State Land Board workshop adds ‘intentional ambition’ to draft strategic plan

The Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners spent a May workshop reviewing redlines to its near-final five-year strategic plan and agreed to add wording emphasizing intentional ambition and innovation to the agency mission.

The board, workshop facilitators and staff debated phrasing over several hours before coalescing around language that will read in draft as a change to the mission: the trust will be protected and enhanced “with intentional ambition and ingenuity” to generate reasonable and consistent revenue for public schools. Commissioners said final placement and exact punctuation would be confirmed when the board takes final action the following day.

Why it matters: The State Land Board manages assets whose revenues support Colorado public schools and multiple trust beneficiaries. Commissioners and staff said the new phrase is intended to clarify the board’s intent to pursue emerging revenue opportunities — including renewable and other energy technologies — while retaining stewardship duties to land and long-term beneficiaries.

What was changed: The workshop reviewed the strategy-on-a-page and objectives for three goals — Enduring Revenue, Resilient Land, and Connecting People. Commissioners requested two explicit edits: (1) an objective-level reference reading “results for public schools and other trust beneficiaries,” and (2) language signaling willingness to pursue innovation and be intentionally ambitious, either in the mission, a short preamble, or the published report. Staff and legal counsel advised that the plan’s wording should remain consistent with constitutional responsibilities; counsel recommended text that maps to constitutional language while still signaling ambition.

Discussion highlights: Commissioners raised practical and legal considerations: whether to ground goal language directly in constitutional terms (some urged keeping language close to the constitution to avoid ambiguity) and where to place statements about innovation so they are meaningful but not prescriptive. Several commissioners advocated explicitly naming public schools as the primary beneficiary while retaining recognition of other trust beneficiaries in objective-level language.

Next steps: Consultants and staff said they would finalize redlines overnight and present the edited plan for the board’s formal action the next day. Staff also will prepare a published strategic-plan report with a preamble and outreach materials that reflect the workshop feedback.

Attribution: The workshop included presentations from Government Performance Solutions consultants and staff briefings by Director Rose Marino and Deputy Director Nick Massie. The board indicated consensus on the discussed edits and scheduled a final vote at the next session.