|
In discussion recently with City Council candidate Jenny Robins, I found her well prepared to become a member of City Council with an impressive depth of understanding on local issues. At present she chairs the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, serves on the board of the Play Boulder Foundation, and co-chairs the Boulder Chamber’s Community Affairs Council. These roles have given her insights into how decisions are made in our city, and more importantly to her, how they impact people’s daily lives. Jenny answered a series of questions from Boulder Action, presented here, along with summaries of her responses in italics.
1— A lot of the public is worried about public safety and upset that we can no longer safely use many of our public spaces. For many, it is the number one priority for city government. Currently, the City of Boulder is weighing an updated strategy to end unsheltered homelessness as soon as 2028.
City officials estimate Boulder would need an additional $11 million each year for services and housing to serve 140 people. Remarkably, there is no residency requirement, and as we know, most campers have been here less than a month.
These ideas come as Boulder also increases enforcement of its camping ban near downtown and continues to clear out encampments under SAMPS, Safe and Managed Public Spaces. Are you in favor of SAMPS and will you enforce the camping ban? Should there be a residency requirement for services? Yes, allowing people to continue to camp at the Creek is not a compassionate solution. The recent Clutch Report advises directing people out of town and taking positive steps in terms of diversion. Colorado State Senator Judy Amabile, long an advocate for mental health treatment, favors this approach and reports people are excited about doing something proactive and effective. In 2003, Boulder spent $1M on homelessness; today Boulder spends $16M and with federal and county funds a total of $30M, although the number of homeless has not changed.
There needs to be prioritization with campers being directed to the shelters and/or given bus tickets. Housing First needs to be less of a priority. Although Judy Amabile isn’t in favor of the mental health tax coming up on the ballot in November, she faults the fact that it will go out in small portions to the many agencies rather than being devoted to a facility for treatment. This tax will probably pass, and I will push for the funds going to a bricks & mortar treatment facility rather than the status quo: being dispersed to the many non-profits serving the homeless. I would have preferred a three-year time frame so we could do a better job of planning and appropriating the money to a brick and mortar solution instead of sprinkling it around. The bill is for 5 years, and over that period, I will advocate for a better use of the tax than how the bill is currently written.
I’ve gone to the Tuesday evening meal distribution at Central Park to gain more of an understanding of the situation. So many of Boulder’s campers are new to the area. I feel that priority should be given to local residents facing homelessness rather than people coming here for services. And I agree with moving the food distribution out of the downtown area and in proximity to the northern shelter. 2—The city doesn’t have a plan for how to pay for their homeless strategy. Are there area(s) of the budget that could be reduced to accommodate these changes? Which do you suggest?
One area that deserves our attention is the $30M a year in unspecified consulting fees. Our large staff of 1500 people were hired because they are experts in their fields, so I’m unclear why hiring so many outside consultants is necessary. I would recommend that we stop hiring so many outside consultants. The Police Oversight Panel (POP) has an accountability committee. There should be accountability committees—not appointed by City Council—for the budget, fire mitigation policy and homeless policy. These need to be neutral appointments. 3—We’ve had enormous increases in housing lately and many thousands projected for the future. Briefly, what sort of emphasis would you like to see in housing?
Housing is a big issue for Boulder residents. Like many, I find that we have plenty of market rate (expensive) housing and that we’re doing a pretty good job with affordable housing, particularly as compared to neighboring towns. The area of real importance for me is the missing middle: we really need to emphasize housing that suits families and our service workers. With dwindling numbers of children in elementary schools, we are not serving families adequately. Let’s turn this around and produce housing that fills these needs. We need to work with developers to make this happen. 4—Upsetting to citizens is Council’s recent trend to vote by ‘emergency’ when there is no emergency. The decision to change Open Comment was handled this way. This is how we got the dam above South Boulder so that CU could build on the floodplain, for example, where costs have gone from $40M to $90M during the 4 years since the supposed emergency with the City still not in possession of any of its permits. What do you think of decision making by emergency so that no public input is possible? This is one of the most important functions of Council: to represent the people. I feel strongly that everyone should be represented and given a chance to express themselves. To do otherwise is not representative government. 5—Another aspect of Council’s decision-making process for citizens is voting by consensus whereby if the minority sees that they will lose the vote, they join with the majority and vote in consensus. In Boulder this has the effect of non-representation for non-progressives. As a Council member, will you be voting in consensus?
Again, I’m not in favor of this policy by Council. I find that effectively, people are voting against what they actually believe when they do that, which is hypocritical. As a City Council member, I will not be voting in consensus and against what I believe in. 6—What do you suggest as a meaningful way for the public to interact with Council on policy and other issues? Some Council members are responsive. I will interact with Boulder residents by email, phone or face-to-face. It will be my privilege to represent everyone’s views on Council.
7—What other issue stands out for you in particular? Thank you for the question! Fire mitigation stands out as an area of outstanding importance to me. One way into this topic is to appreciate that we are no longer using our Open Space tax to acquire new lands, so we do have funds to maintain, and I see this as a good area to devote at least in part to fire mitigation, an important aspect of maintaining the health of our Open Space and the welfare of our citizens. This absolutely needs analysis, funding and careful preventative actions such as predictive fire modeling.
_______________________________________
As we wrapped up our meeting, I noticed my positive reaction to Jenny Robins. She’s knowledgeable and smart. She’s got the right background. She’s the one to bring a balanced voice to Boulder!
Emily Reynolds
|
