The Telluride Town Council plans to investigate one of its members who visited the owner of Telluride Ski Resort in December, as the ski patrol there went on strike, and made an offer to purchase the resort.
On Tuesday, the council unanimously approved a motion to research the options for a third-party investigation into “the conduct of the Telluride Mayor Pro Tem Meehan Fee in regards to a visit and meetings” with Chuck Horning, owner of Telluride Ski and Golf. They also requested that Fee take a temporary leave of absence from her duties as an elected official while the investigation is underway.
Late last month, Fee traveled to California to meet with Horning, alongside Marti Prohaska, who at the time was the mayor of Mountain Village, which abuts Telluride. Prohaska told The Denver Post in a recent interview that the women wanted to talk to Horning about the patroller strike as well as “the underlying challenges of the current leadership structure” in hopes of finding a resolution not just immediately, but also long-term.
The strike started on Dec. 27 and lasted 13 days. On Dec. 29, Fee and Prohaska made a purchase offer for $127.5 million, intended to transfer 51% of the resort’s ownership to an entity called the Telluride Ski Resort Fund, according to documents obtained by The Denver Post.
Prohaska and Fee have said publicly that they approached Horning as private citizens – not in their official capacity as elected town representatives. The purchase offer suggests, however, that a sale would direct local officials to help broker an end to the strike and address municipal projects such as workforce housing, future water needs, infrastructure upgrades and generating more tourism to the area, according to the documents.
Prohaska resigned on Jan. 14 as the Mountain Village Town Council began considering its own investigation into the California trip. The council has since decided not to undertake an investigation in light of her resignation.
Telluride’s town manager and town attorney are expected to present the potential options for an investigation into Fee’s actions at the council’s next meeting on Jan. 27. They will decide which avenue to pursue based on the cost, scope of work, depth of discovery and range of topics investigated, said town spokesperson Lindsey Mills.
Fee stated publicly at Tuesday’s meeting that she intends to step back from her official duties during the investigation. “I do look forward to the impartial, independent investigation. I believe there’s nothing more critical than transparency in government to maintain the trust between the community and the town as an institution, so I am happy to step back,” she said.
The investigation comes as Telluride and Mountain Village hope to rebound from a winter marked so far by economic turmoil. Telluride Ski Resort closed during the patroller strike, which came at the height of holiday tourism and caused future bookings to plummet. Telluride Ski Resort and the union, the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association, reached a deal on Jan. 8 and have since worked to open terrain across the mountain.
As of Tuesday, 83 of the resort’s 149 trails were open, according to the latest snow report.