Just five weeks after voting unanimously to appoint Dr. Mirza Ahmed as Montrose County’s public health director, Commissioners Scott Mijares and Sean Pond voted April 2 to reclassify him as interim—citing concerns about the legality of the hiring process and raising questions about Ahmed’s qualifications.

The decision followed weeks of discussions among board members, county staff and citizens, reflecting a shift in dynamics on the Board of County Commissioners.

Mijares and the late Commissioner Rick Dunlap were sworn in on Jan. 14, 2025. But on Feb. 8, just weeks into his term, Dunlap died suddenly. Less than two weeks later, Pond was sworn in to fill the vacancy. The following day, on Feb. 19, the board reorganized: Mijares was appointed chair and Pond vice-chair in his first meeting as commissioner, replacing Commissioner Sue Hansen in board leadership. It was in this reorganized configuration that the board approved Ahmed’s appointment—during a special meeting on Feb. 25.

“This public health director was not selected by the Board of Health,”Mijares said during the April 2 meeting. “It was selected by our staff and that is not in compliance with CRS 25-1-508.”

Mijares expanded on his concerns in an interview afterward with the Montrose Business Times, asserting that the Feb. 25 appointment was procedurally flawed and should not have been made while the board was sitting as the Board of County Commissioners, rather than in its legally distinct role as the Board of Health.

He also challenged Ahmed’s title in that interview with the MBT. “He’s not a doctor,” Mijares said. “He has a medical degree from Bangladesh. Their path is different—it’s not the same as our system. In the United States, you need four years of undergrad, four years of med school, internship, and to pass the medical board. We have much more stringent qualifications to be called a doctor.”

Mijares felt he and Pond were also being mislabeled as racist.

“Because of the controversy that came about from this person being referred to repeatedly as a doctor and then also from coming from a third world country, Somalia, people had questions,” Mijares said. “And so this spurred a lot of—one of our commissioners accused myself and Sean Pond of being racist. So it created a little bit of investigation, like let’s check into this.”

County Manager Frank Rodriguez on Thursday rejected notions that Ahmed isn’t qualified.

“He is a medical doctor,” Rodriguez told the Montrose Business Times. “He graduated from a medical school in Bangladesh. In order to practice in the U.S., he would need to go through the licensure process, but he doesn’t need to go back to medical school. He is a doctor.”

A doctor does, in fact, need to go through a licensure process to practice medicine in the United States, but Ahmed is not in practice in the U.S. A doctor, even while not currently practicing medicine in a given country, is referred to as and considered, a “doctor.”

Rodriguez said Ahmed’s resumé and experience speak for themselves. The county’s official announcement of his hiring in February described him as having over 24 years of public health leadership, including positions with the World Health Organization and UNICEF. He has worked in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, and Somalia.

“It’s an amazing story,” Rodriguez said, referencing a moment during Ahmed’s interview process when he spoke about a turning point in his career: watching children die of preventable illness, and committing to focus on public health.

“The CEO of Montrose Hospital said, ‘This guy’s overqualified to be here.’ We’re lucky to have him.”

Rodriguez also detailed the hiring process. After candidate interviews and internal discussion, the public health team and department heads reached consensus on Ahmed.

Rodriguez then contacted each commissioner individually to confirm support before placing the appointment on the Feb. 25 agenda—a standard procedure, he said, used for appointments ranging from liquor licenses to department heads.

Mijares and Dunlap were invited to the interview sessions at the Jan. 21 work session. The sessions were to take place on Jan. 23 at 2 p.m., according to the work session transcript. “They were briefed. They were invited. They did not show up,” Rodriguez said.

During the Feb. 25 special meeting—all three board members, including Pond—voted unanimously to hire Ahmed. Mijares, at the time, offered warm remarks.
“I’d just like to thank County Manager Frank Rodriguez and the team he put together to get you to the table and interview you, and you’re very well qualified, and we’re glad to have you on the team,” he said.

But in March, concerns began surfacing. Mijares and Pond placed multiple related items on executive session agendas and discussed procedural concerns in work sessions. By March 19, public support for Ahmed had begun to build as well. During that meeting, some residents spoke in his defense, and Mijares asked Rodriguez whether either he or Pond had ever said they wanted to fire Ahmed. Rodriguez said no.

Mijares later said the original vote occurred before he had time to fully review candidates and acknowledged that both he and Pond were still learning the ropes of county government.

“We’re simply following the law,” he said. “And being that Sean and myself are fairly new commissioners, I feel that maybe the administration that was running the county has taken advantage of that naivety, and I’m just trying to get things right.”

The April 2 meeting marked the breaking point

On the agenda that day was a resolution—intended to ratify Ahmed’s appointment and address what was labeled a “clerical error.” The resolution noted:

“The previous appointment of the Director of Public Health was adopted by the Montrose County Board of County Commissioners rather than by the Board of County Commissioners in their role as the Board of Health… to correct a clerical error, the Montrose County Board of Health hereby appoints a Director of Public Health as outlined in C.R.S. 25-1-508.”

Mijares pushed back against the “clerical” label. “This was not a clerical error,” he said. “It was a procedural error.” Mijares had the agenda item changed to reflect that. He and Pond then declined to second Commissioner Sue Hansen’s motion to approve the resolution and instead moved to appoint Ahmed as “interim” while reopening the hiring process.

Pond’s only comment, while mispronouncing Ahmed’s last name during the discussion, was to make the motion:
“I would make the motion, Mr. Chair, that we instate Dr. Ahmad as the interim director of health for Montrose County while we put out a search for a full-time director of public health from Montrose County.”

Commissioner Sue Hansen, who made a motion to support the resolution to reaffirm Ahmed as public health director, expressed frustration.

“That standard procedure would be that the county manager would interview and would vet the candidate,” she said. “It was approved by the board… and the Board of Health is the exact same—[made up of] the same members of the Board of County Commissioners. Under our attorney’s guidance, it was approved.”

She added: “I think this is nitpicking, and I think there’s some kind of target here. There’s some other agenda going on besides just… moving this forward.”

The April 2 agenda also featured two unrelated but politically pointed resolutions: one reaffirming Montrose County as a Second Amendment sanctuary and another calling for reform of the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). Both were backed by Mijares and Pond, reflecting a more assertive political posture from the board since Pond’s appointment and the reshuffling of leadership. Hansen had initially been appointed as board chair in January, but Mijares assumed the role soon after Pond was sworn in.

As for Ahmed, he remains in place as interim public health director. Rodriguez declined to say whether Ahmed plans to reapply, though he confirmed that the interim role is paid at the same rate.

“From the county manager perspective, we hired the right guy through the right process,” Rodriguez said. “Now he’ll have to reapply.”

Rodriguez wouldn’t comment on whether he believed Ahmed would reapply. Commissioner Hansen didn’t immediately respond to request for further comment.

Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.