DURANGO MAYOR

During my tenure as Mayor, the city faced an unprecedented series of crises, including the sudden and contentious departure of previous City Manager, Ron LeBlanc, the resignation of our city Finance Director amid accusations of embezzlement, and the unwelcome arrival of the Covid 19 pandemic. Under my leadership, City Council hired Interim City Manager Amber Blake to keep the city running smoothly while we began a nationwide search for LeBlanc’s replacement (Jose Madrigal, our highly qualified new City Manager, took over in Sept 2020). We discovered troubling irregularities in the city’s finance department and, as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation began investigating allegations of misappropriations of funds, we hired an interim finance director to work with the city’s finance team to correct errors and fund balances. It was ultimately necessary to bring in the state’s Department of Local Affairs. It was not until April 7 that City Council finally had the opportunity to approve an amended and corrected budget. We then hired an external auditing firm to do a forensic audit going back several years. We are still awaiting the results.

During the initial months of COVID, I worked closely with regional leaders to determine steps to keep our community safe. I served on the Economic Recovery Task force with local business leaders to implement opportunities to adapt and respond to the new COVID environment (our local restaurant “bump-out” program, for instance).

Going forward, I will continue to strive to be a consistent, collaborative, and connected leader in our community. I’m grateful for each and every opportunity I’ve had to work with local citizens and organizations to achieve worthwhile goals, for the good of everyone in our community.