 Hello, my name is Faith Halverson Ramos and this is an installment of Longmont Public Media's Candidate Interview series. I'm here with Ethan Ogreen, a candidate for mayor. Hello and welcome, Ethan. Thank you, Faith. You'll have time for a summation at the end, but since our time is limited, I'm going to start off with our first question. If you are elected, what is the biggest issue you want to address? And is that issue within the control of city council, or is it something that requires a ballot measure or state level action? The most important issue I want to address is securing our energy future. Longmont has a plan for 100% carbon free electricity by 2030. It's a wonderful idea, but the promise we haven't made any progress towards achieving that goal in the last five years since that goal was first introduced. The mayor sits on the board of platter of power authority, so that's an ideal position to work on this. And one of the main things we need to do is to maximize our deployment of renewable energy on a local level. That's really the only way to achieve such an ambitious goal, which is way more ambitious than anything else happening in Colorado. The state has a goal of 100% by 2050. So if we don't achieve that, then when the coal shuts off in 2030, we're going to face skyrocketing electricity prices and potential power blackouts. That needs to be avoided. And I have a master's degree in environmental leadership, and I have a comprehensive realistic wealth billing plan to actually achieve this goal. If we don't achieve that, then like I said, it's going to be devastating for our economy. And the problem is that we don't have any plan currently. Could you share a little more about this plan that you have? Sure. Well, there are other examples of utilities that are making a lot of progress towards similar goals. And the way they do that is by maximizing local renewable energy. That can include putting solar power on on homes and residential buildings and utilizing our open space land for agrivoltaic, which is a combination of solar and agriculture. We need to utilize the resource that we have locally and not just depend on a utility to ship in energy from 1000 acres solar fields in Weld County, for example, or or wind, which are intermittent energies so that they don't always produce electricity. And that's one of the big problems. But by bringing that power generation close at home with distributed by a generation, we can make a lot of progress towards that. Great. Thank you. The next question. There are several safety and crime reduction measures which the public has asked for such as vision zero restorative justice and a larger police force. Which of these solutions do you think are effective and what else should city council do. Well, we need to enforce the law. First of all, we have a police force that's about 40% smaller than similar sized cities. And so we could look at the need for more police but I don't think that's the primary need I think we need to do more with prevention of crime and to deal with homelessness problem and get people off the streets of where a lot of crime often comes from. We don't want to turn a blind eye to crime, which I think is happening a lot with the current administration. What are some ideas that you have for the prevention of crime or addressing the homelessness issue in Longmont? I think being a lot more proactive going to know individuals personally because there's not really a one size fits all solution. Each individual who ends up homeless has their own experience. And so I think we could employ a team of social workers and mental health professionals who go out proactively and actually get to know individuals and help them get connected to resources and services and whether it's job training or mental health services or addiction treatment. There's a lot of different problems that people have that contribute to them ending up homeless and so we need to really treat that on an individual personalized level, I think. Thank you. The third question is, what is your vision for the future of Longmont's transportation network of vehicles, streets, sidewalks, and multi-use paths? Well, first of all, I don't think that we should continue paying a tax for a train that has been non-existent for 20 years and may never come. So I think we should put a referendum on the ballot to repeal the tax and to claw back the funds that we've spent on that non-existent train. I think there are regional priorities, such as transport to Lyons and Estes Park and to the Carbon Valley, Firestone, Frederick and Dicono. We don't have buses that go there currently, but I think that's a missing gap. We do have a pretty good local bus system, but I think it could be expanded to reach more neighborhoods. I think we should continue expanding bike trails and pedestrian pathways to reach more areas to connect with more nature and hiking areas and to connect the commercial districts and residential areas across the city. I ride a bike every day. I have a bicyclist and I love my trails, but there are some areas like the St. Frank Creek Trail that's been under construction for years. I'd like to finish that and really prioritize interconnectivity between all of our different transportation options. As a cyclist, what ideas do you have for improving the ability to be a pedestrian or ride your bike within the actual city itself? Can you clarify what you mean by that? Thinking about within downtown and some of the neighborhoods outside of downtown, we have bike lanes, but they're not always the most well maintained or people park in them. I was just curious if you had thoughts about making it easier for people to commute by bike or to be pedestrians within more of the urban corridor as opposed to the multi-use paths on the eastern and western sides of town. That's a good question. I haven't personally experienced those problems, so I don't know, but I'd be open to feedback from the public and from other cyclists and drivers as well. I think I've heard a criticism that cyclists are not sensitive enough to other users of the trails, such as people who are walking. So I think maybe more education around manners and behavior could help that. But that's for everybody, not just for cyclists, but also drivers need to be more aware of the rules and pay attention to when they're a cyclist so that we can avoid accidents. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So our fourth question. The high cost of housing makes it difficult for service workers to afford to live in Longmont. Do you believe that they should be able to? And how do you believe it would impact the lives of current residents if they could? Oh, absolutely. Everybody should be able to afford to live in Longmont and I'm very fortunate to be able to live here affordably. Because I live in a town house, it's a vacation house owned by my parents, so don't have to pay rent there. That's a very unique situation. Most people don't have an benefit of having, but my idea is for a modular factory that would create housing that's more affordable. This is being done already in other communities across Colorado, across the country. A modular factory is an indoor factory, so it's not as sensitive to weather conditions and you could have workers who are employed 24-7 building homes. And they can be energy efficient green homes that are higher quality than traditional construction. It's not going to replace conventional homes, but it'll be another option that can shave thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands of dollars off the cross of home ownership. I think that's a breakthrough strategy that can really make massive difference in the price of housing, not just locally, but also regionally. Where would you see modular home communities being set up here in Longmont? Well, I think we can tweak the rules around accessory building units and add more density to neighborhoods without undermining the historic preservation and character of those neighborhoods. But I think there are also a lot of homes that are older and maybe vacant or in poor condition, so those would be a prime opportunity to replace those homes with newer development. Great. Thank you. And now our last question. There will be three measures on November's ballot. Do you think the public should support each? And why? You'll have about two minutes and 20 seconds to comment on each measure. So the first measure is 3C, which is a new branch library and library funding. I think libraries are super important. It's one of the best opportunities for young people to learn how to read and to get excited about education. So I think that we should prioritize our existing library. I'm not sure that the plan for new library is the best one. And the feedback I've been hearing from the public is that they're not in the mood for higher taxes with the property taxes going up and inflation cost, everything is going up. So, even though I support libraries and I think this is a well intentioned idea. I think it may not be the best time right now. We should maybe focus more on services for the existing library. Thank you. The second measure is 3D, which is for an arts and entertainment center. That's another one that the feedback I'm hearing from the public is that there are enough opportunities already for live music and entertainment and people don't want to pay higher taxes for this new development. I think it's a great idea. And maybe when the economy is in better shape and prices are not inflating so much, it'd be a better time for it. Maybe if also the private developers can contribute more over the funds for it. But I don't think it's the right time. I don't think the public is going to support that because people still want to pay higher taxes right now. And then the third measure is 3E, which is for new recreation facilities. Yeah, this is the one that I feel the worst about. I live on the east side of Longmont. I don't think that's a good idea to swap the land in this way. And I may not fully understand the plan, but I don't think it's well conceived. And this is the one that I'm definitely voting against. Thank you. So, we have some remaining time and thank you for answering the questions. Is there anything else that you would like to like to say in the time that we have? I'm not sure. Well, the reason why I'm running is because I'm an expert in environmental issues. I've earned a master's degree in environmental leadership. And I worked on his issues for many years. And I've observed that the city has a misguided approach to several environmental issues. And I think it's important to bring those issues to the forefront and really bring forward a smarter approach to climate and energy and other environmental issues. One of the real concerns I have is the clear cutting of thousands of acres of trees in our head of waters, which is going on right now, above our reservoir in Button Rock Reserve. It's not a name of wildfire prevention, but it's not a good approach to deal with one problem by creating new problems. New problems are increased risk of flooding and a negative impact on water quality through sedimentation. That's one example of a misguided approach to environmental issues that may be well-attentioned because they want to prevent wildfires, which is important. But you don't do that by creating new problems. We experienced devastating flood 10 years ago in Longmont and just still commemorate the anniversary. And so we shouldn't be doing anything that could increase the risk of flooding, like clear cutting our head of waters. Another issue that I'd like to lead on is the cost of food. Food prices have gone up a lot in recent years due to some black constraints and overall inflation in the economy. And one thing that we can do on a local level is to repeal the tax on food, tax on groceries. Many states and cities don't have any tax at all on food. It's a aggressive tax because poor people pay more for it. In some sense, everybody needs food, everybody eats. But lowering from people spent a larger amount of their budget on food. So it ends up being a regressive tax. And this came up several years ago, city councils asked to put a referendum on the ballot to repeal the food tax. And they declined to that. But I'll make that a priority because it's very important that people have enough food to eat. And even if it's just a few percentage points reduction in the tax that can help young people and poor people have more food and better quality food. Another way to address that would be to bring a high quality discount grocery store. It's a long out, which we don't have currently people are driving to the Kona or to Loveland many cases to access quality discount food. And we have vacant grocery stores here in the city. I think we could pass a tax incentive and perhaps business development incentives to bring quality discount food store. To all my top people say money up for you. Whether she's going to come on. So I was saying that we should not be cutting trees down. And what we should be doing instead is planting trees. We only only plant 236 trees last year in the city. That's not enough. If there is a real climate emergency. We should be planting a lot more trees. There are some neighborhoods that have not many trees of all. All tree inequity some neighborhoods have lots of trees and some don't. And so that increases. There have been heated fact in the summer. And negative health consequences for those neighborhoods that don't have trees. So, but plant more trees. Let's expand our parks. Let's protect conservation easements. And overall put reach out of solutions first nature based solutions. Several years ago in. When the climate recommendations report came out. The parks and open space board. So that this doesn't have enough nature based solutions. And so we've moved. For for five years. I'm analyzing smart meters and electrification and really putting nature based solutions on the back burner. I'd like to re-prioritize the nature based solutions first. The idea that smart meters are going to save us from climate change. I think it's hot wash. It's really not a realistic plan. But it is very expensive. It's costing millions of dollars to install these smart meters. And there's a lot of community opposition. So I think that we should be focused on more realistic and wise solutions to address climate change. Thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the voters of long? That's also very important to protect freedom. We experienced lockdowns and mandates last several years. And that really hurt the economy. So I'm a pro freedom sustainability expert. I don't believe that there's a economy between those two. So we need to protect free speech. In the city. I will. Make sure that we prioritize free speech. And not shut up shut down the voices of anybody. I don't believe that there should be divide between residents and non residents. But everyone's voices important. There are so many reasons why we should be listening to the voice of non residents. They're experts who live outside of all month. You can chime in on important issues. There are people live one block or two blocks outside the city. And for all intents and purposes, they consume themselves to be members of the community. But they're being prohibited from having a voice in city council. We even have a relationship with. Indian reservations in Wyoming. And we're not allowed to speak to the city council. What if they want to come and deliver an address to city council? They're not allowed because it's not residents. I just think that's wrong. And we should be valuing the input of everyone who wants to speak to city council. Well, thank you for. Your responses, your thoughts. On this issue. And again. I'm Faith Halvors and Ramos speaking with. Can I get my website? Yes. Website, Ethan for a lot. Com. Got lots more information on all these issues. I really tried to take a thoughtful and comprehensive approach. To the issues and I hope that you go to my website. Ethan for a lot. Com. Check out my ideas and vote for me. If you think that may need change in the city. Excellent. Thank you. So. Again, this is Faith Halvors and Ramos speaking with Ethan Ogreen candidate for mayor. And thank you for watching this installment of Longmont media's candidate interview series.