{"id":97106,"date":"2018-11-09T15:18:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T22:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-plans-to-leave-council-of-governments-saving-36000\/"},"modified":"2018-11-09T15:18:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T22:18:58","slug":"durango-plans-to-leave-council-of-governments-saving-36000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-plans-to-leave-council-of-governments-saving-36000\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango plans to leave council of governments, saving $36,000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The city of Durango plans to cut ties with the Southwest Colorado Council of Governments. It has been a part of SWCCOG for nine years.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The city of Durango has plans to leave a council of governments it once helped form, reducing a burden on an already strapped general fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t justify it,\u201d said Ron LeBlanc, city manager. \u201cWe don\u2019t get $36,000 worth of benefit from the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Southwest Colorado Council of Governments<\/a> was formed about nine years ago with a mission to help local agencies work together to be more efficient, said LeBlanc, who helped write the bylaws for SWCCOG. That never happened, LeBlanc said. SWCCOG is focusing its energy on broadband, but LeBlanc said there are other issues that are equally as important that aren\u2019t getting the attention they deserve.<\/p>\n

Withdrawing from SWCCOG will save the city about $36,000 per year. LeBlanc has proposed the savings be used to help balance the 2019 budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m making some significant cuts in the general fund. If I can\u2019t justify it, then I can\u2019t in good conscious recommend that the City Council fund it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Miriam Gillow-Wiles, executive director of SWCCOG, said one of the major things the city will miss if it leaves the organization is the ease of communication with other agencies in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re missing out on the coordination and collaboration aspect, being able to work with each other and engage with that,\u201d Gillow-Wiles said.<\/p>\n

SWCCOG has applied for grants to improve broadband in the region and to create an affordable housing plan that takes into consideration access to health care and transportation for those who live in the region. Leaving SWCCOG will leave Durango out of these conversations and the benefits that can come from completing these projects.<\/p>\n

Durango isn\u2019t the only municipality thinking about leaving SWCCOG \u2013 Mancos also decided in its preliminary budget decision to leave the group, Gillow-Wiles said. She\u2019s also working with the town of Silverton to discuss its budgetary constraints related to membership with SWCCOG.<\/p>\n

Gillow-Wiles said she understands Durango\u2019s budget constraints, but the decision could cost Durango more than it saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate to see the city of Durango make this choice,\u201d Gillow-Wiles said. \u201cIsolation typically doesn\u2019t help reduce costs when it comes to challenging problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

manager says he can\u2019t justify expense for level of benefits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[1020,1698,782],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-durango-city-council","tag-finance-general","tag-governmental-entities"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97106","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=97106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97106"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}