County invites public comments on board vacancy
Eight candidates have applied for District 1 board seat
Boulder County commissioners on Friday completed interviews with people who have applied to be appointed to fill an upcoming vacancy in the Regional Transportation District board seat that represents an area extending from Longmont to Broomfield.
Commissioners are now inviting pubic comments about those applicants.
Normally, the transit agency’s District I board seat would be filled in the Nov. 3 election. But the only previously announced candidate for the post, Broomfield resident Austin Ward, failed to turn in enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the ballot.
State law provides that when a vacancy occurs in an RTD board seat that represents more than one county, the board of commissioners from the county with the largest number of eligible voters in that district — in this case, Boulder County — is charged with filling the vacancy.
Ward, an RTD bus driver, is one of nine people who submitted applications to Boulder County commissioners for the appointment by a Sept. 28 deadline. Another of the nine applicants, retired Longmont Outreach United Resource (OUR) Center executive director Edwina Salazar, withdrew her application before commissioners began interviewing the eight remaining candidates for the RTD District I board position this month.
Besides Ward, the other applicants are Longmont-area residents Danielle Holmes, Bo Shaffer, Jonathan Singer and Kristian Vaswig, and Broomfield residents David Beacom, T.J. Cole and Erik Davidson.
Boulder County recorded the commissioners’ interviews with each of those eight applicants. People can view those tapes via Youtube, as well as the applicants’ September letters to the commissioners, and can submit comments about any or all of the eight applicants, through
links available at tinyurl.com/y3hgdt3n. Public comments must be submitted, however, by 4 p.m. Oct. 22.
“We would greatly welcome input from the community on the eight candidates who have taken the time to apply and interview for the position of RTD District I director,” Commissioners Deb Gardner, Elise Jones and Matt Jones said in a joint statement in Friday’s news release.
“We know not everyone has the time to watch each of the recorded interviews, but for those of you who are willing to provide feedback on one or more of the candidates, we have made the online comment form simple and easy to fill out.”
Boulder County commissioners plan to make their choice for the appointment during a public business meeting on Oct. 27.
The RTD board seat is a nonpartisan position,. District I covers much of Longmont as well as portions of unincorporated eastern Boulder County generally lying east of North 95th Street. It also represents Lafayette, Broomfield, Erie and parts of unincorporated Adams County and Weld counties.
The current District I director, Longmont resident Judy Lubow, has served in the position for eight years and is term-limited. Her term ends Dec. 31. RTD asked the Board of Boulder County Commissioners to fill the vacancy on or before the Nov. 3 general election so the newly appointed board director for District I can participate in the same post-election briefings and next year’s swearing-in activities as the winners of the other board seats that are being filled in this year’s elections.
Excerpts from the “letters of interest” the eight applicants sent to Boulder County commissioners last month:
Beacom, a former Broomfield City Council member who said he is a retired Xcel Energy employee and had worked in the RTD’S legal department from 1987 to 1997, wrote, “I would appreciate serving on the RTD Board so that the voice of District I reflects the needs of our communities and that that voice is heard and listened to.”
The transit agency’s Northwest Rail rail project “has been an area of great consternation for us in Broomfield and Boulder counties,” Beacom said. “So the current question is still what do we want, what form of it will actually work for us and how will it get paid for and when will it be a reality. We all know that whatever we thought it would be in 2004 is not what it will be in 2020 and onward.”
Cole, an attorney, wrote, “I would like to serve on the RTD Board because I am passionate about the work that RTD does, and I am a strong believer in public transportation. I believe in a future where ridership is high and local driving is reduced.”
Cole said, “I have been an active user of RTD my whole life. As a lifelong resident of Colorado, I have used RTD often, and have always thought about ways to improve the system and grow it. I have noticed that folks of lower incomes, mostly people of color ride … RTD in higher numbers and I would like to be an advocate for social justice on the roads and rails.”
Davidson wrote, “I am an entrepreneurial business leader with experience guiding teams through uncertain times. I would like to deploy my expertise to help RTD identify and execute creative solutions to redefine its future.”
Davidson said, “As RTD Director for District I, my first order of business will be to ensure that I properly understand the problems our district is facing. All of our constituents and all of our cities must be heard, and I will make that my top priority. Are we trying to maximize transit equity? Are we trying to reduce CO2 emissions? Are we trying to improve budget stability? Are we trying to encourage transit-oriented development?”
Holmes, a former student body president at Metropolitan State University of Denver who is completing a master of pubic administration degree at the University of Colorado Denver, said she had served an internship at Longmont’s OUR Center as the participant advocate, where she said, “I addressed issues such as affordable housing and the necessity of access to public transportation.”
Holmes wrote, “I understand the critical role that RTD plays in connecting people with opportunity, to managing increasing demands on our roads, transit systems, and to meet the challenges of climate change. I also understand the nuance of executive engagement, the challenges of budget development and program prioritization, and that negotiation and representation are critical to maximizing the constructive impact of RTD.”
Shaffer, the current chairman of the Boulder County Libertarian Party, a past candidate for several elected government offices and a former board member of the Left Hand Water District, wrote he is “very aware of, and somewhat connected to local governments in District I. I am not a political novice.”
Shaffer said he is “an ecologist by profession and will bring a critical yet knowledgeable and environmentally oriented eye to the board.” He said his goal is “to strongly and fiercely, but fairly, represent District I and try to see that we get our rightful RTD benefits and services. To do this economically and responsibly is the key. I am a socially liberal but fiscally conservative candidate.”
Singer, a former Boulder County Human Services Department staff member who’s finishing up nine years representing a northern Boulder County legislative seat in the Colorado House of Representatives, wrote the RTD board seat needs someone “who can hit the ground running to get the best outcomes for a highly neglected district.”
Singer said there are “a number of priorities for District I,” including “ensuring that service cuts are held to a minimum during the downturn, the State Highway 119 project is able to be completed, and that Northwest Rail funds are protected in a way that speeds up completion of RTD’S commitment to this corridor.”
Vaswig, who noted she runs her own commercial art business, wrote there “are many issues facing our district that RTD needs representation for.”
One issue Vaswig cited was the still-uncompleted Fastracks Northwest Rail service between Denver and Longmont. She said, “Along with many others, I have been paying a tax since 2004 for an alternative transportation system to Denver that is now projected to be 40-plus years behind schedule, and other board members are now discussing using hundreds of millions of that tax money for other ‘more pressing’ projects. This is unacceptable and District I needs better and more viable options in the near future for transportation to Denver.”
Ward wrote that as an RTD Bus Operator, “I have heard from riders in District I about how inconvenient RTD is for them to get almost anywhere. For those that live toward the periphery of the District’s boundaries, such as Longmont or Broomfield, service is either limited or nonexistent. Many times, it takes too long to get where you need to go using RTD but it does not have to, nor should it be that way.”
He said he wants to be the RTD’S District I board member “because I want to help make transit more affordable, more accessible, faster, and easier to use for everyone. I believe my experiences and education have not only given me the knowledge and tools I need to effectively implement the goals I wish to accomplish, but would help the Board of Directors make RTD better to ride, work with, and work for.”