Garfield County voters will elect a representative for district 3 of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). District 3 represents Rifle, Parachute and the unincorporated parts of the county from Cactus Valley between Rifle and Silt all the way to the Utah state line. A commissioner must be from the district to represent on the board, but every Garfield County voter casts their ballot on all three seats.
Republican Mike Samson has held the District 3 seat since 2008. He lives in Rifle and is a former school teacher and administrator. Democrat Steven Arauza also lives in Rifle, and works as an environmental protection specialist for Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC).
Samson did not respond to multiple requests for an interview from Aspen Public Radio. His responses are pulled from his social media pages, his answers at public candidate forums, and comments during previous BOCC meetings.
Energy & environment
For many years, Garfield County’s biggest economic driver was the oil and gas industry; Exxon even built the community of Battlement Mesa for oil and gas workers. It’s led to questions in recent years about whether the county needs to diversify its economy.
Samson is a supporter of the oil and gas industry, as he expressed during Glenwood Springs Issues and Answers forum on September 26.
“I would love to see oil and gas come back to this County because that is what paid the bills,” he said. “Look at the nice hospital they have in Rifle. Look at the county roads we have. Look at the schools that we have that are beautiful… the 10 top paying property taxpayers of Garfield County for many years were oil and gas. They're no longer here.”
Samson contends that this is because the state has over-regulated the oil and gas industry.
“You want to foster, you want to encourage industry instead of stamping it out through oppression and overregulation,” he said. “We used to have so many companies in here, drilling, and things were going well. And yes, we've got to have regulations. We don't let them do whatever they want to. But when it's oppressive and they're all leaving Colorado… think about it. 181 passed by you, the people. What did the state do? Crushed us with it.”
He’s referring to Colorado SB19-181, a law that changed how Colorado views oil and gas industry, shifting its focus from fostering the industry to regulating it.
Arauza’s background is in oil and gas, and he disagrees with Samson’s assessment.
“We're seeing these narratives that it's jobs versus environment or jobs versus community,” he said. “And… that's a dangerous mindset to have because it's literally pitting the health of the community, their respiratory health, their physical well-being—we're talking about carcinogenic emissions and impacts to people's drinking water. The idea that that's being pitted against jobs and that it's driven by regulation and oversight to me is patently hyperpartisan and biased.”
For him, the county’s reliance on oil and gas isn’t just an environmental problem, it’s a problem of economic diversity—or lack thereof.
“The fact of the matter is that those impacts have a real effect on the viability of our agriculture industry, of our recreation industry, of every other aspect of life is impacted by climate, and that includes the water supply that we know is dwindling into the future,” he said of the emissions coming from oil and gas.
Arauza also said that if he were elected, it would be a priority for the county to create a climate action plan, something it has never done before.
“It behooves us to take those assessments seriously, to have a climate plan that assesses the potential sources of greenhouse gases emissions throughout the county specifically so it doesn't fall on any one industry,” he said. “Because nobody's trying to put people out of work. Nobody is trying to bankrupt the county.”
When it comes to environmental issues other than energy production, Samson’s focus is on public lands. He has been a vociferous opponent of the Biden Administration’s 30x30 initiative, a goal to conserve 30% of the country’s land and water by 2030.
“They want to take it away, they don't want you to have public access to public lands,” he said. “They don't want to have any extraction, grazing, any activities on those lands. That's not right, and I will fight the federal government and the state government so that doesn't happen.”
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is one of the most critical topics in Western Colorado — and it’s an issue in Garfield County, as well. The NBC home buyer index lists Garfield County as the most difficult place in the nation to buy a home.
Arauza said the current county commissioners are missing out on valuable regional collaborations to address housing, like the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition.
They offer buydown programs and rental assistance, and other programs, Arauza says, Garfield County would benefit from.
“They also offer zoning code analysis on a regional scale, which we could really use in order to get a snapshot of how to best implement the code to promote the development of housing where we need it,” he said.
Another partnership that Arauza has identified as being missing from Garfield County is Proposition 123.
“Garfield County has refused to opt in to Proposition 123. All six of our municipalities have opted into that program,” he said.
It allows counties and municipalities to get money from the state for affordable housing, in exchange for a commitment to building a certain number of units each year.
Arauza said Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork Valley missed out on a $5 million land-banking opportunity through 123. Habitat was a 2023 applicant, but the rules of the program state that potential housing developer must be located within an area that has opted into the program.
(Editor's note: Garfield County commissioners voted on Monday, October 21 to opt into Proposition 123).
Incumbent Mike Samson said there’s a lot that the county has done to support affordable housing, giving a few examples during the Issues and Answers forum on September 26.
“We've required affordable housing and subdivisions; we've contributed $100,000 per year to Housing Authority; we made ADUs up to 1200 square feet a use by right.”
Samson voted not to join the regional housing coalition back in 2022, though at the time he said he’d be more inclined if Colorado River Valley towns were involved. So far, New Castle, Silt, and Rifle have not joined.
Samson went into further detail on more initiatives the county had supported during his tenure.
“We've repealed restrictions disallowing tiny homes; we've waived building permits and traffic impact fees for restricted and affordable workforce units,” he said. “We've supported Habitat for Humanity’s Wapiti Commons project and contributed $200,000 to that.”
Immigration & new arrivals
Almost a year ago, the town of Carbondale provided shelter to around 80 new immigrants, mostly from Venezuela, that had been sleeping under a bridge in town.
When the town asked Garfield County for 50-thousand dollars to help support the shelters, the commissioners said “no.”
In a Facebook video, Samson said the U.S. was being “flooded” with new immigrants, and said Garfield County didn’t have the resources to help existing populations in need.
“Nobody wants anybody to starve. Nobody wants anybody to freeze to death,” he said. “But I've got to take care of the people who are already here.”
“I've got veterans, I've got homeless, I've got elderly people that are having a tough time making it that we're supporting. I said, ‘I can't give $50,000 to these people who have just come in here.’”
Arauza says it’s not just new immigrants that find themselves in need of housing or other services, and that the county’s response revealed gaps in its services across the board.
“The county should seriously consider the incident with the new arrivals to have been a warning that we need to develop this capacity, because they aren't the only people in this difficult housing situation in Garfield County who could find themselves in need of assistance,” he said.
“So I think that the county had an opportunity to do some work to provide some services that will be necessary to people, regardless of where they come from or when they got here.”
They also passed a resolution that declared the county a “non-sanctuary county.”
Garfield County Public Library District and access to books
A major point of contention in Garfield County has been the public library district’s refusal to restrict children’s access to certain books, and the county commissioners’ decision to intervene in the library’s governing process.
Last year, a group of residents petitioned the Garfield County Public Library District (GCPLD) to keep certain books under lock and key, or require ID to check them out. The original petition originally focused on two Japanese manga graphic novels, though in recent weeks, the petitioners have expanded their list. It now includes a graphic novel for adults called Faithless, an adult horror graphic novel series called Hack/Slash, and The Boys — a comic series adapted into a hit Amazon TV show. All of the series do contain LGBTQ+ characters. All of the books are currently shelved in the adult section, and have stickers labeling them as “mature.”
The BOCC has been largely supportive of the petitioners. The library board of trustees has refused to grant their request, saying it would violate First Amendment rights. Earlier this year, the BOCC took over the appointment process for the library board of trustees, advertising for an open seat, and conducting interviews with candidates, and ultimately voting to select the new trustee. The process was previously done entirely by the library board, with the appointment being subject to approval by the BOCC.
Samson has stood by the board’s actions, and has objected to the books the petitioners are focused on.
“I challenge any of you, just take a look at some of those books,” he said during Issues and Answers Night. “Just the illustrations… I don't think it's just pornography, it's filth and garbage.”
“Those people never asked for any censorship or banning of any books,” he said. “What they asked for was that those books would be removed from easy access by small children. To me, that's a reasonable request”
The library board has said repeatedly that these restrictions would be overly burdensome to librarians. They also say that the books are already in the adult section, which is a separate space from the children’s section in all six GCPLD branches.
These are points that Arauza agrees with.
“One, that the books were already being labeled for mature audiences. Second, that these books were already in a separate section of the library from what children were able to access,” he said. “And (the petitioner) also expressed doubt that the First Amendment applied to children. Because at the end of the day, this is a First Amendment issue of access to material.”
He’s referring to Rifle resident and petitioner Trish O’Grady.
“First Amendment doesn't always apply to children. And they need censorship,” she said during an October BOCC meeting.
“The library is not a daycare,” Arauza said. “The library is a public institution that welcomes children, that has a place that is protective of children. But it doesn't mean that children should be dropped there and have free rein. Parents: this is an individual parenting responsibility to monitor your children's intake, just as you would with the internet, just as you would with TV or movies. The library is no different.”
Arauza said if elected, he would vote to return control of the appointment process to the GCPLD board of trustees.
