The Million-Dollar Typo: Why PAWSD Must Correct the March 14 Record

By Carl Young, pausepawsd.com

2026-01-27

The Promise: A Specific Restriction (and a Missing Document) On March 14, 2024, Emily Lashbrook of the CDC appeared before the PAWSD Board to request a full waiver of Capital Investment Fees (CIF) for eight workforce housing projects.

At stake: a carefully crafted agreement to build more affordable housing in Pagosa Springs. Funders include the Department of Local Affairs, Archuleta County, and the Town of Pagosa Springs. The CDC request was for $260,000 from the PAWSD Board. (See A Divided Board Reverses Long-Standing Support)

According to the official Record of Proceedings, the request was highly restrictive. The text states that Lashbrook requested waivers for projects that “will provide housing for applicants earning 80% of AMI or below.”

However, there is a critical forensic gap in this record. The minutes explicitly cite a supporting document to validate this claim, parenthetically noting: "(copy attached)."

Yet, in the publicly available records, this attachment is missing.

Without the source document to verify the “80% or below” claim, the official record stands in direct contradiction to the CDC’s standard “missing middle” (80%–120% AMI) model. This clerical error—recording a restriction that likely didn’t exist in the presentation materials—created a false baseline for the Board’s expectations.

The Path Forward: Correct the Record

This discrepancy is not merely a historical footnote or a harmless typo. It is a governance failure that directly distorted the district’s financial planning. The PAWSD Board based a major 2026 budget decision—defunding the monthly affordable housing housing surcharge—on a contradiction between the recorded promise and the actual presentation.

We cannot leave the official history of the district in a state of contradiction. If the minutes are wrong, the justification for cutting affordable housing is invalid.

Call to Action The PAWSD Board should amend the March 14, 2024, Record of Proceedings.

Specifically, the Board Secretary and Staff must:

  1. Retrieve the Missing Evidence: Locate the specific document referenced parenthetically in the minutes as "(copy attached)". If this document cannot be found, the minutes are incomplete and possibly legally deficient.

    1. Note: My copy is in Board Meetings

  2. Rectify the Income Limits: Amend the text to accurately reflect the “80%–100% AMI” range actually presented by the CDC, removing the erroneous “80% or below” restriction that currently exists in the record.

  3. Acknowledge the Error: Formally recognize that the disconnect between the minutes and the presentation contributed to the friction regarding the 2026 budget decision.

Accuracy is the first duty of the public record. Until these minutes are corrected, the narrative regarding the Affordable Housing Surcharge remains false. The public deserves a record that matches reality.