Telluride Mayor- A brief history of Telluride's Mayors
The Town of Telluride is a home rule municipality. The Mayor plus six Council members are elected for
our-year terms. Town Council meetings are held approximately every third Tuesday at Rebekah Hall, 113 W.
Columbia Avenue. The public may address the Council on any subject during Public Discussion. The agenda is
posted and published in the
Town's newspaper of record on the Friday preceding the meeting.
The Mayor and Town Council members do not have offices at Town Hall.
Letters to Council members may be
delivered or mailed to the Town Clerk at Town Hall, 135 W. Columbia Avenue, P.O. Box 397, Telluride, CO
81435.
Mayor John Pryor 518 west galena , 120 S Pine
Telluride, CO 81435 (970) 728-1408 born 1956, married to
Thaylia Prior
Pryor won’t seek second term as mayor
Published: Thursday, August 9, 2007 9:35 PM CDT
Leaving office to spend more time with family
By Pat Healy
Telluride Mayor John Pryor will not run for re-election, opting instead
to spend more time with his wife and four
children, he said yesterday. “I love doing the job,” Pryor said. “Intellectually it’s stimulating. It’s fascinating. I
just don’t think I could do another four years
without some damage to my family.”
His announcement surprised many in town, who said Pryor could all but
stroll into a second term at the
wheelhouse of Telluride government. Now Telluride — like the United States — heads into its next elections
with
no incumbent or anointed successor for the top job.
“We’ll see who comes out of the woodwork,” said council member Roberta
Peterson. She added that she does
not want the position.
Pryor was a political novice in 2003 when he defeated incumbent John
Steel after a charged and combative
election. Pryor said Telluride had become polarized, and he won support by promising positive leadership and a
new course.
But of course, the single issue that consumed his time was the Valley
Floor, and if one moment can define a
term, it is the day Pryor stood up in Elks Park and toasted a cheering crowd of costumed cows and
conservationists as Telluride declared victory in its fevered quest to raise $50 million to buy the land at its
doorstep.
“We have fought the good fight, we have prevailed,” he said that May
afternoon.
Pryor and other council members pushed for a mediation with the Valley
Floor’s owners, but when voters
strongly supported a full-scale condemnation in a February 2006 election, Pryor got behind the effort and
fundraising in full force, Valley Floor advocates have said.
“I think he had his doubts about the Valley Floor, but he relegated his
feelings to a subordinate position behind
what he thought was the town’s will,” said Chance Leoff, chairman of the Historic and Architectural Review
Commission. “When he got behind it, he got behind it
wholeheartedly.”
Pryor attended the valuation trial in Delta and smiled through gritted
teeth when a jury slapped a $50 million
verdict on the land. He threw himself into the fundraising, people have said, and was a constant cheerleader for
the efforts.
“He was superb,” Peterson said. “I don’t know if we could have pulled it
off without his help.”
But it wasn’t all champagne toasts.
Early in his term, Pryor came under fire for charges he appointed
Mallory Dimmitt to a council seat without
disclosing a personal and working relationship. But both Pryor and Dimmitt were unanimously cleared of any
ethics code violations by the town’s Ethics Commission.
In the years that followed, Pryor grew into the job, Leoff said. Council
members credited him with being even
handed and equaniminous, a mayor
who kept people in the loop.
From stem to stern, Pryor said his time as mayor lifted a curtain on how
Telluride’s cogs rotate every day. And
overall, he said, he walks away
believing the town runs tight and cleanly.
“We stretch every dollar, and there’s not a lot of fluff or extras of
any kind,” he said. “It’s a little, efficient
government. It goes so far beyond health, safety and welfare. We’re involved in arts and culture, open space
acquisition, ecology. It’s phenomenal.”
Council member Stu Fraser, who has toyed with running for mayor, did not
say whether he would now make a
run for the job. But he had only praise
for Pryor.
“He’s just a great guy and he’s done an outstanding job, Fraser said. “I
just think the world of him.”
Pryor said he did not have any firm plans for the future, beyond taking
a while to do nothing and spend more
time with his family. One change is certain, though — he said he’s getting a new, non-mayoral cell phone
number.
Matthew Beaudin contributed to this article.
Mayor John Steel, Attorney 126 W Colorado Ave # 202 Telluride, CO 81435 (970) 728-1300 married to
Bunny Freidus
JOHN STEEL, still working more than full-time, e-mailed: " I live in Telluride, Colorado, a spectacularly beautiful
ski and summer resort, where I am the Mayor, presiding over an unruly, but marvelous Town Council and
leading an equally unruly and diverse community. That is a punishing job, but, to make matters worse for
myself, I am still practicing law with vengeance as a litigator handling significant cases up and down the
western slope of the Rockies. Plenty of recreation though - Nordic skiing, biking, hiking, that sort of thing. Off
seasons, and they are really quiet here, are spent in France."
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