Governance

High-quality, cost-effective municipal services and commitments responsive to the public come from good systems—systems that create an architecture for city leaders to make decisions that lead towards deliberate outcomes and that also create an automatic way of doing things in the day to day.

What I'm Working On

I've focused on building the systems behind Boulder's biggest decisions, its everyday services, and the trust that makes both possible.

✓ Creating better decision systems. Updated the council memo packet to make sustainability, equity, and resilience a standard, automatic part of every proposal that comes to council, and championed Boulder's shift to outcome-based budgeting so spending connects to results. Protected council's time for the biggest decisions by pushing routine items, like most landmarking, toward boards and commissions instead, and pushed back when council was asked to make a consequential, binding call on the airport through a quick straw poll rather than a full public process.

✓ Building trust for big, hard decisions. Helped reform meeting procedures that had caused 19 disruptive recesses, restructuring comment timing and format so meetings could function again while protecting residents' rights to expression, and supported a new, depoliticized protocol for selecting Mayor Pro Tem. Pushed for a one-year moratorium on FAA airport funding so due diligence could catch up before Boulder committed to decades-long terms, and role-model the same transparency directly through a public progress report, journal, and regular office hours.

✓ Designing for real user experience and adoption. Co-led council's work on secure, theft-resistant bicycle parking, and pushed the idea further into a citywide network with CU Boulder, since one good bike rack helps a few people, but a connected network changes how an entire community gets around. Bringing two decades of experience in real-world technology adoption, including leading a $60 million program that got clean vehicles and infrastructure into daily use across 60 California communities, to how Boulder designs services people use.

What's Next

I'm working to:

☐ Ensure major decisions come with alternatives, clear evaluation criteria, and enough public process before council votes

☐ Push for performance audits that check whether outcomes-based governance is working

☐ Explore council opportunities to implement performance audits

☐ Apply due diligence and guardrails to major financial commitments, including the airport and Downtown District Authority long-term

☐ Ensure transportation-oriented policies are organized for overall outcomes in mind with strategies and commitments to improve user experiences for everyone

☐ Continue improving how council interacts with boards and commissions so resident expertise translates into better decisions

What We Stand to Gain

Cut the costs of living. Decisions that go through evaluation up front, and everyday systems designed around how people use them, cost less to fix later and save residents money directly.

Adapting to a changing world. Systems built to handle big decisions well, and trusted enough that residents will support them, are what let Boulder move fast when a wildfire, flood, or budget shock demands it.

Creating a trustworthy, effective government. This priority is closest to the goal itself. Decisions, experiences, and trust are what turn good policy into something residents feel and believe in.

Climate-aligned decisions. Automating climate consideration into every decision, and building the trust needed to act on hard climate calls, only works if Boulder's decision and trust systems work in the first place.