Brief by Central Staff
Water – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
The nominating board for the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District — one commissioner from each of its three counties — interviewed candidates for three director seats in May, and made recommendations to District Judge John Anderson in Cañon City, who made the appointments.
But one of Anderson’s appointments was not the person recommended by the three commissioners. They had proposed Pete LoPresti for a Custer County seat on the conservancy board, but Anderson appointed Bill Donley to another term.
His other two appointments followed the recommendations. One was Mel Kesserich, a Salida realty agent and auctioneer; he will fill the seat that has been occupied by Wendell Hutchinson, who had sought another four-year term. The other was Frank McMurry of northern Chaffee County, who was an incumbent.
Chaffee County Commissioner Joe DeLuca, who sat on the nominating board along with Larry Handy of Custer County and Keith McNew of Frémont County, was not pleased with the judge’s appointment of Donley instead of LoPresti.
“What’s the point of our going to all that trouble of interviewing candidates and making recommendations if the judge is going to ignore us?” he asked. “I’m going to send him a letter and ask why he did this.”
The UAWCD board has nine members, all with four-year terms. One is at-large, and there are two from each its four districts, which coincide with school-district boundaries: Buena Vista, Salida, western Frémont, and Custer County.
After petitions forced an election for one seat last year, the UAWCD and local activists agreed to try a different approach — having elected commissioners make recommendations to the judge, so that there would be more public involvement.
“I think it’s a good idea,” DeLuca said, “and I think it helps us all work together on regional water issues. But it’s not going to do much good if the judge doesn’t go along with it, the way he said he would.”
