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PLAN-Boulder County2007 endorsements letter to the editor from the PBC board |
Oct. 19, 2007
PLAN-Boulder County has endorsed seven candidates to fill the seats on City Council. These include Macon Cowles, Crystal Gray, Lisa Morzel, and Susan Osborne to provide a solid core of council members with long records of political involvement and hard work in Boulder. This group is remarkably diverse in its approaches to issues and major priorities, but each has considerable knowledge and experience in city government. Lisa and Macon are extremely strong on environmental and planning issues, and Lisa has eight years experience and achievement on council. Susan is strong on planning, historic preservation, and parks. Crystal has decades of experience on community and city boards and has been a key person in the current council's community sustainability efforts. Together these individuals understand and will fight for the issues that Boulder residents are most concerned about. We have to have all four of them on council, especially with the huge turnover that is occurring.
In addition to the core group defined above, we have a chance to fill a few seats with people who have less experience but bring especially useful experiences to council. Our additional choices are Eugene Pearson, Susan Peterson and Ken Wilson. Again this group is pretty diverse in outlook and approach. Eugene connects with young folks, works for BCAP, and sits on the CU Environmental Center board. Susan is a business executive with experience on the Thorne Ecological Institute board. Ken comes from neighborhood activism and water issues, and has served well on council since July.
We need council members who know the issues and have a track record. It is the candidate's past experience, knowledge, and core beliefs on the issues that defines the person and provides an indication of effectiveness on council. This group includes an environmental attorney, an Adams County department head, an internationally respected research scientist, an urban planner, a non-profit leader, a creative business entrepreneur, and an engineer/business person with considerable experience. This diverse group stands for affordable housing, sustainable land use, a strong environment, a healthy economy and municipal revenue stream, and opportunities for all our residents.
Pat Shanks
for the PLAN-Boulder County Board