 Good evening and welcome to the Longmont Museum, a center for culture in northern Colorado where people of all ages explore history, discover art, and new ideas through dynamic programs, exhibitions, and events. My name is Justin Veach. I manage the Stuart Auditorium and curate public programs for the museum. Thank you all for being here. I'd like to thank especially all the people who make our programs possible, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, the Stuart Family Foundation, the Friends of the Longmont Museum, our many donors, and of course our museum members. We simply can't do all that we do without your support. So thank you. Tonight we are very proud and grateful to be able to offer this program and host this program, this mayoral debate 2021. But before we get going, I want to read a statement that was recently adopted by the city of Longmont. We acknowledge that Longmont sits on the traditional territory of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Yut, and other indigenous peoples. We honor the history and the living and spiritual connection that the first peoples have with this land. It is our commitment to face the injustices that happened when the land was taken and to educate our communities, ourselves, and our children to ensure that these injustices do not happen again. Thank you. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you tonight's moderator, Anton Dwarak. Thank you very much and good evening and from me welcome to the 2021 Longmont mayor debate. This debate is being brought to you through the sponsorship and joint production efforts of Longmont public media, media makerspace devoted to the education, production, and distribution of local media that matters to you. It is also being brought to you by the League of Women Voters of Boulder County. The League is a non-partisan political organization. For 100 years it has encouraged informed and active participation in government and influenced policy through education and advocacy. To remain non-partisan, the League never supports or opposes political candidates or parties. The League works throughout the year to help empower voters and defend democracy. We also want to especially thank the Longmont Museum for making this beautiful wonderful venue available for us. At this debate. Again, my name is Anton Dwarak. I'm an attorney here in town with Lyons-Gaddis and I will be serving as tonight's moderator. Now bear with me as I go through some pretty boring but important rules. Okay, the format for this evening's debate will be as follows. Each candidate will be given, will make an opening statement. We did ask for these in advance for the benefit of our interpreters upstairs. This is being live translated right now. So there are people up there fumbling through my talk as we speak. Nevertheless, they'll be given one minute to make an opening statement. Those have been supplied to the translators in advance. After each candidate has made their opening statement, I will ask a question which will be answered in a round robin fashion. Questions are based on questions and topics submitted by the public. I did not write the questions. Some of these questions I don't like. So don't blame me, please. Each candidate will have 60 seconds to answer the question directly or to respond to a previous candidate's answer. It's their choice. Candidates are only allowed to speak during their allotted time. Timekeepers down here at the front of the stage will hold up cards indicating when 15 seconds are left and then when you are to stop. See those right there? If you violate this rule after a few times, your mic might get cut. If you violate it continually, I don't even think I can tell you what's going to happen to you because there are children watching this on television. Let's just say do not cross the League of Women Voters. Each candidate will be allowed a one-minute closing statement. As I said, this is being translated on a spot. It sounds really stupid of me to say, oh, you've only got one minute to answer but try to keep your talk slow so that the translators can keep up. That's a tough ask. I get it. But there will be a quick pause after each answer so I can let the translators catch up. For the audience, first, masks must be worn at all times per city and county directives. Except for those of us on stage who are distant. Second, we ask you to refrain from reacting, responding, or displaying your support or opposition to any candidate or to their answers or comments. Let me translate that for you. No applause, no cheering, and no booing. And that actually also applies to the people watching at home. I'm sorry. I don't know. Those were just the rules that were given to me. With that, let's go ahead and welcome our candidates here tonight. We have Greg Harris, we have Joan Peck, and Tim Waters. Let's welcome them. We're gonna go ahead and give each candidate one minute for their opening statement and candidate Harris, you are first, sir. Thank you. Hello and good evening. I will intentionally speak slower for our Spanish-speaking viewers. I want to thank Longmont Public Media and the League of Women Voters for organizing this debate. Public forums like this go a long way to finding out what candidates really stand for. My name is Greg Harris. I've lived in Longmont for 50 years. I'm tired of watching things be done the same old way with the same old politicians. I am an outsider who wants to be mayor, so I can shake things up. It's time for a change. We support the development construction of middle-class houses and apartments. We need a quarterly progress report from the agencies responsible for project approval. That's actions, not words. We must address our infrastructure. With multi-trillion, we must not address it, with multi-trillion dollar excesses spending bills, but realistic building of roads and bridges. Public safety is one of the most important roles of government. And I am against any defunding other police. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm Joan Peck and I'm going to take this opportunity to say that your city and your city council have put a lot of attention toward equity in every policy and ordinance we make. I was very sad and disheartened by the flyers left at some of our businesses depicting hate for people in our community. I do not accept or condone this type of rhetoric from anyone. We should all speak out whenever we see or hear anyone spewing hateful and dangerous messages toward people of color, lifestyles, religion, etc. Saying nothing makes us complicit in the act. Having said that, I'm ending my sixth year on city council. I'm seeking the mayoral seat to continue and in some cases finish the work I've been doing on the fast track rail, homeless and unhoused people, local transportation, our environment, our air and infrastructure, which keeps our lights on. Thank you. Candidate Waters. Thank you to the League of Women Voters and to Longmont Public Media for sponsoring this session. Thank you, Anton, for volunteering your time as our moderator. I am Councilman Tim Waters. In 2018, I was elected to represent Ward 1, Longmont's east side on city council, and I'm now running to serve as your mayor for three reasons. Number one is the unfinished business that needs to be done on a vision and goals for Longmont the council adopted several years ago. Number two, if there was ever a time when municipalities need seasoned and effective leadership, it's now. I believe I bring the kind of leadership Longmont's going to need as we move into the future. And number three, we need a community-wide conversation on the kind of city we want to become as we continue to evolve. If we aspire to be a welcoming, healthy and vibrant community of the 21st century, what will be required of us and how do we work together to realize those aspirations? The next mayor is going to play a critical role in answering these questions with you and for the community. Thank you. Now we're going to get into some of the questions. If any of you need me to repeat a question after I've asked it, forget it. No, I'm kidding. If you need me to repeat a question, I'm happy to do so. Let's keep that in mind. Okay, and this question will go to Candidate Peck first. What are the three most crucial challenges facing the City of Longmont and what are your solutions for addressing them? Oh, that's a lot in one minute. So I think the most crucial things are number one, transportation, affordable housing or attainable and homelessness. My solution is affordable housing has to be not just for firefighters and teachers, but it has to be for everyone. We need to take a holistic approach. Transportation. We need to get that rail here. I am working very hard and I have for six years to do that. We are at a place in time where the probability of it happening is very, very close. I'm very excited to continue working on it. And air quality, climate change, we need to continually watch our air. I helped put the air quality monitoring stations at Union Reservoir as well as at Vance brand airport. Go to bolderair.com if you want to see what the air is like in Boulder. Thank you very much. Candidate Waters. For me, the three top issues that we're facing, one would be recovery from the pandemic. Second would be reducing our carbon footprint and third would be clarifying the identity of this community as it grows into the future. So for whatever it's worth on my website, Tim Waters for Mayor, I've organized for me what I think to be key issues under the two themes of reducing carbon footprint and recovery from the pandemic. And I think the key issues that are causing childcare transportation really are a nexus between both recovery and reducing our carbon footprint along with a number of other initiatives. My reference in my opening statement to a community-wide conversation about who we want to be, I think is maybe the biggest issue of all in terms of how we grow forward with growth being an emerging theme in this campaign. And that means how we do it and how we see ourselves in the future as we grow into what the Envision and Longmont plan suggests for us, I think is a critical need for us as a community. Thank you. Candidate Harris. Thank you. I believe middle class housing, infrastructure and government overreach are the three priorities. Middle class housing, I'm talking about attainable housing, workforce availability and quarterly reports to the city council and the public about projects and development the way they are not completed. Infrastructure, not a multi-trillion dollar pie in the sky. I'm talking about roads and bridges, for instance, Highway 66 and metro districts to assist in the development. The city council has repealed this sensible ordinance and government overreach, perhaps like the healthy beverage law or the carbon tax. I believe these need to be addressed. This is government overreach at its worst. My opponents believe in government overreach because I've heard them say it in the city council meetings. Next question we're going to start with candidate waters. What one thing would you do to make Longmont a more livable city? Well, I guess. For me, I'm going to go back to kind of where I've been spending my time. We have, if we're going to recover from a pandemic, if we're going to stabilize the workforce and if we're going to prepare a generation of our youngest residents to never have to need what we do now for the homeless or ready to step into the jobs that are going to be available through our successful economic development efforts, it's doing more and better with childcare. We have to reimagine the future of taking care of our children from ages zero to three and preparing them for school at ages four and five. And if we can get that right for an industry that's been crushed by the pandemic, then many of the challenges we face today and we'll face into the future are going to melt away. Thank you. Candidate Harris. Ask me that question again, Anton. I will. Absolutely. What one thing would you do to make Longmont a more livable city? Well, we all know it's growing and people want to move here. It's going to grow no matter what. The best thing to do is to help them find a place to live. We concentrate on affordable housing, which is wonderful. But with the upper, without upper class, middle class and lower class together, it's not a well rounded city. It's not balanced. I believe the attainable housing is what we need to focus on for the workforce and their families to live here. So we're not doing commuting. That commuting for three hours on the highway isn't creating pollution. And that the businesses that are putting the money out to train these people, you know, can keep them in the city. You know, you commute all the time. That's going to cause the pollution. You're going to be away from your family for three hours. And I don't see any reason that should be when back in 1966, they moved the fences back on highway 66 to put in a four lane highway. And it never happened. That's 50 years. We need to expand highways and build attainable housing. And finally on that question, Kennedy Pack. Thank you for that. Actually, I do think housing is our biggest challenge right now. But when I look at some of what is said about housing, I kind of find red flags. We talk a lot about attainable housing. We talk a lot about housing for teachers and firefighters. But the reality is we have no control over who rents or who buys those homes. We have no control as to whether they are residents of ours or if they're moving into this city. So for that growth is important in our inclusionary zoning ordinance. We have 12% of any new development has to be affordable. And I am going to use the affordable instead of attainable. And I think that those need to be permanently affordable so that we do not lose our middle and lower class because that is what we need. Thank you. Okay, the next question we're going to start with candidate Harris. How should Longmont deal with the homelessness issue? Well, I believe the homeless need our help. Many cities have homelessness. Say for San Francisco is building condos for them. But I've also know if you put everything out for them, you'll get more in your city. So I think the best way to address our homelessness here is make sure they're fed, make sure they're warm, make sure they have a place to sleep. Recently, people have been talking about tent cities going up everywhere and stuff. But I think the sugar beet plant where they are now is a pretty good spot to set up camp if we're going to do one of those. I hear the police. I talked to many of the homeless and they've told me the biggest problem is they get shoot away winter times coming very quickly. And I think we really need to concentrate on food, blankets and resources, bathrooms, places to clean up. And I think that should be a discussion that the city should have. This is something that we need to address all the citizens because this is a citywide problem, not just the city councils. Candidate Peck. Thank you. I've recently been in discussions with Mark Powell from the Our Center and Ellis from Hope as well as Recovery Cafe and some of the police in thinking about what we can do and move forward. We do have county ARPA funds, the American Relief Plan Act. And within those funds is the ability to find not band-aid solutions but permanent solutions for some of our problems. And we have been talking with people I just mentioned about what can we do together as service industries to the homeless to find and have constructed a permanent place for the homeless to go. So those are discussions and I think this is something that has to be solved. The council has walked around this subject the whole time I've been on council. Candidate Waters. Well I think we have to understand, I think your question probably is more focused on that segment of our homeless population that we would think of as vagrants. But we think about the homeless population in terms of segments from men and women from who are living in abused situations to seniors who are being squeezed out of their homes to veterans who are sleeping on the street tonight to families living in cars. Homeless is not one problem, it's a collection of segments and every segment of that population requires a different kind of a strategy. So if we're talking about the vagrant population, we can't get them housed without building more homes. So that's where the affordable housing initiative, a special transitioning housing becomes critical. Housing without support, wraparound services is doomed for failure. We've seen that in housing first initiatives around the country. Housing continuing to support the hour center in hope with their outreach and I think what we do with navigation and coordinator and entry services is it puts us on the right path to getting people where they need to be. Okay we're going to go on to our next question and this will first go to candidate Peck. Many small business owners in our city wish they could afford a location in long months downtown due to the popularity of that area with the public. What should the city do to extend the benefits of long months downtown to other locally owned businesses? Thank you. This is a difficult subject. You know I understand that long months downtown is very special and we have to credit LDDA for that. But we do have a plan to extend the downtown in the south side as well as to the north, to the north and the south, making Main Street more viable in further locations. But we have really good spaces in our city where businesses don't want to go downtown because it's too expensive. For example Harvest Junction is a good place that businesses want to locate. I think it is the expense of downtown and I don't know what the city can do because that is under the Longmont Downtown Development Association. We do sit on the board of that. I think there are specific things the city can do. Sometimes the institution and sometimes it's elected officials. What distinguishes the Longmont Downtown Development Authority is their creation, working together with the city to create a jurisdiction where they tax themselves. There's a property tax, they levy on themselves and then they get to decide how to spend that money. And much of what others see is a result of that sacrifice if you will or that contribution but also their control. So I think whether it's the city or the next mayor, and I think the next mayor has the greatest potential to do this, to reach out to both Midtown and North Main business owners and at least facilitate a conversation about the creation of a merchants association. That's a way to start with little things, purchasing power, cleaning materials, cutotile supplies. And if you could work that out, then the potential that North Main creates the same kind of jurisdiction through a general improvement district that happened downtown. There's no science there. It's pretty straightforward. Candidate Harris. Thank you, Anton. I believe that Main Street is going to keep building. That's a great place. Everyone wants to build on there. But we could also go east and west of Block. I mean, in between all the streets, 4th and 5th Avenue, you see a little strips of businesses and stuff and people like going down there. I don't think we need to focus completely on Main Street for building. This long line has that small town feel and I love it and I want to keep that. I think if we focus on making what we have special, then I believe it's going to bring the businesses in. COVID hurt a lot of businesses and I believe the healthy beverage ordinance and the carbon tax didn't help anyone else who made it through COVID to survive. But we can help those businesses by helping them get into those businesses. We can help them get into the vacant businesses that were left from COVID, but we can also get them in between Main Street and the next block over on both sides. And we can start heading down south. There's plenty of land to build down there. And I think pretty soon Longmont is going to flow south all the way to the end of the 287 soon. Okay. This next question, we will start with candidate waters. Do Longmont police treat all people equally or do they use force or other methods of coercion against people who don't deserve it? If our public safety, if our police department were misusing force or in fact every use of force is reviewed by a citizens review panel. So if there are occasions when force is misused, officers are held accountable, it's reviewed, they're held accountable, recommendations go to the appropriate personnel. That said, I've asked for a report honestly on the number of cases annually where there is some accusation in a review and it's remarkably small. Our department does keep data and disaggregate data based on race and ethnicity. I think of all the departments you were going to lay out in review in the country, Longmont's probably is on a continuum way, excuse, way towards the end of fairness, equity in real time justice as law enforcement engages with residents. Thank you. Candidate Harris. Thank you, Anton. I love the police in Longmont. I think we have a great force. It is down 10% or at least 45 officers. They have them in training. It takes a little over a year to get them back. That question I believe comes from the national news and it doesn't apply to Longmont. General comments are favorable to the police in Longmont. I happen to know several of them. Several have received police awards, police of the year awards. I think we have a great force. Right now, I believe Longmont problems need Longmont solutions. So I think that is another problem. I'd like everything to come up before the public. I don't think we should do anything without bringing it before the public. The problem with this current city council is they do things. They say, well, you had months to hear it, but the news isn't out there. You can't hear what's going on. Half the city doesn't know what's going on. I think we need to be more with outreach to the citizens of Longmont and see what they think. Things can always be put on a ballot. There's nothing wrong with asking the citizens of Longmont what they think and feel. Candidate Peck. Would you repeat that question, please? Happy to. Do Longmont police treat all people equally or do they use force or other methods of coercion against people who don't deserve it? If force or coercion is used, we have a definite way of holding the police accountable. I believe that our police in Longmont are very good at holding themselves accountable. I trust our new chief of public safety, Zach Artis, and I am anxious to see how he runs our police force. I think we have a good police force. I do not think we have many cases, if any, since I've been on council that have come to the point of having excessive force. Next question. We're going to start with candidate Harris. How would you address residents' complaints regarding urban noise such as the airport, trains, and fireworks? Well, once again, you're going to need to bring the citizens on this. I mean with fireworks, the complaint is people are blowing off giant fireworks and when the police get there, which they're being pulled off, more important things. So our resources are going to this. You need the citizens to identify the perpetrator, putting cameras up on your houses, going out with your phones. This helps the police to arrest them and force fines and the higher the penalty, the better, because then that would stop. Also, some of these are caused by a lot of them, by straight pipe motorcycles and hot rods and their trucks with the pipes and stuff. If we had adequate police officers, which like I said, it would be another year, they could be sent down to deal with these issues. Right now they're overworked, but there's plenty of time for these guys to have the citizens help them and when we help them, we help ourselves. Candidate Peck. So to address the train noise with the freight trains, I have been working with a couple of Colorado Rail, BNSF, to actually discuss, they are discussing moving all of the freight out of the front range and moving it all to the east. It is too expensive for BNSF to run their freight in towns anymore because of too many stop signs and the liability. So Wyoming just recently has gotten into the conversation and have applied for a huge grant to make this happen. So these discussions are ongoing. Before that happens, we are putting in quiet zones. I think that when the trains were put in through our city, we were very, very small. As far as the airport noise, there is a vision to the vision in airports is to have electric engines. They're still in pilot programs. So hopefully. Rules or rules. Candidate Waters. Specifically on fireworks. We've all experienced what feels like a war zone the last couple of years over the fourth of July. But the fact of the matter is, any neighborhood that wants to reach out to our police department, and I've connected several neighborhood leaders with our police department in the weeks prior to the fourth, they're willing to come meet with your neighborhood and see if you can't forge some kind of an agreement among one another to reduce fireworks. So one thing to arrest people may be the better time, better use of time to reach out ahead of time to establish some expectation for one another is how we're going to treat one another on the fourth of July. With respect to the airport on my website, I've laid out what I think to be development at the airport that makes sense. And that is to become the western hub for research development and manufacturing of electrified aviation that will quiet those skies. And the quiet zones that were funded and we're starting in 2002 on construction will indeed over the next three years reduce noise in the through the center of town. All right. This next question will go to candidate peck first. Many residents in the community struggle to afford the rising costs of childcare. Should the city address childcare affordability? Yes, I think they should. I think that our discussions have been about childcare and preschool as far as our work plan that the council has put together. How that's going to look at this point, I don't know. And the reason that I struggle with it is that we have childcare in homes and we have childcare in centers. These are two totally different types of childcare. And we also have to address the fact that some of the homes are not licensed. Do we as a city, and this is a question I asked myself, do we financially help those unlicensed daycare homes? The other thing is that we do have funds in the city through the ARPA funds. Again, the Relief American Relief Plan Act to address this. And it is one of the things that I believe in candidate waters. If we're going to recover from the pandemic, and if we're going to stabilize the workforce, and if we're going to do anything about reducing the huge gaps that show up when kids are kindergartners as five-year-olds, then doing more and better ages zero to five is absolutely incumbent upon us. And yes, the city can do a lot. The city is doing a lot right now. We've increased year-over-year budgets for early childhood. It was fun to see some of the members of our early childhood coalition in this audience today who know the kind of commitments we made to salvage the industry during the pandemic and are actively engaged in the process of reimagining what the whole industry looks like in the post-pandemic future. We cannot drag into the future what we've experienced in the past. It failed our children and our families. It will fail our economic recovery and our children and our families in the future. So the only way that's going to happen is for us to get serious about how we subsidize those costs, not necessarily with local dollars, probably more later. You're all just slipping past it just a little bit, but that's okay. I'm watching. Okay, candidate Harris. Thank you. First of all, I think we need to let the kids, the parents decide if they need to wear masks in school. It's a travesty that are making these children wear those. Next, I would like to go back to something else. I don't believe I said arrest. People using fireworks, I said find them. And as far as electric planes go, they can barely fight a sterling without having them be recharged. You know, I think capitalism will bring those closer to reality. Back to the daycares, I think that the city could maybe pull out of the general fund some assistance by bringing any other revenue from the city. We could assist daycares and have them grow. I know a lot of them went out of business during COVID. And the way to bring those back is with some kind of financial assistance. I think if we do things like maybe put in your restaurant in the airport, that would bring in more revenue for the city since it's a municipal thing. I also think we should upgrade a lot of the mechanics around their, you know, the pumps and stuff like that. Okay, this next question will go to candidate Waters first. And it is, what is the ethical obligation of the city of Longmont to limit carbon emissions in order to address the global challenge of climate change? Yeah, if I wish I could claim having said this, that every election from now on will be an election about climate and carbon reduction. I'll say again on my website I've listed a number of things that for me are kind of the leading opportunities for us to continue to work with PRPA. First of all, the ethical, there's no doubt or question that there's an ethical obligation for now and for every generation to come. We have to continue to work with Platte River Power Authority, to hold them accountable for doing whatever is necessary to meet the 100% renewable energy goal by 2030. Beyond that we've got a pretty robust set of recommendations from our Climate Action Task Force to which we need to make commitments in terms of budget. We need a regional solution for solid waste diversion and we are about to get the building codes that would update our building codes to produce more efficient residents and commercial structures in Longmont. Thank you, candidate Harris. Yeah, my opponent signed off on a Costco recently, who wants to dump three 44,000 gallon gas tanks in the ground going down south. But both my opponents also vote for the carbon tax. So I believe if you're going to say one thing, your actions should follow through. Let's be realistic. We need gas and oil for a little while longer. And Longmont City Council is trying to phase out oil and gas. That's just going to come down to the consumer. Experimenting with electric vehicles is fine. I like that. But forcing a carbon tax down the people of Longmont is bad. Like I said, that'll dribble all the way down to the lower income families from the middle to the lower. Some cities have solar panels on the street lights. Let's try something easy first. Let's start small and work our way up there. But jamming a carbon tax down the people's throat without at least putting it on the ballot, I think was irresponsible to say the least. Candidate Peck. Thank you. First of all, we did not force a carbon tax on our residents. What we did was to put our support behind a federal carbon tax that is coming before Congress. Longmont doesn't have to worry we're not going to force anything down your throat as far as carbon goes. Do I think that carbon emissions is an ethical thing for Longmont to pursue? Yes, I do. Oil and gas will be here for a long time. It does take a long time to turn a ship in the ocean. When you look at how long it took to get rid of tobacco in public places, it took decades. So we have to keep working on this. And we are not the only ones. This is a worldwide effort to clear up our air and our ozone layer. Carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions has been targeted as one of the number one reasons. This next question is going to go to candidate Harris first. And it is. Longmont has committed to 100% renewable electricity by the year 2030. What qualifications will you look for in a Platte River Power Authority board appointee? Well, first of all, I'd like to finish up and address my opponent's thing. During the city council meeting where they voted for this, they were all speaking about it prior to. And they were all telling the people sitting around that they were going to vote for this before they even listened to the people who were sitting in the audience. So I do think this was preplanned. As far as that, I would get together a committee of qualified people to address the situation. And then I would bring it out to a vote among the citizens of Longmont, put it on a ballot and let them choose how they want to approach it. I wouldn't decide for them. I would give them all the facts and let them decide as a city. I think the citizens of Longmont are very intelligent. And I think they can pretty much decide for themselves how they want to proceed into the future as far as phasing out gas and oil and bringing in renewable energies. Candidate Peck. Thank you. The person that sits on the board of Platte River Power Authority is the mayor and one staff member. The mayor, those are the two that have the vote on that board. What I think the qualification should be should be the vision of where the residents, the public wants to go in the future. It should be a regional vision. Whether you are on Platte River Power Authority or you belong to, or you're getting power from Excel. If you are in our region, I would like to see the vision of all of the power companies working together to move us forward. It isn't enough for just four cities to have a vision. We have to do it as a region. And that vision for me is reducing our carbon footprint. It isn't just from gas and oil. We had our last update. I'll never get this right. Candidate Waters. I think the question was what would I look for in board members? First of all, the willingness to learn. I suspect anybody who's kind of served on a board and council member Peck is right, the mayor has a seat on that board. And if you're looking for other board members, you'd like to find somebody who are steeped in the kind of technologies in terms of production of electricity. But if they don't bring that knowledge, their willingness to learn. Number one, number two, somebody who understands how corporations operate in the relationship between outcomes and incentives. And one of the concerns that I have about the Platte River Power Authority is the disconnect or the failure to align how corporate execs get compensated with what the outcomes or the productivity is of the corporation. They are incented to sell electricity, not incented based on the type of the source of that electric generation. So it's... All right, thank you. This next question we're going to start with candidate Peck. Should Longmont's next light service be made available to residents at cost? I think that next light service needs to be able to pay for itself. If we do not need to raise the resident's cost, it should not be a profit making service. So no, we shouldn't raise the rates if we are running the system, if we are extending the service to other parts of Longmont. If we have the ability to have high, good next light service without raising the cost, then I think no, we shouldn't. It should not be a profit making. Candidate Waters? Yeah, I don't think next light is profit making, nor do I think it should be. But even as a non-profit, every non-profit, if they're going to stay in business, has to generate sufficient revenues to cover costs. In the case of next light and other non-profits like next light. If there's a small margin and it needs to be small, but if there's a small margin and next light generates more revenue than it needs to cover its expenses. For me, it's okay as long as every one of those dollars are reinvested in next light in service enhancement or expansion or reduction of costs or subsidies of cost to residents. If there's a dollar that comes out of next light to subsidize some other fund in the city, I think that would be shameful. If I was aware of it, I'd do something to redirect how the resources are used. But a virtual cycle or process of a reinvesting in capacity and delivery in reliability in next light, I think is the responsible behavior of its leadership. Thank you, Candidate Harris. Well, my platform is I don't want to see any more fees. I don't care how you call them. Any fee is bad. Raising taxes too. I don't want to see taxes raised. Whatever it takes, if next light can be brought free to the public, I like that very much. But I don't want to see any kind of increase in the public because of it. I think they could probably find revenue outside of the city. As far as that goes, perhaps we could form a committee and have it discussed further instead of, you know, in a quick form kind of situation here. But I'm all for helping businesses. I love all businesses. So, you know, any way we could help them so we help ourselves is probably first on the agenda. But I don't want to see any of the citizens of Longwood be charged for this. We have enough fees on, we have enough things like when they try to raise the water rates and it's voted down on a ballot, they call it a fee and they charge it to us anyways. It's happened at least two or three times in the last four years, 10%, 9%, four years ago, 2%, or 10%, two years ago. This next question we're going to start with Candidate Waters. What will you do with Longmont share of the federal infrastructure bills which are pending in Congress? Well, it would be nice to know what the numbers of dollars will be. But we've heard a lot about housing and without a doubt there's a huge chunk of that that should go into our affordable housing fund. The city makes great use of every dollar that's in that fund for subsidizing down payment and rental deposits, etc., security deposits. But beyond that, I think our best hope, honestly, to create a regional transportation solution is to be positioned with the district, with private sector investors and other municipalities in Boulder County to be at the right place at the right time with our congressional leadership in the private sector to go after at least our share, if not more, of those dollars to cover the cost of the completion to delivery on the promise from 2004 with the Northwest Corridor. Thank you, Candidate Harris. Let's be realistic. The infrastructure bill is stuck in Congress. Nobody knows what share we should get since nobody knows what will be in the final bill if it's adopted even. Let's focus on the American Rescue Plan. That plan's already been enacted. We have to fight for our share of the county distributions. We need to manage our growth. Yes, we will grow. But we need to keep the small town feeling of Longmont and grow responsibly. But we can always grow. We can grow up. We can grow out a little bit, but we don't need to pile everything in one little area. We need to get whatever we can for the workforce housing, not just housing for the poor. Affordable housing is great, but we've been focused on that for four years. There is no attainable housing. Metro Coalition put out a report recently that 11 counties agreed that there was no attainable housing, especially in Longmont. 11, in Longmont being one of them, we have no attainable housing. And my opponent here has been on the thing for four years and there's still none. Candidate Peck. Thank you. Well, the bill is still stuck in Congress, but I have great hopes that we're going to get it passed in some form or other. And I definitely want the Amtrak is going after a lot of money. $60 billion is supposed to go to transportation with $12 billion of that coming to this area. We've already partnered with Amtrak, BNSF, RTD under the Front Range Passenger Rail. I have been in every single one of these meetings for seven years and have networked. I'm excited about the ability, the probability of finishing this. I do believe that housing is number one and there will be a lot of money for housing. We need to look at housing on all levels, not just on specific income brackets. We have residents who are living in cars in Longmont. We have three save flots with 33 cars waiting. The next question we're going to start with candidate Harris. The question is, some people in our community say that we have traffic problems. How would you mitigate those concerns or change the situation? Well, there's several ways that that changes, and I like to bring a lot of the agencies in on that, so I get all the facts and the data first. Without the empirical data, you don't really know what you're doing. But from living here for 50 years, I can say, yeah, the lights are set at the wrong timing. Traffic has increased greatly. We are building apartments everywhere, and that's a great thing. I love building. I love construction. I love everything about infrastructure. But without the roads to allow us to get around and without the lights time-growing, all you do is make people stop and start more, which creates more pollution. I believe if we start with internally in the city, say with the traffic lights and the timing, and maybe putting a few turn signals in, a good example would be when you're going down 3rd Avenue and you're heading east. Right on Main Street, there's no turn arrow for the guys going east. There's a turn arrow for the people going west, and that creates a big jam up when the lights go green both ways. Okay. Candidate Peck. Thank you. I sit on a connectivity group which is about local transportation. We are looking at partnering or subsidizing with some other type of local transportation, subsidizing the RTD that we already buy as free for the local people. We're looking at shuttles. We're looking at rideshares with Lyft, with Via, and getting those companies together to sit down at the table and see what it would take for them to offer these bus services in Longmont, and then take it to the public and ask them where we need the routes in Longmont. Where do you need the buses to go? Where do you need the shuttles to go? So this is something that we're working on, but I have to say that a lot of this traffic is coming from Weld and Larimer counties, because Longmont, downtown Longmont has gotten very cool, and people have told me they love it. Candidate Waters. I think traffic congestion, and when you're in it, it's awful. To a large degree, I think it's in the eye of the beholder for people who have lived in really gridlocked cities. Longmont doesn't feel like, I suspect, it's a huge problem. But certainly along Pratt Parkway and Hoover at rush hours both morning and afternoon, a lot of that is the commuters coming through town. It's frustrating without doubt. So I don't know how many of you had a chance to visit the open house on the busway plan that will use Kauffman differently to get commuters to the transit station and what's coming with a bus rapid transit solution between Longmont and Boulder. We just, the council just accepted and approved a transportation plan, a local transportation plan to take us into the future. And I think on the horizon is the discussion about a public-private partnership for an electrified local bus solution that brings public and private interests together. Okay, the next question, we'll start with candidate Peck. And that question is, what steps will you take to ensure that the interests of various diverse groups are considered in your decisions? This could include diversity based on racial, cultural, economic diversity, as well as diversity of thought or political views. That's a heavy question. First of all, I think we need to hear the voices of all those people. Some of our ordinances are very old and they are not made with equity. So I would bring those voices first to whatever policy, whatever ordinance that we are considering and get their input on how it would affect them. Whether it's LGBTQ, whether it's people of color, whether it's different quadrants of where people live in the city, everything we do affects everything we do. So all the voices need to be heard and then a policy needs to be made with council and staff discussing all of the things that we've heard from different parts of our city. We always need to listen to the people. Okay, candidate Waters. The work of the council involves a number of different tasks and folks here may or may not realize that what happens on Tuesday night is not the most fun part of city council. What is the most fun part of city council? What happens on the other six days of the week? And those are opportunities to meet, to reach out, which we all do, to reach out to individuals in the community, to organizations in the community, to be available when invited to meet. But six days a week, I suspect most of us spend our time listening intently to either concerns or aspirations, suggestions or adaptations to what we're doing. And I think it is both a formal and informal process, but I think that's where that happens. We certainly create study groups and we have advisory boards, but I think it's the day-to-day listening and engaging with the public that is incumbent upon us. Candidate Harris. Thank you, Anton. There was a woman here the other night speaking last night at another meeting I was at last week or two ago who said she couldn't find any place to live in this town. She was looking for middle-class housing. She was trying to get on the city council, so I think we need to address that. But she would be great for this. We should create committees of the different groups in the different neighborhoods. We could have someone represent all of the neighborhoods, each person come in and have someone represent them. We could include this person who is also running for the city council and we could get their ideas on how we can bring all the groups together. And I think that's a good way to do it is by addressing all the neighborhoods. You don't want to do this with maybe five or six people sitting behind a desk. I think this is something the neighborhoods should decide. The citizens of Longmont, and I think if given a chance, like I said, Longmont's very intelligent, this could be worked out in no time. Alright, the next question we're going to start with Candidate Waters. In light of recent anti-Semitic and white supremacist propaganda posted throughout the city, do you have a response to that as a potential community leader? Well, I'd like to think that I'm a community leader now. I think it was repugnant. It violates every principle, value that we should stand for and stand into. I understand the decision of the county attorney or the district attorney not to prosecute the individual for reasons having to do with the First Amendment. But I think we all need to be clear what we lean into, what we're willing to stand for, and who we're willing to stand with. And in this case, I'm willing to stand with Council Member Peck and other members of City Council, and every member of this business community has said this is intolerable. It's not us, and it won't be us in the future. Candidate Harris. I agree with everyone on this stage. In light of the anti-Semitic and white supremacist graffiti, what did you do? There's graffiti everywhere, and I just don't talk about it. I work with volunteers to remove it, and I have for years. I support an education to let people know why it's being done. I also support any community involvement. You have to keep an eye out in your community. I have put signs up in cameras on my own street, and it's always helped the police in the past when something happened. And now we don't have any crime on our street. It's a wonderful neighborhood. Everyone watches out for each other, and that's how long line has to be. It has that hometown feel we should utilize that and keep that going and keep it alive. Silence is complicity as far as I'm concerned, but I'm not accusing of any one of that. I just think no one's aware of what's going on in certain neighborhoods. But in my neighborhood, it was on a giant church wall. It had like a 20-foot thing I was trying to clean off. All right, Candidate Peck. I'm going to make my time on this one. This was so important to me that I used it for my opening address. So I won't bother you with reading it again. Okay. So the next question will be to Candidate Harris first. It is a yes or no question, but I'm still going to let you have your full minutes. So either you can stretch your yes by going, yes, or go no. Or you can add to it as you would like to. So with that, the question is yes or no, do you trust the results of this, that the results of this election will be fairly tabulated? Oh, jeez. That's a tough one. In light of everything that's been going on in the United States, of course I would. Yeah. Of course, Anton. That was about the easiest one you dumped on me. Candidate Peck. Yes. Candidate Waters. Without question. Very good. Okay, this next question will go to Candidate Peck first. And the question is, should Longmont allow multifamily housing in all neighborhoods? You know, our Envision Longmont has divided the city up into spaces where multi housing is offered. I don't think that in our historic neighborhoods we should always allow multi, multi, what did you call that? Multi-family housing. We need to protect our historic neighborhoods and we need to make sure that any neighborhood in the older parts of town are not turned into commercial neighborhoods where there are apartment buildings that are run by corporate entities. The flavor of Longmont keeping it a small town is because of our neighborhoods. I understand that in new developments you can have multi-family housing because it's designed for that. Thank you. Candidate Waters. I'm going to guess that the basis for the question really is what's happened with zoning historically in municipalities across the country, specifically to exclude members of the community. So single-family zoning with certain lot sizes and certain house sizes, that has been from day one a discriminatory practice, the whole day dreadlining in who is in and who is out. So as we go through the review of our own ordinances, land codes and zoning, we need to be very specific of what we hope to see as outcomes. So there may be exceptions somewhere for some reason that multi-family housing wouldn't make sense, but for the most part I would say we need to be clear that we would support multi-family housing across the community, across the city. Candidate Harris. I don't want to keep it a small town. I want to keep the small town feeling, but this town is going to grow. It's going to keep growing. We just need to do it responsibly. Walking down the street today and every day I walk down the street. Main Street, you see someone, and Main Street is probably the best example because it's so busy. You see someone you say hello and they say hello back or they say hello to you. You can keep the small town feeling and you can still grow your town. As far as protecting historical neighborhoods, that goes without saying. I think everyone is proud of Third Avenue and the historical that's just west of Main Street. And I like to keep that, but possibly in the future we could have multi-family housing. I'm not against it, but I think that's something that the people in the neighborhood once again should decide. It shouldn't be done by people sitting around half around table in a little room. These things need to be brought before the citizens of Longmont, and it voted for Mayor. Vote Harris for Mayor and I'll make sure that happens. Okay. I just lost track for a second there, but I'm still with you folks. Okay. Next question. We're going to start with candidate Waters. Longmont has many challenges related to the desirability of living here, including the cost of housing, reduced air quality, and traffic. How should Longmont accommodate all the people who want to live here? Well, I don't know. I don't know what people accommodate all the people would like to live here. The Envision Longmont plan projects our growth, our build out to be at 118,000 residents, with what the council has done to encourage more density along our urban or our business corridors. Main Street, Pratt, and Hoover. With additional density and going vertical to achieve that density, it may be that we get to 125,000. That was the build out number that we talked about when we took to the public to approve on a ballot. The Chimney-Hollows project is part of Wendy Gap. We are going to accommodate somewhere between 116,000 and 125,000 based on current growth rates, current houses per unit, and houses per acre, etc. What we will do, there's a number of policy options, to increase the likelihood that the housing inventory reflects what's needed in terms of inventory. Thank you. Candidate Harris. Attainable middle-class housing. I've said it a million times, I'll keep saying it. That's what we do. The challenge is to maintain a small town feeling while we're continuing to grow. People want to live in Longmont. Businesses want to hire. We need to first focus on how we keep this small town feel. I say there's plenty of room to grow if we just go, say, south of Main Street, south of 1st Avenue. We can go from Main Street west to the airport. There's plenty of land for growth. And there's a lot of places where you can do middle-class housing, attainable-class housing. There's places for more affordable housing. But once we get the middle-class housing and we can bring the workforce in, that will reduce the carbon footprint. If you're not on the road three hours a day, thousands of hundreds of cars, whatever it is, I mean, there's quite a bit of traffic coming in and out of Longmont. People going out to work, people coming in. We make it easier for them to do that. Traffic flow, you're not stopping and starting bumper to bumper. That'll cure a lot of the problems all at once. Candidate Peck. It isn't just about how many people we want to live in Longmont or how many people who want to live in Longmont. It's also, do we have the resources for people to live in Longmont? We have a real problem worldwide at this point with water. A lot of the cities in the states are having problems with water in their own cities. Yes, we have Chimney Hollow. Yes, we are going to be putting our water rights into that reservoir. But are we going to have enough water to even fill up Chimney Hollow? So I think that we need to pay attention and re-evaluate our resources as we have migration coming from both coasts because of the climate, fires, hurricanes, et cetera. And make sure that we have all the resources we need to take care of the people who are living here. Okay, this next question will go to candidate Harris first. And the question is, what have you done to help the community adapt to and recover from the global pandemic? Well, the second it happened, I implemented in, I do property maintenance. The second it happened, property management, excuse me. The second it happened, I allowed my tenants to use their security deposits to pay for the utilities since the city council didn't put a moratorium on utilities. Everyone still had to pay it through COVID. So businesses that weren't making any money were having to pay bills that they couldn't afford. So I allowed them to use that for their property taxes, for their rent, for their utilities, whatever it took to help. And then when we came back from it, we allowed them to pay that security deposit back a little bit at a time so it wasn't quite a burden on them. And that way, when they came back and their businesses reopened, they hit the ground running. So they started in the black instead of in the red, which a lot of business, which I was not foreclosing businesses during COVID. If you didn't want to go into one, you didn't have to. But letting Walmart sell bikes while closing a little bike shop didn't make any sense to me. And they're saying with the masks, if you don't want to go into someone's businesses, don't go in there if you don't like they're not wearing a mask. All right. Candidate Peck. On council, I made a motion to use the city council contingency fund of $10,000 to allow business, I'm sorry, residents to get vouchers, $25 vouchers to be able to order food from restaurants to help our restaurants go, keep going. And that was really, really successful. The chamber ran it for us. Personally, I worked at food banks and just tried to do what we could. It was very difficult time. So we'll continue to work. We have money in our contingency fund that we can continue to work to help people through COVID. Candidate Waters. Like probably most of the people in this room and council member Peck, my wife and I volunteered at the round pantry, you know, kind of personal things, certainly support what we did as a council beyond that. What the city worked with, with our business committee through the LDDA and through the chamber, to suspend some of the payments they would otherwise be obligated to make until they were able to get through the pandemic. We worked with the Longmont Economic Development Partnership who worked with Boulder County to achieve the five star rating program that allowed our businesses to operate at a classification when we are on the dial at one level below what the dial was. And that only happens when we have the kind of relationship with the partners in the LEDP to make that happen. Personally, beyond that, some of you probably were involved in some of the work I did as a volunteer for Longmont Public Media with the Voices and Vision Project and trying to give residents a chance to... I'll just... Okay, this next question we're going to start with Candidate Peck. What are your thoughts on mask and vaccination mandates to combat the spread of COVID-19? I think everybody should follow the Boulder County Health mandates. They are doctors, epidemiologists who are watching the whole COVID response throughout the country. I don't know anybody who have told me they don't want to wear masks, who are actually scientists or doctors or whatever. We are supposed to be doing things for the good of all. And it is not a big deal, I think, to wear a mask. So if I can keep somebody else from being sick because I won't wear a mask, I don't think that's right. If I can keep them from becoming sick and wear a mask, then I will do it. I don't think that it is a problem for school children to wear masks. School teachers who are teaching classes with kids with masks don't have a problem at all. My three-year-old grandson wears a mask. Candidate Waters. Yeah, I think nobody likes wearing a mask. We'll wear them, but we wear them because we have to or we need to or we're obligated to. I am in the same place. I'm on the record with this in a number of ways to say that we... I owe it to my family for my own health to follow the direction of public health experts, in this case Boulder County. I owe it to my neighbor to do what I can to protect his or her health. And if that means wearing a mask, if that means remaining socially distanced, then it's something called the public or common good. And we have really struggled in this country with being clear on where my rights and our responsibilities either connect or break. And I think we need to keep invigorating that understanding of what our individual rights are, but what we owe one another. And when it comes to public health, we owe one another masking when necessary. Candidate Harris. Thank you. First of all, I think volunteering is very noble. I've been doing it for the last 20 years. As far as masks goes, and the recent action by the Boulder County government was an example of perfect government overreach, just like we've been doing here. I heard some data about long runs, 82% vaccinated, 15% probably have some medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask. If the city wants to make a mask mandate, that's fine. It should have been a city decision for Boulder and Boulder alone. Longmont is not Boulder. If you want to wear a mask, fine. But if you don't, you shouldn't be cruelly treated or criticized by someone for not doing it. If you have a problem, you should wear a mask. Don't force someone else to do that. That's taking away their rights. Boulder City wants to do that, like I said. That's fine. Business owners are paying a lot of covering and cleaning and other costs. Some of these costs are being cost. These costs are being added a fixed amount to their invoices to cover the COVID relief. So the consumer is paying for all this overreach and higher prices as well. People should make their own decisions about getting the vaccine and wearing the mask. I had COVID and I got the vaccine. Okay, we are getting pretty close here, folks. I swear. Okay, this question, candidate Waters will take it first. And the question is, what could the City of Longmont have done to better work with Boulder County Public Health to handle the COVID-19 pandemic? Well, I wish I was on the inside of some of the details early on. But without a doubt, clarity and consistency and communication. There were times when we as a council in public discourse did not help, didn't contribute to a shared understanding of what the expectation was and what our response should be. We fueled in some ways some of the politicization or some of the personalization that manifests in some of what we've even heard tonight. So for me then and now, as with our expectations for us as leaders, is to set an example of what's in the best interest for the greatest number. And that's what we could do, I think, to improve the performance of Boulder County generally to stay true to the greatest good for the largest number and model what that means. Candidate Harris. Well, I don't think we were getting any correct empirical data from the feds. So that is the first problem. When Fauci was saying one thing and then saying something else, it was very confusing. You can't be so contradictory when you're talking to the American people. You need to release all the facts. We weren't getting any facts. And to this date, I still don't think we are. They haven't done any tests on masks in America. This date is coming from India or somewhere else, I believe. So there's a reason that we're not getting it. But as far as the citizens of Longmont and helping Boulder County, as far as taking care of the problem, I don't know what else you could have done. We were wearing masks. We were staying in. They closed businesses, which I was 100% against. They forced the kids to wear masks now and they say that the kids don't have a problem with it. So I don't know what else we can do until we get more data or correct data. Okay. Candidate Peck. Would you repeat that question, please? Happy to do that. What could the city of Longmont have done better? I'm going to repeat it again because I just fumbled it. What could the city of Longmont have done to better work with Boulder County Public Health to handle the COVID-19 pandemic? You know, this is something brand new. Everybody was struggling on the both the state and county levels as to how we were going to handle this. So there were a lot of missteps as the learning process went on. Boulder County has great, we've had great response. We've had great less incidents, less deaths than other places. So I think that we followed the Boulder County Health advisory very well and they struggled to get the data that they needed and gave us the best information they could at the time they could. And our city manager admitted at times that the data wasn't exactly where he thought it should be, but they were still working on it. And as they found it, they would give it back to us. So it was a work in progress. And I think Boulder County has done well. I think Longmont's doing great. So let's just keep it up, keep moving forward and stay healthy. All right. You know, we've reached pretty close to the end. You've all done a really good job. Take a deep breath. It's going to be really cool. Time for some closing statements. And the first closing statement will be with candidate Harris. Thank you. I'd just like to go back to my, let's see, my three basic things. I'm absolutely for middle-class housing infrastructure and getting government overreach out of the city council. First of all, I'd like to thank God and my family and the citizens of Longmont as well as all my contributors for allowing me to be here tonight. I'd like to thank the League of Women's Voters. I'd also like to thank Longmont Public Media. It was a great forum. Thank you, Anton. You're a very generous and considerate and professional. Thank you very much. I'd like to thank my two opponents for sharing the stage with me. And I'd like to thank all of you for giving me your time. Thank you. Vote Harris for Mayor of Longmont. And while you're at it, we could change the city council and really take care of the city. I think voting for Jeremy Johnson, Talis, Salamante and Diane Christ would go a long way to bringing us back to balance on the city council. Thank you and have a good night. Thank you. And candidate Peck. Well, I hope I've made it clear why I thought, why I threw my hat in the ring for the mayoral seat. These debates make me very nervous. So I want to stay on council as the mayor so that I can bring home that rail that I've been working on forever. We're almost there. Now is not the time to change direction on that. I want to continue working on the air quality and our climate in many areas with our environment, with our transportation, with children, with our health, etc. But to end on an upbeat note, I want to say that my daughter-in-law told her son that grandma was running for mayor of Longmont. And his question was, a people mayor or a horse mayor? Thank you. Candidate Waters. Other civically engaged Longmont leaders have said to me, they believe we're at a make-or-break moment in Longmont's history. With the opportunities and challenges facing every municipality in the post-pandemic era, they believe the experience and effectiveness of elected leadership will be a difference maker in which cities move out of the cul-de-sacs they've been circling for the last 20 months, and which do not. Which move into the post-pandemic era with confidence and competence and those that remain circling their cul-de-sacs waiting for something to happen. With one eye on day-to-day operations required for the city to serve the public efficiently, and with one eye on the future and a vision for Longmont's next 50 years, I am the best qualified candidate in this race to lead Longmont into the uncertainties of the post-pandemic era. To do this, I need your vote to serve as Longmont's next mayor. Thanks for this opportunity. OK, everybody, that concludes this evening's debate. That's an hour and 20 minutes of your life. You'll never get back. Actually, I found this to be very interesting, and I really want to thank the candidates for all of them putting their all into these questions and following the rules. I found it to be a very enjoyable evening. And I think of you all giving up your time to run for this race, to raise money, to do these things, and then to sit on a stage and have some schmuck like me asking questions that you weren't prepared for. You should be applauded, and let's do that right now. I would also like to end by thanking the audience, of course, people here and those that are watching online, the millions. To Longmont Public Media, the League of Women Voters of Boulder County, and the Longmont Museum for hosting this event. And many thanks for the interpreters, translators up there for keeping up with us, we hope, especially me. The ballots will soon be mailed out to everybody out here. For more information about the candidates or other races, I just found out about this website. It's a service of the League of Women Voters. It's called Vote411.org. That's Vote411.org. It's a cracking good website. I implore you to take a look at it. And with that, we will conclude and just have about one more round of applause for the candidates.