Candidate Survey: Natalie Menten (Ward 5)

LAKEWOOD WARD 5 Candidate survey

• Name: Natalie Menten
• Occupation: Worked with my husband in our transmission shop since 1990
• Length of Ward 5 residency: 19 years
• Website: www.NatalieMenten.com
• E-mail: nmlakewood@gmail.com
• Campaign phone number: 303-980-8834 / 303-489-2895
• Family: Tom (husband), Ginger (Mom) fantastic petition circulator repealing the Lakewood grocery tax, Jim (Dad) awesome volunteer rebuilding historic park structures, brother David and his wife Melisa, and our mutt shelter-adoptees, Earl and Indy. I’d like to pay tribute to my Grandfather, who has passed away but was the biggest force in my life to teach me about politics, our Constitution and what activism means.

Q: The city is compiling proposed changes to the Zoning Ordinance. What specific changes would you like to see and why?

A: I’d like to see consideration of removing criminal penalties from our zoning code. As it reads now, a person can be put in jail for up to one year, plus a large fine, if they vary from an approved plan, such as construction of a fence. We can assume a jail sentence will never happen, so it also means it can be removed and the zoning ordinance can just keep the penalty fine portion. Negligence can already be a criminal penalty and could be applied in a case where it applies.

There’s a lot of clutter in our zoning code, such as Christmas decorations must be removed after a certain amount of days. Years ago, my husband and I left the Christmas lights stapled to the house all year, because our house number is numerically out of order. We certainly didn’t light them up daily or weekly but it was much easier to explain to the pizza delivery person to look for the Christmas lights lit up on a July night than anything else. Should this be a code violation? No.

In fact, it’s hard to see how that portion of code doesn’t violate our Constitutional right to free speech. Clutter like this makes it harder to find legitimate zoning ordinances.

Streamlining our zoning code would be a huge help, finding specifics is challenging with items classified under the strangest headings. It’s no wonder people give up on finding something and then call our zoning department to get help.

The Mayor has appointed a committee to re-write the zoning ordinance. The appointed commission was limited to those who attended the city zoning class. During the class and the zoning committee, arranged speakers are commonly developers and others who profit off of high-density development. I know some active community members asked to be part of the commission but were denied. I question whether the proposed revision will be the voice of the people or those who have been taught what the city and developers want. I’ve attended the Zoning commission meetings, I’ve seen the pointed direction to which the Commission is being directed. This Commission has very low attendance, so our code would be proposed by a few select people, if not mostly by the city staff. I would like to see an immediate invitation to the community as a whole to be part of this change, and not just at a periodic open house.

I find it extremely unjust that citizens have been told they can’t be on the Commission yet this will be sold as community-wide effort when it’s put to council for a vote. The biggest positive addition to our zoning ordinance would be increased public notice to the neighborhood, and wider, longer notification in urban renewal hearings.

Q: The city is dipping into its savings account (the reserve fund) to overcome a $2.7 million revenue gap this year and an expected $2.5 million shortfall next year. Although the reserve exceeds Council-mandated levels, it can stretch only so far. What can be done to bring the city’s budget back into balance other than hoping for an economic upturn?

A: Restrict expenditures to necessities. Example: a couple weeks ago, the city council approved spending $625,000 redoing a bike path that mostly already exists, the project will be paid by $375,000 in federal funds but an additional $250,000 comes out of city funds.

Full and complete financial spending transparency NOW. Citizens and myself have pushed the city for financial transparency for over a year, still we have nothing but promises. The city is able to pass emergency laws whenever they wish. Financial transparency in Lakewood can simply be a policy change and not a law, but the elected officials should consider this an emergency. It’s about accountability and saving money from increased competitive bidding.

Q: Because of the recession, many homeowners are unable to maintain their home’s curb appeal, which can affect the value of homes in the surrounding neighborhood. What would you do to encourage upkeep of deteriorating properties?

A: Initiate a project called Spruce It Up Lakewood. I’d ask the Mayor’s appointed Zoning Commission to reach out to the community, find out what hurdles exist in getting permits to keep up property exteriors. Streamline our permit process and start with temporary reductions or zero cost permits. Especially in cases where a permit is needed for a fence or similar project.

Q: What is the first issue you will bring before council if you are elected/re-elected?

I’m not going to share that or those opposed, such as administration, will immediately start working on a way to prevent passing the issues, which will be even more beneficial to citizens than the items I recently lobbied for such as the grocery tax repeal and transparency. I assure you I have a plan and three issues I’ll immediately push.

Q: Elections, including the upcoming City Council election, are expensive and special elections outside the General Election cycle are even more costly on a per-vote basis. City Hall wants to schedule all special elections resulting from petition drives to be on November ballots. The exception would be those elections on issues Council deems more important. Where do you stand on the issue, which itself could become a ballot question next year?

A: City Council should not have discretionary power to decide when an election occurs from a citizen initiative. This can result in additional power to the City Council to push an election to pass or fail based on election timing.

If an issue is clearly important and the right thing to do, City Council in most cases could pass the issue without even needing a costly election. It all depends on who we elect. A couple years ago, the City Council decided it was ok to swap parkland though many citizens thought it wasn’t a fair trade, violated the deed from the original property owner and our charter. A valiant citizen named Rita Bertolli had to pay dearly out of pocket to put it on the ballot, and then the citizens voted against council’s original choice. City Council could have avoided the cost to the city and Rita by doing the right thing from the start.