Good governance for the city we love.

I moved to Boulder more than 40 years ago, loved it then, and love it now. I look back on those years joyfully and remain in awe of the beauty of our natural surroundings and our community.

Pragmatic, Positive, and Experienced Leadership

Providing the best outcomes for Boulder requires making choices in a non-ideological, pragmatic way. I believe most candidates agree on many of the destinations: housing affordability, wildfire resilience, good governance, a healthy downtown, reliable public services, and more. The difference is in the route we take to get there.

I will approach council service in an informed, solution-oriented way. More than four decades in Boulder and a varied career have given me perspective on a wide range of views. I will work to build consensus, state tradeoffs plainly, and focus on practical results that serve the whole community.

The sections below are focused and brief. Additional context can be found in my responses to questionnaires from local groups.

Running for council is the opportunity to join a team and collaborate with colleagues to provide the best outcome for the city. Developing a view after analyzing the facts and listening to peers on council and the public is what results in the best results.

If elected, I will listen carefully, with integrity, and focus on practical solutions.

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, increasing debt or cutting core programs, we should identify duplicative work, improve coordination among departments, assess staffing and management structure, and require clear performance measures.

We should make sure we are maximizing funds received through grants/matching programs, etc. that can expand the number and scope of projects completed. Should the city add additional resources in this area? One extra multi-million grant would be highly accretive.

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, communications, and coordination needed for maximum effectiveness.

Adopting the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) Essential and Enhanced standards for residential properties, specifically for those at higher risk, is a prudent way to update properties to be more resilient to wildfire. Providing detailed home assessments combined with targeted grants would be a thoughtful way to begin this long-term project.

I am a transportation omnivore: I use RTD, walk, bike, and drive. Boulder needs a practical, integrated transportation system that supports these choices while maintaining reliable access for residents, businesses, emergency responders, and visitors.

I support the Core Arterial Network and its base goals, provided projects demonstrate positive outcomes, reasonable costs, maintained traffic throughput, and limited neighborhood cut-through traffic. The city should incorporate lessons from completed projects before committing to the remaining build-out, including effects on travel time, emergency access, maintenance, snow removal, usage, and diversion of traffic to residential streets.

Transportation dollars should prioritize resurfacing streets that are key bike routes or have high daily vehicle volumes before lower-use secondary & tertiary streets.

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.

How can the city work with downtown merchants to adapt to the post-COVID environment of work from home to reverse the drop in business (as measured by sales tax collection) and learn what retail and service mix residents and visitors will embrace with increased spending and patronage.

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, and would commit to a targeted update that defines the issues to be solved, what benefits it will provide and how success can be measured.

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.

We should look into emulating successful programs such as the Champlain Land Trust in Burlington, VT.

I support maintaining safe, functional public facilities and addressing legitimate deferred maintenance. However, I do not support Ordinance 8758 in its current form because the measure asks voters to authorize up to $400 million in new debt, with a maximum repayment cost of up to $650 million, before the city provided sufficient project-level scope, cost certainty, prioritization, and accountability protections.

My understanding is if Ordinance 8762 does not pass, the city would not be able to issue all of the bonds as it would exceed current limits. Before asking residents to assume this level of long-term debt, council should show a transparent analysis that distinguishes urgent life-safety needs from desirable improvements; identifies the full cost of each project, possible alternatives as well as future operating costs. If the bond issue does not pass, what work will be prioritized under current debt and funding levels.