{"id":120989,"date":"2014-04-14T23:22:04","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T05:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-holds-council-training\/"},"modified":"2014-04-14T23:22:04","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T05:22:04","slug":"city-holds-council-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-holds-council-training\/","title":{"rendered":"City holds council training"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A Cortez police dispatch operator takes a call Thursday as future city council members toured the police station after a two-hour orientation session with municipal department heads.<\/span>Tobie Baker\/The Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At a municipal orientation session last week, the future city council nailed down its procedures to select the next mayor.<\/p>\n

The seven city council members will be sworn into office on April 22. After taking their seats, the new municipal leaders will make open nominations for mayor. If more than one nomination is received, the council members will vote by secret ballot. The person receiving the most votes will be tapped as mayor. The same process will decide the next mayor pro-tem.<\/p>\n

Returning council members Tom Butler, Bob Archibeque, Karen Sheek, and newly appointed council member and former Mayor Orly Lucero have each indicated they\u2019d be open to serve as the city\u2019s top leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are lots of strong candidates,\u201d City Manager Shane Hale said.<\/p>\n

City staff requested council members to decide a procedure in order to make the process as smooth as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to be prepared,\u201d City Clerk Linda Smith said.<\/p>\n

At the orientation meeting on Thursday, April 10, outgoing Mayor Pro-tem Matt Keefauver told the new city council they should heed the advice of city staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cListening to city staff if of utmost importance,\u201d he said. \u201cMeet with the staff to learn what\u2019s going on in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he took office eight years ago, Keefauver said he wished he\u2019d realized the importance of legacy projects approved before his election. He then challenged future municipal leaders to think long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider your impact and what\u2019s going to happen down the road,\u201d Keefauver said.<\/p>\n

Keefauver\u2019s final words of wisdom were to be mindful of the city\u2019s diverse neighborhoods, and to pick their battles when contentious issues arise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFocus your energy on what you want your legacy to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hale also warned future leaders to be mindful of quasi-judicial issues, those impacting only a select few. Hale said all decisions should be based on evidence, not emotion.<\/p>\n

Because of a lack of qualifying candidates, the city\u2019s April 8 election was canceled. Returning council members Shawna McLaughlin, Ty Keel and new council member Jim Price round out the seven-member body.<\/p>\n

Council members are paid $400 per month.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

City of Cortez: By the Numbers<\/h4>\n

1937 \u2013 The City of Cortez becomes the tenth municipality in Colorado to adopt a home rule charter, enabling local control over legislative and budgetary decisions.
\n 127 \u2013 Number of full-time employees.
\n 54 \u2013 Number of volunteers who serve on various boards and commissions.
\n 14 \u2013 Number of agencies that utilize the police department\u2019s dispatch center.
\n 80,000 \u2013 Number of books at the public library.
\n 153,000 \u2013 Number of library patrons in 2013.
\n 123,000 \u2013 Number of recreation center patrons in 2013.
\n 650 \u2013 Number of brochures available at the Welcome Center.
\n 1,500,000 \u2013 Number of visitors to the Welcome Center over the last 25 years.
\n 17 \u2013 Number of years without a jury trial in municipal court.
\n 143 \u2013 Number of city computers.
\n 194 \u2013 Number of city telephones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

leaders take seats April 22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[318,308,774],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-120989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-local-elections","tag-political-candidates"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120989"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=120989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}