Former Basalt Town Councilman Chris Seldin, a candidate for a newly created local judgeship, caused a stir when he resigned his elected post Friday.

Why would Seldin, halfway through his first four-year term on the board, quit his job before knowing whether he had won his next one?

Some theorized that stepping down was a play by Seldin to demonstrate his desire and willingness to fill the $118,972-per-year district judgeship, which would be the fourth in the growing 9th Judicial District. Seldin’s refusal to answer questions earlier this week about his resignation’s timing also fueled speculations.

But Seldin, 36, also the Pitkin County assistant county attorney, said Wednesday his resignation from the Basalt Town Council was not a choice, but a requirement, based on a quirk of geography.

Until last week, Seldin’s legal residence was in the Eagle County portion of Basalt. The 9th Judicial District consists only of Pitkin, Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, and Colorado state law requires a judicial appointee, when appointed, to be a registered voter within the boundaries of the judicial district where he or she would serve as a judge.

So Seldin moved, changing his legal residence from a house he owns in Eagle County to an undisclosed location within the 9th Judicial District. While half of the town of Basalt is in the district, Seldin said he could not find a workable situation where he could move quickly into the Pitkin County portion of the town, thus disqualifying him from serving as a Basalt elected official.

“To suggest I could have waited (for the governor’s decision) is just erroneous,” said Seldin, who decided to comment after reading an Aspen Times editorial ripping his judgment in resigning prior to being appointed. Seldin would also have to give up his position as assistant county attorney if appointed, but he can keep that job until then.

Basalt Town Council members contacted for this story said Seldin did not inform them of his intentions to step down from the board until late last week, when he wrote a short e-mail announcing that he was resigning immediately.

As required by the town charter, Basalt must now take applications for candidates to fill Seldin’s seat on the board. The town will publish a newspaper advertisement in the coming days seeking applicants, and the council has 60 days to select a new council member.

Should one of the other finalists for the judgeship — Deputy District Attorney Gail Nichols or special counsel to the city of Aspen Jim True — be appointed, Seldin said he would return his legal residence to Basalt and apply to get his old seat back.

“I feel that is my obligation,” he said.

Councilwoman Katie Schwoerer, who was elected to the board in March, said she never questioned Seldin’s judgment in the matter and didn’t think his pre-emptive resignation was a ploy to play favorites with Gov. Bill Ritter, who must appoint the new judge by May 21.

“I didn’t think he was being manipulative in any way,” Schwoerer said. “I trust Chris and I think he’ll do what’s right for himself and the council. I wish him the best. I think he would make a fantastic judge.”

Councilwoman Jacque Whitsitt, who was contacted before Seldin had explained his reasoning, said she was surprised at the resignation and had been trying to figure out why Seldin would have resigned in the way he did.

“I don’t have enough information to call it strange or not ... but the resignation surprises me,” Whitsitt said.

Basalt has typically been a hard place to get people to run for elected office, said Whitsitt, who is unsure how much interest a vacancy on Town Council, which offers only token pay, would generate.

“I don’t know who (the applicants) might be and I’ve racked my brain,” Whitsitt said, suggesting that candidates who have lost in previous Basalt elections might apply. “Usually you have to beg and grovel for people to run.”

Should Seldin not get the judgeship, Whitsitt said she would like to see him back on the council.

“He’s a really strong player on that council,” she said, praising Seldin’s legal and analytical skills. “He’s like the rudder, as far as I can tell.”

Seldin said the circumstances around his resignation, which he termed as “unfortunate,” are a casualty of poor decisions made by politicians in the 1800s as the boundaries of the western United States were drawn. 

The peculiar situation in which a small slice of the Roaring Fork Valley is a part of Eagle County, home to Vail and the Eagle Valley to the east, exists because Washington policymakers did not heed the advice of early Western explorers, who said that county lines in the West should be drawn according to river drainages. Instead, many lines were drawn according to arbitrary survey lines that crossed hundreds of miles of unknown terrain.

“If we had followed (that) advice in the 1800s, this wouldn’t have happened,” Seldin said.

This isn’t the first time those arbitrary county boundaries have caused complications locally. Basalt residents who live in Eagle County are often summoned to Eagle, the county seat, for jury duty, even though they’re not at all a part of that community. The same thing happens for residents of Marble, which is in Gunnison County.

A ballot question that would have given the Roaring Fork Valley portion of Eagle County its own elected representative failed for the second time one year ago.

curtis@aspendailynews.com