Telluride Ski Resort is suing three current and former elected officials with the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village, alleging they conspired to pressure owner Chuck Horning into selling the ski area and leveraged a recent ski patrol strike to do so.
The lawsuit, filed in San Miguel County District Court on Feb. 24 by lawyers for TSG Ski and Golf LLC, accuses former Mountain Village mayor Martinique Prohaska, former Telluride Town Council member Meehan Fee, and acting Mountain Village town manager Paul Wisor of using their positions to try to “harass and pressure” the resort into selling a majority share. It also alleges the three officials did so while offering incentives to resort ownership worth “millions of dollars of economic value,” thereby violating municipal ethics codes.
As a result of these actions, the lawsuit alleges Telluride Ski and Golf, known locally as Telski, has suffered damages “reasonably estimated at several million dollars.” Resort spokesperson Nancy Clark declined to comment Friday due to the ongoing litigation.
Reached by phone, Prohaska and Fee declined to comment. Wisor was not immediately available.
The allegations in question date back to December, when the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association walked off the job after months of negotiations with Telski over a new union contract. The strike started Dec. 27, during the height of holiday tourism, and lasted 13 days.
Telluride Ski Resort closed for the majority of that time, as it was not able to operate without patrollers who perform avalanche mitigation and other duties to ensure the safety of the mountain, as well as respond to emergencies involving skiers.
In an interview earlier this year, Prohaska told The Denver Post that she and Fee traveled to California on Dec. 27 to meet with Horning and discuss the patroller strike in hopes of finding a resolution not just immediately, but also long-term. The women spoke with Horning and some of his associates face-to-face about the resort, its challenges and alternative ownership models for the ski area, Prohaska, then mayor of Mountain Village, said in an interview on Jan. 14.
On Dec. 29, Prohaska and Fee presented a purchase offer intended to transfer a 51% stake of the resort into the hands of an entity called the Telluride Ski Resort Fund. The purchase price was listed at $127.5 million.
In her interview, Prohaska said she and Fee were acting on their own accord as private citizens — not elected officials. However, the offer suggests that if a sale were finalized, the buyer would direct both towns “to take commercially reasonable efforts to broker a cessation to the ski patrol strike,” in addition to addressing municipal projects such as workforce housing, future water needs, infrastructure upgrades and generating more tourism to the area, according to documents reviewed by The Post.
In its lawsuit, Telski alleges that Prohaska and Fee “represented that they had the power to control a labor strike, and other resources, that prevented the resort from being open and operational from December 27, 2025, through January 7, 2026.” It also alleges Wisor was instrumental in coordinating the deal and drafting the contract.
Prohaska resigned in mid-January, and the towns of Mountain Village and Telluride are now investigating the matter. Fee originally said she would temporarily step back from her duties as an elected official during the investigation, but has since announced she will resign after the inquiry is concluded.
Wisor is currently on paid administrative leave after disclosing that he connected the women with prospective investors who were interested in buying into the resort. (Wisor made that disclosure during an executive session of the Mountain Village Town Council, a recording of which was made public after the council didn’t cut the YouTube streaming feed.)
In addition to claims for civil conspiracy and tortious interference with prospective business relations related to the strike, Telski alleges the defendants engaged in intentional interference with a contract when they suggested, in their purchase offer, that the towns would not increase the price of water that the resort uses to make snow should a sale go through.
Telski’s lawsuit is the latest conflict to come from years-long tension between resort owner Horning and the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village. In recent years, the parties have sparred over land usage for a summer concert series in Mountain Village, how to pay for upgrades to the area’s signature gondola transportation system, and affordable housing projects.