Voters in the April 7 election can be assured that whoever wins the race for the Woodland Park City Council will work to protect the city’s water, including completing the reservoir off Loy Creek Road.

In a candidate forum March 10, incumbents Seth Bryant, Jeffrey Geer and Catherine Nakai joined hopefuls Mary Sekowski and Don Dezellem who are vying for four positions.

George Jones is unopposed to replace term-limited Kellie Case as the city’s mayor. Each responded to questions from moderators Steve Woolf and Carrol Harvey, followed by questions from the audience and the press.

 In a banner year for the city, Jones and the candidates agreed that the city’s purchase of Avenger Open Space and Shining Mountain Golf Course will be consequential to the city’s environment.

“We’ve taken developable land off the market,” Jones said. “Water security is a big priority and the things started have to get finished.”

The moderators directed questions at specific candidates, with opportunities for others to chime in.

Q. What should guide decisions on growth and development, especially with tap availability and infrastructure capacity?

A. Dezellem: “With 80 water taps available per year, we can’t go over that. There has been a lot of infill, like behind Arby’s.  And you don’t see much land left for major development. For the future, a lot is going to be multi-family development. That may be good or bad, and we can’t guarantee affordability.”

Geer and Sekowski also responded.

A. Geer: “The city needs to strike a balance. Most people here like it just the way it is. The difficult thing about keeping things the way they are is this: a municipality can take two directions, either growing or dying. We need to figure out a way to grow that fits the character, the culture and the values of the community.”

A. Sekowski: “Responsible growth brings more residents to the city that we need to maintain the type of open spaces we are taking on so they are not a liability.”

Q. Would you want to remove the city’s sales tax on groceries? The city includes groceries as part of the 3% city sales tax on goods.  

A. Sekowski: “One of the most difficult things about living in Colorado and Woodland Park is the affordability factor.  I think it is something we need to carefully evaluate.  If we decrease our revenues, where do we offset that? If we increase tourism we increase revenue. It’s a larger conversation.”

A. Nakai: “Seventy percent of our general fund comes from that sales tax. That would be hard to replace with tourism or fees.”

A. Geer: “Because of the amount of revenue our city relies on, the question I would ask is ‘do you enjoy having a police department? Quality roads?’ Everything has a cost. I abhor taxes but the reality is that they are a necessary evil.”

Q. Would you support the city working with the school district again to create a similar intergovernmental agreement. Voters approve a 1.09 % sales tax in 2016; the council removed the tax last year, citing lack of transparency by the school district.

A. Bryant: “I do not think that any sort of reinstatement of that agreement should come to the dais. Frankly, should a citizen bring forth a ballot initiative, I’d like to see them not put the city council in the middle of it; take the politics out of it. Schools have enough political influence pressure on them, if we could take some of that away, that would be great.”

A. Geer: “That was the hardest thing we had to deal with on council. It changed our council.  I would not look forward to going there again. “

Q. What are the top three performance indicators, an efficiency dashboard, the city could publish and review regularly?

A. Bryant: “I wish there was a way to measure community engagement with members on committees helping the city’s leadership make decisions and chart our course,” he said, adding that the second indicator would be successful contract negotiations for repairing the city’s streets, under budget. The third is quality of life, a feeling of general happiness about local government, where “100,000 people don’t sign up to speak,” he said.

Q. Should the ordinance regulating short-term rentals remain? The regulations state that STRs are only allowed in commercial districts or mom-and-pop businesses.

A. Nakai: “I wouldn’t change a thing. I think citizens have spoken loudly,” she said, referring to a recent lawsuit over STRs the city won on final appeal.”

Q. Can the city build workforce housing while at the same time protecting neighborhood character?

A. Dezellem: “Workforce housing is needed but that’s the private sector.  The city can’t give incentives.  The city could maybe make it easier to get development done but the proper role of government is not to incentivize the private sector.”

Sponsored by the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce. The forum is available on video at www.wpchamber.org.