Dave for Boulder

Meet Dave

Four decades in Boulder.

Dave moved to Boulder in 1985 and never left. He earned his B.S. and M.B.A. at CU Boulder, and built a career in institutional finance — including eight years as a Senior Portfolio Manager at Colorado PERA, where he helped steward retirement savings for hundreds of thousands of Colorado teachers, state troopers, and public employees, including for City of Boulder employees. He knows what it means to be trusted with public money, because he's done it.

Dave believes most council candidates actually agree on the destination — housing affordability, wildfire resilience, good governance — and that the real differences are about the route to get there. His approach is pragmatic and non-ideological: develop an informed view, listen to a wide range of perspectives, and build the consensus that actually serves Boulder. That's the leadership he'd bring to council — forty years in this city, and a career built on exactly that kind of judgment.

Priorities

What Dave will focus on

Specifics, not slogans.

Fiscal Stewardship & Governance

The budget is one of Council's most important policy documents. It is where priorities become real: every commitment of staff time, debt capacity, tax revenue, or capital funding means fewer resources for something else. Council must make deliberate choices, protect essential services and reserves, consider long-term operating and maintenance obligations, and make clear what residents receive for their money.

Before raising taxes or cutting core programs, Boulder should identify duplicative work, improve coordination among departments, assess staffing and management structure, and require clear performance measures.

Wildfire Resilience

Wildfire preparedness is one of Boulder's most urgent responsibilities. With limited resources, the City should focus on measures that most reduce risk to people, homes, evacuation routes and critical infrastructure water. We need to ensure fire-rescue agencies have the personnel, equipment, early detection, communications, and coordination needed for maximum effectiveness.

Transportation & Mobility

I am a transportation omnivore: I use RTD, walk, bike, and drive. Boulder needs a practical, integrated transportation system that supports all of these choices while maintaining reliable access for residents, businesses, emergency responders, and visitors. Transportation dollars should prioritize resurfacing streets that are key bike routes or carry high daily vehicle volumes before lower-use secondary streets.

Downtown & Local Economy

Downtown Boulder should be clean, safe, welcoming, and economically diverse. I support actions include reducing permitting complexity and delays; improving cleanliness, lighting, and public safety; supporting predictable regulations; expanding appropriate downtown housing; working with property owners to address high occupancy costs and vacancies; and learning what retail and service mix residents and visitors want downtown.

Land Use

Boulder's land-use code should be clearer, more predictable, and easier for residents, small businesses, applicants, and staff to navigate. I support modernizing Title 9, but I would not commit to an open-ended rewrite until Council defines the problems to solve, policy guardrails, budget, timeline, and measures of success.

Affordable Housing

Boulder should increase housing affordability for middle-income households through practical, cost-effective approaches, without treating higher density as the only solution. Housing decisions must account for their effects on infrastructure, traffic, tree canopy, stormwater, water supply, and neighborhood character.

Public Debt

I support maintaining safe, functional public facilities and addressing legitimate deferred maintenance. I am opposed to Ordinance 8758 in its current form because it would authorize up to $400 million in new debt, with repayment potentially reaching $650 million, without sufficient project-level scope, cost certainty, prioritization, and accountability protections.

Before asking residents to take on long-term debt, Council should provide a transparent, independently reviewed project list that distinguishes urgent life-safety needs from desirable improvements and shows the full lifecycle cost of each project.