A talented field has crowded into the race for Denver’s at-large City Council seats, but voters are allowed to choose only two candidates.
Our picks in the race include a talented newcomer, Robin Kniech, and a seasoned public servant, Debbie Ortega. The top two vote-getters from the field of five will fill the two seats; there is no run-off in this race.
To reach our endorsements, we reviewed questionnaires sent to all candidates, visited candidate websites and evaluated their records. Some candidates were interviewed by phone.
Kniech is a newcomer to politics, but she has a strong grasp of neighborhood issues and what ails Denver.
She works for FRESC, a Denver- based non-profit, where she’s become something of an expert on transit, and she understands how light rail’s expansion can positively impact neighborhoods if done right.
But we really liked Kniech’s focus on breathing life into Denver’s light- industrial areas. She supports the city’s recent growth in mixed-used developments, such as Stapleton, but says Denver needs to bolster its under-used light industrial areas to boost tax coffers.
Kniech has a five- to 10-year plan for revitalizing those areas by focusing on infrastructure, the types of companies that could manufacture small parts that can shipped out of Denver’s airport or on the interstates that criss-cross through town, and how the city might be able to partner with industry to, for example, create more flexible leases for those small companies that have a hard time operating in the big spaces now available.
“We’re not losing all of those employers to China, but we are losing some to Aurora and Commerce City,” she told us. “We haven’t focused on those areas at all and we’re losing the tax base. We have to keep our economy diverse to be strong.”
Another newcomer to the political scene is Josh Davies. Though we’re not endorsing him, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention his candidacy. Davies, a vice president of training and development for Sage Hospitality, has fresh ideas on how the city might be able to form new public-private partnerships that would benefit residents and take some strain off the city’s budget.
He also understands the “need to increase our sales tax base and identify more stable streams of revenue for the city.”
However, with Kniech being our top choice, we think Ortega’s experience and depth of knowledge complements her the best.
Ortega brings a veteran’s eye to city issues, and knows the city better than most given her decades of service.
Her previous terms representing Council District 9, including her two-year stint as council president, give her a deep knowledge of how city government operates.
Ortega has been a tireless fighter for neighborhoods for more than 30 years, and has earned the respect of many, including those who don’t always agree with her.
Ortega says she wants to streamline some of government’s clumsier processes, such as licensing and permitting, which is a smart idea.
Also running for the seat are: Rich Gonzales, a former Denver fire chief and Cabinet member under Gov. Bill Ritter; and Jesse Shelmire, an environmental consultant.
