Mayor Pro Tem Meehan Fee on Monday resigned from the Telluride Town Council and the Mountain Village town manager may be next to fall in the wake of a failed offer to buy the Telluride ski area from its 21-year owner.
“While I fully maintain that I acted in good faith and at no time violated any ethical, moral or legal boundaries, it is impossible to ignore the rift that this episode has caused in our community,” Fee wrote in a statement announcing her resignation Monday night. “As such, I feel it is in all of our interest to move forward, which will be easier for the community upon my stepping down.”
The Mountain Village and Telluride town councils are investigating the trip to resort owner Chuck Horning’s offices in Newport Beach, California, in late December. Fee and former Mountain Village Mayor Marti Prohaska said they went to negotiate with Horning on behalf of investors willing to pay $127.5 million for 51% ownership of Telluride Ski and Golf Co. The contract also offered to help resolve a strike by Telluride ski patrollers, settle a fight over water rates for snowmaking and work to “ensure” housing for resort employees.
The trip coincided with a 13-day strike by unionized Telluride ski patrollers who had spent months fruitlessly negotiating with Horning for increased wages. Horning closed the ski area when the patrollers went on strike, triggering a near collapse of the region’s tourist-dependent economy over the critical New Years holiday.
Saying they were working as concerned residents, not as elected officials, Fee and Prohaska signed a contract that named them as buyers of the ski area and members of a board that would guide the resort.
Shortly after the ski patrollers returned to work, the contract was published online and Prohaska resigned as the Mountain Village town council announced plans to investigate the contract and the negotiations with Horning. The Telluride council followed suit, with plans to hire a third-party to review Fee’s assertion that she was not making deals as an elected leader.
Both councils reported that members were not informed about the visit with Horning. On Monday, the Mountain Village Town Council announced it was launching an independent investigation into Prohaska’s negotiations with Horning.
“Without in any way prejudging the propriety or impropriety of any actions taken, we now believe it is appropriate to undertake a thorough, all-encompassing, independent investigation into the events and actions that took place with regard to our former mayor’s efforts to purchase a portion of the ski company,” reads the Monday statement from Mountain Village Mayor Pro Tem Scott Pearson.
There is a particular section of the 10-page contract signed by Fee and Prohaska that is causing angst among the councils and local residents.
The contract listed “additional considerations” that said Fee and Prohaska — the “buyers” — would “cause” the towns of Mountain Village and Telluride “to take commercially reasonable efforts to broker a cessation” of the ski patrol strike. It is unclear what the word “cause” means. Both women were members of seven-person councils without the ability to move policy without majority consent.
The list of considerations also included a requirement that the two would “cause” the town to keep water rates at the 2024 level, settling a plan by the town of Mountain Village to nearly triple water rates for the resort company’s snowmaking.
The contract also said the towns could enter into a partnership with the ski resort company “to ensure stable, high-quality housing” for Telluride Ski and Golf employees. The contract also promised the towns would “modify regional spending” to support destination airline flights into the region and said the buyers would commit to spend at least $50 million on capital upgrades at the ski area.
Horning two weeks ago, as the contract was published online, filed open records requests asking both towns for any emails and correspondence from the town elected officials and the council involving offers to buy the resort, discussion of water fees and other documents. The Telluride council has responded to the open records request but the Mountain Village council has not.
“This request was accompanied by written statements by certain local government officials that the two local governments could take action that benefitted the ski resort, if Mr. Horning agreed to the sale,” a Jan. 14 statement from Telluride Ski and Golf reads.
On Jan. 15, the Mountain Village Town Council met for a closed executive session to discuss the investigation but accidentally left the online cameras rolling. In that secret meeting — which the town attorney said was confidential — Mountain Village Town Manager Paul Wisor told the council that people “regularly” visit his office and ask how they can buy the ski resort.
With an understanding that Fee and Prohaska had a “bona fide opportunity to do that,” Wisor said he connected people interested in buying the ski area with the two women as they organized a fund to acquire Telluride Ski and Golf. Wisor said he was aware that the two women were planning a visit with Horning.
Wisor, who joined Mountain Village as the town attorney in 2020 and then became town manager in 2021, told the council he was ready to have a conversation about him stepping down from the manager position.
“There is going to continue to be this low hum,” he told the council in the closed session that is published online. “I’m not sure I’m doing this organization any favors by sticking around.”
It is unclear if Wisor plans to step down.
Fee said her resignation would go into effect at the conclusion of the Telluride investigation. In a statement shared with The Sun she said she hoped stepping down would “quiet the noise and allow for the community to move forward.”
“It has been one of the great privileges of my life to serve this town and community,” she said, adding that she remained optimistic that the communities “will come together with purpose and resolve to ensure this region thrives for generations to come.”