 Hi, I'm Marsha Martin and I'm having conversations with candidates. Today I have with me Mr. James Crowder of Lyons and he is running as a Republican for County Commissioner, Boulder County Commissioner District 2. So welcome Jim, I'm glad to talk with you today and the first thing I'm going to do is just let you give your stump speech a little bit, you know, give me about two minutes about who you are and what you're doing here. Well, I've lived in Boulder County now since 1978. I've lived here a long time, many years in Boulder and then in 2010 my wife and I moved to Lyons and I also own a home in Longmont, Colorado, which I've rented currently. I love Boulder County. I like the rural nature of it and everything in me wants to preserve that. But I think there may be an opportunity for some different ways of thinking about some of the challenges that we have here in Boulder County. For instance, why can't the county pay to maintain the roads in the county out in the rural parts of the county, particularly the rural subdivisions? I mean, we've got a $439 million budget for 2020 and I think the county, I need to go check this, but I think it's a little over a million dollars for roads. Seems like to me we could probably spend a little bit more on roads. And I'm not sure that open space really is the friend of affordable housing. In fact, I think that open space acquisitions fly in the face of trying to create affordable housing. I'd just say that if you have a little bit of corn and a whole lot of people want it, the price of corn goes way up. So it's a supply and demand equation, which is a law that just like water will always run downhill. So if we want affordable housing, we have to do something about our land management policies. I think also we can do something with zoning. Why can't we have rooming houses? Why is it that only three small locations in the county of Boulder permit manufactured housing? I think mobile homes. Manufactured housing is far and away the most affordable housing that's available in the United States. Many other communities use that for resort housing, for instance. So my issues are basically, I'm not sure we need to be spending as much money as we do spend in Boulder County. I think we can manage the budget a little better, even though the county can increase the amount that they collect and spend every year by five percent. I don't know that they have to. I don't know. Well, county doesn't do that, for instance. I know we could spend a little more money on our roads if the county commissioners felt like because that's the county commissioners setting policy. So I just bring a little bit different view to some of these things in Boulder and I've been a businessman my whole life. I've been in the mortgage business and I've been a real estate broker and I was the chief financial officer for a regional council of government in Texas many years ago. So I've seen lots of different aspects. My focus is on financial conservancy, affordable housing, better governance, meaning less expensive governance and roads. Okay. That's a nice platform that is going to resonate with a lot of people, I think. I hope so. Yeah. Who don't have interest in sweeping changes. I am certainly for affordable housing and work very hard for it in Longmont. You've mentioned a little bit about your past, but I'd like you to talk a little more about that. What do you think are the major assets that you would bring to the county commission? Well, I'm not sure if this is an asset, but I've never been in jail. We'll just start there. I've worked really hard my whole life. I'm 76 now. I enjoy working. That's my hobby, if you will. And I care about people. I've got grandchildren, two of which live in Erie and one lives over in Grand Junction and I want to send them be able to enjoy Boulder County in the way that I've enjoyed it, even though our population has grown from in Colorado from about 1.8 million when I moved here to now, I think about 5.8 million people. And you know what? We haven't made any more land in Colorado. In fact, what we seem to be doing is diminishing the amount of land that's available for people to live here. I think that's crazy. Interesting. Okay. Your opponents, because we don't know which one of those opponents you're going to be running against yet, are both running on big issues. You know, a Boulder County Green New Deal, the transition to renewable energy, kicking oil and gas extraction out of the county, and social reforms, especially now, social reforms. What do you see as the need for those things? Do you think those will happen by themselves? Do you think they're unnecessary? And do you have a big issue of your own? My big issue is the health, well-being, and comfort and safety of my constituency here in Boulder County. I'm not running on a national issue. Some of those things resonate with me, for some maybe the science is still out. So I'm not a scientist. I don't know about that stuff. What I know about is how to run a business and run it efficiently. And with respect to fracking, for instance, or with global warming, for instance, or with some of the issues that tend to get people emotionally involved with a particular cause, I want to run on factually based, very pragmatic sorts of decision-making processes in Boulder County. So let's get some numbers in. Let's get some facts. And based on those facts, let's make some good decisions. I would rather move us out of the emotional realm and move more into the rational realm. It's easy to have your feelings invoked. It's really easy to have your feelings invoked. Happens 30,000 times quicker than having to think about something. That's what the brain scientists tell us. But I would really like to have thoughtful discussions with people that would like to think about something rather than moat about something. So you do know something about science. I see. I'm an engineer myself. So I like it a lot better to stay in the fact-based realms myself. Well, I know as much about science as a mortgage broker should probably know. Well, you know if you know enough to make good decisions, then that's how much you need to know. We get a lot of communications from our constituents that quote different sciences to make their case. And for me it means I've learned a lot about fields that I didn't work in pre-retirement. But I am enough of a scientist to know real science from that other kind. But it takes a lot of study. Being a county commissioner, how do you see the job of county commissioner? Is it more of an administrative job for you? Is it more of a policymaking job? Well, there's a vast staff of people who basically recommend stuff up to their county commissioners. I've been following their agenda now for ever since I decided the end of the race. I don't know that county commissioners should just rubber stamp what a staff person sends up. I think it really should. But I see that pretty much happening. And also I think that the county commissioners should, based on thoughtful factual information, set policy and tell the staff what to do. That's my approach. But of course I come from the business side and not from the government side. And so it's a little different in the government world. I mean you get a good job in government and you're not to discredit the people in government because they work very hard. But you don't have necessarily the same incentives, the same profit motive if you will. And the competition is more about getting a promotion within your government organization. Having worked in the Houston Galveston Area Council of Governments, I can tell you it's at least was that way when I was there. So I would like to change the culture to the extent that that's possible and incent people to show me ways to save money. Show me programs that they think don't work or a waste of money. Show me ways to lower the tax burden on the people that live in Boulder County, the property owners that live in Boulder County. And oh by the way, it's not just the property owners because if you rent from somebody, you're paying those taxes too. So it should concern you every bit as much. I see it as a policy role. Now, bearing in mind that there are going to be two other commissioners, all of us by the way, elected at large, which means that there's no commissioner that represents the northern tier of color of Boulder County. They pretty much all come from Boulder. In fact, that's where most of them live. No, you don't come from Boulder. No, I'm in Lyons. I lived in Boulder until 2010. So I did come from Boulder, but I live in Lyons now. But even when living in Boulder, I felt like the city of Boulder had a pretty outsized representation on the Boulder County commissioners in as much as they're nearly always Democrats and Democrats are nice people. I've got most of my friends are Democrats. But I'm not sure that everybody in Boulder County is represented fairly because there just aren't different points of view available in those policy setting meetings. It seems to me to be kind of an echo chamber. Speaking of taxation, not necessarily the echo chamber. This is something that could happen that is trying to happen at the state legislature level. But we'll, if you end up on the county commission, deeply affect how your job is done, especially since the finances of the county are a big focus of yours and lowering taxes are a big focus of yours. There is a bipartisan movement in the legislature to refer the Gallagher amendment to the ballot for repeal or alteration. We don't quite know how it's going to turn out at this point or even if it's going to make it to the ballot. But assuming that essentially a Gallagher repeal is on this November's ballot, what do you think about that and how do you think that will affect what Boulder County has to do fiscally? I haven't thought that all the way through to tell you the truth. I've read about Gallagher and I've read about Tabor. I think that it is a good idea to put limits on how much the county can increase the tax burden on the populace. Because otherwise with no limits, taxes keep going up and retirees are forced to move out of the county because basically the county becomes their partner in the ownership of their home without paying anything for that privilege. The way that commercial properties are taxed and I think that's what you're referring to relative to residential properties was obviously to keep residential taxes from just getting out of hand in part. But it's also created a situation particularly in Boulder proper where the commercial taxes are now so high because the property values have gone up because of restrictive zoning that you can't build more you can't go over well it used to be 35 feet now I think it's 50 feet and so forth that the the building codes have made it such that it's very expensive to build a property the rents are you know I don't know if I'm guessing 250 a square foot something like that I don't know either properties I only memorize things about Longmont yeah so but I mean you've seen the same thing in Longmont because commercial properties are taxing businesses I mean commercial property taxes are taxing businesses out of existence we just had three restaurants closed and nice long established well established restaurants closed in Boulder that were actually a couple of my favorite haunts and in part it's because of those commercial property taxes so even though they don't have any business they still got to pay the county the taxes on that building yeah so the county has not been hurt by this at all except maybe for sales tax revenue so I guess my general feeling is anything that serves to reduce the amount at which taxes are assessed and collected on properties in Boulder County suits me okay I'm not sure what that answer amounts to I looked it up and in Colorado the residential property taxes are at the very low end now because of the ratio that Gallagher enforced so for example and it's it's ridiculous compared to commercial properties as you pointed out you pay about roughly half a percent of the assessed value on a residence in Boulder County and it seems to me that at least most of the people who have these enormous highly valued houses could afford to pay more to give us better schools I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt please no you this is your interview I was just trying to direct the discussion so you can interrupt away you know they're so my thought on that is it is always up to the county where it's set to mill levy right they don't have to set it at 23.71 mills on residential property they could set it for less the same is also true or commercial yeah but if you've got if if the county can't get by on 439 million dollars a year and you know then maybe we need to take a look at what they're spending money on so I don't know that the county needs more money I just think the county needs better priorities priorities that do a better job of serving the people that live here and pay taxes either directly as property owners or indirectly as renters well I think that is I think that is the party line but if you look at the history don't you find that that well our our school system Boulder Valley and St. Brain Valley school systems used to be financed primarily by property tax revenues that that now a greater and greater proportion of of what it costs to run the schools comes out of the state general fund which is kind of a hard thing because then in the year like 2020 proposes to be our our school system has to has to bear the brunt of the state level cuts and it's because Gallagher does not give the counties any flexibility as to how it attacks the properties inside the county our well there is another amendment about which I'm not you know at 76 I'm not particularly well informed on school issues let me just stipulate that but I think there is another amendment I think it was amendment two that did carry that said that we had to increase funding to the schools every year and it's not that the schools are going begging it's that the state may have to make different may have to assign their priorities differently in order to fund those schools so we live in a zero sum universe if we only have I'm going to pick a number here five billion dollars to spend in the state and our choices are cut back on schools or I don't know uh cut back on roads some social service program you know or roads and bridges those are difficult decisions that politicians have to make now I'm not you know I'm not I don't think I'm going to buy a lot of votes about buy a lot of votes with with my thoughts about roads but there are many people in the county that feel like that they were misled you know those subdivisions out there in the county were proved by the county at the time and the county determined how those roads had to be built and when they were built they were dedicated to the county and now the county refuses to repair them instead they'd rather try to assess the property owners well that didn't go well colorado supreme court you know slapped that down made him give the money back but the roads are still not being maintained you know I mean to me that's that's that's an egregious breach of trust with your constituents and the same thing can happen at the state level so if we say as as the population of colorado if that's even possible that our schools are more important to us we should speak that to the state legislature and say don't you be cutting the schools don't you be cutting the roads and bridges because we got to drive them to get to the schools find some other places to cut maybe shrink the size of the state bureaucracy you know that that would be my thought about the whole thing if we were in a debate I know what what I would say to you but this is your interview so I'm not going to go I'm delighted to hear the alternative point of view I'm I am I'm here to listen not just talk well no that's that's uh that's good I mean I am these are not endorsements you know what we're doing is talking so that the people will have a way to look at what they're voting for and I will tell you you and your two opponents are are all three really exceeding expectations in terms of what kind of a candidate you would be and what kind of a commissioner you would be so I am I'm happy to hear with all three of you I've met Jonathan you know he's come to alliance and talked when we opened the park over here really nice young man I think the world of him to tell you the truth I don't know much about him other than what he's you know put on his website and I know he's turned out now in the Colorado yeah um I I think he's his heart's on fire you know with a lot of these social issues and um and that's commendable you know um but I'm I'm I'm just different about that that I want to see some facts I want to see some numbers this yeah your other opponent is uh Marta Lochamine I hope I got her name right it's hard for me to make my mouth say um but uh she is is also very much into social issues although she has been a real estate broker she's also been a school teacher uh so the I would say that that uh although both of them are focused on social issues they they come at it from very different angles uh so it's uh it's going to be an interesting race I I wish that that we could get all three of you in a in a debate I don't know if that's going to happen if there's a way for that to happen especially since the ballots are on the ground now the League of Women Voters is uh conducting a moderated panel tomorrow night in fact so we will all three you know we'll all three be there chatting and I'm not wanting to kick stand on anybody you know I mean everybody has their hot their hot button issues right and for some it's kind of identity politics you know that I'm I'm I'm enraged by this or I'm inspired by this um I'm I don't do identity politics I'd rather we all be Americans you know I'd rather we all be Boulder County residents I'd rather we all kind of put our shoulders to the wheel and make this county a better place to be and I can listen to what anybody says and and not get angry I don't get angry about stuff I just listen I may disagree I'll always disagree politely and I may be moved to a different point of view uh my wife has been successful in that on more than one occasion good for her yeah all right do you have anything else that you would like to say do you have a closing statement because I'm kind of out of questions well I just hope that I have the opportunity to serve in this capacity at this point in my life I have plenty of time for it and I think I have enough life experience to add some value to that job I know that I'll probably be sitting on the board of county commissioners with two Democrats which means that you know I need to hold my listening skills I suppose um but I can do that and I don't think anybody's I don't think I have a natural enemy out there in that regard in fact I think I mentioned early on that most of my friends are Democrats and God bless them you know I don't it's a choice that they make um but that and I don't make them wrong and I don't know that they consider me wrong they just consider that I have a different point of view so we could ask a few if you'd like I'm sure it'll come out at the bolt I expect that we will I expect we'll have uh quite a turnout this year um okay James Crowder uh Boulder County district two candidate for county commissioner uh thank you very much for your time today um thank you for your opinions thank you for being brought blessedly brief and to the point this has been um the least the least stressful candidate interview I've I've done so far because usually we have to cram all the words in really fast to get them into into 30 minutes and uh you've just been a joy to interview well thank you very much thanks for the opportunity thank you and I I hope we meet again bye bye me too bye