A question about Pride Month drew the most sharply differing responses from candidates for the Cortez City Council at a forum Wednesday night.
Eleven people are running for five open seats on the seven-person council. All but one of them, Randy Vialpando, came to the forum.
The event, which was organized by the League of Women Voters, drew more than 60 people.
An audience member submitted a written question asking the candidates whether they would support the city council declaring June as Pride Month for LGBTQ people. The council has made such a proclamation every year since 2020, but last year it prompted a split vote, passing 4 to 2.
On Wednesday, four candidates said they would vote for the Pride Month proclamation, four said they would not, and two were undecided.
Dennis Spruell, the only incumbent who is running for re-election, noted that he was one of the two people who voted against the Pride Month proclamation last year, the other being April Randle.
He said he doesn’t think any individual or organization should be singled out for such recognition. “If we have an LGBTQ Pride Month, that’s great, but the City of Cortez should not be giving one organization more recognition than another,” he said.
He asked what would happen if the Baptist Church or devil worshippers wanted a special declaration.
“I don’t think the city of Cortez should celebrate a group,” Spruell said.
When he voted against it last year, Spruell said he does not support prejudice or disrespect.
Candidate Charles P. Borchini Jr., who now sits on the Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission, also indicated he would oppose such a measure.
“I love all people, but they can go to Durango for that,” he said.
Travis Shepherd, who said during his introduction that he believes in “common-sense Christian world values” and has been called a constitutionalist, said he would vote against the declaration.
“I’m very conservative,” Shepherd said. “I believe in a man and a wife, or a man and a woman. I don’t believe there’s any other genders.”
Bruce Burkett, who is the senior pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Cortez, also said he’d reject such a proclamation.
“God does love all people and I do too, but it is my personal conviction that homosexuality is a sin,” Burkett said. “I’m not mad at people that choose that lifestyle. . . . I have friends that live in that lifestyle.”
However, Burkett said that he doesn’t believe in isolating one group for recognition or emphasizing one lifestyle.
Kathleen Swope, who said she is a retired teacher, voiced a different view.
Swope said there are a number of events celebrating different groups in the city, including a Veterans Day Parade and Celtic Days.
“I don’t think I could say no to that,” Swope said. “One thing I like about Cortez is that we’re open-minded. . . . It’s important to acknowledge this community is made up of disparate groups.”
Carly Wolf, a local business owner and member of several boards, said the calendar is already full of days celebrating different issues. “I don’t have anything against anyone wanting to celebrate this,” Wolf said.
Clarisa Osborn, who is the office manager for the District Attorney’s Office in the 22nd Judicial District, said there is nationwide precedent for the Pride Month declaration.
“I don’t see any reason to deny this one either,” Osborn said.
James McGinley, who has frequently spoken before the current City Council and is familiar around town because of the orange vehicle with Christian messages that he drives, said he would not oppose the Pride Month declaration.
“If a special privilege was being given for that, I would have big questions,” McGinley said, but the declaration doesn’t grant any special privileges.
“If the Baptist Church wanted to have a celebration, that would be fine with me,” he added. “I’m for the underdog, and LGBTQ people are being discriminated against in this country. It is a biological condition. I certainly wouldn’t discriminate against it.”
Claire West, project coordinator for the SouthWEST Opioid Response District (which oversees opioid-settlement dollars in the region), voiced uncertainty about the question.
“I don’t think it’s the government’s role to highlight a single group of people,” West said, “but I do believe in celebrating community.” She added, “I would have to think hard and talk to some of my community members.”
Michael Bischoff, who also goes by Gandolf, likewise did not voice a clear stance.
Bischoff said everyone should be proud of who they are, saying he was raised by women, his sister had lesbian friends, and he doesn’t see skin color.
He said it seems “there’s a day for everything” and that is fine by him, but he has no definitive answer to whether he would support the designation. “I can abstain,” Bischoff said.
Candidates also differed on the city’s financial situation, with some saying the city is in reasonably good shape and others saying that things seem dire.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the city council, city manager Drew Sanders said the city is out of debt and living within its means, and that recent claims that the city doesn’t have a spending plan are “untethered from reality.”
Asked whether they had read the city budget, most said yes.
Borchini said Cortez has a large budget but it seems there isn’t enough to go around.
“We’ve got to tighten our belt,” Borchini said, but he also said the parks need better maintenance and upkeep.
“Our infrastructure is falling apart,” Borchini said. He said a full-time code-enforcement officer is needed and the city might need to privatize garbage collection and cut people from the payroll to save money.
Borchini also said the city should be building a trail from Mesa Verde to Cortez.
The Montezuma County commissioners have been working on that project for years.
McGinley said the community is dying. “If we don’t have a severe revenue-stream problem, I wish someone would tell me,” he said.
Bischoff said, “This place has turned into a disaster. It’s the Wild, Wild West out here in Cortez.”
Bischoff said God has given him the gift of finding errors and omissions in spreadsheets, numbers, and novels. If elected, he said he will take a copy of the budget home and read it.
Others were not so pessimistic.
Burkett said the current council has done a commendable job of getting the city out of debt.
Shepherd agreed. “The current council has done a good job” of handling finances, he said, adding that there is “no magic wand” for fixing everything.
Spruell said Cortez is totally out of debt and in very good financial condition. “I hate to hear the doom and gloom,” he said.
West said Cortez is “a hidden gem” and she would like to see it be a place where more tourists stop and stay. She said the city needs to be strategic and realistic in its budgeting for projects.
The budget has grown over the last three years, she said, which shows growth and the ability to manage it. “I was very pleased by our budget,” West said.
Wolf said the budget shows a solid investment in public safety and wellness. She wants to see Cortez be a “clean, safe, thriving community” and tourists planning their travels around stopping and staying here.
Osborn said there needs to be more diversity in income sources and suggested the city seek more grants and perhaps have more festivals.
Swope said she wants the city to keep its small-town feel and its general feeling of safety. She said she would like to see jobs for everyone and more things for retired people to become involved in.
The council election takes place April 7. Ballots are set to be mailed March 16. They can be mailed, or taken to City Hall and deposited inside or in the ballot box that sits outside City Hall next to a box for utility and court payments.
The county clerk's office is not handling this election.
