An estimated 250 community members gathered Monday at the Dolores Public Library, eager to express their concerns to U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd’s regional director, Naomi Dobbs.
She didn’t show up.
Hurd previously skipped an event at the Dolores Public Library while campaigning for the 3rd Congressional District seat, and on Saturday declined an invitation to attend a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, his hometown. An estimated 400 people showed up.
The room in the library that the League of Women Voters of Montezuma County had set up for the event quickly filled to capacity of about 50 people. An estimated 200 people waited outside.
“Who knows, you know, she may have ran into some traffic issues,” said League of Women Voters President Karen Sheek as the crowd laughed.
Ten minutes passed, then 15.
After it became clear that Dobbs wasn’t coming, people stayed and spoke their minds.
While people took turns speaking inside, Lori Mott, with the local League of Women Voters, stood before the crowd outside.
Mott first brought up the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require all Americans to provide physical proof of their citizenship, in person, when registering to vote.
According to the League of Women Voters’ website, it would create a barrier to voting, in part because when “compared to white U.S. citizens, citizens of color are three times more likely to lack (those) documents.”
“Vote no!” the crowd yelled.
Mott read from a letter that the League of Women Voters of the United States sent to the U.S. Senate and House on Feb. 14. It urges Congress to act, “to exercise your authority to protect the rule of law, defend the Constitution, and end the overreach by the executive branch of government.”
“The outcry by Americans who are speaking out against the impact of the executive orders, including those who voted for President Donald Trump, should be all that is needed for Congress to stand in its authority … and restore stability to the country,” it reads.
The letter cites the Appropriations Clause, which vests the power to allocating money to Congress, not the president.
“Trump has issued numerous executive orders that are not rooted in any presidential power granted by Congress and violate both the U.S. Constitution and federal law,” Mott read.
Although Mott did not specify which orders were illegal, hundreds of hands shot up when Mott asked the crowd if they’d like Hurd to challenge the executive orders.
“Checks and balances are not working,” she said. “A lot is going on, but the root of the problem is not fulfilling the oath to the Constitution.”
Tami Graham, the executive director of KSUT public radio, said that last week, the station received a “notice of pause” for a $537,000 federal grant it was awarded. In the meantime, it was advised not to spend any money.
“That’s half a million dollars, up in the air,” Graham said Monday at the event.
A locally awarded $1.68 million WaterSMART grant from the Bureau of Reclamation is in limbo, too.
The award was two years and a lot of paperwork in the making, and the Lower Wilson Ditch Association recently secured it to make ditches more water efficient, said its president, Chuck Greaves.
Without that money, the “project doesn’t happen.”
On Feb. 14, the Mancos Conservation District received a termination notice from the Natural Resources Conservation Service that its joint project “to reach underserved producers and provide a higher level of equity in access to conservation” will no longer be.
“The danger of withholding this money is that even if programs are restored, the damage is already done,” said Rick Cobbs of Durango, who attended the event.
Cobbs said he came out to “stop the indiscriminate holding of funds.” He also hoped to encourage Hurd and Congress to use its “legislative oversight” and push back against Trump and the “non-elected” Elon Musk. He referred to their actions as a coup.
Cobbs expressed his frustration with the congressman touring the Aspen Airport and the new Amazon facility in Loveland, instead of meeting with constituents. “He’s out doing things, just nothing with regular people,” said Cobbs.
Ryan Schroeder, a recently hired and newly fired rangeland management specialist for the Bureau of Land Management, took his termination letter to the library.
He said that his role was to administer roughly 110 grazing permits, in addition to environmental reviews, reseeding efforts, working with ranchers and other partners to maintain Wild Horse Management Areas.
He had the position for fewer than 60 days.
On Feb. 18, the day he was let go, he had a conversation with two ranchers about “finally being able to get stuff done.”
“I was fired an hour later,” said Schroeder.
That leaves two workers to cover 110 permits and “everything else.”
In December he finished his Ph.D., and he has 11 years of related work experience.
Yet his termination letter reads “you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department's current needs.”
“If I am not ‘fit or qualified’ for the needs of the Department, then it appears to me that the mission of the Department has fundamentally changed without the knowledge of the public and those who have been with the agency more than a year,” he said.
TJ Holmes, a fertility control darter in the Spring Creek Basin Wild Horse Management Area who often works with BLM, said, “We need guys like Ryan (Schroeder) to help keep the good conditions of the basin.”
Back inside, people shared their thoughts.
A community member recorded it all, and will share the video with Hurd’s office.
“Why have prices not gone down?” one woman asked.
“Why are they continuing to go up, when Trump promised they’d go down?” She also disputed that federal workers were being fired because they were not qualified for their jobs.
Another speaker expressed concern about Medicaid cuts, and what that would do in the 3rd Congressional District, where rural health clinics “depend on Medicaid money.”
Another community member pleaded: “Please represent us in Congress and stand up to the president. … If you cut jobs, you erode our community.”
An hour and a half into the event, Montezuma County League President Karen Sheek concluded the scheduled speaker series and admitted they were “woefully unprepared” for the turnout.
Sheek apologized on behalf of Dobbs and for any time wasted, but someone intervened.
“I don’t think it was wasted,” they said.
Sheek told The Journal that she agreed, and felt the event was a successful demonstration and showed that people want to participate and be heard.
“Your voice does matter,” she said. “Call your representatives.”
Volume does count: Where congressional offices were once getting 40 calls a minute, they’re now receiving 1,600 calls a minute, Sheek said.
5calls.org is a “quick and easy way” to contact legislators online, she said. To get in the loop about future League of Women Voters events, reach out to lwvmzc@gmail.com and ask to be added to the email list.
Sheek said the League will try to reschedule this event at a bigger venue. As of 12 p.m. Tuesday, it was it is still unclear why Dobbs didn’t show.
