 Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 Longmont City Council debates produced by Longmont Public Media in partnership with the League of Women Voters and sponsored by Sustainable Resilient Longmont. This is the at-large debate. I'm your host, Faith Halverson-Ramos. In alphabetical order from left to right are candidates Sean McCoy and Becca Federella. I'll call on each candidate to give a one-minute opening statement and we ask that the audience remain silent and again, ensure that your cell phones are turned on silent or airplane mode. So, Steve, would you like to give us your statement? Sure. My name is Steve Alt-Chuler. I'm actually retired, but I'm running for Longmont City Council because for the last four or five years, I've been going to more and more city council meetings and I've seen many times that the council seems to ignore what the public is most interested in. They seem to have their own agenda, which to a large extent is high-density low-income housing and I think a lot of people moved too Longmont to get away from that. They didn't want to live in Denver. They didn't want to live in Boulder. They wanted a little more open space and I always believe in less government control and more freedom for the people to choose how they want to live and then follow through with that. Sean, would you like to give your open statement? Thank you Longmont Public Media for hosting this forum and faith. As your current Longmont City Council member, I feel I've been prudent, thoughtful and focused on policies that the community supports and wants the city to address. I'm asking for your vote and support. I was born and raised in Longmont. I've been married for 31 years and I have two beautiful adult daughters. I feel I have a lot to offer after three decades of serving on multiple city and county boards and commissions as well as serving as a Longmont City Councilman from 2007 to 2011 and currently serving as your Longmont City Councilman after a special election in November. I want to continue to do the good work for Longmont and focus on affordable housing and other aspects of our community that are really important. So please vote for me. I'm not running against anybody, but I'm running for Longmont. Thank you. Hi there. My name is Becca Venturella. I am running for City Council at large because my cousin was murdered at the Michigan State University Mass Shooting and then 40s prior one of my aunts took her life. When I got back from those two funerals I knew that I had to do something. I had to get involved because gun violence is happening everywhere as we know and it's not if it's when it'll come to this community. So I believe we need to have a survivor in that seat that will push these things forward and hold things accountable so that we're not the next city with a catastrophe like what happened in Boulder. I have a mom, I have two young kids, soon to be a five-year-old and a 19-month-old and a husband I've been with him for 14 years. We have lived in Boulder County since 2009 and I love this community, I love it. So I can't wait to be here and I hope I get to bring our communities together and represent you. Thank you. Thank you for your statements. Next I will read the rules of the debate and then ask the first question of candidate Steve Altschuler. So how this works, the candidate on the left will be asked the first question which they have one minute to answer. When the answerer is finished or their one minute is up each of the other participants has 30 seconds to rebut or extend the first answer. Rebuttals move left to right beginning on the answerer's right and moving round robin. When all candidates have spoken the candidate to the answerer's right becomes the next answerer. I will then ask a new question of the answerer and rebuttals proceed as before. At the 25-minute mark the current round of questions and rebuttals is completed and the lightning round begins. In the lightning round each candidate answers the same question with a one-word answer. Five questions will be asked. The first question will be answered right to left beginning with Becca and the second question will be answered left to right beginning with Steve. And then going that way until we're done with the lightning round. When the lightning round is over the second half of the debate begins. It proceeds as above in steps one through four except that the first answerer is the right-most candidate Becca and the round robin proceeds right to left. At the 55-minute mark the debate ends after the current round of questions and rebuttals is completed. I will then call on the candidates left to right to make a one-minute closing statement. So let's begin with our first question. Candidate Altschuler should the city spend taxpayer money on lawsuits in pursuit of changes in state law? Should the city sign on to public actions brought by other jurisdictions? Seems a little vague. The first thought that comes to mind with that as far as signing on through lawsuits with other jurisdictions last year the city council was considering doing a series of red flag logs which in my mind were in violation of the Second Amendment and I actually spoke to the city council and I said the Supreme Court has already ruled on this. Boulder, Lewis, Lafayette and Superior had already started the same four red flag laws and already had lawsuits going against them and I spoke to the council and I said if you proceed with this you're going to cost the city a lot of millions of dollars you're going to waste taxpayer money and I don't think it's a good use a good way to use taxpayer money when you already know the outcome. The Supreme Court has already ruled and there's no way Longmont is going to overturn the Supreme Court. Thank you. Well I think that there are certain cases that are really important that we do have to pursue things around oil and gas absolutely. I'd like to pursue things with gun control and I think that there are some avenues myself as a candidate I have been focusing on the issues around talking to our city attorney our public safety and fire chief about what we can do but we have been kind of shut down by that so I'm hoping that we can get moving forward on those in the future. Thank you. Well thankfully we already passed the red flag law across the whole state so we expanded ERBO so that's already in place and also I work with organizations who have the staff and the attorneys that take on if we do pass one of these laws here around gun violence prevention that we do not incur any cost by putting these measures in place. So yeah that'll keep the weight off of us and I think it's important we need to do this we need to do this now we are behind a lot of cities who have already done it. Thank you. Our next question Is there a rebuttal? We were. That was it. It was a rebuttal. Oh rebuttal. Oh I'm sorry. That's okay. So you two rebut the one question and we'll rebut the next question. Too complicated. There are many steps. Yes. So the second question candidate McCoy you'll get the one minute answer. Opportunities. So this question is what is your understanding of vision zero if elected to council would you vote to repeal the policy accelerate its implementation or leave it the way it is on a rough 20 year trajectory? Well my understanding of vision zero is about traffic deaths and moving our community forward with multi-modal transportation. And so I think vision zero is a good plan. I think it's a way that we are going to be moving forward on our transportation goals and I think it is important. We hear too often about families that have had somebody that is out just doing their thing on the weekend right in their bike and they get hit by somebody who just isn't paying attention. We need to have some very good traffic mitigation aspects in our community like roundabouts dips and bumps and to slow traffic down and we have to make people a little bit more conscious of the idea that traffic is also bicycles is also some of the scooters that are out there and some of the other modes of transportation and we should be respectful of those people that are out there walking. Thank you. I think it's great. We need a vision. We need a plan so that we know where we're going and so we're held accountable so that we can continue to grow our community and really work for a plan that will really affect all of us and help us out so I'm all for it. I think the issues with pedestrian traffic and the way that we run traffic through our city need to be addressed so yeah, I'm good. I like vision zero. Great. Thank you. So there's always things you can do to help prevent needless traffic accidents. The reality is you will never have zero traffic accidents unless you get rid of all cars and make everybody in every city across the country have to walk places. Doing things to mitigate the accidents are a great idea. There's a lot of people that are driving when they're either drunk or on drugs and those people need to be punished because I think that's a large part of what happens with the accidents and other than that you just have to do the best you can and hope for the best result. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question. I believe the city is acting with sufficient urgency on the climate emergency resolution. What would you do? I do. We are waist steps ahead from even Boulder and I know Boulder is looked at as a very progressive city but we have done a lot for our community and we own our own grid and Boulder's been trying to do that for 30 years and has not attained that so I think we just continue to support the efforts that are going on and going forward and I really look forward to working with our city staff who have been working tirelessly on these concerns. I'm glad the city is doing things to help mitigate climate disasters. I don't think it's quite as serious as a lot of people lead you to believe and we can keep doing the things that we've been doing but it should not be done to the extent of ruining the economy of Longmont and ruining jobs and having an undue burden on people that need to live every day. Well I'm a big supporter of Sustainable Resilient Longmont and I believe that those who deny those goals are unrealistic are the problem and I choose to be part of the solution. In 2008 when I was on council before we held the first environmental sustainable conference in Expo at Skyline High School to promote recycling, composting and other aspects of sustainable living in Longmont it is estimated that the 2013 floods cost four billion dollars. It's not if something climate change happens, it's when. Thank you. Our next question. Do you support a camping van within the city of Longmont? Where do these questions come from? Camping should be in the parks that are designated for camping. I don't think people should be camping in the middle of the street. You don't want to be camping in parks. I do know that the homeless is another big situation. A lot of homeless people are camping wherever they can find space and I don't know if that's more what you're referring to rather than everyday campers. There's a huge problem onto itself and I do not think they should be camping everywhere. There's an article in Boulder where they've almost taken over the playground of a school and the kids are afraid to even leave and go out and play on the playground. So there have to be some controls camping up in open space obviously in estates places like that is should be perfectly legal and always be allowed. To conflate homelessness with crime and criminal behavior is unfair and I propose a imminent domain of a parcel of land at Hover & Nelson the old Walmart building site in the parking lot to create a short-term RV where we're able to better provide services and a way to get RV campers out of areas of the city where they don't belong. So I think that we have to show compassion to those that are experiencing homelessness and being unhoused. We need housing. We're in a housing crisis. We do not have enough and we need to be looking at high density. We need to be looking at places where people can get care and be able to have a safe place so that they can move throughout the community in a way that they're supported and not just left alone. We need to focus on that because when people have a safe place to live they're more inclined to continue to work on being a productive member of society. Thank you. Our next question. The Main Street corridor plan reflects the city's vision for redevelopment of Main Street from 9th to Highway 66. What do you see as benefits and or risks of proceeding with funding preventing this plan? Well, I think that it's important that we do something. For a long time we have made the Downtown Development Authority area from 9th to 1st Avenue our priority. But at some point here we need to start moving towards that other direction north and trying to figure out how we can make sure that areas of that Main Street corridor are better supported for business and other opportunities. So yes, I support that. Thank you. Businesses up there are struggling. I know that a handful of them are a couple of paychecks away from closing. We have to do this to bring more flow down up north so that these communities can get more put traffic and get more recognition so that they are not sitting on the edge of if they're going to be able to move faster if they're not. So we can't just forget about that side of town. So obviously we're all pretty much in agreement here. The businesses in north do need more support. It'd be great to do something like Unity and the community up north. So you're drawing a lot of people up there. They can learn what kind of businesses are up there. Last night at Unity in the community I was talking to a lady that told me and the employee didn't even feel comfortable going into the stores. So if the employee doesn't feel comfortable you can bet customers aren't feeling comfortable either. So it's a bigger problem than just getting more traffic up there. What inspired you to run for office? The loss of my cousin. My grandmother when my mom was seven took her life with a gun. And I lived with that. I lived with that trauma throughout my life to know how it impacted my mom and their family. So then fast forward to what just happened to me recently that is I have two young kids and I think it's pretty apparent that this is what I'm doing this for. And also I just can't sit on the sidelines while women's rights are being taken away while the climate crisis is happening while people are so close to being broke. I can't sit on the sideline. I have to use my voice. And that's very important to me is that if I can't do anything then why do I sit and talk about it? So this is my effort in bringing an impact to our city and our state. I call myself a constitutionalist and a free market capitalist. I've actually been in business for 35 years and I've got different ways of looking at things. When I've gone to city council meetings I see what I define as a lot of socialism and that's not how I want our country to be headed. So that is why I decided to run for office because again I have a 19-year-old daughter and I can't do much in Washington I can't do much in Denver but there is something I can do to help Longmont regain its constitutional focus. Well I'm a high school teacher for Boulder Valley School District. I teach U.S. Gov, U.S. History and Economics. And from U.S. Gov point of view I think students absolutely are terrified of someday a gunman coming into their home. So I agree that that is one of the biggest issues and as an economics teacher I think I have a lot to offer from an economic point of view Longmont success and I want to see Longmont successful at every level not only the worker but the employer as well. What would you do to prevent vandalism in public outdoor restrooms? That's me. Okay. In public outdoor I wasn't aware that was a big problem. Vandalism is a huge problem and that comes right back down to police and punishment. I do know that with COVID trying people for crimes was way backed up because the courthouses were closed. I was talking to an officer the other day and they were saying that they're still short. One judge in Boulder so we should make it a point to get up to full force get the judges there and then when you arrest people you can try them and hopefully convict them and punish them if they're guilty. But any kind of vandalism or crime that's going on in the city if you don't have some kind of punishment it's just going to get worse and worse. Well in the 90s my father was on city council and he helped put in the fiber optic ring. He brought that to Longmont. In 2008 we put up an election to implement that into the system and it lost. In 2009 we made it happen and so because of that next slide and our camera systems and our parks are what makes our parks a lot safer today. So that's what's critical to making those areas of our community safer when nobody is looking and you don't have to have a policeman there to make that happen. I don't know the full details of this but I had heard that they're working on something I believe it might be in Boulder that'll come to Longmont with the public restrooms where they'll be, it's a lock you only have so much time in the bathroom and then everything shuts down so that they're keeping people from camping in the bathrooms and keeping them clean and then same with like cameras so we need to invest in that because that would be a huge help because we need our restrooms open especially in our parks. Our next question and this would be starting with you. Many parts of Old Town have low amperage electrical services. Residents who want to electrify their homes to a greater extent have to pay to upgrade their service. Should the city cover this cost for low income residents? For all residents? Well this is a big issue because I think there is such a large portion of Longmont having grown up in the Old Part of Town I can tell you that there are probably some real problems there and I recognize that and so I think what we have to understand is that as far as it comes for our low income residents that live in that part of our community that are dealing with that we do probably need to come up with some sort of formula or program that actually supports them getting their their homes up to the current standard as far as a citywide blanket aspect of providing that for everyone I think it's probably something that we'll have to further explore what the aspects of that would actually entail. That, I like that question I'm trying to think of. I think we need to get creative and possibly talk to our state legislators. I know that there's a lot of federal funds out there for updating our system so it's more economic and we're not draining our energy resources so I would like to get creative with that and speak to our legislators here and see what they can do to pull federal funds down. Honestly I didn't realize that that was a problem in parts of Longmont that there wasn't enough power for the electrical for whatever the homes need I do know that the city of Longmont is looking into doing the smart meters and that will control more the flow of energy from one time to another. My fear with that is I am in favor of smaller government I don't want government controlling when I can turn electricity on because if they can control that they can control turning everything off. I think individual homeowners should be responsible for upgrading their homes. If the minimum wage were raised do you expect that there would be a loss of tax base? Please support your argument. I'm all for raising the minimum wage. It's too expensive to live here. I have spoken with some businesses about this and this one lady who owns a business, a shop in Longmont said the lowest paid employee at my office makes $17 an hour. Now I know this is going to be conflicting across the board it's not all one way but we need to. We need to do this because people are working my father is working six days a week and he's a 30 year marine retired vet and that's to make ends meet. We have to do something we have to raise the minimum wage so people can afford to be in our community because if not they're going to leave. My dad's brought that up. He's like this is so expensive to live in Colorado so yeah we need to bring that up and we need to support our workers so they can stay in our community. Our business is in town and what I keep hearing is that if the minimum wage they're talking about raising it from $15 to $25 in the next four and a half years that's like a 65% increase and the business people that I've spoken to are just afraid that they're going to have to lay people off and can't stay in business that way. Minimum wage has never helped anybody because it raises the cost of everything you buy and within a year or two everything is right back the way it is. All people help them get more education and increase their value. Well I'm the Boulder County Consortium of City's Longmont Representatives and I got the ball rolling on at least having a discussion with the Chamber of Commerce. These take-holds are important but we need to hear from workers we need to hear from the business owners and we haven't gotten the information yet from the survey that the Chamber has done so I think we do need to consider a minimum wage increase and I think we need to consider the positive aspects of it on our community. Given Longmont's air quality concerns and shortage of affordable housing would you commit to voting against any tax incentives intended to bring new businesses to Longmont? I would never say a blanket no to a question like that but there's always extenuating circumstances but I was at a city council meeting probably six or eight months ago and there is a group and Sean you can help me with this but I want to say it's Imagine Longmont but it's a slightly different name and they work with the City of Longmont to help bring businesses the help is with the actual name of the company and they're helping to bring businesses to Longmont and on one of the slides is there talking about every business that comes into Longmont has to do DEI classes for the employees and I just think that's wasteful and going to be costing a lot of money there's already a lot of laws about I'm drawing a blank on the way about discrimination so with DEI you're being redundant and you're costing the businesses more money for businesses to succeed well our economic development authority in conjunction with Dr. Cog which is another broad metro area authority we determine what is going to be the types of businesses that come to Longmont and so bringing in a business that might possibly be unhealthy for our environment would not be something that I would support and I don't believe our council should support I think that right now it's focused on clean industries but I think that's part of being part of one of those consortiums those groups that help drive businesses to our community can you repeat the question given Longmont's air quality concerns and shortage of affordable housing would you commit to voting against any tax incentives intended to bring new business to Longmont? We need growth we need businesses here we need to support business growth because with that brings more people into our community if we need to support them with maybe a break with permitting or a break with what they're looking at putting in their business I think that's important so more businesses more people we can really develop and work on then we can more tax income too and then we'll provide that housing as well Describe how you see the role of municipal government paying particular attention to whether protecting individual rights versus ensuring that vulnerable populations are not left behind is more important See that again So Describe how you see the role of municipal government particularly in the area of whether protecting individual rights versus ensuring that vulnerable populations are not left behind is more important Well as a government teacher and somebody with a degree in political science and somebody with a ton of experience I think that the role of government is to do no harm and the idea here is when I say that is to make sure that people's rights are protected but we also have to adhere to the idea that vulnerable populations need our extra support whether it be the LGBTQ community our Latino and Hispanic communities or any other community within the boundaries of Longmont and in the surrounding area So I think that we have to be conscious of that and we have to recognize that there is no criminality in somebody coming here with their children and there is no criminality in being a human and we need to stop that sort of treatment of people we need to make sure that people are treated fair and equitable I just the first thing I would say with that question is I'm going to acknowledge my privilege as a white woman and I'm here I mean we have to stand up for the underserved population we have got to advocate for them and not just come around whenever it's election time not just sit down and be concerned with that whenever it's important for us we need to be engaged constantly and hear their concerns and their issues so that we can serve them and make sure they're lifted up I'm having a little problem with the part about we serving them everybody deserves an equal opportunity that's in our constitution all men and women are created equal the difference is what people choose to do with that opportunity is up to them so if people don't want to help themselves we should not be enabling them by giving free drugs or free alcohol or anything we should be giving people opportunities opportunities thank you no one's doing that no one's giving free drugs or alcohol that's not fair to make those broad statements let's move on to our next question oh it's we are now at the lightning round okay a little palate cleanser where's my survey so just a reminder that we'll start with Becca first and that these are just one word answers so have you ever ridden a city bus yes yes no okay next question moving from left to right Sam's or Costco both oh okay both okay next going from right to left would you ban plastic straws if you could yes yes no question four going left to right should long mod freeze annexations of land yes no last question going right to left what would be your vehicle of choice if money were no object of all the XC-90 a rivier truck oh yeah I wanted to say my horse okay great so now we're going to move on to the second half of our debate so we'll start from right to left with getting the first opportunity to answer here's our question what would you do to enlist residents of Longmont more in keeping our city crime free education I think if we can communicate with our community and really educate them on what's happening what their power is what they can do I'll go to the when ERPO was passed it passed the power to school teachers therapists pediatricians where they could report someone's a harm to themselves to picture that they don't have access to a weapon that to me is education that we can offer to people to know that they are empowered and the real risk is suicide so if we can connect people and build a community around people then you have more community involvement in the issues that we're faced with here in Longmont well you know I think that a couple things that we are doing to help the folks in our community that are dealing with mental crisis is the crisis outreach response program the core program going out with our police officers I think the video cameras in our public places and other parks and stuff like that so I think those are some of the ways of reducing crime in our community plus red light cameras I think could be a real game changer there's been a lot of people that I've talked to that are just really frustrated with the crime and criminals not being punished we have to find a way either build a police station in Longmont in 1988 they built one in Boulder and we're still sharing that one we've had 85,000 people at the time we've got 110,000 now we need our own police station or we need a place where we can put criminals because criminals have no fear right now they will steal cars they'll steal catalytic converters they'll shop lift and they have no concerns thank you our next question will be answered by Canada for Longmont to achieve its zero waste goals an approach to increased composting must be developed, funded and implemented how important is zero waste to you if you think achieving zero waste goals is important what do you believe to be the best or most viable approach the city should pursue personally I have a composting bin at my house we compost most things that we can I know that things have changed because of A1 the folks that we're taking all of our composting and would not take some paper products I think the city should invest in helping them get a more robust composting what is it it's a well they have a facility but it's a digester that needs to be upgraded and so I think we can do that and I think that generally having served on the RCAB board for the county I think that's something that we're trying to make happen and so it's just a matter of time to get us back to where we were composting a lot greater percentage of our trash and compostable material being right to left I'm sorry I was really bummed whenever that passed and we couldn't compost all the paper materials and what not and I was speaking to our state rep and she said that it's because a lot of the people who are developing compostable items they weren't truly compostable so if there could be a way that we can again education this is compostable this is not and then have a facility like he said or we can upgrade that so we can actually process those compostable items obviously nobody's going to disagree with composting it's a wonderful easy thing that everybody can do to help the environment I would like to see more encouragement in having the manufacturers of food and cereal and tools where they put something inside of a plastic container and the plastic container is inside of a box there's a lot of federal waste that's going on and not with the government but with the manufacturers that trickles down to everything that we buy and as citizens we could probably speak up to those companies and get them to reduce some of the waste thank you so our next question you'll answer first and then Becca you'll answer next we'll figure it out so should Longmont eliminate parking minimums and residential zones I'm trying to figure out what that's in reference to but as far as parking you're saying in residential homes like in a neighborhood as far as how long they can be parked there I'm assuming that is the intention behind the question I'm not sure it might be related to people parking their vehicles in residential so that's a very confusing one there are laws on the books that you can't leave your car or RV or boat parked in a residential neighborhood I believe for more than 48 hours lots of HOAs have restrictions about if you can even park in your own driveway I wasn't aware of city restrictions about parking in your own driveway or how many cars you can have but there are street laws about how long you can park a vehicle and I think that's perfectly fine somebody should not be able to park a car and leave it there for months at a time I think this deals with maximum not minimums but maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but I think it's mainly about how many cars one household can have and how long those cars can sit there if somebody is a collector they can't just pile up their cars around the corner and everything or their RV or their boats and other things like that so I think that's what the question is asking it's kind of a confusing question so I've heard a lot of residents when I've sat in council talking about they live in like old town and there's a lot of cars that park right in front of their house they can't park there so I know that is a concern if there is a way to have a designated spot so that they have a car they can park if they don't have a driveway I think that's pretty interesting but I live in an HOA in a town home area and if there's too many people in one home we don't have parking for our car so I do think that's important especially in those developments where there's only so many parking spaces our next question Becca you'll get to answer first then it'll be candidate McCoy candidate Ulcer they're going right to left moving towards me what is your position on the proposal for a center for arts and entertainment and how do you believe that Longmont is a thriving hub for the arts generally it sounds very exciting I mean I like what the purposes of it but the concern is that the first bank center just got shut down and I would hate for that to be a big cost to all of us in our community and then it not thrive especially when there's not a spot yet for the land and how long will it take to develop that land and I know a lot of people concerned about okay if we're pulling taxes for a very long time is that money being used properly how can we allocate that so that we're not being taxed out to live here so yeah well I'm a big supporter of the Performing Arts Center and so much so that when Peter Schmidt and I helped start this in 2006 you know that was one of the big things we wanted to have come to Longmont and I think it's one of those things that we'd have now as far as to the first bank center I think having used that facility over and over again for different things that I was doing with the future business leaders they were just kind of mismanaged and I think we're uniquely positioned to be a great distance from Denver and from Fort Collins that I think it'll actually make it work here in Longmont so I support it as I've said before I'm a free market capitalist I think government needs to have its fingers in everything and own everything and build everything if there was a market for the arts center just like for rec centers somebody would come in and build it and they'd have a business and they would sell tickets and it would be profitable the current museum is about to undergo a remodel and we have to put in another $8 million because not enough people have gone there to see it and use it it's great to have it but it's just going down the drain. Our next question and candidate McCoy will answer first what do you think is the most unique aspect of Longmont that must be preserved at all costs? I think our museum is a wonderful place but I think our main street corridor is one of the unique aspects of Longmont our business community down there the residential areas that surround it just make it such a unique place that people just drive down main street and go wow I want to live here this is one of those communities that people really appreciate they understand that yes 287 is what it is there's been all kinds of plans over the years to take 287 around Kimbark and Kaufman and when other communities like Loveland tried to do that it killed their downtown we are different than Pearl Street and Pearl Street was a unique situation we're not going to have something like that but I really think that our downtown area is just really one of our gyms our parks I love our parks I love going to go ahead Thompson Park I love taking my kids there I love having spaces where it's not like designated it's just wide open land where you can run around with your kids and it's just like your own little playing field so I hope that we preserve that look Longmont is a beautiful place that's why people move here it started 40-50 years ago people did not want to live in Denver they didn't want to live in Boulder they wanted more open space Longmont has grown up it's got great schools got great restaurants but I don't want to see Longmont become a high density housing project that's 3, 4, 5 stories high I know right now you're only allowed 3 but they can change that and build more nobody that came here to live in Longmont wants it to be like that but I understand new people want to move here and they want it like that so they can get here our next question candidate ultruler you'll answer first that back on the candidate McCoy candidate you know what I mean if you were to refocus policing strategies what would you focus on? like I said earlier we need more police our police force is stretched very thin the best strategy we can do is have a way to actually arrest people and get them in front of a judge and if they're guilty get them convicted if there's no punishment there's going to be more and more crime police are doing a phenomenal job they're short handed if anything they're the ones that are handcuffed I would like to change that we have a governor that said hey steal anything you want up to a thousand dollars and no one will ever punish you that's just moronic we can't change the governor's ruling but when someone is at a thousand one they need to be arrested they need to be charged and that's the only way we're going to get a handle on crime is to actually charge and convict the people that are guilty I was speaking to a couple officers last night at uni in the community and he was telling me that 20 more hours of overtime he is working constantly he's strapped I think if we can retain our police officers that are working so hard that would be great and then if we can relieve a little bit of that so that people are welcome to want to come in here so supporting them in the work they're doing and then continue to support the groups that are traveling with the police officers to mitigate mental health crisis well having been on the police standards board where we came in and when police officers had been accused of stuff I feel that our police we do need more police we had a shortage of police we have a lot of police that are in the training mode right now and I think that if we continue to work with core crisis outreach response team I think we can help support our community in a way that we all find humane and supportive so this next question first should Longmont change its electric rate structure to encourage more people to install solar panels on their homes or commercial buildings why or why not if it was easier to get solar I mean I'd be there I know there's a lot of tax credits for it but it's still pricey for my budget if there was a way that they could help mitigate that process and so I could have solar I'd be on board so I think a lot of people would be on board with that but it's not my expertise so I'm sure there are people out there well in our city staff they're working on this so if I can team up with them and really learn the ins and outs of it I think that would bring a lot to our community well we have a wonderful city staff that actually knows a lot about solar and solar opportunities as well as wind and I think that all kinds of areas of sustainable energy should be explored and I think that if we could make it cheaper for folks I would be all for it again my answer is based on being in the free market solar a lot of people love it it can be a great thing obviously in Colorado we have a lot of sunshine for half the year but the other half it wouldn't be very effective if people want it that should be great if they don't want it they should be entitled in California they passed a law that every new home has to have solar on it which is raising the prices of homes by another $40,000 or $50,000 per house so then you end up with higher mortgage and higher rents and you're going in a circle back to the same thing where people can't afford to live here so that's a personal choice our next question candidate McCoy will answer first candidate Altshuler and candidate Internello do you believe that density increases for infill development should be limited to a percentage of density over adjacent neighborhoods yes I think that if we're looking at something like some that are being proposed right now like office sprues at Bond Farm I think there is a deep concern there I know that we could go to 108 in that development for example but I think and it looks like the developer would like to go to about 70 or 72 units but I think that what's more fitting to the surrounding areas probably around 45 to 46 the 50 max of housing I think that we try to do the right thing when it comes to bringing infill development in for decades we had it where we or at least a decade we have had it for where we didn't force anybody to come in but we made it so that when people did come in it made it cost effective to the already current citizens of Longmont to be aware of those types of things thank you I'm all confused now we're getting through it so in every city there's going to be new construction and a lot of times the people that are already there aren't crazy about that the project at Bond Farms the builders brought it down to 66 I know the people that live there want it even lower and like Sean said it is actually zoned for up to 108 hopefully the people and the builder are going to work together and everyone will be happy one of the problems with the more sorry we have to be mindful with everything like you have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't go left real fast so like I agree with Sean in that it's like if we can look at the impact on the neighborhoods in a way and sit with the community I think that's important so again let's be mindful about it and aware of that full impact around with high density housing that's coming in next question we'll begin with you and then you thank you so this question is the city has been approached by a team of designers investors and developers to redevelop dilapidated former sugar beet processing factory in the surrounding area this will require a development partnership with the city of Longmont what are your thoughts on this and would you support a public private partnership well they're talking about at the sugar mill and I was there that day when the presentation was made they're talking about over a year of just trucks coming in to haul out the contaminated soil and bring in new soil and obviously haul out the building materials and then another six or seven years after that to build 2200 units and a 250,000 square foot arena venue for all kinds of events nowhere did I hear any of them talk about the fact that 2200 units means 500 cars every morning and every evening leaving to go to work or school and then coming back after work or school when you have the venues that are on there's probably hundreds and hundreds of more cars and nobody ever spoke about the infrastructure so besides eight years of a disaster in the construction they're not talking about any bridges so that cars can get in and out it's just going to be a mess and I think it needs to be looked at a lot more and it's a long process they're not just going to jump in with one plan you have to have meetings and sit with every developer and every process if it's going to be we need bridges, if we need these things it's not just here's the concept here's the plan we're doing this there's going to be a lot of development along the way I do think we need a partnership because the city cannot be held to pay for the entire thing, the entire development so yeah I think we we need to look at that more in depth well for 50 years that is sat there and sat there and it has gotten older and older either we do something about it or we tear it down this is a signature identity of Longmont and I think that it's not going to be the level of cars in and out because the way the development has been presented it's going to have people that are living and working there and it is in that area where we are going to have our transit system so I really believe that this is the turning point for Longmont and I support it question answering first and then candidate McCoy should at large council seats other than mayor be eliminated in favor of having smaller wards and justify your answer I don't think so because you need somebody who's doing the overarching because everyone has their concern about their award you need someone who's across the board who's going to be pulling ideas from the whole community so it's not just a group of people who are like ah but this is what we want this is what we need so I think it's important because I can gain the perspective of the city at a whole 100,000 people and be concerned about what their concern is and look at it as this like a state rep like a senator like you can really work on the values that we are all concerned together so yeah I would agree with that the at large seat is much like a seat a senator's seat where they have a bigger and broader perspective of the community so I think that it's good it's good for the community what I would probably propose is that we expand the council to give more representation and allow for another at large and allow for another district and then we still have our odd number and we have the seats on the dais to make that happen and if people feel that they aren't representative well enough that's one of the ways of making that happen obviously none of us wants to be out of a job I think it seems fine the way it is there is a I forget the name of the city but they had something like maybe it was Chicago they had something like 40 city council members on the seat on the council and nothing ever gets done so seven seems like a good number everybody knows each other they work with each other and obviously if there is a change it does have to be kept to an odd number instead of an even number for voting purposes and this is our last question okay should long mod ban the use of gas powered lawn appliances why or why not well I think at some point here it's not banning I think it's just a phasing out I think we're at a point here that we should give higher incentive rebates to those that would like to go electric I think it's a positive thing I think there are some businesses that still need some gas powered lawn type of equipment but I don't think that would be a trend in the country across the country and I don't think that needs to be the trend here I think just a flat out banning them I think it should be more of a phasing out if we're talking a ban it's going to be like a five or a ten year phasing out and then eventually a ban and I think that would be probably within the scope of when majority of people would have already gotten rid of those pieces of equipment and I think that it's just a matter of time for it to happen in the first place so there you go so I agree that it should not be banned that's again a lot of government overreach if there was a better way to use the equipment people would be doing it the only alternative right now is electric and there's not a city in the country that has enough electric grid to handle everything that they're trying to throw on to it whether it's the electric cars or electric stoves we've seen other parts of the country where everything got shut down in the wintertime because there was no electricity and that'll happen here if you keep pushing that issue I was really excited at the state ledge this past session we passed we were able to pull funding so that we could offer incentives for people to buy electrical and it just I think it went to effect just recently so if you go into a store and you want to buy one then there is a discount on that so I think continuing again I go back to education let's let people know that this is out there that this is what they have access to so that they have an easier process to moving into buying electric equipment and I love it my dad has it it's fun to use thank you so now we have Andrew Buddles and we're going to have an opportunity for closing statements candidate will begin with you you have one minute I really appreciate this being put on I know it's not easy to do I appreciate all the hard work of everyone and I really want to make a change I know that everything cannot be fixed with it's going to be a process we have to work together so I hope that I can work well with our city staff and I know it will be exciting to really form that bond in that community so that we can look at Longmont as a whole and really try to see how can we bring the community together how can we just create more excitement and make people feel really included let's try to look at this in this way that we can build a community and I think that will that will be a big impact so I really hope you vote for me Becca Ventorella you can check me out on my website BeccaforLongmont.com and I look forward to seeing you guys out there in the community well thank you Longmont Public Media for holding this and Faith for being the moderator again again I'm running to continue to help make Longmont a safe place to raise families and the community members can live and work here I'm running to protect our natural resources and quality of life through why sustainable environmental practices through multimodal transportation and clean energy implementation I'm running to end gun violence in our communities and care for those that are unhoused I have the experience I have the passion and I really am the only one with 100% preparedness and the experience to start on day one and I'm not running against anybody here I'm running for Longmont and so I'm asking you for your vote please vote for me Sean P. McCoy that's how it appears in the ballot and go to McCoyforLongmont.com for more information about my campaign and thank you very much I love Longmont I'm running for Longmont City Council because what I've seen from the council they have a myopic view all they want to do is get in more money and build more high density low income housing Longmont has other problems that are getting worse year by year that are being rushed under the rug one of them is homeless the amount of homeless people is increasing every single year right now with our southern border there are millions of illegal aliens that are invading our country Denver can't handle them all and we know what's happening in New York and Chicago including the Google 5% of Colorado's populations are illegals which means in Longmont we have roughly 5500 illegals I don't see them I don't know where they are I don't know if they're included in the homeless numbers but I know it's something we need to be aware of we need to start setting processes in place I've asked the city council to make us a non-sanctuary city and they've never even talked about it so we need to do things to protect the citizens of Longmont thank you this concludes our debate the next debate begins in one hour you may stay in your seat for those of you who are attending live leave the building or spend time in the lobby speaking to candidates and gathering candidate literature please return to the studio no later than 15 minutes before the next debate the lights will flash and we'd like to thank our friends at the League of Women Voters of Boulder County and Sustainable Resilient Longmont for their help and support good job everyone