ALAMOSA — While he was in the San Luis Valley this week, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told the Valley Courier, “I have an obligation as the people’s lawyer to really listen hard and find solutions [to problems]. That’s what I’ve done in a range of other areas and that’s what I’m going to do here.”

FENCES

Weiser was repeating what he had told a large group of residents from San Luis who had gathered to discuss egregious damages and hardship caused by a 20-mile 8-foot wire grid fence around an area known as La Sierra, an area of deep, historic importance. The fence was erected by William Harrison, the billionaire ranch owner from Texas.

The fence, people told Weiser, is restricting the ability of wildlife to reach sources of water and interfering with typical patterns of migration. Its construction also involved the bulldozing of a 20-yard-wide path through forests and habitats, causing further harm to wildlife and creating significant erosion that has resulted in large deposits of sediment on property outside of the ranch.

“I have not seen many public meetings like I just witnessed,” Weiser said. “Over 70 people at that meeting in the middle of a workday in a county that has 1,000 people. People wanted and needed to be heard. I listened and learned a lot about how this fence is affecting the community, the water and wildlife and even mental health.

“We’re going to work with the county and see what we can do. I have an obligation as the people’s lawyer to really listen hard and find solutions. That’s what I’ve done in a range of other areas and that’s what I’m going to do with this fence, as well. We’ve committed to work with the county and to make sure that no one gets bullied, or their rights get trampled.”

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH

Weiser, who was in Alamosa for the grand opening of Hope in the Valley, is also focused on youth mental health.

In 2020, Weiser, on behalf of the state of Colorado, filed a lawsuit against Juul Labs after an investigation showed the company was targeting youth in their marketing of e-cigarettes and misrepresenting the health risks.

The lawsuit was successful, and Weiser reached a multi-state settlement of $462 million, of which $31.7 million was allocated to Colorado.

“We’ve already given out our first round of grants from suing Juul. We just announced $817,000 in grants to the valley. That’s round one,” he said.

“Now we’re working on round two. We want to see school-community partnerships addressing youth mental health.”

Weiser recalled a roundtable discussion in 2023 devoted to the topic of youth mental health.

“Jamie Dominguez talked about his work that he’s doing with young people. Cindy Medina is teaching kids to fish and to read. We know there are a lot of programs and collaborations working with young people. The goal is how do we lift them all up? How do we bring people together for young people who are hurting? I’m really looking forward to what type of grant proposal people can put together here,” he said.

According to information from the Office of the Attorney General, of the $817,000 awarded to the San Luis Valley, Alamosa School District received $244,968; San Luis Valley BOCES received $273,870; and Sierra Grande School District received $100,985.

KROGER-ALBERTSONS MERGER

During that same visit in 2023, Weiser met with residents, ag producers, union officials and employees of two of the grocery stores in Alamosa – City Market and Safeway – regarding the proposed merger of Kroger (which owns City Market) and Albertsons (which owns Safeway). If the merger happens, there is the likelihood that the future of Safeway is uncertain.

According to a Tuesday announcement from Albertsons Companies and Kroger, 89 of the 103 existing Safeway stores in Colorado would be sold to C&S Wholesalers Grocers, a company based in New Hampshire. Included in the list is Safeway in Alamosa.

“That was a powerful conversation, and I took it with me. People were saying we need to take more control of our local food ecosystem. We have too little competition, too little local food available. This merger is already taking a problematic situation and making it worse,” he said.

In February of 2024, Weiser filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court to block the $24.6 billion proposed merger.

When asked for an update, he said, “The hearing is in August in Denver. We’re asking for a preliminary injunction to stop this merger from happening.  The Federal Commission is bringing its own case in Oregon - some states are part of that. We’re bringing our own case here in state court, and Washington is bringing their case to state court, too.”

One area of expertise in Weiser’s background is antitrust after he served as senior counsel to the Assistant AG for the Justice Department Antitrust Division from 1996 to 1998 followed by his 2009 appointment by President Obama as Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

“I think we’re going to win,” Weiser said. “We’ve got the right arguments on our side. We’ve got the evidence we’ve collected. And this is really important to the people of Colorado.”