by Mark Reaman 

Ten people, nine residents and one second homeowner, were appointed to Crested Butte’s new 2027 citizen’s budget advisory committee. Fifteen people had applied to serve on the board.

After a group of people comprised of residents and second homeowners had decried the council’s proposed excise tax on non-primary homes, they asked if town council would allow a group of them to look over the budget and perhaps shed some outside insight on how to better cut costs and increase revenues. Councilmembers agreed in August that that would be a good idea.

During the September 8 meeting, council reviewed the applications and then submitted a ballot to town clerk Lynelle Stanford for ranked choice voting.

Stanford announced the successful vote getters in no particular order of how they finished. They include: Trilby Carriker, Caren Carroll, Lis Collins, Rob Harper, Heather Leonard, Rebecca Little, Bonnie Downey Priest, Mary K. Schmidt, Mindy Sturm and Rich Doce. The first nine were originally appointed but the council realized they were all residents and felt a second homeowner should be included. Stanford said of those applicants, Doce had garnered the most votes among second homeowners so they added him to the list.

“These meetings are open to anyone, but we don’t want to limit it too much,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone who argued for at least nine board members. “It’s our first try at this.”

Councilmember Mallika Magner opined that fewer board members would be better and suggested a max of seven.

“Nine allows for a diversity of experience,” said councilmember Kate Guibert.

“The learning curve will be very steep,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “Municipal finance is different than private finance.”

“The main value of the process this year is inclusiveness,” said mayor Ian Billick. “Once the committee refines this for future years, a leaner committee might be better but with the learning curve for this year, nine is good.”

“I’m impressed with the level of experience from all of the applicants,” said councilmember John O’Neal. “It’s a pretty impressive group.”

“Anyone not chosen can attend the meetings,” reiterated Goldstone.

“Council should consider staff time with this board,” said Billick who suggested council provide two liaisons between the board and staff. “We want to manage expectations.”

Billick and Goldstone with Guibert acting as an alternate will serve as the council liaisons. The hope is the group can gather together to initially get up to speed on the town budget and its process.

“With the limited time window I doubt there is time for a super deep dive into the budget in this time frame,” said town manager Dara MacDonald. “That could better be accomplished next year.”

“The real opportunity is how this might work long-term,” concluded Billick.