KVNF's Brody Wilson interviewed Montrose County Commissioner Scott Mijares at Studio M in Montrose.
Mijares will be on the Montrose County Election ballot this November. The Commissioner in his first year is facing a recall. If the recall effort is successful he could be replaced by Kirstin Copeland.
The following is a full transcript of their conversation:
Brody Wilson
Scott Mijares, thanks so much for joining KBNF in Studio M here in downtown Montrose. It's nice to have you.
Scott Mijares
Thank you for having me, Brody.
Brody Wilson
It's a real pleasure. Hey, would you please tell us a little bit about your professional background? What experience do you have that you think makes you really an effective commissioner today?
Scott Mijares
Okay. Well, first of all, I've been a commissioner for the past 11 months. Of course, I've got a wealth of experience. It's like drinking out of a fire hose, literally.
A lot of people don't realize exactly what goes into being a county commissioner, but it's very complex, and it's a high degree of responsibility that's the basis of it. The really difficult part is it's hard to make everybody happy. No matter what you do, there's going to be people that don't like a decision or position you take, and then there'll be people that do. So.
It's very challenging that way, emotionally. But getting back to my. Yeah. Background.
I grew up in Florida and went to the University of South Florida in Tampa, graduated with a marketing degree, and I worked for Anders Bush for a very short time. But after that, I went into the stock brokerage business. And I learned a lot about businesses, how they run. And what I found out that is you learn more from how a business fails than when a business succeeds.
You can actually see the failure. It's documented. So I had a career in investment banking. And. And then in 1999, my wife and I decided we wanted to move to Hawaii. I had taken a trip out to California for an investment banking conference and looked out over the Pacific and opened up the paper, and they offered a trip back in the day for $590. And, you know, you could go for four days and five nights and. Or five nights and four days, and everything was paid and we went. And when we went there, we fell in love and we went to Hawaii.
Brody Wilson
Cool.
Scott Mijares
Once in Hawaii, I started a business and I started investigating what would be a successful business in Hawaii, like California and even Colorado. It's not as business friendly as some other states, so it was difficult. Prices for office space was expensive. The talent pool was limited.
So I looked for technology. How I could start a company using technology and I wouldn't have to deal with a lot of that stuff. So I settled on buying a big laser and buying a big printer, and I started making vintage wooden postcards.
Brody Wilson
Oh, cool.
Scott Mijares
And I sold them all over the state of Hawaii, and that lasted for about 20 years. In 2019, our daughter Miley, who was born and raised in Hawaii, decided she wanted to go to the University of Colorado. And it's a long way away, and she was our baby. On top of that, my parents were getting older.
My wife had already lost her parents, and we were, you know, 5,000 miles away, quite a ways away. And it's emotionally draining on you when you can't be there for your parents when they're sick. So we decided we wanted to move to Colorado. And being that we were in Hawaii in a small area, we wanted a small area in small town to live in.
So we moved to the Western Slope. So that's how we landed here. Most recently, my wife and I started a business on Main street called Wild Horse Wine and Whiskey. We did it all ourselves. We purchased the Lathrop Hardware Building, which is the third oldest building in town, and we took 18 months to renovate it. And we opened up a whiskey bar. And people say, well, you don't drink. Why did you open up a whiskey bar? And I said, well, Colorado has this tremendous asset. We really distill some really great spirits here, especially whiskey. We have the right temperature, the right water, the right grains. And so being from Hawaii, I took that by local attitude and I brought it over to the whiskey bar. So we only sell Colorado whiskeys, and we have a great selection. So we're real proud of that. We've been doing that for about five years. And so that was my business career.
And when I decided to run for office, I wanted to bring that experience. How to balance budgets, how to spend money, how to be efficient. Every government needs more of that. And with cost rising and incomes being kind of level, it's more important than ever that we, you know, we really pursue. Pursue that. So that's kind of what I think qualifies me from a business standpoint. I'm not a politician. Not even close.
Brody Wilson
Well, thanks for. Thanks for sharing that. I love your story of how you. How you went to Hawaii. And really, it sounds like it's family that brought you back and has had you landing in Montrose. I'd like to talk a little bit about your vision for Montrose County. Let's just imagine for a moment, you know, we've got a kid in elementary school today who in 20 or 30 years might run to be a commissioner on the Montrose Board of County Commissioners. What county do you envision? What would you like to see this valley in Montrose county look like when that commissioner took over and ran for this job? What do you hope to hand off to the next Generation for Montrose County.
Scott Mijares
Thank you for asking that. I think about that often. You know, it starts with our kids. Our future is our children. And right now we have some elections coming due for, you know, our board of commissioners, which I think is very important. I studied up on what our academic proficiencies are here in Montrose county, and we're. We're pretty far. We're pretty low. Our proficiencies range anywhere from 30 to 40% in math, in literature, and in science. That puts our children at a very tremendous disadvantage in a very competitive world. So my vision would be to have academic excellence in Montrose county literally prepare our children to compete on a global market. How do we do that? We refocus on reading, writing, and arithmetic, get out of the political thing and the political ideologies, and focus on teaching our kids how to be successful in the world so they can afford to buy a house, pay their bills, and care for their family. So in 20 or 30 years, I hope we get there. How do we get there? Well, first we start with education, and then after education, we want to try to take advantage of what Montrose has to offer. We have one of the best airports in the state. It's a tremendous economic driver for us. But where we're falling short is we have been unable to attract clean industry to Colorado, to Montrose. Rather, we have a lot of service oriented businesses and we have a government industry. But what we really need is we need businesses that pay people 150, $200,000 a year and bring that level of income up. We need to import money into Montrose and not trade dollars amongst each other. Every time we trade a dollar, somebody else gets a piece of it, and we all wind up losing in the end. So my goal would be to, even as commissioner now, is I am actively searching for properties that we can develop to bring industry in. We have Telluride, who. It's a bunch of billionaires. Most of them own companies. Wouldn't it be nice? They land in the airport and they say, you know what? I think I'd like to locate one of my businesses here. I'd like to bring employees in here and raise the standard of living here. And I know that works because on Kauai, where we lived, Mark Zuckerberg moved to Kauai. Once he bought his property. All his lieutenants, all his managers, they all wanted to be there, too, and they were making great money. So when you can start with a core, that core will grow. The only caution is you want to be careful who you decide you want your core to be. So we Want to have a clean business, one that has great potential and one that can expand to provide jobs for the graduates that we have coming up. And we want to prepare those graduates to be qualified to work in those positions.
Brody Wilson
What do you mean when you say clean?
Scott Mijares
Clean would be something that. Not smokestacks, not industry heavy industry. Clean would be Internet businesses, perhaps even AI businesses if we have the power for it.
Brody Wilson
Sure.
Scott Mijares
It would be things that we could sell a product or service worldwide.
Brody Wilson
Got it.
Scott Mijares
Yeah, got it.
Brody Wilson
You know, a lot of people live here and love living here and moved here because of the county's agricultural way of life and outdoor centered way of life. And one of your primary responsibilities on the board of County Commissioners is making difficult land use decision. And there's this tough balance. We are regularly approving subdivision of formerly agricultural land or we're converting rapidly agricultural lands into more housing. And housing is too expensive. It's very difficult for anyone starting off to be able to afford a home. So we need more housing. Can you tell me a little bit about how you think of this balance of preserving our county's agricultural heritage and, you know, beautiful vistas, the people, some of the reasons that people love to live here with the need for economic development and more affordable housing. It's a great question, and I think about that often. Did you know that the average age in the United States of a farmer is. Is 65 years old? It seems like it's an industry that is dying, but yet we still have to eat and we still need our ranchers, we still need our agricultural lands.
Scott Mijares
And so you're right, it is a tremendous balance. And so because we have some of the best agricultural lands, I think in the state, I'm told in Shavano Valley and others, we need to protect those. I'm just one commissioner, but I really would like to see us have certain lands that are dedicated as prime agricultural lands. Now, some of our landowners that have big parcels, they might feel locked up and locked in about it. That's a problem we have to solve. Because when it comes to land use and when it comes to private property rights and so forth, you know, people need to have options. And in a lot of cases, our farmers, their land is their retirement plan, and they need that for emergencies, to care for their families and so forth. So it's this balance that we, this balancing act we have to. We have to go through. I will say that when people talk about affordable housing, I say there's no such thing as affordable housing. It's subsidized housing. Because we have to subsidize those buildings. And a lot of cases, it's. It's very justified. You know, people who, you know, need a hand up, rather than hand out single mothers, people with disabilities, we need to really, we have a responsibility to take care of those people. But when we have people that maybe have the capabilities to do it, we have to put them second or third in line. We just have to. When I was younger, my wife and I struggled. We had a child and I was working as a commission stockbroker, and I started at zero every day. What a great motivator. Okay. And I remember a story, I used to read a lot of sales books, and one of the stories I read that stuck with me. It said, you can take the most unmotivated person, lazy, lackadaisal person in the world, put them in a rowboat, paddle them out to the middle of the lake, throw them overboard, and push their head underwater. And you will all of a sudden see the most enthusiastic, motivated person you've ever seen in your life.
And that's because they found something that they want and need. So what we have to do is we have to care for the people who need it the most first, without hurting our retired people and people that are already struggling to make their families work, and then provide a pathway for people who just need a little bit of help and move up with it. And again, the key to that is bringing high paying jobs in. We bring high paying jobs in, that takes.
That takes the burden off. Because all of a sudden, the other businesses that benefit from those high paying jobs, those people that make that income, are out there spending money. There's more money circulating around because we're importing money into Montrose County.
Brody Wilson
There's so much to unpack there. I wish we had more time, Scott, but with the last couple of minutes we have left, I want to talk about public lands. A lot of people love living here, and I believe that a lot of people who may invest here in the future and move here or decide to site their business here love living here. Because there's incredible access to some of our state's most pristine and amazing public lands.
Brody Wilson
What do you see as the county's role in public lands? Decisions that are within the county and even surrounding counties?
Scott Mijares
Again, great question. You know, people ask me, you moved from Hawaii. Why did you move from Hawaii? It's so beautiful there.
Scott Mijares
I'm like, it's beautiful here, and the people here are wonderful. It's people that make, you know, make your community. So not only do we have a beautiful surroundings around us, but we have beautiful people. And I really appreciate that. But when it comes to public lands, I got involved about a year and a half ago in the Save the Dolores program where we had the federal government wanted to take hundreds of thousands of acres and dedicate them towards a National Monument.
Brody Wilson
80,000 acres.
Scott Mijares
Yeah. And I was opposed to that because it was done by presidential decree through the Antiquities act, which doesn't really fit in. It's been abused over the years. And together with fellow commissioner Sean Pond, we were successful in launching an effort and we passed a resolution that we didn't want to be party to that. And they tried to move it from a national monument over to a national conservation area. We were opposed to that too. We're willing to talk, but we're starting at no. And so as a result of that, there was an energy company out of Utah that's made the announcement that they're moving some operations back into the West End. It's going to provide high paying jobs, it's going to provide a better standard of living, more money importing into Montrose County. So it really worked out good and I, I hope it continues to do so.
Brody Wilson
I'm not familiar with that company of the. But I in. But what you're implying is you feel like that might, that wouldn't have happened had a monument been moved forward.
Scott Mijares
Well, yeah. I mean, think about it. If you're a mining company, you spend hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars doing development, exploration, development. There's a lot of money involved. The payoff's pretty big if you hit. But it's a very risky business. If you knew you had the possibility that this could be this land that you're currently, that was currently used for mining and exploration, it could be shut off, you could have the rug pulled out. Why would you bother? So I think that took away a barrier that made, you know, investors feel comfortable that this was something worth pursuing. And I think the national conversation is that way too.
Brody Wilson
Well, Scott, that's all we have time for today. Drew, I really appreciate you taking the time to come and share who you are and your perspectives with KVNF listeners.
Scott Mijares
I appreciate it, Brody. I wish we had more time. Anytime you would like to speak with me and address your listeners, the door is open. I'm a block away.
Brody Wilson
Awesome. Thanks, Scott.
Scott Mijares
Thank you.