 Welcome to another episode of the Savvy Entrepreneur. Today, we have one of our previous guests with us, Marta Lochemin, fresh off her victory in her primary. So we're gonna be discussing a whole range of topics around government and policy. So without further ado, this is Marta. Marta, how are you doing today? Hi, Telus. I'm doing well. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me back. It's great to see you. First, I'd like to congratulate you on your victory. Thank you. Yeah, and I'll just reiterate, my name is Marta Lochemin and the primary victory that you're referring to is the June 30th primary, state and local here in Colorado and locally for us, the Boulder County Commissioner District II primary race. So thank you for that. So yeah, let's talk about what it was like to run and win an election during a pandemic and what your plans are for the general election. Sure, yeah. So running a primary, that was one of, and we've talked just a little bit, that that was one of the more challenging career pieces I've done really from a couple of different levels. And one, it's the most public job interview that one could ever do. I started the campaign over 18 months ago. So knowing that it was a long runway, as people say, to build, I really look at it and thought about it from a perspective of building a business, because it's some of those same steps that we as entrepreneurs use to create your idea and really focus in like, what are you gonna hone in on and who are you gonna bring on your team and what is the strategic priorities and your timelines and all those pieces. So I really kind of considered it from that perspective and running in a primary, what people talk about as far as politics is very real, even locally, and I think people will be super fascinated about what that really looks like for us in Boulder County. And as we talked about June 30th, the primary results of that 703 initial numbers were very close. And at that time I told my team, no one's gonna sleep. And we were all exhausted. Those last probably 72 hours prior to, I'll tell you at 6.15 on the night of June 30th, the night of the primary, I was still making personal phone calls. And a gentleman answered the phone and he said, oh yeah, this is perfect timing. I just sat down. I was gonna fill out my ballot and go drop it off. And that I share because we're coming up to a November 3rd election, we need to help our friends and neighbors get out the vote and make sure people know that the sooner that they do vote, the less phone calls they'll get from candidates like me. And we also have a real duty, I believe, in the United States, specifically here in Colorado, to show what mail-in and drop-off ballot can do. And so the sooner that we do that, the earlier we do that when ballots go out in October, on October 9th, truly is a way for us to show and demonstrate that it is a safe system, that it is a way that we can all participate in this democratic process as we move along in the U.S. So that's not exactly what you ask, but I think that's one of the really important pieces of this conversation. And also when you talk about, okay, what's the move from primary to general? It is a different race now. And remember, I'm a first-time candidate. So this has all been new. And adding in COVID and the pandemic and losing jobs and going digital, it was a lot of different transitions. And I also believe that no matter how steep the challenge feels, when we talk about serving community, it's always gonna be a little steep. And I personally just have that in me that this is more about personal responsibility and community than it is about the heavy lift or the weight behind the task to get there. So. Yeah, you bring up a really good point with the mail-in ballots. I've seen our Secretary of State on multiple TV news programs talking about how Colorado has had a mail system for many years and it's worked exceedingly well. Do you wanna talk about that a little bit? Yeah, I mean, it's really fascinating. I think this, the national vote project and that work and listening like you're talking about in the news, some of this pushback that we're getting around the country. And the fact that, unfortunately, it's becoming what seems like a partisan issue when the reality is that it is to vote is one of the most democratic actions that we all can take in our country of origin for folks who are voting outside of the US but also for citizens here in the US to be able to participate. And we talk about different levels of voice, what that looks like and we've shown in Colorado, as you already mentioned, now for years that that is a way that's accessible and a way for people to be able to participate. And I think the other piece there is that a lot of times folks feel like their voice isn't heard in an election but realize that in local elections, like we just saw in the primary, the difference of 15 votes is literally like this little part of the street that I live on. My 15 neighbors could make a difference for my race or for your race in the future or other folks who, and I feel like that's an important conversation that's not really shared. And we tend to think about really big state races or big national races and then it does feel like, oh yeah, my one vote might not make a difference. And in reality, it's the practice of and education of and making sure people know that participating has a real profound effect. Right, so go out there and vote everyone. So another thing that's really important to us here in Boulder County is renting. A large portion of the people here in this county rent and rent has been going up pretty steadily since I've been here in 2014. Do you wanna talk about some of the initiatives you're planning on doing in order to combat rent inflation? Yeah, let me give a little bit of background, especially for folks who might be listening or watching from other areas that in Boulder County, from a county perspective, and we have 330,000 residents in Boulder County, 45% of our residents are renters. In the city of Boulder, it's 55%. And so we have, when you talk about renting, and I think that's how kind of people figure out, how does that feel? And the other piece that is happening nationally and also here in our county is the reality of not just renting, but also spending more than 30% of your income on your rent. And so that's another kind of topic of the conversation, but just from the piece of rent, one, there's a need obviously, because we have such a great portion of our community that rents. And we can kind of talk about the different pieces of that, but maybe that background for people is at least helpful. So do you think that promoting home ownership is a good way to combat this? Or do you think that keeping prices rent down is the better way? Depends what your outcome, where are you going and what are you looking for? So my background is focused on home ownership. I'm talking about my 20 years of career plus, and also a lot of my non-profit work with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professions. That's what we focus on is sustainable home ownership. And people ask me a lot, like, what does that mean? But the idea of sustainable means that we, as advocates of housing, advocate for and look for and create different types of, the different steps to get to home ownership. So it might be like you're talking about renting. Just with the data I just shared, what you need. And there's also this need for affordable rentals. And that can look like very different ways of affordable rental. It could look like deed restricted housing, which we have some of that here in Boulder County as well. We can talk about a little more specifics too, if you want to. Ultimately, I believe what we're missing in Boulder County is entry-level housing. Because someone like you and I, who want to get our foot in the door literally, it's not just the price, but it's that what I tell clients all the time is when you're buying a car, typically it's not, the first time you buy a car, it's not typically the car you're hoping you have forever. It's the A to B and the A to B and the A to B to start and home ownership. In my mind, we need to provide some more opportunities for folks to start with something like that, translated into housing. And then move on as different things, life changes, right? Yeah, that's such a good point because if someone might not be able to afford the average home in Boulder, but might be able to down the road and between then and where they are at this point in time, if they were to buy a house for 200, something thousand, then they could be saving their equity and not just throwing it away into someone else's mortgage. Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the piece of your right, I mean, Boulder this week, we're looking at, oh, and I just looked at numbers yesterday from an on the market, your, I believe 1.8 million average active on the market. So unsold property on the market in the city of Boulder. Interestingly enough, Longmont just went over half a million this last week, which is shocking. But what does that say? It's exactly what you're talking about. And then we also have, and then we also have a house here at the low price detached dwelling here in Longmont this week is at 225, which is right in that bracket that you were talking about. And so again, the affordable, we have to pay attention because I think affordable, it's not that I think affordable in the term has changed over the last 20 years. Oh yeah. Think of it as. Affordable if you're working for Google is a lot different than if you're, if it's affordable and you're working for, you know, half a taco down the street, right? Right. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, there's the cost kind of the price point. And then there's also what a lot of folks think about when they talk about affordable housing is the subsidies. And that's, you know, something that we're gonna have to look at, I believe in some other creative ways because we need to have, we know we have a housing issue here in Boulder County. We have a housing shortage. I was just participating in the city of Longmont's city council meeting this past Tuesday. I was gonna say past week, but it's only Thursday, I think today. I don't know if you kind of catch some of those or caught some of that info, but there's potential businesses who right now are looking was along my economic development partners report of like 7,000 potential jobs. We don't have 7,000 open doors. Issue in Boulder County of basically in the data will show about 3.5 jobs to every one housing unit. I mean, that's just gonna press homes up even further. I mean, supply and demand, right? Yeah, we've been talking about economics, right? Yeah. So on the topic of economics, there's a couple of ways people can look at this problem. If you think about it as an economic equation, there's supply and demand. So if the population of people who took the lowest income jobs were no longer there or willing to take those jobs, then the price that employers would need to pay those people would have to go up, then giving them a living wage. But that's not a very empathetic way to look at things. You wanna discuss the heartless economic approach versus the more empathetic approach and where we can maybe find some more in the middle? There's a few pieces in that, really. We talk about that and I hear people say that a lot, especially with the numbers that we're just talking about and the reality of where our housing market is. And some of that argument sounds like, not everybody lives in San Francisco and not everybody lives in New York City and not everybody needs to live in Boulder. And we also have community needs and we've seen this especially, I mean, COVID's a perfect example. Our flood in 2013 was another, the reality that we need to have our educators, we need to have our first responders, we need to have our county employees be able to live in the area, our counties and our cities where we need their supports. And when I say we, I'm talking about, again, that 330,000 population, right? There's folks who need to be resourced. We are still not, which is a separate conversation, but we're, as much as we wanna think that we're reaching people online, especially right now during COVID, we still have a significant portion of our community who's disconnected still. And so, having people on the ground and some of those jobs, which I don't know if we'll really get into or not with the essential services, et cetera, some of those jobs are not jobs that can be done digitally. And so, the fact that we need to truly come up with solutions to allow people to live and work in their own community is real. That's a great point. So, I mean, teachers aren't paid a ton. Could a teacher even be able to afford a home in Boulder County on a single income? You know, I've heard a presentation where the comment was that a Boulder County resident would have to make $100,000 a year to buy a property here in the county. And I disagree with that. And here's why, I mean, just hearing that data shared out on the interwebs was so concerning to me because that's the industry that I work in. And there's two things right now. And this is time sensitive because of where interest rates are right now in this country. I mean, you don't have great interest rates and great home prices at the same time. Just like you can't sell your home for an amazing price and buy a home for that really low price that you're wanting, right? I mean, you can't do both at the same time. And similarly, but that's one of the pieces right now. And we have home and interest rates or mortgage interest rates at less than 3% in the US right now. That makes me think a little bit more about the preparation standpoint and how do we help people be in a position, right? The opportunity meets you when you're prepared, right? That's another piece of that. How do we help people get their credit, get their savings, understand what the steps are so that they can be in a position to take advantage of, in some ways, the market that we have right now and I know people are saying, no, it's not a good market because that house price is high. But I've never accessed mortgage financing at less than 3% on a regular mortgage. I mean, I'm not talking about a 10-year arm right now. It's a regular 30-year fixed mortgage. And so that's part of, to me, the messaging that's not being shared. Your question specifically around teachers, teachers in the same brain where we're at, Boulder Valley teachers actually make a little bit more, which is one of the pieces of retention that the district here needs to address. But you're right in Colorado in general, we do not pair teachers. Well, we just don't pay them enough to we don't provide the security. And we're saying right now at COVID, all the public health issues. A teacher here on a regular, just a single person as a teacher is not gonna be able to afford the average house property, house right now in the city of Longmont as an example. Most teachers that I know, and being a previous teacher, we don't typically work one job. There's a myriad of reasons for that. And so going back to that piece of how do we show that's a state situation, that's another funding conversation that I believe 100% needs to happen. Yeah, I agree. It is, I think it's tragic that our educators, the keystone of our communities, people who, with COVID, as you mentioned, are super important now that everyone realizes how difficult it is to educate their own kids. I mean, these people, we've got to really take care of and I agree with you completely. Oh, sorry, no, no, no, please. I mean, the only thing I was gonna add around the education, because you're right, like people don't know what happens, what goes on in a building from a teacher standpoint, but the other reality, and I believe that things have changed and evolved over the last 10 to 15 years when we think about just how society's changed here in the US, the teachers are not just teaching. And I'm sure that parents who are now, have now been taken on that role or feeling that in a different way because teachers truly are social workers, their support systems, their gateways to resources, and all of those different pieces. And they have been in the past teaching to state exams and so there's a whole lot more to it that I believe those support systems need to be, are gonna have to be addressed here as we move into online schooling, here in most parts of Colorado shortly. Sidebar. Yeah, that's a very important thing to add. But again, why they need to be paid more. Exactly, right, exactly. So another thing we could talk about home prices and renting in that whole topic is the fact that some people own dozens of rental properties and sometimes they're entities and corporations. And I was doing a lot of research on this and this has basically occurred because investors with large sums of money want a steady return on their investment and income properties have demonstrated a very reliable way to both increase value through the appreciation but also give a sustainable revenue stream. The problem is, is that when these investors and institutions have a large amount of homes, they can both control the pricing because they own so much of it, they can unilaterally push prices up. And B is preventing people who are, like we were talking about at the bottom end of the market from getting into their first homes because most rental properties, let's face it, they're not the best homes and the best neighborhoods, right? So these are literally taking away advantage potential opportunities for these low income people to get into their first home. So what do you think about applying some sort of tax or disincentive to these multi-multi-home owners? I'm not talking about the pure personal ones, one or two income properties for their retirement. I'm talking about people who own dozens. And I think there's a couple pieces that when we talk about disincentivizing somebody from running their business, because in my mind, somebody who's a property investor, it's either their full-time job or it's truly a business, right? When you talk about somebody who has, and I think that's important distinction you were making at the end. So if we've got a small landlord who let's say they own one to 10 properties, they're most likely self-employed. They probably don't have any health benefits. They probably don't have any 401k account. They don't have vacations, et cetera. So that creates, that's another business on top of their other self-employed business, right? Or company that they're building, et cetera. That to me is one conversation. And then the other conversation is what you're talking about. But I think that distinction is so important because as we know right now in the conversation about rent and COVID and paying mortgages and things has gotten to, in my opinion, very skewed. So the other group that I believe you're talking about right now and referring to is kind of the corporate investor or these big companies who are owning. The debos. Well, and every community is different, right? I mean, in some areas around the country we're talking about folks who own apartment buildings. If you've got five apartment buildings and you've got 60 units and each, et cetera. So we've got hundreds of doors that these folks are maintaining or overseeing, et cetera. So that I think is important just from a distinction of who are we talking about? And I still believe, do we use, do we disincentivize or do we create incentives for property owners to consider this, kind of back to that empathetic conversation? Do we incentivize somehow in Boulder County opportunities for property owners to give back to the community and allow our first responders, our community members, folks who want to build equity, et cetera, in our community locally, some type of incentive to give them an opportunity to look at a first time home buyer, for example, who wants to offer on their home or this rental home that they're ready to get rid of versus another investor. And I believe that there are some ways that we could do that. And I think that's one of the ways that we can address some of these issues. It's not gonna open all the doors that we need. We already talked about some of that data, right? If I'm gonna open some of those doors immediately. But could it open up another pool? And that to me is where we need to get involved with some of our nonprofits and potentially some of our local housing agencies, housing partners, et cetera, to really look at some of that type of incentivizing because my concern is if we disincentivize, we know how people can react to that when the reality is, we just wanna make sure that people can live and work here in Boulder County. So you don't think that's a good idea to disincentivize the people who, as you said, have hundreds of doors? To put taxes on, basically to put some type of a tax or fees or something on a corporation who owns property. Over a certain number of doors. It depends on what the outcome is, I suppose. I mean, if the tax is based on, if the tax is based on, for example, you've got, I'm trying to think of what would be a great, just a kind of a cutoff number. Let's say you have more than 300 units that you're- I would say way lower. I'd say a dozen. If you got more than a dozen units, then some of those properties should be owned by owner operators and not by just capital investors from maybe outside of the state or even outside the country. So are you thinking like a, you know, we think it's an interesting concept. If you're disincentivizing, meaning you're going to tax them or fee them based on their property, put them in a different property, like property tax potentially. Great idea, yeah. And yeah, from a corporation standpoint, are there, I believe, yes, there's opportunities that we could change the tax structures. That gets pretty complicated, but that's an opportunity of how do we, how do we bring in a little bit more revenue? And then where would that tax money go, potentially could go into some of these housing assistance? Exactly. GAP assistance, that's one of the things I really want to see is a GAP assistance type of program because we have these different, you have to fit in such a box to get into these different programs. And there's a group of folks in the middle that really just need that support to be able to get into those entry-level properties that we're talking about. Yeah, and that is a pretty good transition to our next topic, which is UBI and other systems to help the low income and people who are marginalized within our society. What are your thoughts on, I mean, we pulled disclosure, we met at a Yang route at a Yang event. So I mean, we're obviously aligned a little bit on this topic. So what do you think about UBI? You wanna talk about that a little bit? Yeah, and I think, I mean, there's the piece of my, this concept of having people have some type of security basically in having an income source opens up the doors for people to really get serious about, okay, now I can make plans for my future. Again, and this is my caveat is, as long as we are providing some of these supports in the background of financial literacy, of planning, of business planning, of, you know, those, and I believe a lot of that is still missing. And I'm thinking local, right, from Boulder County. We have those types of programs, but I know there's a lot of folks who've never accessed them or aren't aware of them. We have a lot of people who aren't familiar enough or feel comfortable enough to really be in my mind. It doesn't have to be the level of savvy as much as the level of comfort to be able to do some of that planning, right? So if we had that intertwined with, you know, universal basic income that would create this stability so that a young person could know that they're gonna be ready to, you know, ready to be able to go out and, you know, whether it's gonna be used for housing, whether it's gonna be used for an entrepreneurial endeavor, whether it's gonna be used for, you know, some other building capacity, whether it's a college degree and, you know, all these different pieces that I think is really important because right now, and I think it's working, I believe we're seeing it more with COVID, the way that businesses are gonna have to be taking care of their employees, the way that companies are gonna have to look at the structures that they, what are they really offering to their employees? Now that a lot and not everybody, but there are a lot of folks that who have been working from home for months now. And so this huge shift of how we really work and the expectations from employees and employers is gonna be super important. So now how do we fit UBI into that? Given all these changes that we haven't seen previously? Yeah, speaking of changes, another one is a universal healthcare. I know from experience of providing benefits to your employees is a tough decision because as a small business, you have limited resources. And if you bring someone on from a 1099 contract employee to a W-2, you are then gonna have to pay payroll tax and also benefits. And it's a tough decision for businesses. I think a universal healthcare system would really improve that equation for businesses. What do you think? Yeah, I agree, absolutely. We have to have, in my mind, a reconstruction of the way that we look at healthcare here in the United States and new policies that are gonna, I mean, it's just, it feels so basic that we would provide healthcare for anybody in the US. Meaning, I mean, I've just heard so many stories, especially over this campaign of everybody from students to families to folks like us who are self-employed to folks who've been furloughed or let go. And it opens up this ripple effect when you can't take care of your health. It's so true. I mean, especially with today's economic situation, I've heard numbers like 20 million Americans getting thrown off their healthcare. Because of losing a job. It's unfathomable to me to lose your healthcare during a pandemic. Well, and I think, I mean, the reality is, is it puts a person at risk, if it's a family at risk in a time like COVID, it puts your community at risk. And especially for folks who are workers that they may have got let go at their job that they were working before March 5th, here in Colorado. And, but we're able to find essential worker positions because they knew they had to go back to work. And the push for people in this country to work even when you're sick is so extreme and this is in and we're seeing it now, right? Especially in the service industries like food and healthcare, childcare, like those people aren't getting paid a ton. And if they may not have sick hours or sick benefits and if they don't go to work, they don't get paid. So it's very tough without a universal healthcare and benefit system that would allow people to take the time that is required to get better. So they don't impact their loved ones or their coworkers or everyone else. Yeah. Absolutely. I think, again, going back to that piece of with COVID specifically, my hope is that this pandemic has also given some power to employers, not just employees who are facing all of these frontline issues and day-to-day issues and childcare issues and now schooling my own kids issues, those types of things, but also employers to be able to say, you know what? This is something that we need to do for the country because it needs to support employers as well because at the end of the day, we've got businesses who are, like you said, having to make tough decisions about providing health benefits to their own employees and the business owners I've talked to here locally want nothing more. They're driven by nothing more than providing employment opportunities and growth opportunities for their neighbors and community members here locally. And so it's all connected and we're gonna have to really, I believe, unify in some of these strong messages and make some changes. Yeah. Completely agree. Another thing, let's talk about your campaign. I've seen a lot of signs, so congratulations on that. Where can I or one of our viewers get one of your awesome signs? Thank you. Yeah, so what we are gonna do because, you know, we're kind of in this middle of primary is done and then going into the general, again, ballots will go out on October 9th. So we're gonna put signs back up around October 1st. So people can go to the website, marta2020.org and it's M-A-R-T-A 2020.org and just send a little note and we've got people, I've got people calling me and texting me saying the same thing this week. So that was very cool. I think there's a lot of folks who are just excited about having different type of representation. I believe strongly that when people have met me and we've had conversations, they realize that I'm about community, community building, about Longmont representing Longmont because I'm such a super fan and also really care about our county and bringing folks together. So that is the easiest way to get a sign. And we're still getting volunteers together to share out this message. We've got our next event is September 1st. It'll be obviously a virtual online event. We're gonna talk about really building the pipeline, building a bench of women in leadership. And politics is one piece of that, but I strongly believe that, and we talked about this a little bit last time, we talked about just the role of women in business, the role of women in ownership, the role of women outside of just kind of the frontline roles that we sometimes think of. And how do we do that really well here locally because I know there's young women all over this county who want to see themselves in positions of leadership and it's our responsibility as a community to guide and show and reach back and open a door for one of those young women here locally. That's awesome. So obviously you can't campaign the way people used to campaign prior to COVID. If you have volunteers, what kind of things can volunteers do to help you? Yeah, you're right. And campaigning looks so different than it did even a year ago. And volunteers right now are hosting kind of virtual get-togethers and it looks like everything from a coffee get-together or I've had somebody get on their next door and invite friends just to come and say hi and me, which was really fun and doing house parties in different ways and kind of events activities that way. So definitely virtual platform and we've got a couple of folks who are wanting to do some social distancing kind of into the summer walks together. Those that have to be really small groups. And so right now for me, the preference is virtual. I just feel like most people feel comfortable with that and making phone calls and letting people know again it's full circle to backward to where we started. Get out the vote is gonna be really important. And people are gonna start getting bombarded. October 9th, I guarantee you with phone calls and texts from all the campaigns from ballot initiatives, et cetera. And so those are pieces that we're doing a little bit of work on here soon in September. So. Well, congratulations on all of these success. And I really like the initiatives you're taking. And so best of luck to you. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that conversation as well. Because small business and business and this entrepreneur, we're doing such great work in Boulder County. And so for you to keep sharing that out is so important to help make sure people know and you as a resource and truly is important for all of our community members as well. So thank you. Well, thank you much. I appreciate it. That means a lot. So to all our audience until next time, go out and vote and stay savvy.