GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Club 20 leaders aren’t worried Gunnison County dropped its membership for next year. In any given year, elected officials from one or two local governments — out of 67 government members — decide to not join the lobby group for either financial or ideological reasons.

One thing’s certain: “They don’t stay out for long,” said Reeves Brown, executive director of Club 20.

And the county opting out for 2009 doesn’t mean Club 20 won’t continue to support positions on issues of significance to Gunnison County, such as opposing water diversions to the Front Range or continued funding for transportation, Brown said.

Jackson County commissioners also dropped their membership, Brown said.

“(Former Commissioner) Rick Wyatt thinks we’re way too far to the left, and others think we’re an arm of the Republican Party,” Brown said.

People who believe the oil and gas industry have too much influence on Club 20 haven’t considered that 15 to 17 percent of the Club 20 budget is paid by oil and gas interests or that two people on the board have ties to the industry — one in coal and one in natural gas, Brown said.

Gunnison County commissioners voted Dec. 15 to drop its membership.

Commissioner Jim Starr said he and his colleagues take issue with a rule that the vote from one person has as much weight as the vote from Gunnison County. The votes from elected officials should have more weight than the votes from individual members, Starr said.

“It’s really not an organization that’s appropriate for elected government bodies to be involved in,” Starr said, citing the Colorado Municipal League and Colorado Counties Inc. as proper for local government memberships.

Also, commissioners “started being concerned about some of the positions the organization was taking, gas development and land use in particular,” Starr said. “The comment I hear too frequently is it’s been taken over by the oil and gas industry.”

San Miguel may drop as well, said Commissioner Art Goodtimes. The three-member board typically operates in a consensus, so if one wants to join, “that’s fine with me,” Goodtimes said. The group will decide in January, he said.

For a decade, Goodtimes has worked with Club 20 on Western Slope issues.

What he liked about the organization was that it worked within the minority opinion, but that’s gone away, he said, particularly with the emergence of oil and gas interests.

“The oil and gas group has taken Club 20 over and is dismissive of minority views,” Goodtimes said. “We’re splintering, which is always weak and unfortunate.”

Goodtimes praised Brown as a “great executive director,” but took issue with former Club 20 chairwoman “Kathy Hall and the cabal of oil and gas interests.”

Hall, a former Mesa County commissioner, said Friday she doesn’t now vote on Club 20 issues. She took issue with Starr commenting on Club 20 and with Goodtimes as well.

“Jim Starr’s never attended a meeting. How would he know? He’s never, ever, ever participated in the process of Club 20,” Hall said.

Furthermore, Club 20 will still have individual members from Gunnison County and the municipalities, Hall said.

Club 20 has been effective for 56 years, Hall said.

“If it weren’t for Club 20, we wouldn’t have an Interstate 70” and other highway systems, Hall said. Because sparsely populated areas have few legislators, those areas need to unite, she added.

“We’ve always rallied around the natural resource issues and water issues,” Hall said.

“If we don’t speak with a united voice, we don’t have the mechanism to protect those resources.”

Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.