Welcome to Boulder Community United's Candidate Questionnaire and Responses for the 2009 Boulder City Council election. We are using this free blog site to post the information since we don't have a website of our own at this time. Below are the candidates' responses to our questionnaire. Each candidate's name is in the title of the comment (see the Blog Archive to the right to navigate to each one), and each has pasted their responses into the questionnaire so that the questions and answers appear together. We have not enabled comments at this time, simply due to the time required to moderate. We hope you will appreciate this opportunity to understand each candidate better. Don't forget to vote!
Here is the introduction we sent each candidate:
Dear Candidate,
Boulder Community United is a union of organizations working for social justice in Boulder. It includes the following and is open to all organizations working toward this goal:
Anti-Defamation League
Bias Incident Hotline
Boulder Pride
Community Action Program
El Centro Amistad
New Vista Equity Cohort
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center
Strategies to End Oppression
YWCA
As a prospective Council member, we would like to understand your position on the following questions, and to extend an invitation to speak at our forum at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct 4th at the YWCA, 2222 14th St., Boulder. David Theilen has graciously offered to post this questionnaire and your responses on his website, liberalandlovingit.com. Please respond to bcu.detre@gmail.com by Tuesday, September 15 to be included on the website and in our email blast to constituents. Thank you for your attention to these issues, which are so critical to our community sustainability.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Fenno Hoffman's Response
1. As the City Budget tightens in response to the economic downturn, and in response to a projected long-term revenue gap, which programs and services should receive the highest priority?
Public safety, utilities & transportation are life-safety priorities, but social and human services programs make life worth saving. Budget “triage” means saving the most critically dependant people first. Support & prevention both need funding. My wife works in the teen parent program at Foothills High School. She helps 12 year old Moms raising sometimes several children while staying in school. This is a tiny program compared to, say, the Library system, but if that were a budget choice, (it isn’t because BVSD funds it) but as an example, I’d trim the Library; not because my wife works at Fairview, but because the teen-parent program achieves integration, involves children & education, supports people in need and prevents future costs (by keeping kids in school) and is outreach, where and when it counts most. All those reasons make it the kind of smart investment I would support, without hesitation.
2. The current City Council has identified as one of its priorities creating a welcoming, inclusive and safe community for all. How can our police department best support this vision?
I think our police department has done a good job building a force that reflects the composition of the community it serves. There is a good effort at community policing too, engaging neighborhood groups to build relationships. However, profiling issues and the level of perceived inclusiveness are both ongoing challenges that many police departments in complex communities face. One of my oldest clients is Intrado in Longmont. They do 911 systems work and I know many former & current police officers. When I was studying pre-med in college, I worked in an emergency room in west Philadelphia and saw every kind of urban violence. I have looked at both sides of police work. Inclusiveness is an ongoing project, like a culture in the police department that must be understood and supported. Public safety is most successful when the police are perceived as there to help, not just enforce. I will support any program that feeds that approach.
3. The City has made many fine efforts to solicit input from underrepresented communities, such as the “Meetings-in-a-Box” component of the last community survey. Participants often feel, however, that they do not know what happens as a result. How can the City do a better job of following up with those underrepresented communities on their input?
We need a good feedback loop that first, verifies public input, (“I hear you saying…”) and then asks, “what questions should we be asking” and asks those (to reveal agendas and missed opportunities) and finally, reports the results of the process back to the same people, asking them if the results make any sense. That full feedback loop brings the most accountability to the process and the most inclusiveness to the participants.
4. What is your position relative to the City’s diversity initiative and what more can or should the City do to support expanded leadership representation for underrepresented communities on Boards and Commissions and on City staff? Would you, for example, support a City Charter amendment to allow resident non-citizens to serve on Boards and Commissions?
People contributing to our lives in Boulder should be represented. Our economy is strongly influenced by non-citizen labor. It seems unfair to selectively exclude opinion based on citizenship. However, 67,000 workers commute in and out of Boulder and none of them can vote here, even though our policies directly affect their daily lives. If we include non-citizens on government Boards & Commissions, should we allow commuting workers to vote?
To avoid that political quagmire and since the format and timing of meetings is often incompatible with the work schedules or communication styles of potential participants anyway, I think outreach can include the voices of everyone who lives and works here, citizen or not, resident or not, without provoking exhausting political delays. I would rather hear those opinions now and avoid getting caught up in citizenship technicalities.
5. Mobile homes provide some of the most affordable housing in Boulder, but mobile home residents are quite vulnerable because landlords control pad rent and park management. What should the City's role be in preserving this form of housing and protecting mobile home residents?
Mobile homes are a great housing choice and we should protect that choice, unless an opportunity to provide more affordable housing is presented.
6. Many in the community feel that the contamination issue at Valmont Butte, a sacred Arapaho site and home to an historic settler’s cemetery, remains unresolved. How would you propose to address this issue?
I’m not up to speed on this issue. I would respect the native site and also attempt responsible cleanup, understanding that disturbing materials can also create danger. Council has not been cautious enough here.
7. Would you consider ensuring access to recreational and sports activities for children and youth of all backgrounds a priority? If so, how would you accomplish this?
Yes. Kid’s pricing discounts help. The 5th graders ski for free programs are creative solutions. In the long run, my work towards developing walkable neighborhoods will integrate daily fitness through walking and access to parks into everyone’s lives. That basic everyday change, replacing driving with walking, changes the community demand for isolated, specialized and expensive fitness activities. Some of these programs are the result of suburban land use patterns. There is a huge correlation between land use patterns and fitness and health that is emerging into the popular press. We will see changes in this area that will give full access to everyone to fitness every day. Even 5th graders can walk for free.
Public safety, utilities & transportation are life-safety priorities, but social and human services programs make life worth saving. Budget “triage” means saving the most critically dependant people first. Support & prevention both need funding. My wife works in the teen parent program at Foothills High School. She helps 12 year old Moms raising sometimes several children while staying in school. This is a tiny program compared to, say, the Library system, but if that were a budget choice, (it isn’t because BVSD funds it) but as an example, I’d trim the Library; not because my wife works at Fairview, but because the teen-parent program achieves integration, involves children & education, supports people in need and prevents future costs (by keeping kids in school) and is outreach, where and when it counts most. All those reasons make it the kind of smart investment I would support, without hesitation.
2. The current City Council has identified as one of its priorities creating a welcoming, inclusive and safe community for all. How can our police department best support this vision?
I think our police department has done a good job building a force that reflects the composition of the community it serves. There is a good effort at community policing too, engaging neighborhood groups to build relationships. However, profiling issues and the level of perceived inclusiveness are both ongoing challenges that many police departments in complex communities face. One of my oldest clients is Intrado in Longmont. They do 911 systems work and I know many former & current police officers. When I was studying pre-med in college, I worked in an emergency room in west Philadelphia and saw every kind of urban violence. I have looked at both sides of police work. Inclusiveness is an ongoing project, like a culture in the police department that must be understood and supported. Public safety is most successful when the police are perceived as there to help, not just enforce. I will support any program that feeds that approach.
3. The City has made many fine efforts to solicit input from underrepresented communities, such as the “Meetings-in-a-Box” component of the last community survey. Participants often feel, however, that they do not know what happens as a result. How can the City do a better job of following up with those underrepresented communities on their input?
We need a good feedback loop that first, verifies public input, (“I hear you saying…”) and then asks, “what questions should we be asking” and asks those (to reveal agendas and missed opportunities) and finally, reports the results of the process back to the same people, asking them if the results make any sense. That full feedback loop brings the most accountability to the process and the most inclusiveness to the participants.
4. What is your position relative to the City’s diversity initiative and what more can or should the City do to support expanded leadership representation for underrepresented communities on Boards and Commissions and on City staff? Would you, for example, support a City Charter amendment to allow resident non-citizens to serve on Boards and Commissions?
People contributing to our lives in Boulder should be represented. Our economy is strongly influenced by non-citizen labor. It seems unfair to selectively exclude opinion based on citizenship. However, 67,000 workers commute in and out of Boulder and none of them can vote here, even though our policies directly affect their daily lives. If we include non-citizens on government Boards & Commissions, should we allow commuting workers to vote?
To avoid that political quagmire and since the format and timing of meetings is often incompatible with the work schedules or communication styles of potential participants anyway, I think outreach can include the voices of everyone who lives and works here, citizen or not, resident or not, without provoking exhausting political delays. I would rather hear those opinions now and avoid getting caught up in citizenship technicalities.
5. Mobile homes provide some of the most affordable housing in Boulder, but mobile home residents are quite vulnerable because landlords control pad rent and park management. What should the City's role be in preserving this form of housing and protecting mobile home residents?
Mobile homes are a great housing choice and we should protect that choice, unless an opportunity to provide more affordable housing is presented.
6. Many in the community feel that the contamination issue at Valmont Butte, a sacred Arapaho site and home to an historic settler’s cemetery, remains unresolved. How would you propose to address this issue?
I’m not up to speed on this issue. I would respect the native site and also attempt responsible cleanup, understanding that disturbing materials can also create danger. Council has not been cautious enough here.
7. Would you consider ensuring access to recreational and sports activities for children and youth of all backgrounds a priority? If so, how would you accomplish this?
Yes. Kid’s pricing discounts help. The 5th graders ski for free programs are creative solutions. In the long run, my work towards developing walkable neighborhoods will integrate daily fitness through walking and access to parks into everyone’s lives. That basic everyday change, replacing driving with walking, changes the community demand for isolated, specialized and expensive fitness activities. Some of these programs are the result of suburban land use patterns. There is a huge correlation between land use patterns and fitness and health that is emerging into the popular press. We will see changes in this area that will give full access to everyone to fitness every day. Even 5th graders can walk for free.
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