Carol Johnson's Responses to the Candidate Profile Questionnaire

CANDIDATE PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE
2011 CITY COUNCIL ELECTION CYCLE
PLEASE RETURN YOUR RESPONSES TO THE LOVELAND CHAMBER OF
COMMERCE OFFICE BEFORE 5:00 P.M. SEPTEMBER 6 (via Email/Fax/Mail).
(Any responses returned after this deadline will not be included in our educational and endorsement process.)
Office Sought: City Councilor Ward (If Applicable): II
Name: Carol Johnson
Home Address: 357 Medina Court, Loveland 80537
Daytime Phone: 970-669-1138 Evening Phone: 970-669-1138
Fax: 970-669-1138
Email: carol-530@comcast.net
Employment: Self-employed
Length of Residence: In City: 7 years In Ward: 5 years
Please feel free to write/type your answers on another sheet; however, please be sure
to number your responses and add the question prior to your response.
Please note, your responses will be published for voters to review.
General Information (Submission of a resume is acceptable to address the general
info questions; however, please be certain the resume addresses all the general info
questions.)
Education: BA in Political Science, Western Illinois University; JD, Sturm
College of Law, University of Denver
Current employment and responsibilities: Consulting for law firms, legal
departments and non-profits. Responsibilities are performing legal work or
non-profit fundraising including drafting endowment and gift policies, case
statements, writing grants, marketing and direct mail, or cultivating and
soliciting major and planned gifts.
If elected, how will your employment plans change, if at all? I am
seeking permanent employment in Northern Colorado so I will be sure to
accept employment that finds my legislative responsibilities as an asset.
Past and present employment/business experience: My experience has
been primarily in the private sector with private law firms first as a paralegal
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and then as an attorney; as an entrepreneur with my own law firm; and as an
in-house corporate attorney with large energy companies. My non-profit
fundraising experience has been as an executive in healthcare and higher
education primarily with the focus on major and planned gifts.
Past and present community service including offices held or
positions with City commissions/committees: Before Loveland City
Council, I served on the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee,
Open Lands Advisory Commission, “Engaging Loveland” Economic
Development Committee, attended the Policy Academy, joined Downtown
Loveland Association, and served on various positions in the Loveland
Mountain Club including as President. Since being elected to Loveland City
Council, I served as council liaison to the Chamber, the Historic Preservation
Commission, the Affordable Housing Commission, Community Marketing
Commission, on the board of Engaging Loveland, as Chair of the Loveland
Downtown Team, Mayor’s Economic Development Sub-Committee, on the
Building a Better Loveland successful lodging tax group. To show additional
commitment outside the typical council duties, I led the council retreat
committee three of the last four years and have consistently volunteered and
worked to improve the evaluation process for the City Manager, City
Attorney and Municipal Judge. I led the move for obtaining marketing funds
for Loveland first by suggesting and promoting the use of the vendors’ fee
and then more recently by successfully negotiating a compromise for the
hospitality industry’s support of the lodging tax. Previously for 15 years I
served in Golden including a City Council term with two years as its mayor
pro tem; Golden Planning Commission; Utility Rate Structure Board; Parks
and Recreation Advisory Board; Local Liquor Licensing Authority; Urban
Renewal Authority.
Specific qualifications for this office:
How Would You Govern?
(1) Why are you running for office? What hesitations do you have in
running for office? I originally ran because I was committed to revitalizing
the downtown, bringing economic development and jobs to
Loveland, and a greater focus on regionalism. My year of leadership
on the Loveland Downtown Team resulted in the HIP Streets Master
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Plan, the commitment to purchase the Quality Shoe building to
enhance either the parking garage or the Rialto, the purchase of the
3 rd Street properties, the development of the Downtown Strategic and
Business Plan, and the Request for Proposals. With the city’s
economic policies, we have successfully attracted new employers and
hundreds of new jobs, the business plan for the Fort Collins-Loveland
airport, improved major transportation intersections, and the
successful passage of the lodging tax. With all this great momentum
including the fire authority, Artspace, Rialto Bridge, Brinkman
downtown proposal and ACE, I want to be sure this positivity
continues. I did hesitate in running again because of what I will call
the “Fort Collins” influence and even “out of the state political
influence” on Loveland. For many years the Loveland City Council
was predominantly councilors who happened to be members of the
Republican party. Partisanship was not an issue with friends helping
friends with campaigns. Although our city charter mandates that the
elections be non-partisan, since the 2007 election, the Loveland City
Council elections have become increasingly partisan. I am currently
the only independent on Council and have enjoyed the ability to vote
without any outside influence or pressure; however, now with 4
Democrats and 4 Republicans on Council, the elections have become
more partisan because of the outside push, particularly from Fort
Collins, to elect more Democrats. For years the Fort Collins Council
has been dominated by a Democrat majority, which to me is not the
problem, except that Fort Collins City Council has not been probusiness.
The Fort Collins Chamber will assure you of that. With the
increasing pressure of the Larimer County Democratic Party to elect
more Democrats to the Loveland City Council, I am afraid that
Loveland will lose its pro-business majority. I also have become
concerned that more contributions and political volunteer support are
coming from outside Loveland and even outside the state.
Additionally, instead of friends helping friends in campaigns, political
party involvement can make a campaign more expensive and
intimidating for a candidate to take on if he or she has not been
politically active.
(2) What is your overall vision for Loveland? Loveland has potential to
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e the Northern Colorado leading community with its more businessfriendly
atmosphere, its leadership in economic development, its ability
to attract artists and technical employers as well, its central location, its
financial conservatism, its airport, its downtown potential, its
reasonable housing costs, and its wonderful amenities.
(3) What are the most important issues (up to three) the council
needs to address in the next year and/or up to five years? What
solutions would you recommend? Financial sustainability and the
use of the Agilent property are the two big issues. Solving financial
sustainability includes upgrading the fire authority from 2 to 3 man per
truck by possibly moving the library to a district, an overhaul of capital
expansion fees, and looking at providing the essential city services
while pulling back on the non-essential services or finding a new way
to fund them. The goal of the purchase of the Agilent property was to
make it an employment center. That must be accomplished with or
without ACE.
(4) What is the most important issue that you believe the current
council should have handled differently over the last few years?
What actions or outcome would you have preferred? I think the
council and staff have learned that we need to structure our economic
incentives differently. We have had and anticipate several more
companies to fail to meet their incentive goals requiring them to refund
money back to the city. Because of the economy’s quick downturn,
these failures could not have been anticipated, but it is embarrassing
for the companies and the city, so we know we need to look at
different options to structure these incentives so companies are not
potentially publicly embarrassed and the city is in the difficult position
of asking for money back.
(5) If you could enact one ordinance or adopt one policy, what would
it be? I successfully accomplished that with the lodging tax ordinance.
Now I want to help guide it into working for the entire community.
(6) What is your understanding of Loveland’s governance model?
City Manager-City Council form of governance.
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(7) What do you think the proper relationship should be between the
City Council and the City Manager? City Council makes the policy
and the City Manager implements it. The City only directs the City
Manager, City Attorney and Municipal Judge. Otherwise the City
Council leaves the management of the city employees to the City
Manager.
(8) How would you facilitate better communication with the Loveland
Chamber of Commerce? I would suggest the Chamber Board step
up its effort to communicate with Council through city staff on
important issues in a timely manner, i.e. the Visitor Center and renegotiating
the Chamber lease. Waiting until the last minute puts both
the Chamber and Council in a difficult position and I want to avoid that.
Economic Development
(9) What kind of development, if any, does Loveland need to
accommodate its growing population? Why? If you believe
Loveland needs development where and what would your plan be
to manifest it? If you believe population growth should be halted
or slowed, how would you go about it? Please include how you
would fund your plan. Loveland’s low rental vacancy rate and the
Larimer County Housing study indicate that Loveland needs more
rentals and more affordable housing. Particularly as we look to attract
employers, these kinds of housing are necessary. The Loveland
Downtown Strategic and Business Plan suggest that much of this
housing should be near the downtown and public transportation.
Since Loveland has a high senior demographic, those empty nesters
often prefer the maintenance free living of a downtown rental or condo
as well. Since the downtown has no capital expansion fees and there
is infill space available around it, these would be the ideal locations for
population growth since the infrastructure is already there. Affordable
housing benefits from predictable fee waivers.
(10) What specific ideas would you introduce to reduce City ‘red tape’
as it relates to business and doing business in Loveland?
Improving the planning, zoning and construction departments of the
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city have been a priority the city has worked on for several years.
Adding an ombudsman has also been very helpful. It has improved,
but I still get complaints. I have asked the City Manager for a study
session to further address this issue, as I do not know the answer.
(11) Describe your thoughts on Public-Private Partnerships? How
have these partnerships impacted Loveland? Please give
specific examples. No one can accomplish great things on their own
anymore. Some great examples of successful public-private
partnerships are Lincoln Place where the city is returning tax
increment to the owners; Brinkman Partners will be requesting a
similar reimbursement for their infrastructure costs; the city and
McWhinney with the Metro District and Urban Renewal Authority; and
McWhinney’s funding the improvement of major highway intersections
and roads; the Rialto Bridge where the city and private owner share
ownership of a building that the Community Foundation help fund; the
waiver of fees for Crop Production Services in return for its bringing
hundreds of jobs to Loveland…I could go on and on.
(12) What do you think of capital expansion fees? CEFs have been a
great benefit to Loveland. Because of this forced savings account
requiring growth to pay for itself, the city is able to build many great
amenities for the citizens including the expanded Chilson and Library.
In 2012 CEFs are due for a re-evalution; the recent discussions over
the past three years were not comprehensive and a comprehensive
evaluation is needed. As an example, I believe the Museum CEF
should be phased out; we are looking to expand the Museum but do
not have the money to maintain it. For this reason, future Museum
expansions should be financed with public fundraising for the capital
and endowment for the maintenance.
(13) What would you propose to incentivize job creation in Loveland?
The city is already doing that very successfully. As I mentioned above,
the city needs to improve the incentive process.
(14) Does the revenue the City derives from user fees outweigh the
impact on local businesses? The city receives user fees on citizen
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utility bills for street maintenance; it derives user fees from the lease of
city facilities. Some user fees like the street maintenance fee I believe
enhance local businesses by making our streets more drivable and
attractive. Other fees like the below market fees for the use of city
facilities are not business friendly. As I recently stated in the study
session on the Pulliam building, the city should not be financing capital
improvements or keeping its user fees low to compete with local
businesses and the lodging industry.
Regionalism
(15) What kind of collaborative partnerships should Loveland initiate
with surrounding communities? Loveland has many partnerships
now with the MPO, fire mutual aid agreements, police forensic lab, etc.
Partnerships save tax dollars and promote cooperation, so I do not
hesitate to support them. Ideally I would like to see an annexation IGA
agreement with Johnstown so we can work together instead of
repeated “border wars”.
(16) What would the impact be from promoting Larimer and Weld
Counties as a Northern Colorado region? Again the city does
some of this with Northern Colorado Cultural Tourism, the pending
physical building of a police forensics lab, the MPO, etc. I would hope
that the Community Marketing Strategic Plan due September 27 would
also promote a regional approach to destination marketing. Any such
impact I believe would be positive and would be accomplished with
successes incrementally over time.
(17) Describe the role you think Loveland should play in state and
regional issues. Since Loveland is centrally located and active in
economic development, it is already a regional player. State-wide it is
becoming a player with the ACE project and transportation. Again
Loveland needs to participate in the “bigger picture” to be assured
quality growth will continue.
Transportation
(18) How would mass transit between Loveland and its surrounding
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communities (e.g., Ft. Collins, Berthoud, Johnstown, Greeley,
etc…) impact Loveland? Mass Transit with the bus route to Greeley
was not successful, but it appears the FLEX connecting Fort Collins,
Loveland and Berthoud with Longmont is very successful. The I-25
Plan will certainly impact Loveland in the future. While Loveland and
Northern Colorado do not have the population density for most mass
transit to be financially feasible now, we have a responsibility to plan
for our future growth.
(19) What is the most important transportation issue(s) (up to three)
affecting Loveland? What solutions do you recommend and how
would you fund these solutions? Since Loveland gets funding from
CDOT and the state does not have enough money and the federal
government has less participation, the future funding of state and
federal transportation funds are critical to Loveland’s future. Funding
transportation improvements (possibly gas tax) must come from all
levels of government so Loveland is not left holding the bag.
(20) What improvements would you make to the Ft. Collins-Loveland
Airport? How would you fund those improvements? Significant
improvements to the airport have been accomplished the last four
years and continue as I write this statement with the re-paving of the
main runway. Fortunately FAA grants have funded most of these
improvements. For the future, it is important that the business/private
land ownership interests around the airport (as described in Airport
Business Plan) make further improvements attracting more
businesses and employers. If Allegiant would partner with us, the
cities could further improve the passenger waiting area to encourage
more service to new cities.
City Management
(21) If the City of Loveland were facing significant decline in revenues
and the only way to balance the budget were to cut expenditures,
what areas would you specifically cut? Why? The city just
accomplished this through public input and the budget cuts will be
evident in new 2012 budget coming out in September. It was apparent
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from the response of city council and the public that the key areas not
to cut would be public safety and streets. Since Cultural Services and
Parks are not essential services, I believe these would be the areas
most likely to be cut.
(22) What is your position on the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan?
What would you change? I served on the Implementation
Committee before I served on Council, so I am quite familiar with it and
support it. Right now, the Plan is working through the Boards and
Commissions for its 5 year review. The updated Plan will come to City
Council in the October-November timeframe, so I look forward to its
amendment as the current Plan is too long to be easily executable.
(23) What is your position on the city’s Capital Improvement Plan?
What would you change? I support the CIP and the emphasis on
planning out capital expenditures of $250,000 or more ten years into
the future. The one thing I would change (but I have not been able to
get Council support) is the purchase of land for a second Recreation
Center. I feel one Recreation Center to serve the needs of youth and
seniors is adequate at this point in time; a second Recreation Center
would compete with the private sector in fitness centers and the city
should not be competing with the private sector.
Resources
(24) What are the issues regarding long-term water usage? What
solutions do you propose for any water concerns Loveland may
be facing? The primary issue is that Loveland will be needing a new
reservoir and it is projected that the city and its water users are not
saving enough money to accomplish that when it is due to be built with
population projections. It is likely the city will need to bond to fund the
reservoir.
(25) What is the impact of the Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) on
Loveland? What would your plans for the PRPA be in the future?
Loveland has had an excellent relationship with PRPA and enjoys one
of the lowest electricity rates in the state as a result. Because of
federal mandates, PRPA may be forced to make major changes
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affecting Loveland’s rates. While Loveland must be environmentally
conscious and responsible, it also must be diligent in keeping costs
down and service regular as it is Loveland’s non-interruptable service
and low rates that attract employers to Loveland.
(26) What is your position on open space and funding it? I appreciate
that Loveland budgets its Larimer Open Lands funding for both
acquisition and maintenance, so Loveland is not caught in a place
where Larimer County is now where maintenance takes all the
funding. My position is that open space is being appropriately funded
in Loveland right now and its conservatism in spending for acquisitions
is wise policy.
(27) Are you open to participating in a Candidate Forum? Yes.
(28) Are you open to participating in a panel interview the Chamber’s
Local Legislative Affairs Committee? Yes.
Carol Johnson 9/1/11
Signature
Date
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