On the Issues

Fiscal Responsibility

Our responsibility is to be a good steward of the public monies – to utilize/spend people’s money wisely in order to create, build and maintain public trust.

Elected officials have a great responsibility to manage and deploy public assets and resources to achieve the greatest impact based on the needs of the community.

A constant review of our current spending should occur to determine if we are achieving the desired result - being accountable to our citizens and measuring success through performance measures is needed. If our choices are not working, we need to pivot to achieve success or end funding to unsuccessful initiatives. Even in times of prosperity, the need to constantly monitor is essential – the good times lull us into a sense of fiscal non-responsibility and have far reaching effects – being accountable is essential.

In my 35-year professional career, I have achieved operational excellence by maximizing resources and aligning them to company goals without the need for debt.

In my 13 years as an elected official, I have successfully worked at the local and regional level to align the community interests with annual funding while establishing long-term financial plans to ensure tax collections can sustain the community’s needs. Additionally, I have been successful at leveraging Douglas County money by working with fellow elected officials, staff and other organizations to acquire non-County funding to lower our future fiscal needs.

As your District 1 County Commissioner, I will continue to be fiscally conservative – ensuring the County funds are aligned with the community’s needs, working to bring additional money to the County to accelerate our projects and initiatives for the betterment of the citizens as while seeking opportunities to reduce taxes, tolls and fees when possible.

Transportation

Transportation in a growing community is essential to the economic success and wellbeing of our citizens. Transportation is important and expensive - up to 40% of the County budget is related to building/maintaining our transportation network. With State transportation funding non-existent, we need an experienced leader who has a background in transportation and knowledge on funding partners to bring funding back to Douglas County and that has produced results – I’m that person.

As a shareholder of a professional service company in the Architectural Engineering and Construction (AEC) industries we serviced various governmental and special district entities such as Federal Highways Administration, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Regional Transportation District (RTD), E-470 Public Highway Authority, Douglas County, Town of Parker and the Town of Castle Rock to name a few. Representative projects include I-70 Glenwood Canyon Final Link Hanging Lake, Denver International Airport, E-470 Public Highway Authority – Design/Build, Northwest Parkway Public Highway Authority – Design/Build.

As an elected official representing the Town of Parker, I served on regional transportation related boards – most notably Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) and E-470 Public Highway Authority (E-470) – to advocate for our County’s interests. I was honored to be selected by my peers to have held leadership positions within each of the organizations – Board Chair of DRCOG in 2020-2021 and Board Chair of E-470 in 2022-2024. Additionally, I serve as Chair of the E-470 Finance Committee (2019-Current).

In my time at DRCOG, we changed the Federal funding allocation model that has brought over $100 million of transportation funding to Douglas County. In my time at E-470, the Board has never raised tolls – even reducing tolls – and we eliminated the Vehicle Registration Fee while continuing to expand and improve safety on the roadway.

As your District 1 County Commissioner, I will utilize my 35+ year experience in transportation within the private and public sectors to continue to leverage County funding in order to secure regional, State and Federal funding for Douglas County transportation projects.

Public Safety

A safe community is a growing community.

Officers on the streets and in the schools create an environment where citizens know they are protected. Law enforcement protects residents from unlawful actions within the community and hold the line to ensure crime doesn’t come into our County from other communities without consequences and prosecution.

Law enforcement within our County work hand in hand and are there for each other when needed. Whether its an individual need within the community, assisting a neighboring community within Douglas County or a mass casualty event in another jurisdiction – the Parker Police, Douglas County Sherriff and other law enforcement agency’s are ready and willing to respond to make our communities safe.

We need to find ways to work with our Federal and State elected officials in order to find solutions to fully restore our ability to communicate when any individual is in our community when they have pending issues with any law enforcement agency – local, County or Federal.

As your District 1 County Commissioner, I will continue to prioritize and fund public safety to ensure the needs of our Sheriff’s department are met in order to create a safe County and advocate for all law enforcement agencies to work together to uphold the rule of law.

Parks & Open Space

Douglas County residents enjoy getting out to utilize the various parks and dedicated open space offerings provided by the our County and other municipalities. The recent addition of 2,038 acre Sandstone Ranch provides yet another crown jewel for citizens to experience the great outdoors within the County.

Citizens approved a dedicated sales tax of 0.17% that must be utilized for acquisition, development and maintenance of open space, trails and parks. In addition to utilizing this money for County projects, they share back a portion of this tax to local municipalities to create partner projects. In Parker, we were able to partner with the County to preserve Ray J Harvey Open Space and fulfill Mr. Harvey’s desire to share his land with others after his passing. Additionally, the County is partnering with the Town of Parker on Salisbury Park North Expansion to bring more baseball, soccer, lacrosse fields as well as passive park and open space to the community.

As your District 1 County Commissioner, I will continue to work to increase parks and dedicated open space as well as partnering with local municipalities to add to our incredible outdoor assets.

Civic Engagement & Transparency

County Commissioners need to continually work to understand the ever-changing needs of this County. Elected officials have a fiduciary duty – the highest legal obligation to act in the best interest of the citizenry, rather than one’s own interest. As a business owner and a Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner and a current elected official who has been held to the fiduciary standard for over 35 years, I’m very familiar on how to prioritize work for the best interests of others.

There are various ways to ensure our personal interests are not coming before the citizens - having the ability to engage with citizens and community groups are one component but the biannual citizen survey provides a solid foundation to align citizen priorities with the collected tax revenue.

As your District 1 County Commissioner, I will continue to engage, inform and educate the citizens and have discussions with my fellow Commissioners consistent with Colorado Open Meetings Laws so citizens have full transparency until the item is resolved through a vote to gain and maintain public trust.