The News-Press 29
October 11, 2018
ELECTIONS 2018 What are the most important duties of the mayor?
What should be done to ensure a high quality of life for residents as the town’s population continues to grow?
What will your top priority be if elected?
The single most important duty is to have an effective working relationship with their fellow council members. A mayor must be able to manage the agenda and personalities to make sure that the business of the town stays timely, accurate and transparent. They also need to be an ambassador to get everyone else excited about Castle Rock so that everyone wants to be a part of our vision.
We must be smarter about how we grow. Strong boards, and smart zoning guidelines with citizen transparency and engagement. Acquiring and using water need to be smart, engaged choices. Choices, actions and behaviors should determine the water bill. We need to make changes to landscaping, and irrigation. For over 15 years, growth has been the No. 1 concern of our residents. Our council needs to be accountable and transparent to citizens. More at charlesformayor.com/platform.
Rebuilding public trust that their elected officials are in office to serve the citizens of Castle Rock. Beyond that, re-engaging and empowering boards and commissions, exploring municipal broadband, and listening. In the end everyone wants Castle Rock to be a better place with their contributions, so let’s have some conversations about how all the parties in Castle Rock can effectively engage.
It’s essential for the mayor to work well with other council members and the town administration, listening to the will of the people and striving to make that a reality. The mayor should be the town’s ambassador and cheerleader, a positive influence for Castle Rock. The mayor needs to serve every district and every person in Castle Rock, finding consensus with the other council members to ensure decisions take all perspectives into consideration.
Every weekend, every day you can find something to do with family, friends or by yourself. Movie nights, Starlighting, recreation complexes, the list goes on. We have 80-plus miles of trails! That trail system must be maintained and expanded. And we need to make it easy for organizations to contribute time and ideas for making this such a great place. Even as we grow, the trick is continuing to feel like a small community.
Traffic is our town’s biggest challenge. Our infrastructure must keep pace with growth. When traffic feels overwhelming, growth feels overwhelming! One of the best things we can do is attract primary businesses. Primary businesses create jobs, which creates more opportunities to stay closer to home, spend more time with our families, and enjoy our town. Primary businesses bring in new services and amenities and increase our tax base, providing the funding to improve our infrastructure.
Lead, listen, act in the citizens best interest, preside over council meetings and work collaboratively with town commissions. My accomplishments, as mayor, demonstrate these duties. Budget: Reduced due to economic downturn without forfeiting quality of life; Transportation: Ring-Road, I-25 widening, Plum Creek Interchange; Business Development / Employment: Guaranteed County offices remained in Castle Rock, brought the following to the town: hospital, specialty grocer, craft store, movie theater; Water: Secured storage for Castle Rock’s future needs.
To lead toward a common goal to be thoughtful and respectful stewards that will build and maintain a thriving community to live, work, and play happily and securely within.
To make the proper residential development decisions in the town, respecting the unique topography of where we reside.
What should be done to ensure a high quality of life for residents as the town’s population continues to grow?
What will your top priority be if elected?
To listen to the citizens of Castle Rock, represent them and the town’s best interest. Support decisions that can positively impact the town. The goal of being a councilmember is when your term is up you know the decisions you have made leave your successor in a better position than when you were elected.
Castle Rock needs to make smart decisions about where and how we spend our tax dollars. My experience in project management, managing teams, deployment of action plans, and restructuring of large hospital programs is the perfect fit to handle town business. Once I am elected, I will be able to perform a closer review of where the town is spending money and recommend an appropriate approach based on my experience.
To work for the town as hard as I did in my athletic career and work life. To better understand the impact of future growth to our town. Assess future change to our town, differentiate growth, and responsible growth. Define where the potential ROI for the town can help impact Castle Rock. Make decisions with the town’s best interest in mind for Castle Rock to continue to thrive even after my term is finished.
To maintain fiscal responsibility and stewardship of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, remembering always that the council member is accountable to the people and should be responsive to their needs while keeping government — and costly bureaucracies — out of their way.
Long-term sustainability is key, especially as it comes to water use. Also, it is important that our master plan be updated to reflect the significant infrastructure needs in this town. We must maintain and steward our resources, keep taxes low, be particular about development and while being business friendly, understand that growth and development must be strategic and well planned.
My district requires a person who is concerned about the safety of our neighborhoods. We have significant traffic safety issues that warrant an urgent response. The impact of Castle Rock’s growth has been felt in District 3 in a myriad of ways and I intend to make sure neighborhood voices are heard loudly and clearly on our Town Council while also remaining responsive to the dynamics of a quickly growing district.
I believe the number one most important duty of a council member is to truly listen to the community. It is of course our job to be well read on the issues, but no decision should be made without taking the voice of the people into consideration.
While budget talks occur, I want to make sure we don’t neglect all of the wonderful programs and services that have brought and continue to attract people to Castle Rock. This is an amazing town full of fun events, beautiful parks, pools, trails and more! We need to keep funding for our experiences here as well for the fine people in our police and fire departments that keep us safe.
I want to encourage more small businesses in town. It goes without saying that many are concerned with the influx of big box and corporate brands that have come to the Promenade. We are a small town at heart and need better representation of that. I would like to work on a plan to relieve financial pressures from small business so they can succeed in CR and more would be willing to open here.
What are the most important duties of a member of council?