Counties in Colorado are a constitutional subdivision of state government. Counties can only exercise those powers specifically expressed in State Statutes or the constitution. Unless prescribed elsewhere, in a home rule charter, for example, the operational mandates of the County are established by State Statute. Accordingly, a great deal of the County’s resources (money, time, and staff) are spent on the execution of what has already been required by the State, and not in deciding what purposes the County will pursue. Given its size, Archuleta County has chosen to fulfill a number of its statutory mandated programs through contracts and joint agreements with other entities.

The Board of County Commissioners is responsible for running the administrative, budgetary and policy-making functions of the county as a whole. The Commissioners guide the annual budget process in two ways. First, they provide high-level goals and priorities and communicate those to the County Manager and Finance Director. Second, they engage directly with Department Heads and other Elected Officials in public budget work sessions, providing interpretation of their priorities, especially concerning significant proposed budget changes. The County Manager works with staff to make budgets and plans that both reflect and advance those goals and priorities. This involves providing both general and rather specific guidance.

A traditional approach to defining and managing organizational goals, especially in County governments, is to list out known problems, make the “solution” of each problem a specific project, and then execute those projects as quickly as possible. While this approach is easy to understand and digest, it sometimes creates serious long-term problems, because of its focus on immediate short-term solutions. In 2016, Archuleta County shifted its considered time frame from “short term” to “long term”. At the same time, it shifted away from a laundry list of projects, to the continual development of people and core processes, in hopes of getting better long-term results, and in a more sustainable manner.

Commissioners Long Range Goals

Given this modified approach, the Board of County Commissioners are generally supportive of “long-term solutions”, even as they are working on annual budgets and immediate problems. In general, this means they support the use of our long-range financial modeling tools when considering significant issues and during the annual budget process.

With regard to some specific long-range issues, this means things like:

1. When allocating resources to our most urgent facility replacement needs, care is taken not to over-allocate resources in such a way that future projects are threatened.
2. When planning annual road capital improvement projects, care is taken to not consume the funding needed for preventative maintenance on existing roads and bridges.
3. It is also understood that some short-term maintenance costs may sometimes have to increase so that (total) long-term capital costs can be minimized.