Altschuler announces candidacy

Three contend for Longmont City Council at-large seat

Three candidates have emerged in the Longmont City Council at-large race now that Steven Altschuler has announced he is running for the seat in November.

“I call myself a constitutionalist and a free-market capitalist,” Altschuler said Friday.

Altschuler said he thinks the City Council should do more to protect and support Longmont’s “working citizens.” He said the city and Boulder County’s various ways of dealing with homelessness are not working.

“I’m fine with helping people … give them a hand up, not a handout,” Altschuler said. “If you’re going to put a homeless person into a motel and pay for their room and board, they should be attending school.”

A small business owner, Altschuler has lived in Longmont for more than 16 years and studied business at Pierce College in Southern California.

Altschuler hasn’t pursued public office before, but has spoken during “Public Invited to be Heard” at several Longmont City Council meetings to advocate for gun rights and other issues.

Councilmembers previously discussed gun-related ordinances, including raising the minimum purchasing age for firearms to 21 and requiring a 10day waiting period, but such measures haven’t passed. Instead, the Council released a statement concerning gun legislation that said, “We, the Longmont City Council, will not sit by and wait for another tragedy.”

Altschuler, though, does not believe the City Council — or anyone — has any business regulating firearms.

“The Second Amendment is pretty darn clear, and the other thing that’s equally clear is that any criminal will always find a way to get guns,” Altschuler said. “All these things do that any of the cities are trying to pass is take the guns out of the hands of people that are trying to protect themselves.”

If elected to the City Council, Altschuler said he would serve on the Longmont Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners, as that board consists of the mayor and councilmembers.

“First of all, I don’t really think

that government should be in the housing industry,” Altschuler said.

But he does think zoning ordinances to protect existing neighborhoods and property owners are of particular importance.

“I don’t think it’s right or fair to go make existing homeowners suffer just because we want more low-income housing,” Altschuler said.

By requiring 12% of units in new residential developments to be affordable to low- and moderate-income buyers, Altschuler said the city is making it more expensive for everyone else.

Developers also may pay a fee in lieu, which is based on square footage, to satisfy the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance.

“The City Council — they might have good ideas, but they don’t look at the chain reaction of what they vote for,” Altschuler said. “They’re actually creating more inflation, higher home prices, higher mortgage payments, higher rent payments.”

In addition to Altschuler, incumbent at-large Councilman Sean Mccoy and political newcomer Beka Venturella have announced their candidacies for the atlarge race, in which all citizens may vote.

This year’s election is scheduled for Nov. 7.