Letter: Lack of oversight in ambulance district

Is it OK for citizens of Canada to vote for the president of the United States? Is it OK for the residents of Utah to vote for a Colorado state senator? Of course not! Yet this is exactly what the Pitkin County commissioners are allowing to happen. The Pitkin County commissioners are voted on “at large.” This means that every resident of Pitkin County can vote in an election for the seats on the Board of County Commissioners. The commissioners are the same and only elected representatives for the Aspen Ambulance District Board of Directors. Residents of Snowmass Village, Redstone, Basalt and Thomasville all get to vote for the representatives of a taxing district they don’t even live in. This practice needs to stop immediately!

The care that the improperly elected officials of the Aspen Ambulance District provide is evidenced by how often they meet as a district board. They have only convened as the ambulance district board eight times in the past five years. In 2013, they never held a district board meeting! My tax money is being looked after by whom and how often? The folks who look after the stuff we flush down the toilet meet once a month. Yes, the sanitation district board meets monthly, and yet the representatives who are in charge of emergency care for our loved ones didn’t bother to hold a meeting for an entire year! This practice needs to come to light, and as residents we should demand more care, oversight and proper representation of our tax money.

Mike Lyons

Aspen