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My first responsibility upon taking office was to work with Brad Schol and the city’s Management Staff to settle seven lawsuits that were plaguing our city and damaging our relationships with surrounding communities. We saved the city literally millions of dollars, and our reputation with our neighbors in Northern Colorado has been restored. The new spirit of regionalism that has developed has led to signing Inter-Government Agreements with Frederick and Firestone.
My greatest accomplishment has been asking for and receiving funding for a new transit station in Longmont. Since the FasTracks tax was passed, Longmont has paid in over $15 million in taxes to help fund it, with nothing to show but reduced bus service, increased fares and the promise of a new station in 2042. With the support of the Mayor of Louisville and other neighboring mayors, I started negotiations with RTD board members and asked for a vow to our city being the final stop for FasTracks, noting that a promise to the tail-end would show the rest of the communities that RTD was pledging to a full build-out of the FasTracks system. RTD budgeted $32 million in 2042. I responded by asking for $16 million now to show commitment from RTD. They came back with an award of $17 million today for our new transit hub.
Another proud accomplishment was keeping OnCore in Longmont. I was approached by representatives of OnCore about the possibility of them moving out of Longmont to expand their operations. I immediately contacted city staff to begin a series of negotiations between the city and OnCore to keep their existing jobs in Longmont and the pledge to create new jobs in the coming years. OnCore is now completing it’s state-of-the-art facility on the west side of Longmont, and will be moving in soon.
Another organization I worked with to bring jobs to Longmont was Sprouts Farmers Market. There were several roadblocks halting the the development of the Fairgrounds Marketplace next to Home Depot. Through my intervention, the city and developer agreed to terms for infrastructure and with that opened the doors to Sprouts signing an agreement to come to our city.
While I have embraced Longmont being open for business, I have also fulfilled my commitment to be a responsible steward of our city’s assets and investments. Soon after I took office, a developer came to the city asking for a land-swap deal at the Quail Campus. I liked their plans for development, but the proposed deal was not equitable and our responsibility was to the City of Longmont, not the builder. We voted down the proposal and asked the developer to come back with a solution that was fair to both parties which they later did.
Another vote I’m proud to stand behind was the vote to not fund the proposed Solar-Panel rebate program. The city of Longmont would have spent $150,000 to subsidize a handful of families in Longmont to put solar panels on their homes. Their benefit would have come at an expense to the rest of us through increased utility rates to pay for the subsidy. As we have seen recently in the news, subsidies to the solar energy industry have been lost to bankruptcies and mismanagement, and because of that, I’m proud to know that Longmont’s taxpayer money wasn’t part of that fiasco.
This is a very short list of some of our proud accomplishments under my leadership. I ask for your vote on November 1st so I may continue leading Longmont towards a greater future.
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