RTD is facing large operating deficits in coming years and it needs to raise at least $2 billion more to complete the FasTracks transit expansion promised to voters when they approved a sales-tax hike in 2004. The Regional Transportation District is one of few transit agencies in the country with an elected board of directors and seven of RTD’s 15 districts are part of November’s balloting. The following are profiles of candidates in the contested campaigns and their views on a planned fare increase, proposed service cuts, the FasTracks funding dilemma, and more. The elections are nonpartisan.
District B —Melvin Bush, Barbara Deadwyler and Miller Hudson are vying to succeed term-limited incumbent Chris Martinez in B, which includes portions of Northeast Denver and North Aurora.
The 60-year-old Bush, of Aurora, has been an active member of the FasTracks citizens advisory committee for five years and is a former co-chair of the group. Bush said he is not keen on raising fares on RTD riders, especially since the agency may have the difficult task of asking voters for more tax money for FasTracks. RTD needs “to do a better job of explaining the numbers,” he said of the financial difficulties. “It needs to regain the trust” of voters and riders, said Bush, who runs a commercial insurance business.
Deadwyler, a 57-year-old Aurora resident, said of the train line to DIA, “I want to make sure it’s done on time and on budget.” She said she’s running to ensure that RTD does a better job of communicating with her district. She opposes the proposed fare increase. Did RTD officials “look within the organization itself for cost savings before they decided the only way they can remedy the shortfall is to raise fares?” asked Deadwyler, who worked for the health plan Kaiser Permanente on labor-management partnership issues.
Hudson, a 65-year-old resident of Denver, has been actively involved in transportation issues for more than 20 years. He was a member of the Colorado House, representing Northwest Denver, from 1979 to 1983, and later served as executive director of the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority, which studied the feasibility of a monorail for the Interstate 70 mountain corridor. More recently he led the Colorado Association of Public Employees. Asked about the prevailing wisdom that RTD may need a sales-tax increase to compete FasTracks, Hudson said, “I think we may have worn out our welcome with voters on the sales tax. We may have to look at other options.”
District C — Angie Malpiede, Samantha Dixion and Pat Moore are running as write-in candidates for this district, which ranges from portions of West Denver to Westminster. Malpiede lives in Northwest Denver and has been the district’s director since Mayor John Hickenlooper appointed her to the post earlier this year after the previous director resigned. Malpiede encountered a problem with the petitions she submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office in her bid to get on the ballot, so she and her two opponents are relying on voters to write their names in. The ballot will be blank.
The 56-year-old Malpiede said the problem related to not having the proper notarized seal on some pages of her petition. She said voters should return her to the board because of her long experience working on social service and transportation issues. Currently, she is director of the Stapleton Area Transportation Management Association, which promotes alternative transportation options, including transit, in the Stapleton area and surrounding neighborhoods. “Transportation is a great equalizer in terms of providing opportunities for the community,” she said. “If you cannot get to school, a trade center or to work, you are not going to make it.”
The 74-year-old Dixion, of Westminster, served for 16 years on that community’s city council, until 2005. She said she’s running because, “I think it’s time the North area gets some of the benefits from the FasTracks plan.” Currently, RTD does not have the money to finish the Northwest commuter-rail line, which is to go through Westminster to Boulder and Longmont, or build the North Metro train line to Adams County and the Interstate 225 light-rail line in Aurora. “This is a difficult time for a fare increase,” Dixion said. “We need to listen to the citizens.”
Moore, a 59-year-old Westminster resident, has been actively involved in Adams County Democratic Party politics for years. She said she’s running because the district’s north area in Adams County “needs to be more informed.”
“We haven’t gotten that with the last two appointments out of Denver,” she said, noting that Malpiede and her predecessor each was appointed initially to the position by Denver’s mayor.
“We’re feeling a little left out,” said Moore, who works for a tax accounting and business consulting firm. “There is a lot of mistrust in regards to RTD.”
District J — Larry Hoy, Jo Ann Price and Gene Wieneke are running in this district, also as write-in candidates, in an effort to succeed term-limited incumbent Bill Christopher. Again, there will be a blank ballot. Many in this district expected former Northglenn Mayor Kathleen Novak to run, but she backed out late in the process, leaving only the write-in option for this north-area district.
Hoy is a 60-year-old Westminster resident who has worked in real estate for the past 18 years. He said before that, he spent about the same amount of time in the trash-hauling business, dealing with large truck fleets and their routing and maintenance challenges. That experience gives him an understanding of RTD’s fleets of transit vehicles, he said. Of FasTracks, Hoy said, “We have to finish the system. We’ve got half a system, but half doesn’t work.”
The 58-year-old Price, also a Westminster resident, served on the Westminster City Council from 2003 to 2007 and has been active with community issues in the north metro area, including the effort to improve transportation options in the U.S. 36 corridor. She, like some other candidates, is concerned that the north area is getting shortchanged with the FasTracks project. “We’re putting our funds in and we haven’t reaped the benefits,” she said.
“Obviously it’s not the greatest time to ask for greater taxes,” Price added. “I want to make sure the East and South areas pay when it’s our turn.”
Wieneke, a 68-year-old Northglenn resident, is on the Northglenn City Council and formerly served as city manager for a number of communities around the country. He served as administrator in Federal Heights for a time in the 1990s and Wieneke said his long experience in municipal government has prepared him well to serve on RTD’s board.
District K — Noel Busck is the incumbent, running for another four-year term. Busck, 69, of Thornton, was that city’s mayor for seven years before running for the RTD post. Earlier, he served about 10 years on Thornton’s city council.
“FasTracks is very important to the north corridor,” Busck said, referring to the North Metro rail line. “I believe I bring the knowledge, representation and communication skills to get FasTracks done. My goal is to find the funding resources in the next couple of years to complete the north corridor and other unfunded lines.”
Busck’s challenger is Kenneth Riley, a 29-year-old Northglenn resident who is an official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME.
“I feel like FasTracks has not delivered to Adams County,” said Riley. “I’ll bring new energy, vision and a new direction.”
“I want to make sure my tax dollars, and all of those in Adams County get spent wisely,” he added. “We’re paying for a FasTracks that we’re not going to be able to use. We all feel like we were duped; we were promised something that couldn’t be delivered.”
District L — RTD incumbent Wally Pulliam is term-limited in L and Arvada residents Lorraine Anderson and Bob Wilson are competing for the post.
Anderson is 74 and spent 24 years on Arvada’s city council, until 2009.
She said she’s been working on getting rail transit for her area for at least 25 years and now, the district is poised to get the Gold Line commuter train as part of FasTracks. “It takes a long time to get a transportation project done,” she said. To complete FasTracks, RTD will have to be innovative in leveraging existing funds, she added, “because people are not interested in tax increases.”
Wilson, 64, is an electrical engineer who has worked on major energy systems projects for about three decades.
Energy and transportation have much in common, Wilson said, noting they each require large amounts of capital, have right of way, safety and security issues, and raise “not in my back yard” environmental concerns.
“Completing all of FasTracks to achieve regional equity” is a key goal, said Wilson, who has frequently attended RTD board meetings in recent years. He also was active with a Gold Line citizens advisory committee.
RTD board member Bruce Daly, of Evergreen, is running unopposed for another term in District N.
Board member John Tayer, of Boulder, similarly has no opposition in his bid for another term in District O.
