EXPERIENCE 16 | The Business of Governance with Fort Collins Mayor Wade Troxell & Mayoral Candidate Molly Skold

Welcome to the LOCO Experience Podcast with LOCO Think Tank Founder Kurt Bear. Listen in as Kurt digs deep into the business and life stories of business owners and thought leaders at different stages of growth from all walks of life. Launching and growing anything can be a crazy experience, so expand your thinking and level up your understanding of what it takes to find success in the world of free enterprise. Welcome back to the LOCO Experience Podcast. I'm joined today by two very special guests, Mayor of Fort Collins Wade Troxel and would be Mayor of Fort Collins Molly Skold. And so I'd like to just set the stage and say, Wade, why don't you just tell people what your job is today? Okay. What do you go about? Well, first of all, I'm the Mayor of Fort Collins. I've been the Mayor of the last six years and it's truly been an honor to serve as the Mayor of such a wonderful community and Fort Collins is my hometown. So I've been on council the last 14 years and being the Mayor of your hometown is something pretty special and being able to serve the wonderful community, we have so many wonderful things that make it the wonderful place it is and I would say it starts with wonderful people. And so, you know, when you talk about 175,000 people that make up Fort Collins. Yeah, it was like 172,000 really great ones. Yeah. So, yeah. So, you know, it's just a wonderful place and just truly be an honor. And I also am on the faculty at Colorado State University and Fort Collins has a council manager form a government. So, I think being a citizen legislator is one of our strengths of our government and being able to be engaged in our community and I've had a lot of experiences over the years including startup companies and other sorts of things. So that's some of the things that I do. You're up to it right now. Okay. Molly, tell me what you do with your day. You bet. Before this anyway, especially. Every time you say something, I learned something new weight. This is so great. You think you know everything and you don't. Anyway, my name is Molly Skold. I'm so happy to be here and happy to be joined by Mayor Troxel and how lucky we are to have a mayor like Wade and just it truly is a great city because of the great leaders that we've had. So, I'm so grateful to be here today. I'm a third generation Fort Collins native. I'm a wife, a mother, a business person and a very passionate community advocate. I work for Mutual of Omaha and I'm very fortunate that they allow me to work from my hometown, the town that I love and I am in a vice president of marketing communication. So I do a great deal with the urban core of Omaha and revitalization, business, public private partnerships and multiple things in that nature but having, being able to have my dream job from my hometown, my dream hometown allows me to be very active here in Fort Collins and that means multiple things. I'm on the visit Fort Collins Board of Directors and in fact I'm on the executive board and in secretary currently. I'm also on the tourism master plan committee and as we begin to think we can talk more later but what does that mean for a community to think in terms of those who much has been given tourism and how do you apply that to a community so I'm very proud about that. I'm also on the board of your neighbor the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and I want to tell you something fun about that later that I learned this morning but we can go into that later but that's just a great museum we're so lucky to have these cultural museums, institutions, visit Fort Collins that really enrich our city, enrich our lives and make us a great city. Also, well I'd really like to thank Mutual of Omaha because it's like a mini primary employer when you bring your salary from Omaha and spend it on you know dog treats and houses and stuff like that here in Fort Collins and so it's one of the reasons I'm really bullish around what the economy of Northern Colorado will continue to be because it's people choose to live here even if they didn't grow up here and so this is a business focus podcast so I'm going to do a little unfolding of business journeys as one of the things and both of you have had some really quite interesting business journeys and so wait why don't you start and just talk to like really where you came from you grew up here did you go to CSU and work in industry for a while and then had a business journey so like set the stage for that first business journey first. Well you bet so growing up in Fort Collins I did go to Colorado State University I was on athletic scholarship so I played football as an undergraduate and played all four years I started at the offensive center for three of those I was captain you'd have to be bigger today. Yeah yeah yeah I was a captain my senior year and and then I just wanted to be a student so I went on for my master's degree then I worked for Eastman Kodak Company for a couple years and had an opportunity to go back from my PhD and I did that so my area of interest research is related to robotics automation intelligent controls of distributed systems and part of my role as a faculty member at Colorado State I went I did a postdoc at University of Edinburgh in Scotland for a year in their intelligent robotics group and then I've started companies I've started a couple of companies related to my research and with former students and and now the we started a company in in 97 sold it in 2002 actually one of the the principles that was a former student stayed with them through an IPO and and actually both of the students I started the company with are now CEOs of their own companies no they have stronger retirement accounts and they do and well I always leaned upon they were also smarter too but very fortunate and then you know I've been in the administration at CSU as associate dean for research and economic development so I've always had a strong economic development aspect of what I've done and and and then after you know then I became mayor and and you know I saw I've always and now I'm really interested in northern Colorado and coming together and are what we don't have is is really lifting our head up and being intentional about our future as a region and really being not you know in terms of economic future but also things that where we need to come together whether it's roads infrastructure housing whether it's a business it's like a challenge is to work on you bet and so I think you know we have to come together and have a coherent vision to as northern Colorado to what is our future very good very good and so is that your still your field of expertise is that robotics AI stuff like that yeah so so the ways it's been applied more recent is I've been I've been I was appointed by then secretary chau to the drone advisory committee which helps that advise the FAA on rulemaking as it relates to drones so I've been involved with things related to drones that autonomous vehicles and no sorts of things very interesting then you know that applies to some of things working on here I chair the northern Colorado regional airport and also I'm on the I'm also on the well I chair the platform of power authority board to how do you do it all well it's just you just stay busy and make sure you're organized that's right yeah awesome Molly talk to me about your journey you also grew up here in Fort Collins are you also a ram I am I am one one differing things about weight is I am a lampkin too so go back a little farther no I am a CSU ram very proud of that I worked here and then my husband and I were married and went off onto a interesting journey we lived in Ames Iowa for a number of years and we're chosen to be a part of an exchange program with Russian scientists so we headed to middlebury college in Vermont and learned Russian and moved to Russia with lived in rural Russia and we're there about a year and a half during the time of the the wall when the wall came down so it's pretty fascinating I think I think that's that's interesting when you have a global perspective you know having a chance to live overseas shapes you and and really you know helps you see the world itself differently was it like a scientist exchange yeah my husband was getting his he had just gotten his PhD and but this was an exchange program with scientists so a scientist came over here and we went to rural Russia just like rotary club exactly so that was interesting we then lived in Chicago and then most recently Omaha Nebraska and so much of my professional experiences in Chicago and Omaha while in in Russia though I taught English and wrote articles for the Colorado one and the Des Moines talked to me about Chicago and Omaha a little bit like what were you up to in those places yeah well I had had my babies in in Chicago and I also wrote for the Chicago newspaper there and that was a great opportunity so focused on mom and but also mom and also using your thinker to write also also writing articles I interviewed Bono and I interviewed Billy Joel and had some great interviews and that was a great experience but I wasn't working full time when I moved to Omaha I really began to you know see see my career and what I was destined to do I was hired by the chamber to head up image campaign for the city of Omaha that at that time there had been an article written about you know Omaha's so boring Omaha's don't even want to live here and so the yeah especially back of those days yeah so they hired me to direct an image campaign so I did that five years and then I worked for Walter Scott philanthropist who's who gave the money for the engineering here I worked for Walter and we opened it's called the Ray and Joan Crock Center it's the McDonald's fortune and they built crock centers around the country so I was able to work with an amazing group of people particularly Walter Scott and see how public private partnerships work and the power of public private partnerships and so that was fascinating and then mutual hired me to come over and help revitalize the urban core of Omaha so that's what I've been doing the last 11 years so talk to me about like getting a job working for a philanthropist it sounds like an unusual kind of thing you know Walter is an unusual person he is probably one of the smartest people visionaries and he it's kind of like Fort Collins you know the getter done attitude there's no we can do this and we can find the way to do it and in Omaha building the crock center when you have such a great mission like the crock center you're going to take it these are activity centers they're sort of like big giant you know fitness activity centers but they put them Joan Crock's mission was to put them in blighted areas and so it went in a very blighted area in Omaha to bring life and to bring you know a healthy thing like putting a sports stadium in kind of the crappy neighborhood exactly and so to work with somebody like that who has the vision knows how to bring people together knows how to get you know enthusiasm and draw excitement and get funding and work with the city just to be able to watch that process was such an honor yeah what an interesting thing and just to bring it back home to Fort Collins Walter Scott got his degree here in engineering exactly and so that's why there's a connection back to the name college Walter Scott college of engineering yeah he donated to Wade's campaign he donated to years Molly oh he probably couldn't he's out of state of whatever well no he could he his health is is is not good right yeah so wait why don't we talk just a little bit about this business journey that you did have you were a co-founder sounds like with some students that were were smarter and had a larger stake but what what did this company do that you're involved with so this company it was related related to our research but we're telling control of distributed systems we're doing robotics and and so we thought of different industry sectors we might apply it and we applied it to in the mid 90s to the electric power industry and so at that point there was a lot of deregulation in in in the west in in Texas and in the north at northeast it's your fault well no actually it adds more robustness to the system you know you have to also follow through right and so but a part of the the deregulation so we built the technology it was a technology high-growth company and and we raised while I was there 18 million dollars and and through three rounds starting with the friends and family around and and and grew it and actually a little backing up a little bit I did a sabbatical before forming the company where I was working my work at the university was related to working with manufacturers around the state of Colorado and helping them become more profitable and then built a program there related to that and then I wanted to crop the value chain to the innovation side and in startups and so I purposely wanted to experience that in part of the sabbatical I did was really a pilgrimage around the wealth nations and and went back to Scotland and and Adam Smith and and really you know really looked at foundational elements of creating wealth within a community and and and and and thinking about that so then what really wanted to experience it through technology startup and did that with this and and it was called Sixth Dimension and and it was acquired by a company called Combridge and it went public in about 2007 and and and so I've always played in this area I would face it from the university engaging communities and in different ways and economic development has always been a focus of when I was associate dean around really turning the research into benefit to society but also with my campaigns I've always had economic health of our community as key to many of the things that we enjoy including the trails and open space and things like that it really revolves around having a lot of good jobs that can pay taxes and they can build trails right and I think and I think good jobs are a derivative of wealth and so it's really you know a lot of times politicians talk about jobs but really the fundamental element is the creation of things that capitalists ultimately like capital is a good thing and pools of capital although it's annoying when Jeff Bezos has so much money but look at what he can do with those piles of money right well if you go back to the wealth of nations and and really follow that line of thinking it does yeah and we've just talked about a great philanthropist in Walter Scott right so it shows that you know and we have very much of a philanthropic community here so we see that in in all the aspects of the benefits totally that's really intriguing Molly talk to me about what was your degree in and how did you get so interested in economic development and fixing blighted problems and imagery I'm actually I wanted to compliment you is literally like I never go to Omaha but my perception of Omaha like and I've heard people say you know Omaha's pretty cool like in the last five years or so like that became a lot more common thing to hear is you know Omaha's kind of got it going on yeah is that the take on there's a there's a there's a video that's always inspired me and it's about the man on the beach and this is something Dan Neary who's the then CEO would say to it's not always about the person that went first right it's about the person who went second and then the person who went third and then fourth and then you have momentum and and and it's sort of that humble activity that somebody does something but it draws the excitement to create you know so so we know we've you know we've gone from being in a blighted area to now you know we are creating you know it's it's it's the urban core now is really the center of gravity in Omaha so we've done we've done good things with a lot of good people so honestly I graduated in marketing and journalism okay and you know fell into so many opportunities sometimes you make your opportunities right yeah you don't always know what you want to do I like to say you keep your legs pumping and look for a crease yeah yeah and that's that's void would understand that reference right well she's out my back is right behind Wade just just so I think how lucky we are all you know all of us to to take opportunities and and use them for good and and they they they define you they create you and if you're paying attention you you can be a part of some amazing things I love what Wade said a minute ago and I'm reminded of you know if you don't follow Wade on on Facebook he he posts things that are so interesting and not just activities that he does but things that are happening in and around our community like the trails like the person giving back and I think about Byron Collins yeah yeah and Byron Collins he was actually a classmate when I was at CSU and and you know Byron has been a businessman and investment in many things in their community but you know we have a we started a foundation at the city called city give and and it's really for the love of city because people do want to give to the city but you know I you don't often think about it in fact Darren Atterberg is a manager talks about how difficult people find to give to the city but we see it with our whitewater park and so forth and and with regard to Byron Collins you know along our trail he had five acres and he made a donation to our community so it's you know we have these great people in our community want to give to our community in perpetuity and in in long term and in this case it's a legacy gift that only improves our open space and our natural areas and our trails in concert with our public sector our local government as well as other private sector partners so there's so many great things that go into a vibrant community there's one of the things when Molly and I first met we talked about the CSU project yeah the stadium project and I was like I wasn't really super in favor because I'm kind of an anti-leveraged guy and you know but I loved and and I in the end I support it because it was driven first by philanthropy and then by leverage you know and because you had to you had to show enough community commitment to get that things spun up or whatever and the kayak park is another good example you know without new Belgium stepping up with a chunk of change and a bunch of other donors and Jack and Jack Graham the bridge I don't even know that yeah that was a million dollars of the bridge that you know connects you know across the water park oh wow yeah yeah exactly and there's a neat story with his was his mother or his father his father and so it was really a dedication to his father yeah well and that's one of the things that so need about Fort Collins is there's generational things you know yes it's a small town it's still a small town but there's you know some of those families the the grams the bananas the the palmers now the all that have been around for two three four five generations and you know the Everett's and you know I just think back growing up and that's one of the benefits of growing up in Fort Collins and seeing the the legacy that we have in front of us is really those that have gone before us and and I think of of Bill and Lorraine Michaels who created a number of different foundations throughout our community that helped to fund and sustain certain elements so for example at our church the our we have a foundation for Spreth-Petarian Church Foundation which was started by Bill and Lorraine Michaels but also the Puder Valley Hospital Foundation was started by Bill and Lorraine Michaels and if I'm not mistaken I think the community foundation Northern Colorado was started by Bill and Lorraine Michaels so there's what was their industry well he was he he was a finance person I don't know exactly you know I think he was more independent but then but he the thing I do remember it he was the right-hand person for Adam and Rick at our admiral Rick Ober in the Navy and so he has kind of that background but you know I and he was still alive when I was first on council I remember getting some calls from him and he was delightful man always really put community first and really thought about our community so I think about that I think about Carl Carson he was the mayor that when I was 14 years old he he made me mayor for a day when I was 14 and but just you know and it really people you know taking care of people in our community and that's always been the case yeah well the community foundation just got a new leader I saw I saw that too and it seems like you know just from the Daniels fund yeah and that organization has always committed my respect and so hopefully they can take it to get a next new level because that organization has grown tremendously over the last five to ten years yeah and so uh so Molly you like we you moved back to Fort Collins had this opportunity to have a remote job I guess and whatever when was that uh 2015 2015 and you're on three boards and have all kinds of other work to do already on that kind of time you yeah I also served on Tony Frank's capital campaign for the food bank and the watching the transition talk about people doing good things and you know seeing the vision that was such a huge honor to work on that but but the transition from you know north fort Collins to their level and location and seeing what the food bank does for food insecurity is pretty impressive and and you know being involved there and a couple other things too yeah so how did you did was it just people that knew you said oh Molly moved to town she's not on any boards yet how did you target tourism did you target the museum of this cover no it was it was uh I was nominated um in both cases by uh leaders in the community who asked if I'd be interested tonight her skills and the beauty of working for a company like Mutual of Omaha is they're very very supportive of leaders and building leaders um not just in their own community but period their employees made it sound earlier like Mutual of Omaha was like putting the shoulder to this economic redevelopment of this blighted area in downtown Omaha as well is that right yeah you know when when when they built the sporn and million dollar development it was to revitalize the area and to change the conversation of midtown but also you know to to offer something for their 4,000 employees that are in the tower right you know mixed use development condos retail events you know so it was a combination of things and it it's back to Dan nary's vision of somebody's got to go first yeah yeah and it exploded really yeah I was thinking about your your reference to um you know those visionary leaders that you can follow yeah and uh how you know there's a lot of visionary leaders that just go marching off by themselves and after a while they're like oh there's nobody following me yeah um but it really is that that courage even to be that second third fourth follower and right hand person of those impact makers yeah what it's it's like what is it Teddy Roosevelt's quote I love that about jumping in the arena you know you can sit back on the sides and sidelines and criticize or you know point fingers or you can jump in the arena roll your sleeves up get dirty and get in there yeah so you made that decision here uh just gosh only like a month ago or something like that is that right Molly well we've yeah I've been thinking about it a couple months ago yeah I've been thinking about it for a long time and ultimately it it was right and and and it was right for me to jump in the arena because um you know it's it's the time in the city where you know to have had a a mayor like Wade and all that he's done for our city and uh you know our work is not done yeah that's true well it's like it like any business that you're trying to grow yeah and make stronger and make better yeah you know the work has never done yeah and uh same thing here you know I just like to you know it's it's been an honor for me and and and I'm term limited and and you know knowing Molly literally almost for my entire life and here in Fort Collins and and and her family and her deep roots and her commitment to our community and what she brings to our community and you know the thing I think it's fundamental to being a mayor you have to love this community more than yourself and Molly truly exhibits that and that kind of commitment and it's that's the sorts of things that makes Fort Collins special and Fort Collins has always been uh uh very good at electing good mayors uh you know yeah me excluded but uh you know it's hard you know great people that have been committed to our community and we've been very fortunate and and I I support Molly and in her run I think should be a great mayor very cool so um I mentioned to you guys before we got started we we were gonna have a section on faith family politics do you have a we touched on politics a little bit now but we'll we'll dig into that a little bit more later but let's touch on the faith and family stuff just yeah because I think it's fun uh do you have a preference on what Molly why don't you take this one first what do you want to touch on let's talk about family sure yeah let's talk about your husband is uh yeah a scientist but also economist he's an economist yep he's the meat guy oh yeah yeah he works for JBS and he's had a very interesting long long time career it what's what I'm so proud about too is you know my father-in-law and and his family they have a centennial farm so they homesteaded here in the in the um Colorado area so they have a home in the hackston or a farm in the hackston region and so they're you know they're just they're part of this this this state and I love this state as much as we do so um yeah Carl is the chief economist for JBS and we have three masterpieces I like it I think I met one of them on one of your calls oh yeah yeah I didn't actually meet but saw yeah so I went on the things I like to do is uh one word descriptions of your your husband and your children oh wow great yeah one word makes it tough yeah um my husband uh steady definitely steady um my children Alex I would say he um it challenges me in just such an amazing great way and my son Nate he's my football player he played for Tulane he um he's my rock he's slow he is steady as well and then Anna is just my daughter and I she's everything to me very good very good um talk to me about your family I don't afraid I don't know anything about well um my parents uh moved out here in 1947 and both my parents are no longer living but I have three siblings so there are four of us okay and so my brother Jim he's an oral surgeon here in town and my oldest brother Tiger he's passed away about you know eight or nine years ago okay and my sister Ruth yeah she and her husband farm up in Wellington yeah and so those that's my uh growing up family if you will and then I'm married uh to Gene and we've been married almost 40 years this August awesome and uh we met in college and and she's she's been a rock I would say that's your one word description yeah and uh and in that you know she she does so many things so well and that um and she's comfortable uh in in her own uh skin if you will and uh she volunteers uh in the community a lot um and she's currently president of our church foundation and so that's one of the things that that she does but uh she's also a together we've raised uh two wonderful kids and uh so so Graham uh he's working on a PhD uh at Cornell and uh he's on take slouches at Cornell either well you know I think um he's uh he's uh he's been fun to work with together since uh um uh he's really pursuing some things we've talked about father son for a long time yeah that's neat and uh he's uh engaged and uh would be married this summer and they're actually living back here in Colorado because you can live anywhere right yeah so very cool uh that's interesting and then my daughter Ellie Ellie and uh Ellie's terrific uh she's working on a master's at UCLA she's been here since March as well and but uh working on a master's an urban and regional planning and she's uh uh uh you know um Molly talked about uh Nate being the football player Ellie's been uh she's our linebacker she she's uh um she's just solid and she's also the student I never was I mean she's very dedicated and smart and and uh and so both the kids are a lot of fun and and uh we're so blessed to have them between you and the kids you got more degrees than my whole family going about as far back as you wanted to go so was that education was that a big pillar of your life growing up or was it was it kind of your inspiration that started that well uh my dad was on the faculty at Colorado State University and so um in moving out here uh part of the story goes that my mom and dad and we're crossing Kansas and he was uh to come out here in the forestry department after three days of driving before the interstate system and my mom said I'm not seeing a tree in three days you're going to Colorado and to do what right and it's uh uh uh uh it's so it's a lot different than you we went to Duke and so you know North Carolina is a lot different in terms of trees but uh our trees are pretty important here and so I grew up in a family where wood is good and uh a lot of things that uh I remember my dad talking about are still true today and including you know with the forest fires and forest management and and those sorts of things so um anyway uh uh uh uh you know that so my dad was on the faculty at Colorado State for his career and uh been so fortunate uh actually be a second generation faculty member. Yeah that's neat that's neat maybe the third generation gram will be someday or well or Ellie or Ellie you know you know but you know they'll they'll they'll actually chart their own course which is probably uh for sure they'll do it better than you would for for sure that'll be true um I wanted to I um it seems that you guys both uh attend the first press church there in the corner of college and mobile ray thank you for the uh hosting of the Matthews house by the way um the community life center in there that was an important uh transition for that organization as as they kind of lost their space with putter school districts so thank you god bless uh your church and um let's dip into the the faith journey is that for both of you is that I was born of Presbyterian and I stayed that way kind of journey or is there anything that is worthy of unfolding in that? I would say yes for me I I have pretty much you know I have stayed true to um you know my faith as uh I was born and raised in that church and uh my parents were very very active um leaders in in the in the church community and taught me the the importance of that and uh but they also challenged me you know if it wasn't something that was right for me that um you know I should consider other things and actually we in in our in our living in Russia there was no church to go to in Chicago we attended a different denomination a different type of church and same with Oma but when we came back to Oma our for Collins it allowed us the opportunity to really think about you know what's important to us now and and what do we have the opportunity to do so we're very lucky to be back and be back in the church I was raised in and my husband is very active in the church and yeah I think I think uh I think there are challenges um I'm very very proud of our pastor I think to your point with the Matthews church I think in much part it's under his leadership he's a good pastor and awesome yeah I've met your pastor actually before too I was pretty impressed and how about you weighed same same same story same grew up so grew up in the church and was baptized and and through went through communicates class and that sort of thing and you know that uh I was thinking as the conversation was going on but we made a commitment to stay downtown when a lot of the churches went to right around around the community and so by staying downtown it's a downtown church with a downtown mission and so with the Matthews house you know that's very much in line with it you know being missional within our community yeah and that's one thing that Cory Nelson brings is that commitment to our community and he's been outstanding in that regard because you know oftentimes you talk about mission work and it's somewhere else but we have mission work with a university campus and so many things needs within our community and so really just focusing on you know that spiritual element of a community is so important to the community so we have a strong faith-based community within Fort Collins and uh when the church is the leaders of most of the churches actually like each other yeah which isn't that way in every community you know in a lot of places it's like the you know the the Presbyterians are throwing eggs at the Methodist Church and they're you know doing poop things on the Catholic steps and who know it's not that bad right but but they do their their friendship they have friendships in conversation consistently and they care about each other and and the the cause of having a healthier community is they actually come to city council and they pray for our community and you know there's so many things that I think help in that regard and so you know so yes I've been part of that church I've been elder elder multiple times and and then also you know I mentioned being in Scotland so that's really the the home that's that's what the Presbyterians come from that's right so I didn't know that okay and so the Reformation and so John Knox and and and and it was an important part of the Reformation and so and it's interesting the Presbyterian faith has a lot of parallels with our government here you know in terms of organization I remember hearing about that yeah and there's councils in different elections you know so it's there's local and then there's you know sin in in Presbyterian in General Assembly and so it's very much of a decentralized decision making but with an overall structure around it that that makes it coherent and and you find in Fort Collins that there've been a lot of city leaders that have come out of Presbyterian church I think of Frederick Baker back in 1896 was an important he was a mayor and a member of our church and and went all the way back there well and I you know I don't know he actually did part of the the prohibition you know we know that guy the other guy and so you know that we were it didn't have alcohol within sold within the city limits until 1969 right right and so how did you survive as a young man well you know that's you weren't that old yet that's right but you know there there's the notion of three two beer but you know it's interesting to really think about 50 years ago and 50 to now but the kinds of things that decisions that were made anything about our community today and all right one of them is you know selling alcohol within our city limits a lot of the liquor stores then we're just located in the county just outside the city limits you know like where JJ's is and charcoal broiler and and and so you know the donut store was over there too or something right well that was further out that dress so talk to me for those that including myself like it's the Church of Scotland John Knox Presbyterian but what is there's things that Presbyterians believe that are different significantly from the kind of mainstream Christians no you know I think it you know basically it's faith in Christ that's a personal relationship and so you know it's really it starts with the individual and individual faith and belief yeah it seems like a lot of because of that like grassroots to this and that a lot of liberty kind of woven into the fabric even like the different churches can have at least slightly different opinions from each other and stuff well I mentioned Adam Smith and that's Edinburgh you think of Mayfair and a lot of the architecture that we have in Washington DC so in the 1700s there is a lot of linkages between Scotland and and the Enlightenment period and and our government and our founding here sure and so with capitalism so forth so there's a lot of influence during that time that we can trace directly back to Scotland interesting and Alexander Graham Bell innovation some a lot of and a lot of innovations in the medical profession at the time Lister now we have Listerine so aseptic conditions of of medicine and so forth so you know that was a pretty heavy time and that's very much you know like well we're in the innovation community here this country wouldn't be anything like what it is today without Adam Smith's work right not even close right well thanks for sharing that let's dive into politics just a little bit if you're not too scared what did you think of the Capitol Hill riots just kidding no let's talk about like the politics of being the mayor frankly being the mayor of a city council that's been usually pretty divided like there's a swing vote here or there and that's kind of normal for Fort Collins and arguably healthy for Fort Collins but it must it must be challenging you know keeping everybody happy all the time with how I stand as mayor you know and this is where an important part of being mayor is the leadership of your of your council and part of that is each person is elected independently and they have their own voice and so forth so the thing is is after an election we have a retreat and and you know basically you have to get the voice of each council member into the discussion so it isn't the loudest voice it isn't the smartest voice it's all the voices and that is part of our community too being a representative form of government and what you want is to have good deliberation and discussion and decision making you vote and the point is is is to really to function well and I think if that leadership leads to your council functioning well your council is serving your community better and so it isn't having the the divided antagonism you know you don't have to be a diplomat diplomat you just have to listen better and and really engage in ways that are very civil and respectful and and that includes all the community too so you know that's it's it's really if you come with an activist point of view you're not going to serve your community well if you come with an open mind and having because there's so many things that come before council and if it's if you're too narrow and you're just trying to drive some agenda you know that isn't for the better betterment of our community kind of like pushing a rope sometimes I was thinking when you were describing that how much that's kind of like a local think tank facilitator role in the role as mayor because you know our facilitators don't have an agenda you know they're there to make the best decisions for the good of everybody at the table and and they're all working on their own things which is much like the city council because they have that different regions different districts of the city that they're really focused on but the point is to get everybody's voice into the conversation and not try to pull it and then have a vote and you know sometimes you know I haven't won all the votes but that's okay too because sometimes actually the outcome is better than you know then just one person one idea so what what does that vibe with for you Molly is that I'm sitting or taking notes no it's don't have an agenda don't have an agenda no I think that for me it's it's thinking independently and acting independently that that resonates with me that's what I have done as in my career that's what's important to me and that's how I would hope to lead and I think when you think independently and act independently you're not part of some other group of action or idea or agenda you are you are thinking what you are an elected leader who is acting on their own and their own convictions so that's important to me I do think that you know being around the city I do think we do have an opportunity to engage a more I guess collective intelligence I think I think that you know I'll just I'll just say it I do think that we have gotten away from I think the political climate and the the things that have happened maybe nationally or not or regionally whatever but I think that we have an opportunity to come back and to change the narrative and be positive leaders and and and think about Fort Collins first every time Wade says it it never gets old for me that that Fort Collins first I love my city more than anything else that never gets old to me and think if we all adopted that premise and think of what we could imagine the possibilities I've been listening to a a new podcast on recommendation of Aaron Everett recently actually and the guy's kind of theme is think local act local you know and and that's where you can make your impact you know screaming from the from the rooftops about Trump being evil or the economy is going to get us or that kind of stuff it's just not helpful because what we need to focus on is how to make Fort Collins in this region generally the best region it can be yeah you know some of the experiences sometimes people want to bring in issues from somewhere else and enough for Collins issues you know and we you know that's not good either is is is you know parachuting in issues we really are should be focused on things that are matters isn't the free the nipple kind of that it was I mean it was five people yeah good listener is a quick recap of that because that's a fun story basically this is a movement that's happening throughout the nation right now I've talked to the mayor and gain so Florida and and it's happening there but you know it's it's it's really around whether or not you know women should be allowed to you know go top or not and and and and really you know taking community values to a side and just kind of making it a biological argument right it is and and but there are five people that came to Fort Collins and Fort Collins is a battleground for some of those issues like if it happens in Fort Collins and it'll happen to other places so it was an issue here basically we aligned our local ordinance it you know aligned with the the latest the legal but they pushed it further and and right now it it'll have to be settled with the Supreme Court because there's there's conflicting law across the nation related to this and and so it's that's where it consumes a lot of time effort you know people get worked up on these issues and they're not our issue you know we should be working about people in our community and how do we engage everyone our community about issues that pertain to our community yeah well as the the 14 year old boy was excited to see a lot more boobs around town it hasn't really happened yet so well that's right that that the teenage boy caucus was a pretty strong one he never never goes up by excuse me probably acknowledge as well Molly when when we talked like the big picture politics like what does that sound to you it does that sound like like a icky word and what are your principles in in that regard and how it affects both local and national yeah great question I would use this example I had the opportunity to talk to the mayor of Oklahoma City recently and I talked to him about I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with him and we were talking about homeless and other issues and he is being courted for being governor and he's actually he's come he's come out publicly to say you know I think mayors get more done I think when you're in your local municipality that's where the work is being done he said that's where I find excitement and action and influence and the ability to to be a part of a greater picture so I was kind of inspired by that you know you you sometimes say oh I need to do something else and then no maybe we just get a lot done in our local municipalities and how what an honor that is it feels like to me that like at this level the city level like if if if Wade wants to get things done it's with looking people in the eye and you know drawing people to the cause whereas even at a state level especially at a national politics level it's like you make people do stuff like we decided this now you do that and and but in a local thing you know these are your neighbors your friends and it's really you don't twist people's arms into doing stuff you ask them I say yeah yeah and in fact we talk about being aspirational and this is doing things that make our community even better place and you know I think that's translated many times over because you know we do have a great environment in which we live here but also you know the people and doing wonderful things that make for columns a wonderful place and so that's so important to be aspirational but then there's the pragmatic you know to deliver in our community and that's one thing that I think gets to the point about getting the work done and through you know our charter makes our politics nonpartisan where a council manager formed a government so really we're citizen legislators and and so it's not you know it's well you like it in trouble if you said I'm a Republican in a you know council election not you tell him what you say you said the same thing or a Democrat I don't know what you are but well I basically I say what matters to you and and so I have a conversation about the issues that you care about yeah it's it's not about the badge that you wear if you wear a badge at all I told one of my friends in a past guest on this podcast that you were coming on he's like you know that guy is great I can barely tell if he's a Republican or Democrat well and if you and if you ask good questions you know if I advocate for anything it's for Fort Collins yeah it's not one thing or another right so it's really what's best for Fort Collins in its future and we should be arguing about those things and and and and not a lot of these things that that might parachute in and be superfluous and at the end of the day not do does it really matter whether Fort Collins has got a topless whatever I mean the 14 year old me is like let's get it let's take a quick break for a party break and then we'll come back and talk about the future more Molly I wanted to ask you forward looking we kind of hinted at some of the forward looking things that I think what I'm hearing from you guys is to be a really great mayor it takes two things receiving of the districts and of the of the council and knowing what's important to them and the and the all the citizens and things but then also leading and in casting a vision that people want to follow and and be a part of so are there particular elements of of your vision that you'd like to unfold right here Mo? Yeah thank you you know I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the pandemic and these are tough times right and we've got to come back and you know Fort Collins is such a special city we all know that and lately our I think our pandemic has reminded all of us about how we need to care for one another we need to be aware of what everybody's going through we've got to do things for one another and be a caring community and we also have to help our small businesses yeah yeah that's a that's a big one and as you you all well know and I think I think we owe that we know the importance of small businesses in our community they are our economic engine and they they are so important to what's going on here and the contributions that small businesses make in our communities so I think that would be a big priority is is really paying attention and being a part of the conversation on how small businesses come back we've you know the city's done a great job already I'm really impressed with the easements that the city has allowed you know some of the restaurants to have and sure and so what does that look like coming back after COVID and as we begin to recover can we extend that I also think the liquor and the liquor licenses and the delivery can we extend that that has shown not to be a deal breaker for crime but it's really helped small businesses to be able to you know get a margarita and a burrito delivered that's pretty good stuff and you know I think of the taxes and the fees and let's look at that as a city to say gosh could we help them in this way a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more so that they can continue to recover so I think that would be probably first important in the real no term especially yeah in the real yeah in the near term and then like setting things up for the Fort Collins that that you hope we have in 2030 like what are the and I know that that's a collaborative effort right you're gonna receive and things but are there I know you touched on a focus on tourism for example yeah I think well tourism in the in the sense of it being a master plan and how it if it it impacts cities I'm very intrigued and impressed with the work that North Fort Collins is doing you know you're speaking my language when you talk North Fort Collins because that's an area I think we need to really think about and we've got some opportunities there that I would love to be a part of public private partnerships be a part of that as well so I think North Fort Collins I think the partnerships that we can form the the collective intelligence and bringing more people together to to to help people feel like they're a part of it and they're contributing and bringing bringing some new audiences forward to to be a part of the greater conversation awesome well thank you for sharing that wait um and pardon me if I don't call you mailed mayor trot toy I had a good friend and wait in high school and so we'll be friends after this wait if you would share it with me like what are the things that you're gonna look back on as your term and mayor and be the most proud of that we'll leave some legacy that people point back at you like you did some of those city fathers well I think there have been some important decisions that have been before council and and have been a part of and and I would say an important one was the the basically it started in our futures committee back in 2011 but the the broadband initiative basically we invited to our futures committee I started the futures committee a part of the Fort Collins City Council and back in 2011 we had a conversation we invited the incumbents that provided broadband to talk about what's the future of being a digital city and they said it's not infrastructure we're programming and it was kind of like oh red flag went up and it was kind of like you know what's our digital future and we really need to be intentional you talked about what's the future in 2030 oh I'd say if it's 20 30 50 years from now those are the things that we're really doing today that really matter and so we should really be intentional about our future and and so when we have that conversation with our incumbents and and and said you know we really have to be more deliberate about our digital future and so we we were we did a lot of research and background and and went through two votes passing 73% to to proceed and and also to take in to take the the debt in order to build out the infrastructure and and we've done that we're building now and there's great take rates in the community or the neighborhoods that have been lit up with with connection and so it's that's going to be a legacy element for our community going forward so I'm excited about connection and and people are excited all through our community to get it and those that have it are totally charged and you know you hear comments that you know are upload speeds you know so it's symmetric broadband at gigabit speeds and so the upload speeds some you know businesses and work working from their home in terms of right and that really matters for some people and so and it's a lot of files for example they're big they're big and so that's been an important part of I think our future you know there have been so many other things I would it was in March of 2015 so this is right before that when I was elected mayor but we had a a 7-0 vote on our climate action plan and so one of the things that I've been consistent about particularly about things related to our climate is that it's really the climate economy it's just simply not it's going to be a burden to our community know it should be an opportunity for our community so when you think about a climate economy we should be innovating solutions here that not only benefit our community but that can be solutions for other communities literally around the world and we have those companies here today that are doing those sorts of things and so we should and with the energy institute so yeah I was just thinking about the wood stove thing you know they put a lot of clean wood stoves all around the world it doesn't impact us here but help people everywhere and so that's where I think for Collins is you know we just don't approach it in this very narrow activist sort of way we view it as a broader community and think about our future in our community and it and we operationalize it how does that make sense here it's just not something where you shout at the moon but you actually are how do you turn it into solutions that benefit our community and can scale not only in our community but around the world and that's through a market based initiative fair enough Molly what what would you say that Wade hasn't taken enough credit for in these last few years Wade talk about the Bloomberg program that that you've been a part of I think that's pretty impressive for you and your initiatives and your foresight to to get that going and also what's brought that to the community well it so when I first became mayor I applied for this Bloomberg Harvard City leadership initiative and and I was a part of the first cohort of 40 mayors 30 us 10 international and it's much in the Harvard business Harvard Kennedy School format where you know you interact with faculty and and and that's only continued from when I was first mayor till today actually was it a test did you have was it like 400 mayors applied in the 40 well you know they're in their fourth fourth cohort but you know mayor Bloomberg actually has a view that you know a lot of people get elected mayor and they end up being mayor and then they don't have a common skill set in terms of leadership and so this is really built a a program that helps mayors in leadership and and since covid there's been monthly programs related to covid and crisis and leadership and crisis and actually there was one today a program for an hour and a half and discussion and and and mayor Bloomberg is as great relationships with Johns Hopkins University and their public health and so we get the latest and best information as it relates to today vaccines and a rollout and also other aspects that play into the community we've participated about 10 different Bloomberg programs one of them is was the mayor's challenge where we made a proposal that helps to our rental housing stock in our community particularly for medium and low income that allows for on bill financing and having financial private sector partners providing the capital for that and cracking the net between the land owner and the property owner and the and the renters so that the properties can be improved and and and in in being one of the nine finalists winners for that we received a million dollars to execute that program that pays your salary for like a hundred years as mayor so I wanted to I wanted to ask I wanted to observe actually I remember now that being a public servant is so much different than regular jobs in in what I what I think I'm hearing from from you way especially is that to really be good at this you have to to listen and learn like a lot and your time actually spent doing is only a little bit I'm sure there's you know you're you're a man about town you know if if if there's any public figure there Mayor Truxel is in the room usually so I know you're you're really active in that regard but just all that time investment to listen and learn try to understand how to do things better well you know I think an important part and I I like Brunei Brown yeah and really being open and vulnerable and listening and and you know that's the human aspect I think of what being a mayor is about yeah is being is being open and listening a lot and and being vulnerable because really you're you're out there right and you're going to be vulnerable right now oh what was the worst mistake you've made so far you know there's probably been a lot you know um the thing is is I think it's always to to listen and engage and and you know the thing about being elected is some people come at you hard but the thing is is it's not a personal thing um you know people care about our community uh they're passionate about our community they want to share about their community and there's always a hundred different viewpoints you know on one issue so it isn't being right it's really uh being passionate about your community engaging on within your community making your community better in the long term and if you really stand on those kind of you know long-term future-looking it's it's I think that's the right approach very good Molly how can people like learn about your campaign support you things like that if they want to appreciate that yeah I'd love to have anybody listening visit my website it's molly4mayer.com and it's the number four so molly4mayer.com pretty easy and I'd love to connect with you talk to you I'd love to have you email me my phone numbers there and I'm pretty shocking that that website address was available that's what um very good well we can plug you in I'm sure you've got other speaking events coming up as as election gets closer yeah and and and Mayor Troxel uh you're just going to sail off into the sunset I'm guessing you've got some ideas on how you can serve this community and make it stronger even after you hang up your mayor hat you bet I'm not going away I just want to be as the mayor and I'll be in our community and I hope to be making an impact and building our community for the future in other aspects of that you know of how that might be done and and that's like so many in our community so I'll just join the ranks of uh of citizen and and and continue to do great things hopefully awesome is this like a putin thing where where if you out for two years you can come back and do another term well you know that is a lot of theoretically I'm out though but I was like sweet I could just be mayor for two years and put way back hey Molly wait I sure appreciate you both being here uh if you've got any last words to share I'd certainly open the microphone to it otherwise we'll just uh say all together uh thanks for listening to local experience by chance thanks we're gonna say it all together thanks for listening thanks okay well I'll say the whole thing thanks for listening to the local experience podcast ready thanks for listening to the local experience podcast woo that was terrible thank you for listening to today's episode of the local experience podcast this is Kurt bear founder of the local think tank and host of the local experience and I'm here with Rory Sharr local business developer and host of the local shorts episodes we hope you heard some new ideas and business perspectives in this episode our mission and all that we do including this podcast is to share collaborative business ideas and solutions that uplift the business community subscribe and follow us for you listen to podcasts to get new episodes as they are 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