The make-up of the La Plata County Planning Commission will remain largely unchanged despite the controversy that surrounded the body last year during consideration of a comprehensive plan.

Commission member Wayne Buck was reappointed for a three-year term and alternate Jim Tencza was named a regular member. Two new alternates were named: Tom Gorton and Milton Williams, for three-year terms.

The reappointment that engendered the most discussion was Buck’s.

County Commissioner Wally White strongly objected, saying Buck was too “political” and “an extremely poor choice at this point.”

White complained that “Wayne has on numerous occasions spoken negatively relative to our Strategic Plan. I don’t believe after two terms he deserves a third term.”

County Commissioner Kellie Hotter defended Buck as a “good representative of agriculture currently representing the Ignacio district.”

She said that Buck is “the only representative from the southeast side” and concluded that “continuity is important.”

White moved to fire everyone currently on the Planning Commission with the exception of Tencza, stating that the Planning Commission was outrageously disrespectful of county commissioners.

County commissioners last year opted to dump the comprehensive plan – despite having invested two-years and $700,000 in the effort – after revisions pushed by the Planning Commission sparked an outcry.

But Bobby Leib, chairman of the board of county commissioners, called firing the entire commission for their actions a “fairly drastic motion.”

“I can’t support that,” he said.

Leib and Hotter nixed the motion.

Thirteen people had applied for the vacant positions on the volunteer planning board.

Commissioners also unanimously voted to offer the federal government a 20-year lease on 12,000 square feet in the County Courthouse at an initial rate of $20 per square foot.

Karla Distel, the county finance director, said the lease would require a $1.8 million remodel, of which $1.7 million would be reimbursed by the federal government over the course of ten years, and an outlay of $600,000 “that we would pay in full.”

Distel said the lease’s first 10 years would be “firm,” but the second decade would be optional for both parties.

Hotter said leasing the courthouse would be a boon for county residents as they won’t have to travel to Denver to access federal courts.

Though Lieb said that the county might lose much of the first floor, including the use of the room in which they were conducting the meeting, he said it was “encouraging that we’ve finally stopped talking about it and that were about to do it and make more efficient use of this particular structure.”

Also during the meeting, Alternate Horizon’s Darlene Clayton and Beth Cantrell of the Sexual Assault Services Organization urged commissioners to buck the example of President Obama, who declared February “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.”

“We decided we didn’t like the dating violence part of it and wanted to spin it to the positive,” said Clayton.

The commissioners instead proclaimed February “Healthy Relationships Awareness Month.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com