 Hello, my name is Phil Hainline and this is an installment of Longmont Public Media's Candidate Interview Series. I'm here with Becca Ventorella, challenger for City Council at large. Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. You'll have time for a summation at the end, but since our time is limited, I'm going to start right off with our first question. Sounds good. If you are elected, what is the biggest issue you want to address, and is that issue actually within the control of City Council, or is it something that requires a ballot measure or state-level action? It is. My top issue is gun violence prevention. This February 13th, my cousin was murdered at Michigan State University, four days prior to that. One of my aunts took her life, so I was at two funerals within two weeks. I have a family member who took her life with a gun, but my mom was young, and so the impact of gun violence is a thread that's following through. I worked at the State Capitol when I got back from her funeral and advocated for all the gun GVP bills that just passed. As you know, you might know is that raising the age to 21 to buy a long gun passed, but it's currently in court and could be there for five years. So here locally, we can pass an ordinance like that, or a law like that, so that an 18-year-old doesn't go and buy a assault rifle. And I think that's important. It won't fix the problem that we're facing across the board, but if it saves one person's life, then I think it's important to do that. Excellent. There are several safety and crime reduction measures that the public has asked for, such as Vision Zero, restorative justice, and increasing the police force. Which of these solutions do you think are effective, and what else should the city council do? I think that all of them are. They all work together as a cohesive team. Public safety issues are, we have to look at it in the scope of, it's all have to work together. It's not just one picks the other. I had the honor of attending LCJP's fundraising event yesterday, and I believe it's imperative that we support organizations like those, because they are working with our Justice Department to help combat the issue that's prevalent with youth. If they make a mistake, something happens, they help navigate that with them so that they don't go on in life with something that could mar their future. And they help them teach them how to cope, teach them how to communicate. And I think it's amazing. The Longmont police officers are working along with LCJP, working on restorative justice, and that's very important to keep at the forefront of our minds, because that's something that I have not heard many offering, so I'm really proud of the work that they are doing here. That's great to hear. So moving on, what is your vision for the future of Longmont's transportation network of vehicles, streets, sidewalks, and multi-use paths? I think the big question when it comes up to transportation that people have is the railway, getting a train here so that people can travel through in and out from their jobs and Denver all throughout. But secondly, I think the microchanset that they're looking into to have in our city is it's important because people who don't have access to vehicles, people are in a home with one vehicle and they have jobs and doctor's appointments and taking their kids here and there with microchanset, people can travel through our city and get to the places that they need without being burdened with costs for Uber, costs for, you know, getting a friend to drive you, the time constraints that comes with even possibly waiting for a bus. It's definitely a challenge. And I think we want our community to be walkable, bikeable. I've had people talk to me about, hey, can we fix this bike path so we can travel through? So I think following with what they're doing and keeping up with that is amazing because yeah, it'll help us out. Great. It sounds like you've really been out there with people catching their ear. Yeah. Yeah. I've been able to hit 2,300 doors in about three weeks. We kind of slowed down because my body was giving up. A lot of people are sharing their thoughts and opinions with me and I think it's important that we sit with our community members and work together. Great. The high cost of housing makes it difficult for service workers to afford to live in long lives. 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? Absolutely. I'm a service worker. I'm a tradesman, a tradeswoman. I'm a hairdresser, my husband's a mechanic and it's hard to really make much money because you can only charge so much in order to have people be able to access your services. So that's one side of the service worker piece. So yeah, we do because it's very expensive to live here. Boulder County is our state, our cities, our skyrocketing in price. My husband and I were able to move to Longmont because there was a development going up that was a town home development. And so it was really wonderful to be able to be in a community, tight community and not have to be burdened with cost of maintenance on the homes, got buying all the equipment to mow your lawn. So I'm really thankful for people like that, for developments that come in and offer homes for people who can come in here. But then again, it's not affordable for everybody to come in and just buy a new build or a house that's coming through. So having affordable options is imperative so that we can keep our community members here locally to support each other. And yeah. You're very clear on the position that's good. Is there anything specific you think the council should look into? We need to be looking at sustainable infrastructure. Not just building apartments. That's a lot of people's concerns is we're just going to build up really fast and then it's going to be left like strip malls sitting there empty. So we need to be looking at like home. People can buy a home and build generational wealth equity. So I think supporting measures like that and keeping our builders, if possible, local. So that again, we're not bringing people from everywhere to come in and develop and there's accountability with that as well. Because if something goes wrong, then you have someone here that you can reach out to. Good, that's really good. So there are three ballot questions on the November 7th ballot. Do you think the public should support each and why? I'm going to give you each of the three and then we'll take them each in turn. Okay. Okay. And we have seven minutes for the total set of questions. So 3C is about the new branch and library and library funding 3D is the arts and entertainment center and 3E is the recreation facilities. So if you just give me a moment to reset the seven minutes, we are good. Oh, right. So the new branch and library funding. I think they're important. I have two young kids and offering these things to the community all around versus being in one location is important. We need another community center and a place where people can go and be active and join in on what's happening here. The concern though with people is that it's going to cost a lot. And our taxes being increased at this point is scary for a lot of people because it's hard to live here as homeowners, as things keep going up, it's expensive to buy groceries. So just from the people I have spoken to, I don't think people are comfortable passing these measures at this point. If things were a little more separated out, it would be a little more accessible to where we can look at it and be like, okay, we can afford this, but not all three or four measures. So yeah, that's the experience I'm getting out there from talking to people. Interesting. Okay, great. So moving on to 3D, the arts and entertainment center. The one thing I like about that is that they have to come up with a chunk of money before they start drawing money from our taxes. Can I say who's they? Who's they? Our city. Yeah, our city has to come up with money, a chunk of money before they start raising our taxes or taking money from the taxes. And I think a lot of people feel comfortable with that because there's an initiative to raise a chunk. So this is raising outside? Raising outside of our city. Yep. Outside of our city. Tax system. Tax system, yes. That's interesting. Yeah. That makes sense. So moving on to 3E, the recreation facilities. It's exciting. But I think for me, as a member of the public, having the YMCA and the Rec Center together is a lot. It's a big price tag on the YMCA and then the Rec Center, thankfully we own the land that the Rec Center would go on. So there's not that cost to have to buy land. And with the land swap with the YMCA, it's hard to really get around. We're not using that land. We are moving somewhere else. Oh my gosh, this is all going to get expensive. So I think people love and I love the idea of it. And I think we need it because the YMCA is going to work on having affordable housing, childcare and whatnot. They're going to revamp how they do business. But again, it's a lot. So I think if it was separated out, it'd be exciting to face. But I just want to come back and hit the point of it's a tough time right now for people financially as well as myself. Okay. Very good. Well, you're in great shape on time. And that's it for the formal questions. And at this point, I'd like to turn it over to you for a very open-ended anything people, you'd like people to know about yourself, kind of a closing round. Sounds good. I talk to my friends and family about this often as I'm running this race is I really want people to know how much passion and drive that I have. I was raised by a 30 year Marine vet. And so that's one thing I learned is you go for something and you work hard at it and you don't halfway do this. So when I started this journey in February, I got back from my cousin's funeral and I marched myself to the state Capitol, never been there before. And sat down in front of the Senate committee and testified. And it was very empowering. And I learned a lot about government by spending hours upon hours upon hours at the Capitol. I fell in love with it. And so I'm bringing that to the municipal level is very exciting for me because I can affect these things that affect our community here. And I understand it's not all big picture. We have people are very concerned about potholes. They're concerned about traffic, people speeding down their roads. There's basic needs that we want to meet. But I'm going to go for it. I feel like it shows that I won't give up and that I learned quick and that I think it's important that we have somebody here in office who's going to go at all cost. Great. So once again, this is a wrap up. This was an installment in Longmont Public Media's candidate interview series. And I was really glad to have you here in this forum, Becca. Thank you. And look forward to watching how the race progresses. Thank you, I really appreciate it. Bye.