Three candidates seek Ward 4 Council seat

LAKEWOOD – With nearly half a year to go before the November 3 election, the campaign for the Ward 4 City Council already simmers.

Three candidates already have joined the race to replace Councilman Doug Anderson, who reportedly will not seek a second term.

Anderson has not formally announced his departure.

The candidates – Randy Little, Dave Wiechman and Amy Attwood - will have a plateful of Ward-specific issues to address before the election, including the fallout from a new baseball field at Coyote Gulch Park. They also will face a number of city-wide concerns including grappling with the troubled economy’s effect on city revenues, replacing long-time City Manager Mike Rock, the new FasTracks light-rail line that will bisect the city, redevelopment of the West Colfax corridor and rewriting the city’s Zoning Ordinance.

Then there are the concerns that each candidate brings to the race.

For Attwood, better citizen access to Council and information is a top goal.

“I think that Lakewood doesn’t do enough to engage its citizens. Ward meetings and Council meetings are not enough,” Atwood said. She suggests using new ways to keep citizens in the loop, such as Twittering, texting, blogging and “Webinars,” online seminars. That, she said, would bolster, but not replace, the traditional telephone and mail communication.

“As a City Councilor, I should be the first person you come to, not the last. My constituents are not just Ward 4 residents, but all of Lakewood’s citizens,” she said.

Little joins the call for better communication, and sees a need for earlier and more widespread notice when City Hall launches major studies or projects.

“Communication, in my opinion, is poor. They communicate, but timely manner is of the essence. They tend to tell people about things two or three days before they actually vote on them,” he said. “I think we need a better communication scenario where it gets out there as soon as this stuff is brought up.”

The need for earlier notice requires better use of the Internet, both for outreach and on the city’s webpage, he said.

Wiechman said City Hall “can do a better job” of communicating with the public.

“Technology is certainly part of it. The other part, of course, is just trying harder,” Wiechman said. “I think we as politicians and we as a city can try a little harder to bring citizens into the process.”

His answer is a Citizens Partnership Project that would bring all sides together for friendly discussion of issues in an effort to get all sides to at least understand other views, a plan Wiechman first proposed four years ago after a divisive election that scrapped

City Hall’s plan to swap parkland for a nearby parcel.

“It may be impossible to come up with a consensus, but I think we can come a lot closer than what we’ve done in the past,” he said.

Transparency is the buzz-word in politics this year, and a number of legislative and executive branch policies are in place or under way in the nation’s capitol and in the Colorado General Assembly. And the issue has filtered down to the Ward 4 race.

Wiechman favors disclosure and easing access to the city’s financial information.

“Generally speaking, the more the better,” Wiechman said. “I practice what I preach. On my last campaign (2007) on my website I put my finances, what I received and what I put out with the idea that people should see what I’m doing.”

“To take it to the government stage, the idea of putting check registers and credit card statements online I think is a good idea,” he said.

For Attwood, transparency goes beyond an online document that presents the city’s checkbook for inspection, instead, it should comply with Colorado Open Records Act guidelines and allow the public to “pull and manipulate data.”

“My vision for transparency goes beyond a PDF. As citizens, you should be able to pull up any information you want,” Attwood said. “The important thing is getting the message across that we don’t have anything to hide.”

Little said financial records, the city’s expense account ledger and checkbook, should be more accessible for public scrutiny, but

“We entrust our spending to the people we hire and they should be accountable. I don’t think we can ever be 100 percent transparent via the Internet. I don’t think we can put every bill that the Police Department spends on SWAT stuff because the criminals will know what we’re buying,” he said.

Little also posts his campaign finances on his website.

Despite the current economic downturn, growth continues. New housing construction has driven property values higher in some neighborhoods, according to the County Assessor’s Office. Shopping center proposals continue to pop up, redevelopment plans are ongoing and light rail is stirring Transit Oriented Development plans.

Little said growth should accommodate the rising number of senior citizens and others looking for “affordable” housing.

“You look at the Belmar subdivision, they’re $400,000 on up. This new St. Anthony’s home area, I’ve heard anywhere from $400,000 on up. To me, that’s not responsible. We need some that are in the $300,000 or $250,000 (range) where people can afford to live in these different neighborhoods,” he said.

The same goes for commercial growth, Little said.

“Again, we have to be a little bit more responsible. We need to build for what we need in this community. Obviously, with the recession and all the empty spaces in buildings already, we don’t need to build more office spaces,” Little said.

Wiechman prefers growth that balances the city’s future needs and its existing character.

“You focus on quality, find projects and people who appreciate what we have and try to utilize what we have existing instead of trying to change it all,” Wiechman said. “And in that process, come up with something positive.”

He thinks Solterra, a Rooney Valley subdivision where the homes that have been sold went for more than $1 million.

“I know Solterra is a bad word in some people’s minds. But, as a practical matter, Rooney Valley was an example of something that we would have liked to have preserved,” he said. “So far, Solterra tried to make that development quality as opposed to just a quantity of more cookie-cutter homes.”

Wiechman said commercial development should focus on bringing in professional jobs.

Attwood said commercial growth should address the community’s needs as well as the needs of the employers attracted to Lakewood.

“We need to partner with the organizations out there – the Jefferson Economic Council, the West Chamber – in looking at what businesses we already have so we can go out and court businesses that fill a need our community has,” Attwood said. “And we need to be out there marketing Lakewood, saying ‘Hey, come look at Lakewood. We can meet your needs.”

Attwood said the troubled economy has done more than put some folks in a pinch.

“We have people struggling. As a city, we need to offer opportunities for success and job creation. That takes planning and creativity,” she said.