ISSUE POSITIONS — Introduction

I love La Plata County and I’m committed to working to ensure that our county continues to be a wonderful place to work, recreate and call home.

That means preserving rural interests and agriculture, ensuring that basic needs are met for all La Plata County residents, promoting land use policies that protect our rural and urbanizing areas while fostering vibrant communities, and protecting the quality of our water and air.

As wonderful as La Plata County is, there is important work to be done.

Due to the difficult economy, the need for county human services is growing – we have more veterans returning from war, more senior citizens, more families in poverty – more people everyday who need financial assistance and help with the basics – food, transportation and medical and dental care.

• We need to promote clean energy to protect public health and our water and air.
• We need to advocate for affordable housing and affordable transportation to meet the needs of lower income families and our senior citizens.
• We must do our part to address climate change, which is already affecting our snowpack and snowmelt, water quantity and quality, wildfire danger and forest health.
• We must begin working today to ensure our long-term economic prosperity and protect our quality of life.
• With declining revenues, we have to be creative about doing more with less.

Read this Issue Postion (pdf)
All Issue Positions and Bio in one (pdf)

Economy & Jobs

In these difficult economic times, it is incumbent upon local, state and federal officials to do everything possible to put Americans back to work. Here in La Plata County we have the opportunity to be a leader in growing local businesses – especially agriculture – since the local food movement is hugely popular here. We also have the opportunity to create a clean energy economy and create new green jobs.

The poor economy has created an urgent need for increased human services – we have more veterans returning from war, more senior citizens, more families in poverty – more people everyday need financial assistance and help with the basics – food, transportation and medical and dental care.

If elected, I will:

• Promote the development of our local foods economy to create new businesses and jobs and build local resilience
• Work with local and regional economic development organizations to keep, grow and recruit new businesses
• Adopt a county comprehensive plan to give businesses certainty and maintain and enhance property values
• Preserve our natural beauty which attracts families and recreationists to come to visit La Plata County
• Increase the county’s ability to protect wildlife habitat and avoid conflicts between wildlife and county residents