COLORADO
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
District 1 - John Justman
District 2 - Scott McInnis
District 3 - Rose Pugliese
P.O. Box 20,000

970-244-1605
970-244-1604
970-244-1606

544 Rood Avenue Grand Junction, Colorado 81502-5010 mcbocc@mesacounty.us Fax (970) 244-1639

Tom Alvey
President, Colorado River District
201 Centennial Street
P.O. Box 1120
Glenwood Springs, CO 81602
November 13, 2017
RE: Colorado River District (CRD) Correspondence of November 6, 2017
Dear Tom,
We are in receipt of your correspondence of November 6, 2017 which appears to be
directed towards Mesa County as a result of inquires made by us.
First, we do want to thank you for taking the time to visit with Commissioner McInnis. Your
reach out was greatly appreciated.
This letter is to provide additional key information as it pertains to “political litmus test”.
After Mesa County found out through a newspaper article (not through a courtesy call from
CRD) Mr. Kessler had been hired as the CRD Communications Director, Commissioner
McInnis contacted Mr. Kuhn and in that conversation Commissioner McInnis made strong
objection to Mr. Kessler’s professional affiliation with the Thompson Divide Collation (TDC).
Not once did Commissioner McInnis inquire as to Mr. Kessler’s political party or refer to a
“political litmus test”. Not once. In Mr. Kuhn’s letter he inserts a paragraph referring to “political
litmus test”…, inferring and spinning that the “political litmus test” was the objection of Mesa
County. This commentary, “political litmus test”, was added by Mr. Kuhn which of course,
implies the statement was made by Commissioner McInnis. Any notion of a “political litmus
test” is unfounded and fabricated.
It is Mesa County’s position that the CRD staff is using the “political litmus test” as spin
to avoid answering the legitimate inquires made in Mesa County’s correspondence of
September 12, 2017 as well as the follow-up financial questions pertaining to the CRD from
the November 6, 2017 correspondence.

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The objection of Mesa County is the credibility of the new Communications Director.
This is the issue. Having to deny what the new Communications Director is saying in his first
newspaper article is an extremely bad omen for the future. The CRD’s credibility with the
press, our board, our member counties and our constituents is what is in question here. A
Communications Director’s credibility must be beyond reproach.
We request you make the clarification so we can return to the core issue involving but not
restricted to CRD staff hiring practices, Mr. Treese’s conflicting representations, conflict of
interest policies, and information sharing policies regarding in-house strategies, etc. We are
expressing these concerns for the best interests of our member counties. The CRD Board of
Directors has our full support in improving the quality of the employee search, interview and
hiring practices. The CRD Board of Directors has our full support in greatly improving the CRD
responses to legitimate inquiries of CRD matters.

Sincerely,

Scott McInnis, Chairman
Board of Commissioners

John Justman
Commissioner

Rose Pugliese
Commissioner