 Welcome to Longmont Public Media's conversation with the candidates. I'm Richard Lyons, and I'm here today with Sean McCoy, one of the six candidates for the two at-large positions on City Council. Welcome, Sean. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure being here. Good. So Sean, tell us a little bit about yourself so Longmont can get to know you better. Okay. Well, I'm a native of Longmont. I was born and raised here as my wife, and my children have been too. I'm 56 years old. I went to Central Elementary, Longspeak Junior High and Longmont High School, Go Big Blue. I have a degree in political science and a master's in education from the University of Northern Colorado and just a pesky dissertation away from having my PhD. So I've served on multiple boards and commissions prior to my previous term on City Council in 2007. I served on the Housing and Human Services Commission, the Police Standards Board, the Boulder County Open Space, and the, let me see here, Planning and Zoning Commission. So I've had that experience. And then when I was on council, I served on different boards and commissions, like Housing and Human Services, Art and Public Places, Youth Council and such. And I've also received a Bronze Level Leadership Certificate from the National League of Cities. That means that I've gone to all kinds of professional developments to get a better understanding of what we can do to make Longmont a better place. After my service on City Council in 2011, I actually served on the Historic Preservation Commission. I've served on the District Accountability for Boulder Valley from my school as a teacher. And I am currently a board director for the Future Business Leaders of America for Colorado for District 2, which encompasses Boulder Valley, Savory Valley and a few of the metro schools down in Denver. Good. Yeah. Good. So what one thing do you want the Longmont voters to know about you? Just one thing. One thing? My commitment. My commitment to Longmont. If you ask any of my friends from way back when and to now, they all know that I'm always one of the biggest cheerleaders and people that are always talking about Longmont and how wonderful it is. And I just want people to understand that I get it. I get that Longmont is a great place and I want to keep it that way. Very good. Very good. So this is kind of a tricky question. What do you especially like but also what you especially don't like about Longmont? Well, I think that what I particularly like are parks and our recreation and the places and the activities that we do as a community. But I think sometimes Longmont short sells itself and I think that we need to make sure that Longmont is always perceived in a very positive light. It's a great community and we have so many wonderful things happening here that I think we just have to constantly keep our chins up and recognize how wonderful a community we actually live in. Very good. So I'm going to give you a hypothetical. If the city received $1 million grant to use for the city in any way that the council could choose. What would you do with it and why? Well, I don't think a million dollars would go very far to moving our dreams of RTD fast track there. Do you think that it would go pretty far to addressing our needs to do something about our homeless community? And I think that it's really important that we look out for the lease of our brothers and sisters that are struggling in this world and make sure that they are taken care of. So Sean, did you have a person that was your mentor where there was very influential in your life? And if so, how did that person help or influence you? Well, as many people know, my father Tom McCoy was a high school teacher at Niewat High. He taught USGov. I teach USGov at Monarch High School. And he served 22 and a half years on Longmont City Council and I learned at his feet. You know, he's had a great influence on me. Also, my government teacher at Longmont High, Jim Gillan, had a big influence on me. And I feel that he always joked that he doubted that. But the truth was is that he had a big influence on me. And so between my dad and Jim Gillan, it was really those two. Okay, good. So are you paying it forward? Are you mentoring or helping someone? I am paying it forward. My daughter Molly is interested in political life and has been for many years. And she is my campaign manager currently. And she is one heck of a campaign manager. She's thoughtful and considerate and somebody that I admire from this generation. And I have a lot of faith. I have a lot of faith in this generation. I think they have so much going for them. And I want to support them and make sure that they have what they need to be successful in Longmont. Good. So as you know, Colorado and Longmont both have lots of recreational opportunities. Which do you enjoy and how do you spend your recreational time? Well, we hike in the mountains up near Allen's Park. And I also ski cross-country and downhill. And so I enjoy those recreational activities. I haven't test, was it windsurfed for many years, but I thought maybe in my retirement I might get into doing some paddle boarding because I'm just around the corner from Macintosh. Very good. So, Sean, it looks like Longmont from the latest map. And I think it came out some minor revisions last week. Longmont will switch from being in the fourth congressional district to the second based upon that map, the latest map. What impact, if any, do you think that will have on Longmont? Well, I went to one of those redistricting meetings and listened to the arguments and heard what people were saying. And I think it will be positive. I think the one disappointment that not all of Boulder County will be part of that District 2 from my observation. It looked like Netherland and some of those along the upper part of Boulder County might not be. And I think that's not a great idea. I think they need to stay in Boulder County. And I think that Longmont will have real representation there because we have issues in Boulder County. And only a year ago was there a fire that was encroaching and very, very close to Longmont. And our neighbors saw pieces of people's books and libraries coming down in full pages in their backyards. So the thing is that climate change is real and it's time that we probably need to have a representative that understands that. Very good. So how do you learn and stay informed about local, state and national and international issues? Well, I listen to National Public Radio on my drive in. I pay attention to our local news outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. I read up on what's going on in Longmont Ledger and Times Call. And I talk to people. That's a good way to do it. Yeah. So national politics are very divisive in our federal and state governments, as you know. Although the city is technically nonpartisan, some say it's becoming more political. What would you do to keep that divisiveness from occurring in Longmont City Council? Yeah, that can be a real problem. I think people misunderstand what our responsibility as Longmont City Council members really is. There's a learning curve to getting on Longmont City Council. And if you've never served on a Board of Commission or on City Council before, there's probably about a two-year learning curve before you actually see and understand that it's not about the national politics. It's really about Longmont. It's really about where Longmont community members are. It's about our parks and our libraries and our sewer and water and our trash collection and our recycling. Those are the issues. And I don't see those as being very political. I see them as just being important issues that face Longmont. Great. So how do you plan on including the voters more in the decision-making of the City Council? Well, when I served on Council before, we brought on activities like Coffee with Council. That wasn't established prior to that point. And that gives us a more local look at where people are and the issues that they are really interested in and allows people to voice those without feeling like they have to get up in front of Council. A little nerve-wracking. You've got three minutes. I have to say your address and your name. And by the time you're done, you've flubbed your speech a couple of times. And none of that happens at a Coffee with Council. People actually can talk to you. And I think that's really what is important because I think we need to show compassion and understanding that not everybody is a great orator. That's for sure. If you could change one thing in the current City Charter, excuse me, ordinances, City Code, what would you change in the Municipal Code? Just one thing. I think right now we're probably in a situation where I think we probably should look a little bit deeper into how much we are actually required for affordable housing. We might need to increase that. We served on Council before in 2009. That component was removed and the inventory that we had went back into the general population of houses. And so we had about over 100 houses that were affordable. We need to make some of that up. That was a very poor decision. I didn't support it at that time. And I think that now we have to make sure that if we're going to try to make sure that our police and fire and other folks that need to live and work in Longmont can afford housing, then our essential workers, then then it's important that we have affordable housing for them. Well, that leads into our next question between affordable housing and attainable housing. Which would you prioritize as being more important in this area? I think attainable housing is just a new buzzword a little bit brought on to try to promote a narrative. It's really around affordable housing and the inclusionary housing issues. And the truth is that there's a couple of different things that we can approach. We can look at trying to bring in more inventory from rental houses, rental units that may not be necessarily up to code, and come up with a way of working with those folks so that those that might want to bring an apartment on, let's say, in prospect. I was on plan zoning when prospect came on. That's the gold standard of really good development. And all those units there that were mother-in-law's roosts and things like that. What wasn't probably told to those folks is that you have to get another meter on that unit before you can really get out there and rent it. And so we need to come up with a process that allows people to bring those on legally. There's probably plenty of folks during this pandemic that had to make a hard choice about keeping their homes. And they might have come up with, oh, well, we can make our basement into this or we can do our mother-in-law's roost into that. And now they're having a few sleepless nights because they're trying to see how they can make it legal. We need to come up with real solutions to making those types of affordable housing legal so that people don't have sleepless nights and that we can do something to really help our community. Very good. Well, Sean, that ends our conversation for today. Thank you for stopping by. I know you've got a busy schedule. Sure. Well, thank you very much for having me. Good luck in your campaign. To be in your city councilman. Please vote for me. Sean McCoy. Thanks. All right. Thank you.