 Hello, my name is Faith Halverson Ramos, and this is an installment of Longmont Public Media's Candidate Interview Series. I'm here with Suzy Hidalgo-Fairing, who is running as the incumbent representative from Ward 3. Hello, and welcome, Suzy. Thank you for having me. You'll have time for a summation at the end, but since our time is limited, I'm going to start with the first question. If you are re-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? Okay. So I think, you know, there are many issues that need to be dealt with at the same time. One of the things since coming on Council, I, we had a worldwide pandemic. Our city infrastructure, our buildings, our storm drainage. We had a lot of things that we needed to take care of. So you know, a lot of other initiatives, a lot of other pressing issues kind of got put to the wayside. So my goal in this next term is to really address the core services, the other infrastructure pieces that we've kind of had to put on hold as we were addressing pressing issues like COVID and our economic redevelopment during that time, as well as our city buildings, our city hall, public safety building, and library were suffering from major infrastructure default, and we needed to come in and fix those. So my plan for the next term is addressing a lot of our core services, making sure that our community at large is healthy parks, healthy roads and infrastructure, making sure that we've, and public safety as well, and making sure that we've directed and allocated proper programming and services for those, for those areas and streamline the process as well as building that communication bridge. And as well as, you know, we have a lot of pressing issues with our unhoused, our mental health with affordable and attainable housing for our working class people. So again, it's not just one issue. I think we need to be able to have the bandwidth to address all pressing issues. And there are so many at this time. And I want to be able to, to, you know, I already know the routine. I know the, you know, what, what's expected, what we, what is in within our purview and what we can actually advocate at the state and national level. So I serve on the Latino Advisory Council for Congressman Ngoose. So we meet quarterly and that is my opportunity to really share, in essence, what we need in our community. And, and so those, those avenues so that we can bring that, bring that home for our residents here at Longmont. Thank you. Yes. 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 the city council do? Okay. So I, and this goes, goes to what, why I ran to begin with. I have something that's very near and dear to my heart is mental health and access to mental health. And so many of our calls to 911 are because of drug addiction and mental illness and mental health crisis. So back in 2013, my daughter overdosed and it was a very, it was a very rough road and realizing the lack of services, even within the community as far as, you know, support, support networks. And it was very hard to navigate that, especially since we, we never had to experience, you know, going to the therapist. I mean, I did for my son who's diagnosed autism. So we had, you know, that network, but we didn't really have anything for suicide and suicide intervention. You know, there was one instance where my daughter was just having a bad reaction just to medication, not physically, but, but mentally and behaviorally. And we call 911. This was in 2013, within 30 seconds, the officer came in, had her pinned down to the ground, 90 pounds, little ballerina, 13 years old, and they arrested her. So after that, you know, it was a lot of healing, a lot of mending within the family, but moving beyond that, I just, I felt what can I do as a community? You know, we have different, you know, certain individuals, you know, take care and build, rebuild themselves. And, and that is important. That was my husband. That was our family. But for me, it was like, okay, what can we do? So this never happens again. And working with Mike Butler in the early stages of transitioning from policing to more of a public safety, where we're looking at the whole picture with the core and leads team, the angel initiative. I've been a huge proponent of that. I sit on the steering committee for the corn leads team with them. So just meeting with other stakeholders and, and really making sure that we are going the right track with what we have in our service. And I believe in, in continuing that the wraparound services, because it's not just criminal. It is mental health drug addiction. There are so many facets out there that we need to be addressing. And you know, you call the doctor and they, you know, when you're on the automated line, if this is a mental health emergency, call 911. And we need to make sure that those first responders have people with them that know how to deescalate. We've had to call police out for my son years ago. And after core team started, when he's had meltdowns, and they come with social social worker core team, you know, along with the police, but being able to deescalate the situation so he can calm down and then carry on with his day. And that's, I think those are, those are key. I could go on for a while. And I hope I hit all the points on there. I wasn't yeah, no, I can wrap go at the end too. I think you touched on a lot of the important fact issues within our safety, public safety. So our next question is, what is your vision for the future of Longmont's transportation network of vehicles, streets, sidewalks, and multi-use paths? Okay. And I think you, you mentioned vision zero on the other. And so I'm glad that it, it lends itself to be answered here. You know, what I like about vision zero, and we've adopted to move forward with vision zero is how it puts safety, pedestrian, cyclist, you know, other multimodal forms of transportation down to the car. But where it really puts pedestrian and cyclist at the higher of the hierarchy of road safety. So as we look to redesign a lot of our, you know, our roads throughout Longmont and reevaluate what we have and what we need to accomplish to get that, we are putting the basis for road safety on the pedestrian as well as the cyclist. And I think that's, that's key. You know, I teach in a title one school, the majority of our students are on free reduced lunch and not access to cars. There are a lot of our kids are bused. We have so many buses that bring them in and take them home. We, you know, we have parents that don't have access to vehicles. So having that public transit and having reliable public transit where you're not having to wait forever today for the bus to come. So having that that component along with other means of transportation outside of the vehicle, I think that is key that works for our environment that works for safety our youth that that utilize the street the sidewalks and the streets and they're learning to ride the bikes that they that they can feel safe and parents can feel safe to have their families out there as well. So I had some time. Thank you. The next question is 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? I absolutely believe that people who work in Longmont, if they so choose to be able to live in Longmont. I'm a public school teacher for Savory Valley Schools. I've been in this for about almost 20 years now. And what I'm finding with our new teachers coming in is they're buying outside. If we are looking for reduction in carbon, carbon footprint in multimodal transportation, we are not allowing that to happen by having so many people who are having to commute in and out of the city. And so I think in an environmental aspect that is a benefit for our neighbors. I mean we think about our educators. St. Brain is the largest employer for the city of Longmont and for teachers, classified staff or paraprofessionals, bus drivers to be able to live in the community. It brings that it builds that bridge between our families as well as our staff and keeps the kids engaged in school. It really builds that sense of community. And not just for teachers, but as well as for other service workers, store clerks that we see every day for them to be a part of this community. I think that's key. There is a problem there with affordable affordability. We have a lot of people who make too much to qualify for affordable housing, but they cannot afford market rate. I really want to focus on that mid-tier housing where they're just, you can afford market rate. And so I watch the club here. And so I think that it is key that we focus on building the type of home that people can build equity in, so for sale units. What I am finding from interacting with a lot of our younger teachers is they don't want the single family home with the big yard. They want a place, you know, the lifestyle is very different. So the needs of our growing population is not necessarily where we were in the 1970s and 1960s, the single family home, you know, American dream, but really just something that's more functional for the lifestyle. And, you know, we have a lot of single workers. There's a lot of families that, you know, maybe one or two children, it's not extended. And, you know, I don't want to make assumptions, but having those different options for people. And I think that that is key. And the for sale units for people to be able to build equity into their homes. So I do believe that we need to provide that stock. Great. Thank you. So we are at our last question, which is a three-part question. Okay. You'll have, we have a little longer time for that. So this question is, there will be 3 measures on November's ballot. Do you think the public should support each and why? And so for each of these segments, you'll have about 2 minutes and 20 seconds to comment. Okay. So the first measure is 3C, a new branch library and library funding. Okay. So I do sit on the library board as the council liaison. And I was working with the board in the early stages when we had the feasibility study, when we looked at what's, what are things that people are wanting to see in Longmont, as far as library services, and how is the library executing this? You know, being on council, we're in a little, we were what the attorneys referred to as the vampire rules. So I can't really sway either way because I'm representing the city of Longmont. So, you know, I think it's really important to have that education piece next month. The neighborhood groups leadership association who meets the third Thursday in the evenings at the senior center will be hearing a presentation from Sandy Cedar, our assistant city manager on all three ballot initiatives. So for me, it was really important that we get the education out there for people. With the library, one of the things that came up as we were on the board was that we have the Friends of the Library, which is a nonprofit. They fund a lot of the programs that other, that our community benefits from, but other communities are paying for it out of their funding, their own city funding, or their funding mechanism. We are actually depending on an outside nonprofit to fund these essential services. And so that, you know, so rather than friends being coming in and supporting extra activities, they are having to help bridge that gap for the basics. So oftentimes the public say, well, the library's doing great, but we also have staff that are working, like they're miracle workers. They are, they really are. And I'm coming from a teacher who I work with staff and we are miracle workers, making things happen out of nothing. And they really are and making sure that the customer or the individual who comes in, the resident who comes in, and experiences the library that they really feel, you know, that all their needs are met. And so I just feel like that would help enhance and kind of bridge that gap so we can tap into the Friends of the Library for other purposes that would help expand services and programming. Thank you. So let's move to the second measure, 3D Arts and Entertainment Center. Okay. Yes. And so that one is where a portion of the money so will be funded from an outside source. And then we will will provide the other half or a little more than half of that of that amount. And the money will not be collected until the the arts nonprofit has their their amount done. So and they have within five years. So in the event they do not collect that I believe those 30 million before five years or by five years, then it's dead. So then it's no impact. And nothing is going to be taken from from residents until that money is collected. And, you know, one of the things that I often hear from from residents is there's nothing for our use to do. There's nothing for for people to do venues, you know, so so we were as we kind of were ideating through these these initiatives in the early stages is what we're looking for ways that would be able to provide those different amenities and experiences for the residents. And so kind of tapping into what we've heard what the needs were and trying to execute those through these ballot measures. So and let me know if you have want anything. No, that seems very comprehensive. And I think it's important to highlight that these things were being viewed at through the lens of what can we provide our youth. Yes. Yeah, that's something that's really a teacher. That's something that's really important because they are our future. Yeah. So the third measure is three E. Yes. And new recreation facilities. Yes. Yes. And so that one was so the the portion of the why coming into to that piece and the reason why we decided to to combine the two. Let me was that it was through recommendation of the parks and rec board and the parks and rec board are just like the library board the museum board are made up of residents who apply. They're just volunteers. But they they come in you know wanting to to represent their community just like people running for city council wanting to to represent the needs of their community. So they are you know out there talking to to people in their in their neighborhoods in their area and bringing back with those dire you know those big issue topics are and it was through recommendation of the prab the parks and rec advisory board that those two initiatives come together. So we felt you know by honoring their request and they are advisory boards or their intent is to advise the council. So we we put those two measures together the why and the rec center and that was another one that people are saying we need amenities we need to address different you know the growing population and and then the the current rec center is you know it's still used it's still you know it's very it's popular but it's we need something more as well. For a war three rep I've really pushed with staff what can we do in our what can we do in our work let's start looking at some so one of the things I want to address in the next is in the event that one doesn't pass and the library passes how can we maybe tap into the war three space or say as a as a possible avenue for a branch library and if they all pass and the libraries with the current rec center I still want to look at spaces in war three to build youth programming that spot we have the the firehouse that is now vacant the city is going to be using it for training I'd like to be able to utilize some of that stuff for pro space for programming as well as some of our vacant businesses in the area but I think it's just really trying to address what what we are hearing from the community that we're missing out in and with the I can squeeze it in the last the financing mechanism something that was really important to me is okay rather than just throwing it all in a mill levy for property owners to pay tax house a way that we can split it up to re sales tax so it's that's a portion as well as mill levy to hopefully to to work to ease the burden on the individual and so we were trying to find ways to get creative with the the money collection portion of it so it's not as cost burdensome on in the individual and that was something that was very important to me great uh-huh thank you so those were our questions okay and we have a little bit of time left if you would like to so say anything more to the voters yeah so I mean I'm being on city council was a it's a it's a learning experience and there there is a lot to learn um I feel like coming in in my second term as if I'm reelected if my voters in war three will have me I I feel like I can come in hit the ground running and pick up where we left off and really fill in those gaps that we weren't really didn't have the capacity um aside from COVID we also what and I really love this phrase I heard it from our city manager the silver tsunami we had an overwhelming number of longtime directors and staff members who retired and who had been with the city for 30 plus years and so it was recruiting new talent and so that's you know that's something I want to move move forward on it you know we've got the staff now we're ready to get to work and just really fill in those gaps that that our community is feeling that we've that we have and and there's a lot of work to do so I'm ready to move forward excellent well thank you so much of course of course speaking with me and the citizens of Longmont and Ward three yes this is Faith Halvorson Ramos with Susie Hidalgo-Fairing running for re-election in Ward three and this was another episode of Longmont Public Media's candidate interview series thank you thank you yeah and you can read more about me on Susie4ward3.com