The Mancos planning and zoning commission failed to meet a quorum for its January meeting, the fourth time a meeting has been canceled in the past year.
Out of the five members of the commission, only two – Regina Roberts and Perry Lewis – attended the scheduled meeting on Wednesday, short of the three necessary for a quorum.
Some of the other commission members had said in advance that they would be unable to attend, and Roberts and Lewis were unable to contact the recently appointed alternate, Alexander Costen.
The town board has discussed the problem of low membership and attendance on the planning and zoning commission before, and Town Administrator Heather Alvarez said they would continue to work toward a solution.
The commission did not have any action items on its agenda for the meeting, but it had scheduled a discussion on Mancos’ demographics and a review of two chapters in the town’s comprehensive plan.
Since 2014, the commission has canceled at least two monthly meetings per year, according to the town’s website.
Roberts asked Alvarez and Mayor Queenie Barz, who also attended, if the town board could remove members from the commission for non-attendance. She said some members haven’t been to a meeting in as long as a year.
“We’re going to have that conversation at the board meeting next week,” Alvarez said.
In December, the board discussed the possibility of withholding pay from commission members who don’t attend meetings, and paying alternates who take their place. The board has not yet voted on the issue, but Alvarez said it would be on the agenda for the Jan. 24 meeting.
She and Barz said the Colorado state requirement that all members of a town’s governing body live within city limits restricts their ability to recruit new people, and they often don’t see much interest in governing positions among residents.
Alvarez said that, as of Wednesday, she had only received three candidate petitions for the four town board seats open for election this year.
The deadline to submit a petition is 5 p.m. on Monday.