, Gunnison and Routt Counties, about 25 percent of the Club 20 region, those voices had no representation on the executive committee except by Goodtimes himself. That committee, the inner sanctum of the organization responsible for its policies, recently voted to extend a seat to a sponsor from the gas and oil industry but did not accommodate Goodtimes’ request that a progressive member be named to the board after he left.
There are ten or so other members of Club 20 who reside in San Miguel County, and one of those members, Frank Bell, will become a regular voting member. Neither Bell nor anyone from this county will take a seat on the more powerful 15-seat executive committee on which Goodtimes served as secretary.