SILVERTON – The former mayor of Silverton came under fire soon after he stepped into office.
At a meeting in late April 2020, one of Shane Fuhrman’s first as mayor, then-Trustee Molly Barela cited his Selwyn prospectus, without naming the document, as she raised concerns about a proposal that the mayor serve as chair of a committee to develop the town’s master plan.
The prospectus was the mayor’s 2016 blueprint to turn the undeveloped mountain town inhabited by former miners and ski bums into an “attractive community for investment, relocation, and tourism.” Fuhrman continues to work as the managing partner of Selwyn Capital Management, according to his LinkedIn.
“You basically run an investment company that relies on property around town,” Barela said during the meeting, asking the town’s attorney whether the situation presented a conflict of interest.
Before the attorney weighed in, Fuhrman sought to make a clarification.
“I was very transparent through the campaign process that I am interested in doing additional projects in Silverton if the opportunities arise, but none exist today, no funds have been raised,” he said, according to a recording of the April 27, 2020, meeting, noting that “The background I have would be very helpful in connection with developing a master plan.”
But some felt Fuhrman had been less than forthcoming about his machinations.
At a forum before the election, Silverton resident David Breed asked a series of leading questions about Fuhrman’s development ambitions and how they might align with his political aspirations. A verbal confrontation ensued in the street after the event.
“You’re a developer,” Breed recalled saying. “It’s all right, just run on that platform.”
When Breed referenced the Selwyn, Fuhrman responded “It’s confidential. You shouldn’t have a copy,” Breed said.
In public forums, the mayor mused about incentivizing private landowners to work with the town government to keep housing affordable; in private, Fuhrman was raising money and buying properties to realize his own development plans for the benefit of his investors.
A housing needs assessment published in 2021 advised the town to incentivize long-term rentals and deincentivize short-term rentals through regulation to accommodate an existing and growing need for housing that minimum-wage workers could afford.
The town had begun the process the year before and was already part of the way there.
Silverton’s personnel and ordinance committee met on Oct. 16, 2020, to discuss regulating short-term vacation rentals.
Fuhrman seemingly appeared anxious.
About this story
This story is the second in a two-part series about Silverton and how the town pursued strategic, affordable growth as then-Mayor Shane Fuhrman pursued capital investment to fund development.
Over the course of eight months, The Durango Herald reviewed dozens of public meetings, financial filings with the state and federal governments, real estate transactions, emails and other documents. The Herald also interviewed approximately 25 people with knowledge of Silverton, the operations of town government during Fuhrman’s tenure and Fuhrman’s business interests.
Part one appeared Sunday and can be found online at www.durangoherald.com.
“Mr. Mayor …” Trustee Jim Harper interjected as Fuhrman began to question town staff members, “the wheels are turning, I can see it. What are your thoughts?”
The mayor was particularly concerned about the impact new rules could have on multiunit buildings.
“Just because I’m looking at it out the window,” Fuhrman tossed out the example of the Highlander, a three-story building on Greene Street. The building was his seemingly hypothetical example of a property whose owners might be negatively impacted by the regulations.
“If (the owners) decided they want to rent some of them as short-term rentals, they would have to get a business license as an inn in order to do that?” he asked.
At no point during the meeting was there any mention of a connection between Fuhrman and the Highlander.
On Jan. 8, 2021, Fuhrman registered his Delaware corporation Highlander Property Co, LLC, with the state of Colorado. On March 31, 2021, as the town trustees neared finalizing the regulations, that company purchased the Highlander for $1.3 million.
When trustees did eventually vote to approve vacation rental regulations the following month, Fuhrman recused himself. Fuhrman owns a hotel and said previously that he wanted to avoid the appearance that he was restricting competing vacation rentals. He made no mention at the meeting of the fact that the regulations had been developed with consideration of a building Fuhrman now owned.
When the ordinance was first read publicly, a trustee brought up Fuhrman’s recusal and asked whether he had helped shape the regulations. Former town Trustee Molly Barela, who also sat on the personnel and ordinance committee, said the regulations had been drafted by town staff and that Fuhrman’s involvement had been limited.
“Had I known in October when he was asking those questions about the Highlander that his intention was to purchase it, I would have definitely said that he needed to be removed and recused (from the committee),” she said, musing in retrospect.
Today, the building is listed for sale with an asking price of $3 million with a description that specifically calls out the possible use as a vacation rental – “a rare opportunity that does not come up often.”
Confined by wetlands, federal land and intimidating peaks, Silverton has a dearth of developable land and a defined need for affordable housing. In 2021, officials were, at a glacial pace, contemplating how Silverton could secure buildable land before it was all gone.
Around the time that conversations about regulating vacation rentals were underway, town officials were also trying to flank the workforce housing issue from the other side by buying property and building affordable housing. Fuhrman’s company, Selwyn Capital, had an interest in developable land as well.
Fuhrman stood atop the pyramid of both entities.
In February 2021, a real estate agent approached Fuhrman in his capacity as mayor about buying 2.75 acres spanning two full blocks near the town’s entrance owned by Brit Eaton.
Sharon Lantz, the agent, told The Durango Herald she made the inquiry with the awareness that the town was in the market for land, and she wanted to see if officials would pounce on the opportunity to buy from a cooperative owner. The Eaton property was one of several parcels the town had discussed, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.
Lantz said she approached Fuhrman in his capacity as mayor and sent the inquiry to his government email. Fuhrman did not express any interest or disinterest on behalf of the town. He seemed to indicate that the inquiry was not relevant to him in his public office, but might be relevant to his personal business dealings.
“I keep all personal and business matters separate from matters related to my role as Mayor, and I only use this email for matters related to my role as Mayor,” he responded.
The conversation did not continue after that, according to emails reviewed by the Herald.
Neither the town of Silverton nor Selwyn Capital ultimately purchased the Eaton property. But this would not be the only time the mayor’s potential business endeavors intersected with the town’s needs.
At an April 12, 2021, meeting, Fuhrman noted, “real estate is moving pretty quickly right now. And the town isn’t necessarily agile in being able to get a property under contract.”
Among the properties under consideration were a set of empty but buildable lots totaling 6.4 acres off U.S. Highway 550 at Silverton’s south end, multiple people familiar with the conversations confirmed.
The town did not have the money to buy those plots on hand, but officials were wrestling with how the town could be competitive against private buyers before the opportunities dried up.
“When there’s an opportunity to acquire those types of properties … those are golden opportunities,” said Clark Anderson, executive director of Community Builders, the organization that conducted the town’s master planning process. “That is the most powerful tool that communities have to create and protect affordability.”
On Aug. 31, 2021, Fuhrman wrote a letter to his colleagues informing them that he was a “minority owner” in an entity, Sultan Development, that had purchased the vacant property at the south end of town. The letter was succinct and the mayor pledged transparency throughout the rezoning process.
Fuhrman was listed as the principal agent on all of Sultan Development’s filings with the state, and his home address was listed as its principal office.
A golden opportunity for Silverton appeared to have been missed.
When the town did ultimately buy a 1.2-acre property a year later, it did so with the assistance of a $300,000 grant from the state and a cooperative property owner with a sole desire to sell to the town.
Fuhrman dismisses any notion that his private interests conflicted with the town’s needs.
“My involvement in real estate has always been conducted with full transparency and in compliance with ethical standards,” he wrote in an email to the Herald. “As mayor, I prioritized the town’s needs, including affordable housing initiatives. My private investments were entirely separate from town efforts and focused on supporting Silverton’s growth in a complementary manner. I have never competed with or bid against the Town or the School for the acquisition of any property in Silverton.”
Silverton would have been hard-pressed to procure the cash for the two properties, said Anthony Edwards, the San Juan County judge who also served as interim town administrator from February to June 2021 and was listed as a business adviser in the Selwyn in his capacity as a consultant with the Colorado Small Business Development Center.
He said he did not recall those properties specifically coming before him in his capacity as town administrator and people familiar with town officials’ conversations said the topic did not progress to the point where administrative action would have been necessary.
When it came to development, Silverton had to be fastidious in its strategy, said Anderson, the Community Builders director.
“They have so few really good development opportunities, it’s really important to get the ones that they do have right,” he said.
By this time, Silverton was more divided than ever.
If Fuhrman was trying to curate an aura of plush modernity nestled within Silverton’s rugged and historic antiquity, his opponent in the 2020 election, Gilbert Archuleta, represented the history.
“When they see people or hear of people that might be investors, or potentially, people with money, the town and the citizens of Silverton want to cater to that, hoping that it’s going to make a change, and not knowing if the change is going to be good or bad,” Archuleta said. “They just want something different.”
As Ian Tanner, a Silverton resident with a penchant for political disruption, put it, Fuhrman had an attractive affability.
“You have an old good ol’ boy – Gilbert Archuleta – versus a young, good looking, affluent, funny guy,” Tanner said. “He’s (Fuhrman) willing to go out and smile and talk to people.”
Old-guard Silvertonians didn’t think Fuhrman would get elected, Tanner said, and some of his supporters either didn’t know about the Selwyn or didn’t see its realization as feasible. Others supported his vision.
Gigi Raine moved to Silverton in 2019 and owned a shop selling trinkets. She was interested in Fuhrman’s talk of stretching the summertime tourism economy into a year-round enterprise. And when she voted for Fuhrman in April 2020, she had never heard of the Selwyn prospectus.
“I wouldn’t have voted for him if I had known that that was his intention and that was the way he saw the town of Silverton,” she said. “I would never have voted for him. And I think that that would probably have been the case with a lot of people.”
The community’s division came spilling out into the open after Fuhrman suspended the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at town meetings in light of increasing disharmony in June 2021.
Town hall, and the mayor specifically, came under fire from disgruntled members of the public. Personal attacks on elected officials flourished and the town hall shut down as those attacks turned to threats of violence.
Petitioners collected signatures to recall Fuhrman and two other trustees, and an election was set for Oct. 12.
This was also around the time that news of Fuhrman’s land acquisition became public.
A week after he notified the town of Sultan Development’s land purchase, Fuhrman used the state’s open records law – which allows anyone to inspect most government records – to look at the emails and texts of his colleagues on the town board. His Sept. 7 request asked for records that included the words “Shane,” “Fuhrman,” “Mayor,” “Sultan Development” or “Selwyn” over the preceding five weeks.
Former town Trustee Barela thought the request, which compelled her to sift through text messages with the town administrator, was highly inappropriate even if it was an allowed application of Colorado’s open records statute.
“I laughed hysterically,” she said. “ … ‘You really think that you’re the subject of everything that the board members would be talking about?’”
None of Barela’s texts were deemed responsive to the request, although more than 1,400 emails sent to or by town officials were turned over to Fuhrman.
A website titled “Silverton Issues” posted content, including the Selwyn prospectus, excoriating the mayor as the recall got underway.
On Sept. 9, 2021, Fuhrman used his government email address to file a complaint with the domain registrar, GoDaddy, that hosted the website, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by the Herald. Fuhrman alleged that the site was circulating his “confidential” document without permission. David Breed, the founder of Silverton Issues, removed the Selwyn after GoDaddy suspended the site.
Ultimately, Fuhrman survived the October 2021 recall vote by a 10% margin.
The minority of voters who supported ousting Fuhrman were a “very effective” group of “extremely loud” detractors, said Klem Branner, owner of the Silverton-based Venture Snowboards and a friend of Fuhrman.
Today, many Silvertonians are hesitant to address the Selwyn or their former mayor.
Fuhrman and the controversy that enveloped his term are “old news,” said his successor, current Mayor Dayna Kranker.
“People are just over it and they move on,” she said.
The last four years were rife with division, and few seemed anxious to revisit it. Sallie Barney, who served as mayor pro tem during Fuhrman’s term and also faced, and survived, the recall, is one of those people.
“There’s so much more to say and do and talk about and I just don’t think …” she trailed off. “I think we served our four years and we’re moving on into the future.”
Like Branner, Barney is unfamiliar with the Selwyn. She hasn’t even read it, she said, but she thinks of it as immaterial to the town’s history or future.
“I’ve obviously read about people who have written about the plan, and I think the idea is that it proposed some sort of private development of Silverton,” she said. “And I think that to attribute one individual with having the effect of changing the whole town is just, it’s preposterous.”
Still, even the resistant Silvertonians recognize, for the most part, that change is inevitable and the town would have to deal with many of the same questions of identity that other mountain towns face.
“The mountain town conundrum isn’t new,” Anderson, the Community Builders director, said.
Silvertonians can look over the ridges toward Telluride, Aspen, Vail and Steamboat and see how those older towns, which sprouted from kindred roots, have struggled with their own growth.
“What these places all share, is, increasingly, they have a question of who belongs,” Anderson said.
Residents of Silverton, by and large, are supportive of growing toward a year-round population around 1,000. A population of that size would create adequate demand to support a pharmacy or a humble year-round restaurant industry.
When Fuhrman stepped onto Silverton’s political scene, he was largely regarded as an outsider. That wasn’t necessarily bad news. People like Raine thought Silverton needed an infusion of some sort, and others, including Branner and Barney, said they wanted to see modest growth.
Within the community, there seems to be a consensus that Silverton is on a positive path, even if there isn’t agreement on whether that was thanks to or in spite of the former mayor.
“This is a community that still recognizes that we are interdependent with each other, and we’re connected to each other,” Kranker said.
What many Silvertonians are anxious to highlight is the Compass Project Master Plan and the concrete steps the town has taken to realize that plan – the community-based, consensus-built vision to maintain Silverton’s core identity as it grows.
“The No. 1 thing that came out of that was protecting the middle class and workforce housing and density and housing options, and not catering to the elite or the wealthy – but to ensure that all members of our community could not only remain here, but also have within their grasp homeownership,” said DeAnne Gallegos, executive director of the Silverton Chamber of Commerce.
As for the construction underway on Fuhrman’s land at the south end of town, there is some optimism that the development might not cater just to top-dollar-paying buyers.
About two-thirds of the lots were rezoned for mixed residential construction, meaning buyers could develop multifamily units on them.
“We constantly talk about how we need more housing, and I don’t really see a whole lot of other private enterprise doing anything to make that happen,” Branner said. “So someone developing land so that we can have more housing? I would say that’s a positive.”
Kranker said the requirements that developers install certain infrastructure elements that Silverton could not otherwise afford fit with her philosophy of positive development.
“Overall … ways in which we can increase access to buildable lots and increase the infrastructure in town, to me, is really favorable, and we’ll see what happens there,” she said.
Anderson holds some of that optimism as well, although he has less faith that the private sector will produce what Silverton needs.
“It might be the thing that people look back on and say, ‘This could have been one thing, and instead it’s going to develop under the private market,’” he said.
But with the Compass Project completed, he and many others in Silverton are hopeful.
“I’m still really bullish on Silverton,” Anderson said. “The community, as different as they can be sometimes from one another, they really do want the same thing. It looks a little different, the sheen might look a little different, but the fundamentals are the same for the vast majority of that community, and that’s just great. It’s a small, real town that’s authentic, where people can live.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
