m10/8/2009yTCcfewell WWW.TIMESCALL.COM | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009 | SECTION D
ELECTION Four city seats on the ballot City Council wards 287 66
66
21st Ave.
WARD 3
Main St.
Francis St.
Hover St.
Airport Rd.
Ninth Ave.
WCR 5
County Line Road
WARD 1
Mountain View Ave.
WCR 26
Third Ave. Sunset St.
WARD 2
WCR 28
17th Ave.
Pace St.
N 0.5 mile
75th St.
Four City Council seats are up for grabs in November: mayor, two at-large seats and the Ward 2 seat. Bryan Baum and Jeff Thompson are running for mayor, hoping to unseat Mayor Roger Lange, who is running for re-election. Five candidates are running for the two open at-large seats. Councilwoman Mary Blue is not running for re-election, leaving her spot open, and Councilman Gabe Santos is campaigning to hold onto his seat. Along with Santos, Edward Dloughy, Kaye Fissinger, Alex Sammoury and Bill Van Dusen are vying for the two seats. Candidates run in a pool, with the top two vote-earners grabbing the spots. All Longmont voters cast ballots in the at-large races. Councilwoman Karen Benker also is running for re-election in Ward 2; Katie Witt is challenging her for the spot. Only residents who live in Ward 2, which generally covers south Longmont, can vote in that race.
Rogers Rd. Nelson Rd.
119
Ken Pratt Blvd.
119
Plateau Rd.
287
Times-Call graphic
CITY OF LONGMONT MAYOR ROGER LANGE
BRYAN BAUM
JEFF THOMPSON
Residence: 418 Flicker Ave., Longmont
Residence: 800 Briarwood Lane, Longmont
Residence: 1616 Sumner St., Longmont
Age: 51
Age: 68
Age: 60
Education: Bachelor of Science, Truman State University, 1980 Occupation: Senior wealth manager, owner of Baum & Blockhus Wealth Management Services Civic experience: Served as the Longmont representative on the Boulder County Cultural Commission for six years and was chairman in 2003; current member the Rotary Club of Longmont, and a Rotary member for 28 years; served on the Longmont Symphony Orchestra board of directors for 19 years, including two years as board president
Baum
Personal: Longmont resident for more than 26 years; wife, Stephanie Baum, and two children, Chase, 6, and Brooklynn, 2; enjoys spending time with his family outdoors, traveling, playing tennis and working with community organizations, such as Relay for Life, Alternatives for Youth, the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce and Boy Scouts Web site: www.baumformayor.com •••
What is your position on using public-private partnerships for revitalization or economic development? I feel that public-private partnerships are an excellent way to give an incentive to a developer to create a world-class facility that will in turn boost sales tax revenues to the benefit of the city. A partnership allows each entity to benefit. The developer benefits up front with lower costs and the city benefits through increased revenues. Even when lowering the percent of sales tax received in the initial years, it’s possible for total revenues to outpace those with the current conditions because of the severe reduction in local retail spending. Knowing that redeveloping the mall will greatly expand the retail tax base, we can afford to offer the developer tax incentives that will reduce our percentage of tax income but at the same time increase our net tax revenue and will create new jobs.
What does open and accessible government mean to you? What is the city doing well and what could it do better?
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration, University of Iowa; Juris Doctor, University of Nebraska
Education: Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, South Dakota School of Mines, 1963; Master of Business Administration, University of Phoenix, 1980
Lange
Occupation: Financial adviser
Civic experience: Elected to the Longmont City Council in 2000 and elected as mayor in 2007; serves on the Longmont Area Economic Council board, the Metro Mayors Caucus, the U.S. 36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition, the Platte River Power Authority board and the Colorado Municipal League executive board. Current member of the Rotary Club of Longmont Personal: Longmont resident for more than 25 years. Wife, Jackie, and children Tom Lange and his wife, Erin; John Lange and his wife, Jennifer; and Kathy Shepherd and her husband, Greg. Web site: www.langeformayor.org •••
What is your position on using public-private partnerships for revitalization or economic development? Public-private partnerships (PPP) describe a government service or private business venture, which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies. In a typical PPP, the private party provides financial, technical and operational risks in a partnership with the public sector that normally provides financial backing. I am in favor of these types of partnerships because it establishes an incentive for all parties involved to see that the project is completed with a high degree of quality and in an efficient manner, which would lead to monetary gains for both parties. The ultimate winner is the taxpayer due to the decreased cost of the project.
What does open and accessible government mean to you? What is the city doing well and what could it do better?
Open and accessible government to me means that each citizen feels that they can exercise their right to be involved in local politics. That means our local leaders must listen to and act on behalf of our citizens. It also means limiting the number of executive sessions and limiting what is talked about behind closed doors. While it’s permissible to get advice from our attorney in a closed session, it’s not required and certainly decisions should always be made in the public forum. Lastly, open government means transparency with our city finances. The money we spend to run our city is generated by our citizens and therefore they should be able to see where the money is being spent. Other local governments have opened their books by posting their spending online and it should be a goal of this council to do the same. By opening our accounting to scrutiny by the public, we may be able to find unidentified resources or sources of waste that can be eliminated. We’re doing a good job of letting people speak at council meetings but need to limit the topics to those directly affecting our local issues.
Open and accessible government is one where the word “inclusive” is not only spoken but is demonstrated by actions taken by the city in dealing with the general public. I believe the city works very hard at being open with its citizens in all aspects of its operations. There are many public forums that are held by the city for informational purposes such as plan updates, operational changes along with anything that would be impactful to the community. Communications and information-sharing take place via email, the city’s Web site, the city’s newsletter, inserts in the monthly billing statements and the local newspaper. City Council is available frequently at coffees, various events throughout the year and prior to, during and after city council meetings. Finally, if the public so desires, direct contact to city council members and city staff by telephone is also available. Executive sessions are not open to the public and are utilized only when the city attorney is providing legal advice to City Council or when annual performance reviews/salary treatment are given to the city manager, city attorney and the municipal judge by City Council. Improvement can always be made in responsiveness to our constituents, but we attempt to promptly address their questions and concerns.
What are your priorities for city funding, and what do you consider essential city services?
What are your priorities for city funding, and what do you consider essential city services?
My priorities for city funding are those entities which create greater revenue — the more revenue we have, the more services that can be funded at a higher level. When the economy slows, money should be shifted toward those resources that can take advantage of the down economy and get us in a position to thrive when the economy recovers. Creating and retaining jobs is essential to a good solid community. Additionally, our government should never compete with local businesses due to the fact that local businesses pay taxes and provide jobs that support our community. I consider the essential city services to be our public safety, utilities (water, trash, power) and infrastructure (roads, water storage, parks, open space).
My priorities for city funding are those services that the city provides that are visible to the general public. Those services would include items such as trash collections, dependable water and waste water services, along with public safety. Obviously, public safety is one example of an essential service and was rated the most important city service by a recent survey of our residents. In general terms, I believe any service that impacts the health and welfare of community and the people who live here would be an essential service. In budget deliberations, those expenditures that do not directly impact our residents are among the first to be considered if decreases in expenditures are necessary for us to balance our budgets.
Occupation: Lawyer
Thompson
Civic experience: Not available
Personal: Longmont resident for 12 years; enjoys running, hiking, cross-country skiing and gardening •••
What is your position on using public-private partnerships for revitalization or economic development? I’m all for them. They should be focused on the household — the grassroots. Too many people have lost their homes or live in fear of losing them. The partnerships should directly help to ensure that everybody in Longmont, regardless of income or ability, is secure in a nice home, and secure with regard to the other necessities for a good life. That’s what real economic development is. Economic growth — growth in consumption of natural resources and generation of waste — is the opposite of real economic development. Shopping malls don’t sell the best things in life — kindness, compassion and joy. With real economic development, we can restore the Earth’s natural systems and have good lives for everyone here and all over the world. Keep the focus on real economic development, not growth. For real economic development, the wars have to end. We need fair trade policies, the Employee Free Choice Act, a single-payer health-care system and strong measures to quickly reduce CO2 emissions to avert a climate catastrophe. The mayor should be an advocate for these things because Longmont needs them for real economic development.
What does open and accessible government mean to you? What is the city doing well and what could it do better? Open and accessible government means the mayor and council members are open and accessible in the conduct of their official duties. Unfortunately, that is not the case. They violate our city charter’s mandate that all regular and special sessions of the City Council be open to the public and that they make no policy decision and take no official action in executive session. Mayor Lange has gone so far as to violate our city charter’s mandate that members of the public be given an opportunity to address the council on any topic they choose at all council meetings. They seem to be interested only in their own opinions and those of city staff on many of the matters that come before them. There are many highly educated people with valuable experience in Longmont who would like a better opportunity to help them understand the issues and make better decisions. They should be given more opportunity to participate in council meetings. We have a strong city staff. They are generally helpful and pleasant with citizens who call or e-mail them and ask for help in understanding city matters. I’ve learned a lot from them and I actually think they have enjoyed helping me.
What are your priorities for city funding, and what do you consider essential city services? What I said above about real economic development is very important to me — ensuring that everybody in Longmont, regardless of income or ability, is secure in a nice home, and secure with regard to the other necessities for a good life. We need to make a big shift in priority from water projects to rooftop solar energy projects. We are currently accumulating a huge water supply we won’t ever need for real economic development. Its purpose is solely to stimulate growth and sprawl in Weld County and subsidize the profits of land developers. Instead, we can make Longmont a “solar city” and make a huge contribution to reducing CO2 emissions and averting a climate catastrophe. I also think we need to make a big shift from new streets and other infrastructure to accommodate single occupancy vehicles to well-planned and designed walkways and bikeways and other alternative means of transportation. It’s also important to find money to preserve and restore local food production. The world’s known oil reserves are being depleted rapidly, and we have to get serious about making the transition to the new economy. I think life’s only going to get better as this happens.