Chaffee advisory committee urges preserving annual grants as county proposes large reserve

Members of the Chaffee County Common Ground Citizens Advisory Committee on Tuesday pressed county staff to spare competitive grant dollars after staff presented a budget scenario that would build a large unallocated reserve from the Common Ground Fund.

The committee—0s presentation, led by a committee member at the meeting, argued the staff model would sharply reduce the size of competitive grant cycles for several years and asked the county to adopt a more balanced approach that preserves grassroots investments while allowing the county to build reserves for larger, leveraged projects. "The proposal really minimizes the grant program moving forward," the presenter said, calling for a minimum annual grant cycle to maintain momentum.

County staff said the reserve model is intended to ensure the county could respond to larger opportunities and meet preexisting commitments without overleveraging the fund. Miles, a county staff member who answered the committee—0s questions, said the strategy is intended to create capacity for major, leverageable projects and to protect the fund against revenue uncertainty. "The purpose of building a large unallocated Common Ground fund balance ... is to support those potential larger-dollar projects and to ensure we're not overleveraging the fund," Miles said.

The CAC challenged whether models used by larger or more developed counties translate to Chaffee County—0s circumstances. Several committee members and residents noted Chaffee is more than 80% public land and cautioned that large land- or water-acquisition projects could conflict with the ballot measure—0s original intent to support forest health, working agriculture, and recreation management. "I'm concerned that removing $6,000,000 from the Common Ground Fund for an as yet undetermined big project will remove too much money from the grant programs," said Susan Griner of Buena Vista during public comment.

The committee presented a concrete alternative: phase a reserve while maintaining a baseline grant cycle (the committee used a $1,000,000 example) and develop a formal reserve policy that (1) ensures short-term commitments can be met, (2) defines how larger funds will be built for major projects, and (3) specifies how the fund would be replenished if tapped. The presenter told staff the committee would like to be "walked along" in the modeling and to have clearer definitions of what large projects would look like in each of the three ballot-established buckets.

Staff said the committee—0s proposal would be taken to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration; the county also noted possible additional resources that affect the model, including lodging-tax reallocations and anticipated interest earnings. The meeting record shows staff estimated the fund could approach roughly $6,000,000 by 2030 under conservative assumptions, though staff emphasized year-to-year budgets and that the model can be adjusted by commissioners.

Next steps: the CAC plans to recommend a minimum grant cycle and to complete a reserve-policy draft for review. Staff said they would place the committee—0s recommendation before the commissioners at an upcoming meeting or work session and would provide final year-end financials when available.

The meeting closed with public comments reiterating the need to keep the fund community-driven and to avoid undermining existing, effective programs by shifting too much revenue into an undefined reserve.