{"id":13654,"date":"2026-02-04T14:38:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dennis-bugg-announces-candidacy-for-county-commission\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:38:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:49","slug":"dennis-bugg-announces-candidacy-for-county-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dennis-bugg-announces-candidacy-for-county-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Dennis Bugg announces candidacy for county commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dennis
Dennis Bugg is a candidate for Montezuma County commissioner. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dennis Bugg, who leads Montezuma County\u2019s human resources department, says his decades of public service and insider view of county operations would allow him to move issues forward if elected to the county commission.<\/p>\n

With a commissioner seat available in November\u2019s election, Bugg enters a race that includes several other candidates. Six have declared their campaigns and are seeking placement on the Republican ticket, while Democrat Rebecca Busic has also announced her candidacy.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Journal <\/em>to introduce and profile candidates, Bugg said he decided to run after working inside county government. He said he wants to continue the decision\u2011making he sees firsthand, from long\u2011range planning to how the county may approach a potential sales tax if it goes before voters and is approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot coming up with possibly doing the sales tax and whether we do is going to generate two different directions paths of where this county really needs to go,\u201d Bugg said.<\/p>\n

He said two decades in public service and an administrative background mean a shorter learning curve. Bugg has lived in the area since 1978. His current role is human resources technician, a position he has held for two years. He spent 29 years in the fire service, including nine years as administrative deputy chief for the Farmington Fire Department. Additional experience, he said, comes from union negotiations where he has worked on \u201cboth sides of the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done budgets, I\u2019ve done grants, I\u2019ve done RFPs, I\u2019ve built buildings, basically most of the things that they would have to talk to the divisions about. So, I feel I have a pretty good scope on how to have conversations with department heads,\u201d Bugg said.<\/p>\n

Issues he\u2019s prioritizing<\/div>\n

Bugg said that if elected, he hopes to improve public engagement in county decision\u2011making and strengthen internal dialogue within county departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely need to be doing more open meetings, where more of the public can attend and give their feedback because I think we\u2019re doing better, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re getting out and getting enough contact on a regular basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said projects are underway in the human resources department, including a pay\u2011scale study and edits to the employee handbook. He added that county officials are potentially discussing updates to the long\u2011term comprehensive plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the things are already starting to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s trying to foster the public relationship, and we need to do a much better job fostering internally as well and creating a better culture within our own county.\u201d<\/p>\n

He chose to run as an unaffiliated candidate because, he said, he does not want to feel tied to party alignment or pressured to decide on issues based on a party\u2019s positions. He described himself as politically moderate, leaning Republican but not far\u2011right, and said he also agrees with some positions held by Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I don\u2019t care who brings it forward. I want to look at it full face value and see what the value is and what needs to happen. And so, for me, it\u2019s more just to represent everybody is why I am doing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other candidates who have declared campaigns include Brett Likes, Diane Fox\u2011Spratlen, Rodney Cox, Gerald Whited, Shane Prentice and Bonnie Anderson. Undersheriff Tyson Cox has announced he is running without current opposition for sheriff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

unaffiliated bid reflects desire to avoid party pressure<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13654","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=13654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19089,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13654\/revisions\/19089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13654"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}