Mayoral Forum
Lakewood Mayoral Candidates were invited to join a forum and let us get to know them. Don Burkhart and Cathy Kentner accepted that invitation.
Watch the video, in two parts:
Mayoral Forum, Part 1: Moderator Questions
Mayoral Forum, Part 2: Public Questions
Profound thanks to all our candidates for giving us a choice and a special thanks to Cathy Kentner and Don Burkhart for supporting the little people in this informal forum.
Part 1
Minute 5:20 – People are voting for a mayor to help them solve problems. We’ve seen residents come in overwhelming numbers to talk about problems but City Council has to jump through hoops to get anything on the agenda before they can even talk about it. Do you think there’s a better way for Council to take action or get things on the agenda?
Minute 9:30 – Lakewood hired a new Police Chief this year who is implementing the “21st Century Policing” methods developed under President Obama. One immediate affect is this year’s plan to reduce police officers and convert those positions to civilian community resource positions. Do you believe this will be effective in Lakewood?
Minute 14:38 – Lakewood is building a new homeless shelter on Colfax for long-term and short-term supportive needs of the unhoused. If you were able to choose, would you provide supportive resources with or without contingencies? By contingencies I mean any kind of “if you do this, then you get that”, such as medical care, work hours, etc.
Minute 20:00 – Sustainability is the number 2 priority for the city. The latest proposal from city staff is benchmarking policies that lead to eliminating gas powered systems in favor of electricity. The goal is to cutdown on greenhouse emissions but according to this graphic, the proposed standards are to the left of Boulder and California. Are we on the right track?
Minute 27:00 – Lakewood recently opted-in to Proposition 123, which will provide state funds for affordable housing. As this graph shows, according to the City’s report for Strategic Housing, Lakewood needs housing that costs under $875/month more than anything else. So in a needs-based model, Lakewood would serve this population first, which is equivalent to someone making under $31,000 annually, while someone making over $31,000 would not benefit, because that’s not the biggest need. Do you believe these Prop 123 funds should all go to this lowest income group or would you distribute them based on another model? Or bigger picture, do you think there should be any model for spending money and should that discussion be public?
Minute 36:00 – 36:30 Ultimately the City Manager is in charge of solving all these problems, not City Council nor the Mayor. Resident satisfaction is going down yet the City Manager got a bonus this year. How will you enforce accountability?
Part 2 – Randomly selected questions to fill the remaining time
Over twenty questions were submitted by residents, which were answered randomly to fill the remaining 15 minutes.
Minute 00:39 – What is the City of Lakewood going to do to rejuvenate the Colfax corridor? Our current Colfax looks like the old East Colfax. Back in the day, Lakewood was the envy of nearby communities. Clearly, that’s no longer the case. I would like to have each candidate explain how they will help bring Lakewood back to the beautiful city it once was.
Two crime questions were submitted but candidates did not have anything further to add since that was discussed.
Minute 7:30 – There is a narrative that claims that Lakewood needs more affordable housing to get more jobs. Yet a number a communities with significantly more expensive housing, such as Boulder and Golden, have far better economic development progress. How do you explain this?
Minute 12:10 – As Mayor, will you take the pledge to help Monarch butterflies and other pollinators? https://www.nwf.org/mayorsmonarchportal/Signatories
Thank you again to our candidates and to the viewers who are doing the hard work to stay informed and make good decisions.
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