Dear Editor:

I am greatly concerned with what seems to be financial mismanagement by our city administrator and our city council, most specifically with the decisions made regarding local law enforcement.

Although the community communicated to our leaders that we wanted to keep a police department, it was basically disbanded, although we now know the city is paying one officer $88,000 per year and there is little evidence that he is doing any work. In addition, the city is paying expensive leases on police cars that now sit at the sewage treatment plant.

In my opinion, one of the worst financial decisions made was purchasing the building across the street from the Community Center for $675,000 without anyone doing a walk-through, which is shocking. This resulted in a lack of information about what needed to be done to make the building functional and safe.

Why would a building be purchased to be used as a new police department without at least having some idea or rough estimate of what it might cost to remodel to make it useable? It appears that the options now are either keep it and find another use for it, sell it at a loss or demolish it. If any of these are the final decision, what was the point of the purchase?

At the last city council meeting, the $1.17 million preliminary price tag for the sheriff’s department taking over Ouray law enforcement duties was revealed. Has there been an in-depth analysis of how much more will be spent on what it would have cost to have our own police department?

During my 40-year business management career, I knew that when a decision is made, you need a back-up plan. It seems like many decisions have been made by the city administrator and city council without careful consideration of the implications, especially the financial ones.

A good example is the intrusive background check required of the previous chief of police (apparently wanting him to resign) which caused a domino effect of the police department shutting down. What was the city administrator’s back-up plan for that decision?

Finally, at a time when budgets are tight, all expenses need to be examined. The city administrator was hired at a certain salary and her duties included overseeing a police department. If she is no longer doing so, her contract needs to be renegotiated.

Brian Exstrum

Ouray