 Hi, I'm Marsha Martin and I have here with me, Marta Locheman, if that's the right way to pronounce it. Marta, would you say it yourself? Locheman. Hi, Marta. Okay, I would never have gotten the accent right. So, okay. So welcome Marta. Marta is a candidate for this fall's Boulder County Commission election representing, what do you call it, the East County area? District two. District two. Okay. I should have done my homework better. That's all right. Longmont Lions, Evans Park. All right. So this is my first serious long conversation with Marta. We've chatted before. But I thought you would be interested in hearing Marta's case for running for county commission and what she thinks that she is going to be doing as county commissioner. So first Marta, why are you running? Why did you decide to run? Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me on too, Marsha. I appreciate that. And the question about why there's, it's really a culmination of a lot of different pieces, but I think the impetus of like what made you decide to run for this particular position is one of the questions that has come up and I think it's really important. So the, after doing a lot of different work around the county over the last 28 years in different issues regarding just access to information and resources for what I believe is just everyday community members, single parents, teachers, etc. Like myself. And after seeing that in several different institutions, and then going to work for the city of Longmont, I've worked for the city of Longmont a couple of times, but the most recent one was after the flood of 2013. During a data assessment coordination for the state of Colorado, Division of Local Affairs who asked the 14 counties once affected in that flood of 2013. Two years after the flood asked what happened to vulnerable populations and they were doing grant requests that the city of Longmont was one of the organizations who put in a proposal to find out specifically for our Boulder County community what happened to monolingual Spanish speakers during the flood. And so I was hired by the city of Longmont at the end of 2016 to do that data assessment for the state and respond to that question. That's three years after the flood. That was a significant natural disaster that is now documented with research connected to the climate crisis that we're in and for me three years later is an afterthought. And that was one of the pieces of being in community saying all of the different inequities in the way that access to information occurs for community members. So to be able to go in and do a data study was a really exciting opportunity to present information. And so that's what I did in a lot of different work and focus groups and conversations and interviews with folks all over the county and then created a report for the state created training materials that are still on the city of Longmont website. But one of those focus groups with a group of young Latinas in our local school district here in the county one of our local statistics here in the county. And we had gone through each focus group asking community members we talked with middle schoolers all the way to our senior communities throughout the county and asked what were the gaps in access to information during the flood. And there were many other barriers that were that were felt that were heard that were seen for providers, working with modeling with Spanish speakers, etc. And one of those focus groups, one of the young women went through the process shared what had happened with her own family shared how she had been a cultural broker for her family. We started talking about our students circumstances what they were feeling in their building personally and in their classrooms. And at one point she turned to me and I was working for the city of Longmont says she was looking at me as a government employee and she said, Miss, tell them to let us speak for ourselves. And that really was the voice and the reason that I said you know what this is bigger than me. Community perspective who are facing inequities in basic information and resource in in a whole lot of different places as I already stated. And so, even as a previous teacher and in St. Frank Valley School District, I remember telling my students just keep working hard. And, and then I realized with her voice that I have these experiences that worked on boards I've worked on national projects I built company, I have worked in the housing industry. So why not take all of those experiences that are connected to local community members and let us speak for ourselves. And be part of the decision making and the planning, the processes in the programs in Boulder County in a local way to build more impact so that's a longer response to your question but that was really the the voice that started this campaign in 2018. Well that's really I'm impressed that you can get it down to that one seminal moment like that. And that you care about it enough about one individual that that she could make that kind of impact on you and say, I am going to let you speak for yourselves. And I'm going to ask questions that I had planned to ask you out of order because this is such a good segue into question number three, which do you feel as a member of the Hispanic community. What do you feel that you are best positioned to accomplish both for that community and for the entire community of Boulder County. Yeah, that's a, that's a big question we could talk about that for a while, but it's important and, and what I want to make sure that that your viewers and folks listening etc are really clear about is that the work that we do in Boulder County, whether it's for our LGBTQ community whether it's for or with our elders or it's our faith communities, or in this case some of my background work is focusing on monolingual Spanish speaking and or bilingual families in housing advocacy. All of that work truly makes us better as a full community. And I say that because it affects all of us when we know our neighbors and we're connected to our neighbors and our neighbors know where the resources are when we have a natural disaster. That helps all of us, not just from a moral standpoint that we should be able to help our neighbors not just from an ethical standpoint of everybody should have access to resources and information, but it's also a business standpoint. Like how do we do better financially as stewards of our resources from a local government standpoint a county government standpoint. It's when our community members know how to access resources, whether it's day to day, or it's an emergency situation or it's either public health or it's natural disasters. And so that to me is one of the pieces around how it helps everybody and some of the other work that I've been doing since that project was is around cultural brokering. I was working with the resiliency for all data assessment. After I finished that project, I was then hired I do consulting as one of my, my many jobs and my many work, you know, work projects as a single mom that's what it takes and I'm also an entrepreneur so it's exciting to take it out and do more. But one of, after that I was asked to do facilitation for Community Foundation Boulder County. And that work I was facilitating a national cohort for about 18 months we got stopped here, just like so many other projects and great work, due to COVID and not being able to do in person workshops, etc. But that work was around this concept of how do we, and how might we as county government or what institution you can fill in the blank but how might we create conditions for Latino bilingual cultural brokers to influence decision making. And so that is another piece that I think is important for general everyone in the community to understand that people like me, who are cultural brokers, it means that we are serving organizations, institutions around our county to meet needs not just for this sector of monolingual Spanish speakers or this sector of elderly folks or whatever your mountain community, whatever your kind of focus area is. That is a reciprocal job. We are being bridges to government agencies or to nonprofits or to different organizations. And so I think that's important that people understand that it is a given take conversation is a given take action. There's plenty of us all over the county who are offering that work and that service, and really, when I say service it's giving back to not just the person that needs the support, but also to the organizations and I saw a lot of them working with, as an advisor for Long Island economic development partners for the different chambers in our county for the VOA, which is voluntary organizations actually active in disaster to our sir in our response team here locally that are all wanting to be able to support in this focus with this study really to be able to support my language Spanish speakers or bilingual families or the Latin Latino community. And there's a real interest on both sides for us to be doing more work together and so that's, you know, part of what I think the message is really important. Again, we are better together, but it means that we've got to do the work to be connected. I've participated in several discussions, you know, the just transition committee for resilience, and, and so on. Also, a couple of years ago there was a really good. A really good presentation, a really good event that was around Caesar Chavez and, and what life was like, you know, during the strikes and so on, and back then, and those events have been conducted using translation as bilingual events and they would switch to where the primary speaker was sometimes speaking English and sometimes speaking Spanish so that one got an idea of what it was like to be the person who didn't understand the main event and had to understand sort of at second hand. And, and I think that that was really a transformative experience for me. Do you have having a more diverse local government aids in that in that building of awareness in an important way. Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you just shared is important. And I say that because if we haven't experienced anything similar to their sector of our community, we can't say that we understand. We can't say that we're going to help you or we're going to work with you or because we don't know what the needs are right we haven't been in any similar of an experience. I do believe that one of the pieces you just mentioned is language and language access is really important. That's part of the work that I've been doing for years and years here locally. So I'm going to talk about how we build up our Spanish speaking youth into career paths, how the opportunities here locally we're such a fantastic hub of bilingual families and that's an academic success but it is a career path if we systematically set it up that way. I had a conversation behind for a long time that was one of the reasons I got into the school district got my masters and taught here locally because I knew there was a lack of representation, and I knew that there was lack of a formal program to support that. So that kids know that they have skill and a talent because that's very lacking in conversations for a lot of our youth around our local community. The same reason that that representative authority figure for, you know, without a better term from a classroom standpoint, also translates into, if we look at our school districts, who are teachers, who are staff, who are administrators, who is our top leadership. And we can ask that question in any organization and local government is the same thing personally City of Longmont has done a really great job. I'm a big fan of long one I've been involved for a long time to I we have that in common for sure I was one of the community members who was involved in creating the Longmont Latino strategic plan years ago in the early 2000s. That is now Longmont Multicultural Action Committee. I was the chair of that steering committee for years and ran that budget item, the budget line for City of Longmont and also ran the health and housing task force for that group. And part of that conversation, that was the impetus to get the Latino Chamber started here in Boulder County. That was the impetus to get housing inspections, the standard housing looked at it in a new way and consistent long, systematic changes and if we don't have people in leadership, who are from our own communities meaning in Longmont specifically, people who look like me, walk in life like me are perceived like me. And we, the Hispanic community Latino community Latinx community, we are a third of our community. And so that lack of representation and especially when we talk about the commissioner's office. That's a big part 20, 20% of our county. Who is never been represented. So be the first. Yeah. And then the Boulder County Commission's office. For me, we have to go from leadership has to be represented to help community come together. That's dynamic change that's how our policies get changed that's how our systematic and that's the work I've been doing for a really long time is every place that I've been is out a week. The community hearing what needs are and then creating institutional exchange and so creating impact requires someone like me to be in that seat with all those skills to be able to support just what you're talking about like what would that really look like and how would that support community. That's an example. So I can see that you have a broad understanding and experience with with what the, I won't call it a problem space, although in some cases it does pose a problem. Even when the in 2013 when the flood came in overnight. People were being called in to the city offices to work the disaster management. So I think it's a great example that the city already knew who is bilingual because you had to have a bilingual person on every single phone. Yeah, and that was that was the example of how the city of long month specifically was more prepared. The cities around that county. And that's a great example and some of those pieces are, how can we do that more broadly at a county level. And so because you do have that experience. I can get that requested to which is what are your specific main goals to accomplish while you're serving on the commission. Yeah, there's a few pieces and for me, it's a continuation of the work that I've been doing with an equity lens about really including more people into these conversations and doing similar but more broad collaboration with our nonprofits and with our agencies with our companies, etc, to really affect and change around affordable housing, accessible housing to continue the amazing work. Boulder County already has. When we talk about climate action and sustainability and resiliency and environmental action. We are way ahead nationally recognized from a county perspective. And so those programs have to continue. And how do we include more people in those conversations because as you and I talked a little bit offline there's some really big issues we around climate change that are affecting that is, you know, it's, it's not a secret anymore it's finally starting to be talked about here locally that are affecting people of color in a disproportionate way. And so, I believe the same way that we've been talking about people of color will have to be at the leadership table to ensure that we're part of the conversations so that we can include as we work on all of these different issues and there's a lot of community needs issue. And so, my work is going to continue to be focused on those different pieces and I think the other the piece around that that's important is that a lot of this role is also management and support of our 2000 Boulder County employees and so for me to be able to use my expertise and experience on the Lama United Hospital Board of Directors to be able to use my experience with the National Association of Hispanic Realistic Professionals and that board and other committees and task forces that I've been involved in here locally to take those perspectives and make sure when I'm representing Lama, but also all of Boulder County to do that same work that commissioners really have to be focused on here locally from an administrative standpoint. So that is important. It's not a secret that our Latino community tends to be less economically advantaged than the county population as a whole. And one of the things about that, you know, you were talking about future things you were talking about we're going to have a climate emergency and the adaptation to that and so on. It's harder when you are without means and without your which is what ends up happening to look ahead 10 years and think how you're going to be impacted and to stand up for for your situation. So you're going to have to, I think, be you'll be a person who's aware of that and can and can pull people in to that activity which might not happen organically. Yeah, I totally and that's, you know, the economic piece of where we are and what's happening, you know, due to COVID and what's going to be coming down the, the pike and in regards to our budget here locally, etc. Those are also pieces that with my finance background and being in the mortgage world and being in the real estate like it that's what I do every day is work on legal contracts and it's connected to land use and easements and that's a lot of the work that county commissioners do. Also, this piece around the way that we like you said how do we include community and make it a real authentic connection to the same needs that are from an economic standpoint that also means what happens with our employees what's going to happen with our employees moving forward and the way that businesses are being affected right now. What is going to look like six months from now and when you talk about that planning piece using using work that I've been involved in as a self employed person for the last 20 years you know, folks who've never been self employed. It's a very different experience of being your own CEO of being your own CFO of creating your budgets and your plan and managing other people's finances really what I've been doing for a really long time. And that's all it to the property taxes and the way that things get funded here in our county and so that those different perspectives are a really unique for a county commissioner and I think even for a lot of government electives. I think so too. Everyone would think we were crazy if we did not mention that today here as we speak, we have a movement of public demonstrations all over the country that were touched off by the death of George Floyd, in particular. But having to do with essentially this concept that black lives matter and I don't think that means black like out of Africa it means people of color who, who have who are are called out by their experience and their culture as different from the economic and voting majority in this country. And what we have here now is either a wonderful thing or a scary thing depending on who you are. But while the sun is up at least what we have is a wonderful thing where persons of all backgrounds are going down and showing their support for this movement and acknowledging that we have a problem of unjust deaths that are being perpetrated by our police because, well I'm not even sure what the because is, I should be asking you what the because is. What is your perspective on that. What, what are the diverse peoples of America, rejecting about the current day America that has brought them all together in this demonstration. That's a big question for the whole answer, but I agree 100% like this is an important topic and you're right, the, the responding to it and inquiry about what you know what's really happened is super important it's going to become more important my hope is that it's not just a meme it's not just a dialogue it's not just showing up for a protest to say I'm out on the periphery watch watching from the outside because that in itself is privilege. And, to me black lives matter is a movement that truly has to just to be there as black lives matter, because in this country historically I'm an ethnic studies major have been really involved in inequities from a lot of different perspectives but I also want to make sure that are, you know, my black brothers my black sisters understand I'm not here speaking on their behalf, I also want to make sure and acknowledge that black lives matter, and we have a historical issue in the United States about how we have systematically pushed black people in this country to the periphery in every single way and systematically, there is a link and there is a connection to our indigenous people are native people are people of color, who have also been left out on the periphery and meaning not in the same way but also systematically from everything to the way that finance systems operate, have operated where people can live and have any historically been able to live. Those are connected back to the pieces that you already mentioned about the economic gaps. It didn't just happen that black people or indigenous people or native people or people of color, the Hispanic Latino demographic in this country suffer from significant economic gaps, it is historical processes, it's legislation, it's rules and restrictions that have kept other people on the outside of even participating. And we can look at even from voting, you know, and all the ways that have disenfranchised folks in significant ways. A lot of those mechanisms centered around real estate does your experience in real estate and finance, give you a better insight as to how to make sure that that the new mechanisms the land use and zoning changes that we put in and stuff are going to advantage people and tend to tend to work for social justice rather than anything else. Yeah, that's, yeah, that's an important question and I believe, you know, for me, that's one of the reasons why my candidacy is so unique, but also so important, because over the last 20 years, that's, you know, it's one of the stories that I talk about a lot in my financial literacy work, I'm a guest instructor all over that type of work as a national trainer for the Hispanic wealth project. And one of my first experiences working in a bank downtown Boulder, I worked in restaurants, you know, for years and years and then got an opportunity for an interview in a bank that changed the trajectory of my life. And I tell people that because it wasn't something I ever expected to do. But being a bank teller, a college student, and then being called on from the other side of the bank, which in banking world, it's kind of like business, you know, but the big rigs are your, you know, frontline or your entry level, whatever it is. And that was that, that same scenario for me that day, I was called over to a banker who told me she needed me to translate for her and hand me the phone. And told me tell him he's been denied for his loan. And that was my first experience in a professional landscape, where I, you know, she was handing me the phone and so I just told him in Spanish, I don't know how humiliating, embarrassing, how horrifying to have to tell someone that news, even if I had been part of that conversation from the very beginning, that would have been hard news to share. And then she took the phone back and said, okay, go. When she passed the phone back, I could hear him asking in Spanish, like, the same thing you and I probably would affect, okay, what are my other options? What do I need to do? Did I miss something? Is there a different loan? And that was truly for me, the beginning of what forced me to keep working really hard in this world of finances, because then I started understanding how significant the inequities of, again, a resource and information. And I also recognized at that moment, I did not know enough to help that person. And I also wasn't being given the opportunity to know enough to help that person. And so that really began my career in banking and moved up into management. And then I took an opportunity for the same reason in the mortgage industry that somebody wanted me because of my bilingual skills. They knew there was an economic benefit to that company. And then it happened in the real estate world. But all of that is connected and it's been my personal responsibility to continue. How much more can I learn? And how many more people can I bring forward with me? Because in this country, if you don't have finances, you don't have economic stability, you don't understand capital, you don't understand credit, you will never get ahead. People don't like to say that, Marsha, but the reality is in this country, finances matter and money is connected, zip code matters. And if you don't have money, you don't get into the same networks and you don't get to the same positions and it's wrong. It is wrong. And it's wrong. I keep coming back to that. And I know you had a long story of your career to tell, but you mean they didn't let you answer the poor man's other questions. Right. Wow. So, and I mean, so that began the piece of and it still happens today. That was back in 1995. And, but that, you know, again, so I moved myself up in that company and I, and I brought forth, we have to change our policies. So bilingual people here became very evident to somebody needs to be bilingual in this building every day all day, not just part time when I'm working because Spanish speaking clients that are walking into this building and that happens everywhere around our county. So what's our responsibility, again, to do better together, whether it's morally, ethically or from a business standpoint, when we take care of different segments of our population who right now are not included or not resourced or not supported. We're missing a really important connection to do better. You are, we're, we're wasting all of that human capital and all of the talents that those people have. That's a really, and that's one, you know, from a, from a teacher educator standpoint, that's, we are, we're missing a significant opportunity to bring people up and lift them up, but give them the skills, give them the clear career path, give them job opportunities, meaning whatever sector of a community that we're talking about. So we are, we're running up against our 30 minute limit, but there's one kind of important noun that I think got stepped on in all of the talk that we had, but you mentioned the Hispanic wealth project. Oh, yes. Can you just a one liner of that because I think it was important, I think that it's important that people know that's what you're talking about. Oh, yeah, so that's, I'll try and be really, really brief on that. So I am a certified trainer for the Hispanic wealth project, which is a national initiative that's connected to the work that I've been involved in with the board. We're locally, the National Association Hispanic real estate professionals. The focus of Hispanic wealth project is based on data from like 2014. And it's addressing home ownership, small business and also investments specifically for our Hispanic Latino demographic around the United States. So this is from a national level as a trainer. And there's 44 of us in the country that are now certified trainers. Wow. Work is, again, it's about addressing the inequities of the financial system. It's about, you know, just one of those small pieces is addressing home ownership and so just from a data standpoint if about 76 to 78% of white Americans in this country own their home. And 50% of our Hispanic Latino Latinx demographic on their property. So just that small piece. That's a significant discrepancy because you and I know as property owners that that is the way that we build access to one banking relationship, which is significant. It's capital. It's long term equity. It's for a lot of us is a retirement fund for a lot of us. It's the way that we pay for college or make major plans for our family members. That's just, you know, one example of the systematic differences of how policies have brought community some communities further along in the financial realm. That's the way that we have access in this country. Wonderful. You would bring a lot of important knowledge. I think to to Boulder County's housing policy, which is tremendously important. We, as we strain the boundaries of land use that we have here. Yeah. And it's complicated and it also requires, I believe, a different lens and a different perspective to come up with creative solutions that we can do to open more doors and housing for all of us here locally it's so imperative and it's going to become even more so. As we rebuild from COVID-19. Yes. One final question and I know it's got to be brief because we, we, is everybody's eyes to watch as this have this movement going on that looks like it's going to be really transformative. I hope I'm hoping that it's really transformative in America. Do you believe it's going to help you be more effective as a commissioner that you are going to be coming in the aftermath of something that was really big but maybe really controversial, or do you think it's going to make your job harder. It's a good question. I mean, there's to me there's two pieces of that one is, is this current situation opening enough people's you kind of talked about, you know, the way that some of this, the protests and these opportunities for people to start having these type conversations. Is that going to open up our local communities. Leadership worship community activism into true policy change and true action. That would create to me a bigger wider broader opportunity for me to lead as a county commissioner. And it also for me helps me understand that there are more people again that need to be part of the decision making and the work that I do going forward. And I do believe it's twofold, because if our voters as an example, decide they are really, um, that they really are satisfied with status quo, and they really don't want to have that. And so if we have these perspectives, then we won't be accepting a huge opportunity here locally in Boulder County to make dramatic long term change with representative democracy but represent leadership from our county commissioner office so I think it is a big challenge. And, and again I think the message is for people to understand that it truly is a benefit for everybody. And, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about that too is you know what what does more representative leadership mean to you and how do you feel like that could potentially be a benefit for all of us here locally. I think you have done a really good job of convincing me that that your perspective is necessary. And I think it's those experiences with with being on the outside of the bilingual dynamic that we've held in long ahead was gave me a new perspective and I think your perspective is going to be really important, especially if, as it did in the 1960s, really does take on the challenge of racial justice and we're having hints now that maybe we're ready for taking the next step in that after pretending there was no problem for so many years. So, thank you, Marta for coming here and talking to me today or virtually coming here and talking to me today. Yeah, and thank you for taking on the challenge and, and the risk of doing this. So I really appreciate it. And best of luck with your candidacy. Thank you. Thanks for having me and it's a great conversation and it's important to continue these dialogues so that's really important to Marsha. I appreciate you. You do it. Maybe you can come back in a while and we'll do it again when something else big is going on. Yeah. All right. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Take care.