Former Durango City Councilor Melissa Youssef helped guide the city through an accounting scandal, a global pandemic and the hiring of a new city manager during her two terms in office.
In addition to the “constant stream of big events and defining moments,” Youssef’s tenure was shaped by council infighting and increasing political polarization.
Despite the challenges, Youssef – who completed her final term earlier this month – said City Council succeeded in adapting to circumstances and responding to crises.
“That piece of resilience, as I reflect back on these eight years, is the thing that I am truly most proud of,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic forever changed how the city engages with the public. She said virtual meetings and remote engagement are here to stay, which means the city must communicate more clearly and proactively.
She said the pandemic also exacerbated housing costs and massaged political polarization, which grew stronger across the community and within the council itself.
But for all the changes set in motion by the pandemic, many of the city’s core challenges before it remain afterward: tight budgets, hiring struggles, high costs of living and limited child care, she said.
“But we’re in a stronger position now. For the first time, we’ve filled most police vacancies, and we’re attracting top talent,” she said.
New pressures include civic division, misinformation and expectations of government to move faster.
Youssef said hundreds of records requests, several lawsuits and ethics complaints – including a complaint against herself with the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission – issued by one individual, resident John Simpson, were significantly taxing on the city.
“Since 2021, John Simpson has submitted over 230 (Colorado Open Records Act) requests – more requests than all other requests combined – and he’s filed multiple lawsuits and ethics complaints that have required extensive legal and staff resources to address,” she said.
Simpson’s complaint against Youssef with the ethics commission remains under review, though Youssef said she filed a motion to dismiss the complaint in January on the basis that it is “legally and factually unfounded.”
She said friction on City Council has been a problem of its own.
“This wasn’t general council tension – it was consistent obstruction from one councilor,” she said.
She said Councilor Olivier Bosmans opposed every city operations budget – the budgets that fund essential services in public safety, housing, water and roads – since he was elected in 2021.
Bosmans was ousted in the April 1 election when voters opted instead for incumbent Councilor Jessika Buell and newcomers Kip Koso and Shirley Gonzales to serve on City Council.
“Leadership means building consensus and moving projects forward, not blanket opposition,” Youssef said. “When that opposition is paired with misinformation, it becomes a personal crusade to undermine the entire institution.”
Youssef’s “all-time low” on City Council came before the pandemic when an embezzlement scandal broke in 2019.
“That embezzlement hit the city hard,” she said. “It shook public trust and many (were) very betrayed and sad over that. But from that low point, we rebuilt.”
Former Durango Finance Director Julie Brown was caught embezzling more than $712,000 from the city over 11 years. She was first sentenced in 2021 to five years in prison. Her sentence was altered to 90 days in jail and 20 years of probation.
She said it took years to restore confidence in city staff menbers and reestablish trust with the public. But since that all-time low point, the city has strengthened internal controls, increased transparency and adopted the use of OpenGov, a real-time budget accessible to the public online.
Youssef said she considers restoring confidence in how the city handles taxpayers’ dollars a major accomplishment. Now the city is receiving best-practice awards and setting precedent for budget-keeping.
“I don’t think that these are just growing pains for Durango,” she said. “I found (them) as defining moments that really tested our ability to lead as a council, to stay grounded and to keep us moving forward and on track.”
While City Council has contended with many challenges, Youssef said it’s had its share of victories too. Passage of critical taxes, support for new and improved parks and amenities, and progress on increasing the city’s supply of affordable housing are all clear wins, she said.
The city’s use of lodgers tax funding to support arts and culture helped bring about murals and sculptures such as “Droplets” at the Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility and “Common Threads” at Durango-La Plata County Airport.
And investments in electric vehicle infrastructure, multimodal transportation, water security and energy efficiency laid a strong foundation to Durango’s sustainability goals – though it still has a long way to go, she said.
“I’m especially proud of what we accomplished on affordable housing,” she said.
The city, like elsewhere around the country, has a housing crisis. Councilors gave staff members the direction to get creative, take risks and break new ground with housing solutions, and the city is better off today because of it, she said.
She pointed to the Residences at Durango, a 120-unit motel-to-apartments conversion on U.S. Highway 160 in west Durango reserved for residents earning 30% to 60% area median income, as the first conversion in the state to use tax credit finance, and the largest tax credit project in Southwest Colorado.
“That was a bold move and it worked,” she said. “It’s really awesome to be on the forefront of projects that set precedent for other communities.”
The city’s work, though it’s had tangible impacts on people’s lives, is not finished, she said. But the city has added senior housing, more workforce housing and laid the groundwork for more like it.
Her advice to people considering a run for public office is “stick to what matters most,” she said.
“Don’t get distracted by noise. Support your staff – they are the heart of city operations,” Youssef said. “Be present. Build relationships. And remember, it takes three votes to move anything forward. Collaboration is key.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
