EXPERIENCE 18 | Fort Collins Mayoral Candidates Jeni James Arndt & Gerry Horak

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. This is your host, Kurt Bear, and I'm here today with Jenny Art and Jerry Hork. And these two are candidates for mayor of Fort Collins. And so we're going to have a great conversation about what makes Jenny Jenny and what makes Jenny and what they think that the city of Fort Collins should do in the mayoral race coming up. So Jenny, it's both ladies and alphabetically first, so I'd love to have you just kind of say, what's your role in the world today? I know you've got a couple of things going on. Oh, my role currently. Yeah. Well, thanks for having us on today. It's always good to get as much of the word out there so people can make informed choices in elections. Well, thank you for being here. And April election is a little bit different, so thank you for having us. What do I do now? Well, I am first and foremost, a mother of three adult children. I'm a wife of 31 and a half years. I am a state representative at the Capitol, representing House District 53. I am chair of Council of State Government's West. That's our professional organization. Co-chair of the National Agricultural Task Force. I serve as chairperson of the Agricultural livestock and water committee. I'm also on... You're making me tired already. Transportation, local government committee and the statutory vision committee, and I'll just stop there. And you're running for mayor? And I am running for mayor. Because you don't have enough spare time. Right. No, I'm teasing. I love overachievers, and so thank you for serving on all those great causes. Well, my LSAT book is by my bedside, too. All right. It is, I'm not kidding. Because you're studying? Yeah. To take the LSAT. Oh. That's good for you. I'm too late. There was a time when people thought I was smart enough to be a lawyer, but nobody suggested it in a quite a while. Jerry, how about you? What do you do with your days? Well, with my days, I'm currently campaigning for mayor, spending some time doing that. I'm also the president of the Boxelder Basin Stormwater Regional Authority. Oh. That's the word. It doesn't sound as maybe not as challenging as some of those roles of Jenny's, but it's probably pretty challenging. Actually, there's some interesting characters on the board, and we have some strong discussions had, but things are going great now after a few years of getting them back online. So I also, just like Jenny, just on the guy side, so I'm a dad, a husband, and a grandfather, and the raising children was always challenging, but being a grandfather is really, really good. You get to spoil kids and have fun with them, and then send them back to their parents after that time, so that's pretty good. For my background, I've been on City Council for the last four years, 20 years of that or 21 years, and I've been, you know, things I've done in life, I've built businesses, worked in business for 40 some years, had the children, besides raising children, no spoiling your grandchildren, it's the work on City Council's palette, most meaningful things I've done because you get to see things happen in real time here. And you only have to convince three other people to get something done, which is just amazing odds for anything to do it, and you've seen a lot of things being done, like the downtown, the change with old times. Yeah, many hands make light work, right, it's just, you can do things in real time, and the citizens here are an informed electorate that has been willing to spend their money to make it a better place. Yeah, and it is a great place to live, it's hard to question that I moved here 22 years ago, and really, even then, like day one, it was like, I think I'm home, you know, I don't think I'm leaving. Part of the purpose of this program is to help people get to understand, you know, who these guys really are. You know, I know what your roles are now, great granddad, committee, something of lots of different things, Jenny, but where did you get started? Are you, are you local? Can you tell us like what, what we're growing up here is where, where did you come from? Sure, well, I came all the way from Boulder when I was three weeks old, and the smallest political unit is the precinct, and unbeknownst to me, I still live in my same precinct that my parents moved me to in 1964, so that tells you I'm 56 years old and I am. I did leave college for, you know, was it 20 or 22 years depending? I went to Moore, Blevinson, Pooter, and then I went to Colorado College, Peace Corps. Okay. I consider the Peace Corps back in the day, tell me about that decision. Well, when I was in high school, I went to the Fort Collins Public Library to two different evenings, and one was on the Peace Corps, and one was on Outward Bound, and I said, I'm going to do those both. And I did. So after high school, I did Outward Bound, and then after college, I did Peace Corps, and I served in Peace Corps Morocco from 1990 to 1992. Okay. We were evacuated to the Gulf War, and we went right back when it opened up three, four months later. Wow. I learned and spoke and lived in the Arabic language, which I pretty much lost by now. I was going to say, you can still tell us anything, you could maybe understand a little bit. Yeah, well, it was a dialect, right? So it was the Dedija, which is the street Arabic. It wasn't the Fosah, the classical, because it's important when you're working with the people I worked in a poor girl school, and it was important to speak the language they spoke. So it was a fun, really fun language to learn, very easy to learn, because people were so eager to help you. That's neat. I've had people say that the Moroccan culture is just a, stands apart in some ways from the rest of that region, and they're welcoming us in whatever. Oh, jovial, fun, teasing, great sense of humor. You know, I started joking around in Arabic. Everyone understands even if you're speaking Arabic, and it's, you know, not perfect. It's a quick with a wit, yes, very wonderful there. So my service, I think, began, as I always say, in first grade I became like, as my dad used to say, you know, he had four kids and put us to bed, and I can say, you kids are going to be the kid who raises their hand if the teacher takes a lunch count and needs it to the office, or the teacher says, who's going to step for school and clean desk? You kids are doing that. And so, you know, up goes your hand, you know how that goes. Then the next thing is, you know, you're the hall monitor, or the principal needs somebody to sort of on a student committee, and you do that, and the next thing, you know, I gave the speech to dedicate the outdoor classroom at more elementary school in 1976 during dump days, which was a big, you know, conservation movement. Yeah. So, nobody was surprised when you went to the Peace Corps either to serve. No. And then, that just kept going. I was head girl at 11, I was in student council all through, I'm still friends with head boy at 11, I won't mention his name on the podcast, my embarrassing. And then Bob Bacon was my teacher at Puder, and he went on to be school board state rep, state senator. Yeah. Yeah, really notable. So, when I moved back to town, he and his wife came to me and asked me to please become more involved. And I had been on two school boards when I lived away. Interesting. And the service has always been part of my stuff, yeah. Jerry, I know it's a long time ago now, but tell me about your early years and college a little bit. A long time ago. I'm teasing, I'm teasing. You were making the old jokes before I was. Yes, that's fine. See, I was thinking back when Jenny was bringing that stuff up. So, the first thing I think I remember doing in elementary school, I was a safety. So they had a thing of safety for like, we would call them crossing guards. And they were places to do it, and then somebody got to be a lieutenant, which I never got to be the lieutenant. But then you were a little thing, a little, you had a badge, and so that was pretty cool. The other one I remember, one of the great things I got to do with service in the school was, in junior high school, I got to be, I was with a guy who did audiovisual, he's a science teacher. So I got to be an audiovisual assistant, which means I didn't have to go to school for hours during the day, I would just take things around a different classroom. So I could go in the halls. I'm working. Yes, we've got all. I'm out here, I'm doing people's work here. Right. While watching movies, if you wanted to be watching movies, that was pretty fun. So what circled me where is that here in Fort Collins as well? No, no, I grew up in Township. I was born in Pennsylvania, Chester, but when I was three years old, we moved to Baltimore, then I was 12 years old and we moved to Baltimore County. So I grew up in the Maryland area around Baltimore. Okay. And college, what you get here? Went to college at a local school test in state, used to be a college, then now it's a university, sounds a lot cooler. Good job, over to you. And went to school at Johns Hopkins to get another degree and then when I was out here, I got a degree at CSU. In what? Wildlife biology. Oh, really? So you can tell me more about bird eggs or lots of things like that. Yeah, I know actually a lot of bird's. Is it birds that were just specialty? Well, it's one of the things I was forced to do for a meal education, because I had never taken any really wildlife biology courses before I'd been doing geography, economics, resource economics. Interesting. Interesting. So tell me about the early career for you, how did you compise all these degrees and stuff? I worked some during school and some research projects and then got a job and then won some contracts with the federal government related to the work I had done. And then we, the company I was with back in the DC area, we won a number of contracts when the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to have applied research. Facilities one of them was in Fort Collins, called the Western Energy and Land Use Team, which is now part of the USGS as the Fort Collins Science Center. So because of that, my boss then was able to convince the president company. We had a move here. Move out here. Yeah. No, just the folks working on this work with the Fish and Wildlife Service. And then he wanted to live in Boulder because he thought that we're in a really cool place. And so the president asked me, where's the work? I said, what's in Fort Collins? He goes, well, the office would be good in Fort Collins then. So we ended up being here. That's perfect. That's all I got out of. And when was that? So coming on next. 77. Okay. Interesting. So I want to switch it back to Jenny because it'll be more fun for everybody if we do a little back and forth. But talk to me about your early career after Peace Corps and stuff. You mentioned a few different, were you raising kiddos in large part? You said you were a public servant in school boards and things already. Right. So after my master's in Boulder and geography, then I went to Peace Corps. And then realized I was a teacher there and realized that's what I really want to do. So I came back to Purdue University and did a master's in special education. I might teach in license. I was a special ed teacher in public school, high school, very cool. Our behavior disorder, people experiencing behavior disorder. What do you think is wrong with me? Well, I'll tell you later. But it really soothes me well at the Capitol. I'm sure there's a lot of behavior disorders in that school as a cucumber. And then I eventually earned my PhD in literacy and language because that's really where the rubber hits the road in terms of kids hitting a wall in their learning. And then we moved to Mozambique for six years and I was the principal and the IB coordinator at the American International School there. And then I took a job with Walden University because I wanted to keep my hand in higher and the United States and online wasn't cool then. So that was my option. And I started the first online master's program for teaching teachers to get their certification in either literacy or special education. And we took that from zero all the way to national accreditation. We were the first accredited online program. That's really because of my, you guys both know that I'm a rotary club member. You might have saw my smile and face there when you popped in for the other day's discussion. I also saw your comments on the chat too. Hey, we'll talk about that later. But the, you know, that literacy being really the key or one of the keys to trying to alleviate poverty looks like I see you nod in your head and smile and you agree with that, obviously. Oh, yeah. The teaching and the Peace Corps experience informed the rest of my career until I got to the legislature when I turned my attention to water and natural resources. And would that go back to your kind of geography background and stuff like that or just a passion over the earth and its people or well, there are some of that. Some of it was because my predecessor, Randy Fisher, had focused on that. And he had said when he left the legislature, a lot of the water knowledge would go out. He's a water engineer and I'm a pretty good student. I was in the middle of my MBA as well when I was running. So I may not, I do like school because of the smart kids, yeah, well, I like school. And so I decided to make a career switch. I was 50 and to just turn my attention and become kind of a self-taught. I just started reading water law books, frankly, and going on every water trip and reading water bills. And I am not a water lawyer, but as it turned out, the part of water I know best is the politics of water. Interesting, which I'm sure we could probably have two podcasts episodes just on that. It is a very exciting area. Yeah. Can you forecast for me while we're while we're talking water like less water use less water or we have to you will be less there will be less water actually, they'll be the same amount of water because it's a closed system. More people and the cycle will go faster because of global warming. Yeah. Well, that was fast, but you asked me to do it quickly. No, you did it. So all of our policy decisions will flow from those two facts, yeah, for sure. And how about the blade thing here, can I ask you about that? Like, are you a proponent of that water storage then? That's two different questions, blade and water storage, you know, my opponent of water storage, because the snow is melting faster, we need to read time or water. And that can mean several different things through water reuse and also some storage. Am I a proponent of a blade? No, I think that, you know, this is a very long, but I'll just try to be very brief. In general, most of my bills down there have been so that we can provide an alternative of a blade, aquifer storage recovery, water reuse. Because of the environmental impact of blade, is that the biggest concern? Yeah. And it's also with evaporation with increased temperatures, water will evaporate. It's just not the most efficient storage bucket, right? So outdoor buckets. Well, in lower elevation, probably. Or not as efficient as replenishing a natural resource and aquifer and then using it. Okay. Thank you for the quick primer on that, because I'm pretty ignorant about a lot of it. I like to say I'm one inch deep in a mile wide. I know a tiny bit about all the things. You're probably the self-blat rear end. Right. Just about, right? So you moved to Fort Collins and had this, all right, man, this office and kind of describe your business journey from there a little bit in your professional journey, if you would Jerry. Well, so, you know, it was a applied research and managed the office, you know, then got a job in a few years later to at the research facility, managing the onsite support contracts of people for who were scientists, people were receptionists, people doing cartography, doing all sorts of different things. And the idea there is the federal government then has can change their mix of the types of skills they need without being left with a person. So you can quickly change what you're doing, depending on, because most federal research agencies are also based on grants of some type, some appropriation, but from other agencies. Then they run out and you got a sample and some sort of money, whatever. So I did that for a number of years and then worked on other projects. So when then I ended up in higher management out of the corporate office in Orlando, I didn't have to, I mean, in Cape Town, I wouldn't have to move there. So stayed here. And then I went into business development for a good at winning contracts and winning contracts is the key for having a company that continues with revenue. So that's what I did for a number of years. And I really enjoyed that because it's kind of like a sporting event. It's really the fun is in the doing, but once you win, the game's over, right, you're on the next one. So it's really the deal. For sure. So you can figure out how to win the strategy, basic business. And what, like, what did that take for those kinds of contracts? Is it just getting your numbers just good enough to get the contract or is it kissing the right butts or? Most of them were, well, you first have to know if you have a chance, when I was consulting on this, I would get some coming. We can do that work. I go, well, everybody thinks they can do the work. The trick isn't doing the work, as trick is winning the work. And you win. Do you know anything about the client? Are they interested in who the project manager is or are they interested in your past performance? And always on government support contracts is what, mostly what I did, prices a huge factor in the win. So you just have to take a look at the criteria. And the other big mistake people do is like people go for jobs. You know, they send in their resume, just, you know, which they wrote before, but they didn't tailor the resume to the job. They didn't write a cover letter and really make it easy for the reviewer. Right. So the same sort of way you address the criteria and people sometimes just pull out their boilerplate, throw it in, and they're shocked when I used to get resumes when I was hiring those two. You know, and I say, have a cover letter and they'd attach it. The letter would be see attached. Right. Right. You just wanted something to cover the top of the resume. Right. Yeah. No, it's true. I like what you're saying there about that people want to be wanted, right? And like even, I've noticed as I talk to local think tank would be members, you know, the fact that I'm like, hey, I've noticed you, your business is really growing. You're successful. You're your employees really like working for you and stuff. You're the kind of people we're looking for. And then they sign up to pay me money every month. It's magic. So it's like that concept. So yeah, sounds like so kind of it's not really sales as in the particular vernacular because it's a strategy and relationship and it is money. It is sales. I mean, it's sales in the sense you have to respond and you write a proposal technical as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's that basic thing. And then you find out, you know, the fame thing on those sorts of contracts and people are going to skirt like going for jobs. Somebody will say from in your company or somewhere, hey, we were second. I said, everybody's second who didn't win. Right. They always think that there is no third. So Jenny, you've been really serving in that kind of public capacity for now. How long? I don't know. First grade. Well, no, but if like in the legislative, so I've been at the legislature, this is my seventh year. Seventh year. Okay. Great. So what was that your first election that you faced? Did you have a student president and things like that or yeah, those things and then two school boards before that? Oh, right. Of course. Yeah. So it wasn't unusual for you to go into more intentional public service necessarily. You know, and I say this because I believe it, you know, there isn't a hierarchy in service, right? Sometimes you're elected and sometimes you're not. And I'm being elected isn't the best slot in the service category, right? It's us lot. And so you need to do an accurate self assessment and say, where do I fit in the overall building of the community? And sometimes again, sometimes you are the elected person and sometimes you're not. And that's okay too, right? So if you are a good community member, a public servant or a HOA president or a HOA member or if you're the person who goes around this weekend with the snow, get it? Sure. And just gotten this bobcat out in Wellington and just did the whole neighborhood. That is no more of a hierarchy in service in our community than not. I like that a lot. I appreciate you saying that. Well, it's true. And so I was resistant to running for state representative. Yeah. Well, you have to quit your job and leave your family for four months. Basically, Monday through Friday, you know, one give us still in high school. And then when you realize that being a politician can really just mean the extension of the service you were doing anyway. Yeah. Yeah. But the privilege is you get to ask the community if they would like you to serve. Yeah. And that's called the vote. I just, you have me thinking about Betsy Markey, actually. And she just retired from service in Governor Polis's cabinet. And I was hanging around with Jim playing ping pong and stuff when she was just kind of getting ready to be drafted back into that role, you know, after serving in a publicly voted role earlier. And it's like, oh, yeah. And so I was proud of her for serving and proud of her for also saying, you know, I've sort of hard and long enough and Jim needs more time. She's great. She was a really, really early role model for me and a very important person in my life. Yes. So fair enough. And Jerry, talk to me, then I guess your career kind of spanned out. You had a lot of connections to government, but no real involvement as a, as a servant in that regard. You were a private company. Yeah. Connections to the federal government. I had no connections to the federal government. Right. And so you started just here in Fort Collins, say politics with the City Council. Was that right? Well, I started running for City Council in 1979 after it looked here for a year and a half. And and a lot of people would say they're born here at Loop to 30 years. And I go, well, I chose to come here when I was 27. So actually choice, I think that's a pretty big, big one, two, yeah, birth. Actually, one of our local think tank members, Noah Hutchison, just fell short of getting a City Council when he was only 29 or something. That was 40 some votes. I think it was. Yeah. And that district has been like that actually in a very close elections district, too. So I ran and there were, I think it was 17 or 19 candidates. Well, so this is back when the council was made up of four people from four different sectors of Fort Collins, but everybody voted for you. And then three at large members. And obviously everybody voted for you, good job for you. So I ran in that and ran six out of the out of the 19 and, you know, which was, you know, was okay. Yeah. So then I followed things in the 81 Nancy Gray head retire was, retired from council and I ran in that election. Actually, one of the people was tamed out. We spent a lot of our town for years. Yeah. And so I, I won that election. That was a start, you know, like I said before, it's the most enjoyable thing I like is what it is, it's, it's kind of like, it was Jenny's like for education, the same sort of thing that most jobs are mind narrowing and that you get really, really good at whatever is the thing you're doing. Being on city councils might expand because you're dealing with lots of different issues. And so if you'd like to learn and you'd like to read and you'd like to think and try to work on it, it's, it's, it's enjoyable. And I was caught, I don't call it public service. To me, it's really an application. It's, it's what I'm doing it for the love of it, not because it's some sort of service that is what I find, well paid $12,000 a year or something, doesn't it? Yeah, but I'm saying that's because, you know, I worked the entire time I was on city council all this. I'm not working now. I'm retired, but that, you know, sometimes some of the people running these days act like they're the first people we've ever had children, whoever worked for a living, who had to raise money, who had to do all those other things. People, people generally look at the world as beginning when they're here, whatever it is. The fame thing where the sheriff in Weld County made the comment about when the big Thompson flood happened, whatever, he'd never seen anything like that in his lifetime. Well, yeah. That's where things have to happen, obviously, yeah. That's where things have to happen, obviously. That's where things have to happen, obviously, yeah. So, so I got on count, and then, and enjoyed it, and tried to stay there. I represented Northwest Fort Collins. Tell me about why you, as a 26, 27 year old young man that you had a flavor for that, was that a model, was that modeled in your family or anything? No, not at all. I mean, I just, you know, I don't know if you are into democracy in the Constitution, how our society works, is anybody can be of service, run for counsel and do it. Yeah. As I get it. You know, because of running, I'm sure there's the same thing will happen now for lots of folks who are in this election of 14 people. The people who don't get elected this time, many of them will stay active in different ways. And so, we'll run again, as Jenny pointed out, some other things like that, whatever. Because it's, you know, it's great here are people's ideas, get a chance to express some of your ideas and to learn, and it, to me, it's invigorating. Yeah. I love that. I appreciate that very much. Jenny, why don't you tell people about what it's like to be representative? Is that, is that right? A state representative in what district? That's right. How's district 53? 53. You mentioned the four months away from your family and stuff like that. But what's the cadence? I'm sure it's been crazy different with COVID, right? Or could you, did you work for home all last year? Well, you know, the, the legislature is its own unique entity and it has been a very much of a privilege. It's like, as Jerry referred to, you know, I like studying and I'm a pretty quick learner, but that was a really nice, steep learning curve of the first two or three years. I was like, wow. So you need to learn the process. You need to learn the people and you need to learn the policy. Now it's always how I think of it down there, right? The process is big, right? So Randy Fisher said, no, the rule book backwards and forwards. We'll have a pretty big rule book, but you need to know that. You need to know the people. So that includes your colleagues, there's 99 of them. Yeah, I was just asking. It was 70,000 constituents, 99 colleagues, scores and scores of lobbyists who aren't all evil. They represent good groups throughout the state. I always say as a representative, I represent a defined geographic area and all the issues within it. A lobbyist represents a defined issue for the whole state. So you have the March of Dines lobbyists, the early childhood lobbyists. You will have. Should pay family leave person or whatever. You will have all sorts, right? So you need to know those people and work with them. And then you also need to, of course, know, yeah, your constituents and then there's the partisan staff and there's the nonpartisan staff and then there's all these bills flying at you, right? There's about 700 bills a year. We have a $32 billion budget and yeah. So do you have to read all those bills or do you get like a small staff that helps give you the cliff notes on stuff or how's that work? Colorado is the 49th smallest state government in the country. Only Texas is a smaller government by population. And I will say Texas still gives more money to education than we do, which is shameful that we are so low in supporting our education preschool through graduate school. That's just a little editorializing there. Yeah. So no, I have one aid four months a year at $15 an hour. No benefits. So I contend that we do not invest enough in our offices and our outreach and therefore I'm a one person bad and people call me and they're like, oh, you answered your own phone. I was like, well, the staff is off today. We have no staff, the other nine to eight months of the year. And we have no, we have an office in Denver, but not in our district. So when people call me for coffee and I invite you over, it's because I don't have an office. Yeah, I have to say I'm, I think most people would be surprised by that people need to understand that. And when sometimes I'll say what get an email, say you didn't answer my email for three days. I was like, I apologize. All right. I don't answer people's emails for three days all the time now. I don't have any. I hold into the people and we do answer emails on phone calls sometimes they slip through the crack. I mean, there's hundreds and hundreds a day. So the workload is large. I have developed a strategy for and a very intentional one on the hierarchy of how I do bills, run bills, think things through where my attention are as one of my friends says our commodity is our time. Yeah, for sure. So one of the biggest things is how do you prioritize your time? Try not to. Okay. We have to. Well, I'm sure you do. I'm sure you do. So tell me, in your city council tour, Jerry, how did you prioritize your time? It sounds like you had a few different tours of duty then. You served for a while. Maybe left the council. Other things came back because you are, have you been mostly on the city council for the last 20 years, 30 years? Well, it's 40 years. So 40. 31 years. I think it was probably off 19 or 21 out of 40. Okay. I know. Yeah. Sorry. I have that one right away earlier. So, you know, council in the 80s and early 90s, the internet was just starting in the later 80s. HP had a little system that you could use. But so it was mostly phone calls and letters. Where was the primary way that you constituents are even talking with your staff? You literally have to either call up or go to city hall to get there some issue you wanted and to look at. So the citizen input was more limited because, again, one of the biggest issues we had was adding sexual orientation on to the human rights ordinance. And we put it on the ballot, but I came back from vacation and had like 300 letters in a two grocery bags of letters. And then I answered them and that's what I've said on other forums that I've answered every email, every letter, every text, every phone call that I've received in the time on council. And I think that's important because that's the first touch it could be for somebody actually trying to contact their local government. And if you don't answer them, their belief is reinforced that the government doesn't care. And at the local level, it's, you know, this is somebody you could run into it, King Supers. It's not like they're coming from someplace else. I don't have to worry about them. Just in case this ever happens, if I'm on city council, I will not answer every email probably because I don't do that. But if you text me, I'll give you a big text generation. I have children of that age. But yeah, just to set the expectations here because there have been people that actually that I have about four friends that call me Mayor Bear, not this term though. Okay. Are we ready for you? Yeah, no, we got 10 years left before even sniff that. Jenny, I want to maybe just shift it now a little bit to, you know, I've actually, you got re-elected this fall. And now you're running for Mayor, your office would go to another, what was it that tipped you to say I'm running for Mayor? That's a great question. Well, one of my friends, Kristen Stevens, was thinking of running for Mayor. She went for her County Commissioner's seat. And I was all behind that, I mean, all for that. And when she did win, then I had a decision before me, frankly, well, the elections don't line up and I wish they did. Yeah, fair. Let's go that way. I hear you. The second thing someone said, well, why are you leaving the state? Well, fundamentally, I won't leave the state. What I'm doing is asking the voters if they'd like me to be Mayor. So I'm always believing the voters every time everything I do a circle is back to the voter circles, back to my constituents, all my votes at the Capitol will be, you know, the Chamber of Commerce. And I was talking to them and they said, we looked up your votes. Did you know that 95% of your votes were the way we wanted you to vote? And I said, yes, I represent the town of Wisconsin, yes, I'm not surprised by that. You might be, but I'm not. So yes, I'm very intentional and deliberate in that about maybe two years ago, people started saying, you know, Wade's termed and I said, yeah, okay, what does that have to do with me? And frankly, people started asking me to run for mayor. I hadn't thought of running for mayor. And then what you do is you really think about it. And again, you do self-assessment. You think about what you're about, what your service is about, what you're concerned about, what you think the future is going to be. And I would say, you know, people like, well, you shouldn't have run for state rep if you're new. You're going to do this. You know, a year ago, let's do a year and a week ago, I don't know about you guys, but my life is not exactly like it was a year and a week ago. COVID changed everything, right? And it changed things for, it changed things in our community. And it changed, and then that, and then the role of municipal government in our lives, I think is increasing. And I think it's increasing an importance, right? I think that where we really impact people is at the local level. That interests me in asking the voters if they would like me to serve in that role. For one, for two, people asked me to run, it didn't stop. I hadn't experienced what I was working with a community person on a bill that I was going to vote yes on, and this group was in opposition to that. And in the middle of that discussion, the person looked up and said, will you please run for mayor? And I said, why? And that person said, because I really don't mind if I disagree with someone. And I run someone I can sit down and think things through with. And that meant a lot to me. And that happened to me across the spectrum. And then I started seeing a coalition, right? For cons to me is very special. And it is to all of us, I'm not saying I'm sorry. This idea that is a nonpartisan election. And then we had a very contentious November election, and we had a big problem on January 9th. Honestly, I feel like what I have delivered at the Capitol in terms of public discourse, a civility, friendships, even in spite of disagreeing on some big issues, I think we can bring that home. And I think that's what people are looking for in a mayor, frankly, of for cons. And I'm asking them if they would like me to bring that home. I like that. I appreciate that. I'm sure that'll help people understand your heart in that regard. And yeah, I didn't know about the Christian Stevens element. I can see how that would be an awkward thing. You're like, well, it wasn't awkward at all. Well, the timing of it, like you had to decide if you were going to run for your rep office because otherwise you'd leave that seat exposed potentially in advance. So anyway, I was judging you positively for it. I guess is what I would say is that her race was a tight race in the commissioner thing and the element. And I could see how that make that decision difficult. Jerry, have you run for mayor before? No, I was mayor when it was elected by the council. So in 1991, we changed the form of government, not the form, but how council members of the mayor's elected. So that's when we went to six districts in the mayor being elected. So they're basically sort of the at large person representing all four counts. Gotcha, gotcha. So when before that, though, you had been the mayor? Yeah, I had been mayor in 84 to 85 when the council elected the mayor. Gotcha. Gotcha. And was that different? Like, it feels like it might be kind of different. If the council election, then they're kind of pushing you around a little bit and you got to, you know, if you want to get reelected, whereas if it's all the people, it's really, do you think it's a positive change? I guess there's a good question for you was that change over. Well, the voters decided it, so it is a positive change because that's what the voters have for council said it. I think the bigger change was actually going to the districts and having council member from districts and not having everyone really elected at large, just four people representing four different areas. I think that was the biggest change to get the government closer to the people. It made it much easier for people to run for city council as witnessed in district four, which has five candidates this time. So it makes it much more affordable. As Jenny knows, running, running an election for the entire city is expensive and hard. It's much harder. Without COVID, if you're running at a district, you'd be walking door to door every door in that district you can do. Right. Yeah, I can see that. So why I'm running for mayor because of the experience I've had on city council. I think to the timing is important for the mayor to be somebody who knows the process, who knows the people and knows how the system works. And from day one, I can do that because I'm familiar with the issues in the city, as well as the city of the council manage your form of government, which is a much different form than a mayor has in charge of everything. This is a job of process of making sure the council's agenda is moving forward and that you're communicating with the people you're holding many listening sessions, which I've done previously on council. I would hold a broader listening sessions with lots of different sectors and cuts of the community to start getting that feedback on what people want on an issue and making sure to when there are major issues that the making sure the council and management is really reaching out to the people and having robust processes. And I can like on the plastic bag or it's not dealing with the substance of it, dealing with the process. To me, the process wasn't a normal for Collins process, an important vote. It was just started in December and people can do a survey online. Well, normally on issues like that, you had stakeholder groups representing the grocers, the environmentalists, other business people, neighborhoods, whatever, and you would take a year, at least a year, to look at that issue before you put it on the ballot. It's the first ballot issue I've ever seen a council put on that is of some substance that didn't go through a public process. So that's an important part. I might be ignorant, but what's this? Tell me about this. It's dealing with plastic bags, not having plastic bags and it starts first with grocers and the council has some flexibility as things go on for expanding it. So it's basically a limiting place plastic bags. Good thing they didn't do that before COVID, though, because they had to switch everybody out of the reusable after, right? But that illustrates part of the problem I'm talking about. You're a bright guy to stay up on what's happening locally and it's not something you heard a lot about because again, there wasn't a robust public process with lots of engagement. Well, I think it's, I think it's usually a tax on poor people, isn't it, because they can't afford those fancy. Well, the council's going to do something for, I mean, let's part of the proposal, I believe, to have something where there's some sort of rebate or whatever before the bags are five cents or ten cents, whatever for the paper bags. I'll catch up on the cliff notes later. Okay. So thanks, Jerry. I appreciate that. Sorry to get it. I'm a world chaser. Just one more tip. Please. I spent the last year talking with citizens in various interest in town, probably 60, 80 people having, and I'm not just talking, you know, sitting around us with a neighbor. So I mean, I'm talking about half hour to our conversations about what they saw as the priorities and the needs in the city. And that's what the, the issues that I bring up, that's what it's about, and my website shows the priorities. It's about people and families, it's about the economy and it's about the environment. It's about doing something, make sure that we get, everyone in the city has the same chance to get the vaccine, no matter if you're a hard to reach person or not. It's making you sure that connection or internet goes to low income families first, neighborhoods first, not last, this like the current plan is that deals with education, deals with employment. It deals with expanding as Jenny brought up. The way folks change their lives substantially is through education. I'm observing something interesting in this mayor's race. You know, you referenced Jerry, the, the process, the people, the system, much as Jenny did in the, in the state legislature that that's really important. And so you're like, you've been inside, you know, 20 of the last, 19 of the last 40 years or whatever you've been in the city counts, you know, all the players. Jenny's pretty connected to the community, well, can fully connect to the community and lots of things. And then Molly is a relative outsider of politics and public service in that capacity. So a lot of different levels of experience, especially with the city for Collins government. Jenny, why would you say, I guess that, that right mixes with you with some, some freshness with some experience? Well, thank you. The role of the mayor and for Collins in the council manager, right? So you're one of the votes on city council, right? But you're also the front door for Collins. So what do you want for Collins to look like? Who's your ambassador, right? And when something happens in the four Collins, people look to the mayor as their spokesperson. So that's a very important tone setter, I think, in our, right, it's, it's, it's doing the ordinances at the council level and working with the manager and staff obviously. But it's also being that person in the community that they, that they trust and want to reflect their values. So what I've been doing already and sort of vaccine equity, right, is of talking directly to the chief of staff of the Colorado Department Health and Environment, tech center, saying, Hey, Mark, how are we going to do this? If you're only doing it through this app, this, that's not equitable because people, you know, my mom's 84, we were, we were, well, we were joking, I was like, no, what are they not getting vaccinated? I can't figure out this. Yeah. And she has two, three of her four children live in the area, right? So we're helping her, right? Sure. Sure. So, you know, and a lot of people aren't, right, a lot of people have support like that. We need drive-in facilities, we need, we need, we need public facilities pushing out this vaccine too. Now, in their defense, no one's had a global pandemic in our lifetime, right? Sure. So I know they're trying as hard as they can, but let, let's keep doing that. The, uh, Joan Auguste has endorsed me and that's part of our federal delegation. And he's our Congressperson because, you know, we want to work together, let's train issue. Let's solve that. Um, let's get Pete Buttigieg here, Secretary of Transportation, let's, let's get on that. These, these are our people, um, I know personally, actually, through my work at the state. Uh, I think we, we, we, those regional cooperation as well, right, through my work through water, um, we, um, and those partnerships. So it's what you do on council. It's how you work with the city manager. It's that your Fort Collins front door and then it's your relationships and your experience on bringing that in fact, frankly, right now, what I'm really trying to do at the state is making sure Fort Collins comes out well in our $700 million stimulus out doing from the state. And also the stimulus that's coming from the federal government. Great. We've got a card for Larimer County and for the city of Fort Collins to make sure that our citizens are in on that. Fair enough. Fair enough. And I'm running the stimulus bill for the watershed recovery program for the state for the fire damage. Yes. Uh, that'll be about $10 million or maybe a little bit more. We haven't finally decided, but what I'm really concerned about and have already been working with northern water, Greeley water for Collins, all our regional water partners to make sure we coordinate that response and that it's not just a grant here or grant there. So Becky Mitchell Moss has had the Colorado Water Conservation Board and she said, I can't wait for you to be mayor. And I said, why? Why do you care so much about that? You know, when I'm already working at the legislature in water, she goes because it can work with you so much more closely if you're mayor on water issues. That was you actually forecasted my next question, which was, can I give her on the regional part? That was a differentiator. Sure. Please. So I've actually worked on regional issues and one of the best examples of that is I 25 that I was one of the key people in coming up with a concept how we actually got money. It was saying that we needed to put money up front ourselves, that the local governments had to put money up. The model's so good that the Colorado Springs folks have used it to try to get their money. And that is demonstrated that we had a goal. We agreed on. It took a while to get to that goal and that people were going to work hard on that and we've got a billion dollars in to work to expand I 25 for a third managed lane, which is an important differential. Some people say you just want more cars. That lane is for transit, that lane you have to pay for. If you're not, if you don't have, if you have three more people in, it's something. I've worked on water issues. I've worked on transportation issues, air quality issues across the region have excellent working relationships with the people who are actually doing the stuff, which are called people in city councils, town councils, mayor and county commissioners. So I offer a demonstrated track record, which is the best predictor of future performance. Fair enough. So I want to talk about the philosophy just a bit and Jenny is something you said that people are going to rely more on that interaction with their local municipal governments. And I'm a small L libertarian of sorts, I suppose. And I'd love to see the federal government gutted. But to recognize that people do need help and do need support and to move some of those resources closer to the people, whether it's accountability. How do you resonate with that comment and how do you see large and small programs kind of fitting into recovering from COVID and think, well, you just had a $1.9 trillion bill, you know, come in, come in our way with lots of, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of bells and whistles. Yeah. No matter how you slice it, there's a lot of bells and whistles in that puppy. So talk to me about your, your principles in that regard. So I would say I'm also an L libertarian of the small L, in fact, of the Republicans that the Capitol, you're a Republican, I'm not a Republican, there's no way I'm a Republican. You know, there's, there's all these issues that are just, I register as a Democrat when I was 18 and haven't faltered a bit. I fundamentally believe and I vote this way that I trust people. And I trust them so much that I trust that they can make the best decisions, the closest to home. Okay. And I also know that we do need a social safety net, right? So I couple those two things, right? A lot of my water policy have, frankly, bendy regulation bells, right? So why are we telling people they can't plumb for gray water? City of forecalls has never passed that ordinance to opt into the gray water. Right now, it's illegal to build a house plumb for gray water in forecalls. No, why not? Right? It's safe. I mean, you have to make sure that it's safe and clean. So the other water bills I've done have also been for, let's use clean recycled water. Let's, we, we treat it to 1981 drinkability standards and then we can use it. The car wash uses it, we water our grasses with it, right? So a lot of the bills I've done that are good conservation bills. You can have both, right? You can trust people to make the right decision and you can also blend that with your environmentalism as well. Yeah. And now I never walk back a good regulation in terms of, of air quality and water quality, right? In terms of those issues, right? Okay. So we have point of compliance. We have all these things built into those waste water bills. That's my basic philosophy of life as I trust people. Yeah. I love and I trust people, but I also know that we need to have some social safety nets because everyone needs a leg up and that's why you became a special ed teacher too, right? Fair enough. Talk to me about your reaction to that line of conversation, Jerry, is that do you have a contrast point? Well, I'd say one is the, you know, the federal government's been great during this pandemic because they're the only folks that don't have to balance the budget. Right. So they're, that's the advantage. So without a federal government, you can't have the, I was just learning Kelly Evans talking today for neighbor to neighbor that they used to be doing $20,000 a month for rent support, utility support, they're doing $1,000,000 a month now for rent support, utility support. And that's all from the federal government then, right? So so during certain times, you do need to have a form of government, yes, the form of government. She just said, hey, the money came from the city and the county from the state from the federal government, ultimately, right? So you got to go get it, you know, well, no, actually, it's pretty much, it's not formula, it's not formula, it's not formula, it's for the counties, how they get it. There was negotiation with the towns and cities and, and learn the county for it. So you know, I prefer the local government to and that's what always they, bills that we don't support at the state level usually deal with somehow it's a constraint on what the home rural cities can do. I think it's always, you try not to regulate, you try to have people do it because that's how the market works, that's what people voluntarily will do. But you also have to have, for example, things like on water, one of the ways the conservation was changed greatly in Fort Collins, it was finally metered for a long, long time, the water was not even measured, people didn't pay, you paid according to a lot size. And then they put in, and then was put in the demand pricing, which basically says, after some minimum amount of water is used as a pretty nice price, you're going to pay as you use more because most of the water is used, not for indoor use, it's, it's done for irrigation, right, to grow things, to grow grass. So that was a change in philosophy using market forces to make that change, you know, there's always a yinging in the yang to regulations for what you're going to do. You have to look at the consequences, the unintended consequences, but you're always first trying to do with the incentives. I think incentives are a good way to get people to do things, whether they're an individual or whether they're a corporation or a developer, whomever, to do things and have things fairly priced. So you mentioned a connection earlier in how we need to get, you know, the poor neighborhoods cooked up with connection first, and I can say, like, is that, was that just short-sightedness on the marketing from your perspective, or is that a moral obligation? I mean, is this a city service? I don't sure, because nearly any meaningful discussion of connections has done an executive session, which means the public is not allowed in. The sessions outside the executive session, they're just like, they're just generalized stuff like the columns that have been up here in the paper. Yeah. I think the push on the folks trying to run connections as utility was revenue, trying to get enough revenue in and how the subsidized rate of $20, if the other rate $70 or whatever it is, the normal cost for the internet, then the payment Louis taxes, so every utility has payment Louis taxes, which goes to the general fund, which I believe is 6% now. So that money would then be used, the council designated, that money coming from connections would be used to subsidize low-income rates. Since there wasn't a lot of money coming in, they prioritized getting the hookups, getting money rolling. But we're a half a billion dollar corporation, so I think there'd be money to do it. You could either borrow it or give money to begin with, because you think it's a good thing out of the general fund to that. And like I said, that's a huge deal. Oh, forget the pandemic even, if we don't have a pandemic, all homework is on the internet, all research is basically on the internet. So if you don't have that, you're really falling behind the other one of the employment for their parents or caregivers opportunities increase, as well as their educational opportunities. So it seemed like we had it backwards, for what makes sense, and the other one, which the transparency. There's no reason anymore not to have transparency, not to be able to tell people it's coming to your area in six months or three months, or whatever it is. People want to know it's their utility. Fair enough, fair enough. We are starting to get closer to our time allotment here. And so as I warned you guys, we do a rapid-fire faith family politics, as part of our thing. And so why don't we go back and forth, Jenny, you're getting the first choice, and just give me the quick recap of any of those topics. Sure. I'll tell you, I'm a unitarian. Okay. That's my faith. Is that your church on the west side for Collins, are there? Yes. That's also why I successfully ran the repeal of the death penalty, and that is right in our faith. And that was, uh, uh, so we don't have death penalty in Colorado now? The death penalty has ceased to exist. Is that right? Something that you, uh, and that was, uh, that was a lot of people's bill before mine. And then, uh, I got the bill from, uh, uh, Senator Guzman, when she retired, she trusted me with it. And we ran it. It was just a story with, uh, four Democrats and a Democrat House and Senate, and it failed. And I have a lot of good relationships, and I think this highlights it. I was having lunch with my friend, just a senator, Jack Tate, that next summer, and he's a Catholic, and I said, Jack, is there any way you're going to vote yes on that next year? And he goes, you know, Jenny, I think I'm just going to do that bill with you. And I said, you know, Jack, if you get on that bill, it's going to pass. And he goes, I know. And I knew that bill was going to be successful a year later because Jack Tate got on that bill and another Democrat in the Senate and then myself and my colleague in the House, Adrian Benavitas. And we have repealed the death penalty in Colorado, and that is squarely in my faith. Uh, we were, um, and that was an absolute bucket list. I'm telling you that hurt since I was, I can't remember four or five years old. I asked my mom why the government was allowed to kill people, and she didn't have a good answer. Uh, why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong? And we don't do that anymore in Colorado, but that is one of my signature. If you want to know where my faith is squarely in that wheelhouse and, uh, Fair enough. Jerry, what do you have to say on that topic? On my faith? Is that the question? Yeah. I, I, I go to Timberline. I'm a lapse Catholic that I go to Timberline, uh, one of the reasons I go there is because my wife goes there and I'll probably go to worship really great productions there. No, the music they have great productions and preaching to it, they have two out of the three best, uh, people giving sermons I've ever heard of that of going around. The other one was father Bob used to be at the University of Catholic Church. Very cool. Um, so how it guides me, I can give an example that back when that, um, uh, the sexual orientation was before the council and we had big crowds there. We had, uh, a lot of ministers who were there, a lot of people saying, you know, that's, uh, we quote the part, whatever parts of the Bible and the other part of the Bible, I'm not quote, but gay. We're also had shellfishes on a bomb and they're sure besides that. That, um, I remember telling you when it was my turn to talk when we're going to pass it, but then put it on the ballot and so what we did. And, uh, it was basically with the person that you revere, Jesus Christ. Say you can't live here, you can't work here, you can't sleep here because of your sexual orientation. That's what I've read about. Well, that's what I'm saying. So, so that's, that's how it guides me at times. The same way when we were dealing, um, the, uh, there were a lot of, before, more how, before houses were converted a lot into rentals, especially for the student population. A lot of houses were converted with basements into rentals. Sure. Well, most of those basements didn't meet code. I mean, the, the ceilings were too low, the heating units weren't separate, wasn't to get out of it. Wasn't when said we had that the so we were trying to get that passed to fail the first time. We did pass the second time working with John Clark and we had a lady come in and we owned some properties and she said, you know, that escape window back then, it was $250. And I was like $2,000. At least. She said, you know, I'm going to have to pay all this money. It's not fair. You know, I'm trying to run a business here You know, what are you going to say? Well, I don't know. I'm just kind of way you're 250 versus somebody dying And I think somehow it seems like a reasonable regulation not to have people die because we don't have a way for them to escape And not too long ago was like three or four years ago on Broadview We had two young men were able to get out of a window that was not a scape window because they were thin They're young. They're right. They forget but they would they would have been dead. That's pretty interesting Well, I had a prior guest Ben Gates when confronted with the faith question said He basically said life liberty pursuit of happiness life trumps liberty Trumps the pursuit of happiness and so liberty's great But not liberty to not have a window that people can escape from your basement rental on because life trumps liberty and Liberty trumps pursuit of happiness So, you know, whatever it's going to take to make you happy don't tax me for that Basically, so anyway, um family you mentioned you have three grown kids Jenny. I do have a 27 year old or 25 year old They're 22 year old, okay, and they're all in different various phases of coping with the pandemic as we are You know, uh, one of them deferred graduate school, which uh, and uh Got her job back. Um, sorry um, and she's actually home for a couple weeks, okay To get out in New York City the walls were closing in yeah, and that's a pleasure and we have a son who was very close to graduate From CU Boulder and just said I can't not do one more day of zoom. Oh my gosh, and we said well, I'm sure they'll do it again Yeah, he'll he'll find a shop next fall, okay, and then we have another son who's decided to Live with five got four other Young men in Vermont. He goes to Millbury and he will graduate in May, but they decide to just basically self-quarantine In a house. He's skiing a lot, you know I don't know his birthday's today. I talked to him. Yeah, um, I like to get one word descriptions of people's kids Would you care to play that part of the game? Sure um Smart funny affable Though in the in the order from the 27 25 are there all three then we all under change Jerry why oh in your you married to yeah, I married to 31 and a half years to Channing Channing He's an economist and how did Channing come to fall in love with you? Oh, I think that was easy just kidding That's joke. I love it at college Colorado college. We met there Uh, and he is a division director for the International Food Policy Research Institute and he does Global food systems. That's like a smarter than me kind of a job title for sure He's a very bright person. Yeah, Jerry. Talk to me about family from your perspective Married to Connie. We've been married for 27 years. Been together for around 25 26 years Um, so we both had children She has three. I have two. They're all about the same ages are youngest and older so the same ages the same genders to okay We decided that early on we wouldn't be the Brady bunch So we waited to get married until our youngest daughters were both in college and doing things So They're interestingly four out of five are in medicine. Wow. There's a teacher So they're all doing things they love that we you know, so it's worth set up pretty good for older age Yeah, we got a physician We got a pharmacist we got a nurse and we got a A biomed tech which is a person takes care of all the Electronics in the hospital perfect also. We're very lucky that we have seven grandchildren I was gonna say we all in the grand cuz it should be able to take care of all the electronics in the households Yes, we have yes, well, they actually literally that happened the other day one our youngest granddaughter was Was visiting with us the coldest weekend that we had yeah, and Connie was working on the computer and she was trying to get the volume to go up and And Layla comes over to it and hits, you know, one of the buttons. It doesn't you just do that grandma She's eight right for sure. So they're really fun That's one of the things you get we've been able to do more than before when Connie and I were both working as sure Help take care of them at times see them and they're fun to be around because you have little Responsibility and you have a lot of fun totally totally Well, I'm sure you're a great grandad. Why would uh, why would Connie say that she fell in love with you? That's a good question So we it was nine years before we got married so people look at her and say after nine years didn't you realize who he was? Don't I mean why but I don't know that would be a good question to ask her Is why that is and she always supported your city council endeavors and and things Actually, she was so I wasn't with her when I signed council previously so I got elected she was very very worried About what I was gonna be doing you're saying and then she was pleasantly surprised she said oh, that's good You're not like you are no actually pretty good at this. Yeah, no, but she she she still watches council meetings this day She kind of enjoyed it. That was uh She thought you know, I did a fine job helping and she you know the people at home get to see you help people sure Yeah, they hold just a one store with like kids when they're teenagers they So somebody calls and my son answers the phone and said hey, it's one of your good friends dad. He wants to speak to Gary Hornick Sure must be a good friend if he calls you Hornick Well, thanks, Jerry. Uh, so we got faith family out politics um You know, obviously of crazy national election season and obviously one of the things that I think I love about Fort Collins is it isn't You know, it got a little little tippy on the internet and things like that With some of the conversations and stuff, but generally People are Fort Collins first and then they care about that other stuff later. You know, we're we're very What there's a lot of middle of the rotors that like they vote Democrat mostly, but occasionally not or vice versa But what would you guys tell me about um, you mentioned that you're a small little libertarian Votes D a lot, but some repub some Democrats accuse you of becoming a Republican Um, Jenny, so what would you talk to me about uh, I know this is a non no the Democrats don't choose me that No Um, anyway, just generally speaking what what's what's the what's the right way to bring our um To approach this election to bring our politics together is there a way to bring sure those parties if it seems like 15 years ago Oh, I'm thinking about like what's his name repeating 10 years ago It was uh the the Utah guy Romney was the presidential candidate and the Democrat and it was a fight race to the middle Kind of and then it's kind of turned away from that at least in impressions and my view people make a false choice there uh The thing that we have in the America that's so precious is the vote So down at the capital people are like, why are you friends with everyone? I said because fundamentally illogical do not be friends with someone Because what we have is the ultimate dispute mechanism ragged solution. All right, it's called a vote Right, so you say what you think I say what I think and then we get to call a vote There's no reason I shouldn't like you for the way you think That doesn't make sense to me right that doesn't mean that I think the way you think right a hundred percent So I was invited to sit on the republic side of the aisle by Hugh McKean and I thought that would be a good idea for Northern Colorado If we sat close and interacted every day, right? Because when you sit next to someone down there at the capital You know and went over there and the republicans gave me a standing ovation And I was like hey, and if any single one of you thinks I'm voting with you you're crazy And they all laughed. It's just not that hard to be friendly affable kindhearted, right? I went up to probably one of the hardest right guys of the capital brand new guy Is really struggling and I said look I have every interest in helping you be the best legislator you can be You go to push them over with the feather and he said why I go because that's what democracy is you represent your people and I represent mine I'm I'm not what you do right. I'll be darn if we're ever going to take the same vote but he Opened up and I said look if I were you he had a pretty good idea for a bill And said I don't think that bill is going to get through appropriations But what you need to do is go talk to the joint budget committee is about Intermediate storage tanks for firefighting right so you don't have to tear up the road and keep going too far to get more water Sure That's a good idea Had a big fiscal note. I said why don't you go and talk to the joint budget committee About getting some of that grant money from the stimulus to pay for those water storage tanks and he's like Why would you help me? I was like, why wouldn't I help you? Right I dig it. I dig it. So it it you can do that. I think it's a false choice. Yes Um, and people say well you get along with people must be a moderate. Oh make no mistake I could live in a commune and eat out of one mole, right? I I have very Unlike you to Terry and right, but let's just say not everyone thinks the way I do Let's start there and that's where the conversation starts Yeah, and then we get to have this beautiful thing called the vote Appreciate that Jerry talked to me. Yeah, one of the things I really have liked over the years on city council It is nonpartisan So you're not you're not the representative of a political party So that actually frees everyone to to take a look at issues and it's about the issues And then to farm coalitions based on similar You know, similar ideas that you would have how to address that issue and that's that's what I'd like is that we're really dealing with people and uh You get a real chance to hear the people. They're actually in the chambers where the votes are the same Should be done that particular night and so I think that ability to not have to worry about caucuses And what the caucus would like you to do is a really good thing And I think that's more of the problem with America for legislatures whether they're at the state level with the federal level That and then the 24 news 24-7 news cycle. That's truly ruined Congress. I mean Yeah, you know what you get the same thing. We're gonna primary you right? That's what that's what happens Not in a safe district totally. Yeah, it's a or even a safe district absurdity for I'm a economist as well so that unintended consequences thing I'm an economist to the unintended consequences thing. Yes. The way it's working right now is This place is gonna be a shithole in 30 years if we don't kind of change the way it's working Not this place for Congress will still be great, but the country I guess I would just we got just a few minutes left um Let's just uh since I let Jenny go first last time Jerry. Why don't you go first this time and uh give me the the 30 to 60 second Why choose Jerry and obviously Jenny you get the same question. Why choose Jerry? You know you But you could try that. I'm okay I So I'm asking for people's vote and support for the election the reason I am is that what I've seen and talking to the folks around the community over the last year This community is hurting and we need a mayor who has ideas and can work with the council and the community to do some things Like I brought up during this that we have things with connection to do we have things another example Is we have a number of programs that can help people if you're old over 65 and low income We have a program for 60 bucks you can get from the sales tax rebate We need to connect people with that electronically so they don't have to go to the website everything is always go to the website We have a program that can reduce your utility bills To a four percent if you make 80 percent of the median income or two percent if you make less than 30 percent We need to connect people those and similarly things like that We need to be proactive housing affordable housing. We need to be proactive not passive That's what I see is needing implementation plans and action Thank you Okay, so I'm going to answer the question why should you go for Jenny, right? Please First of all, I rarely ever ask anyone to vote for me what I really ask is the people do their homework Consider what their values are learn about the candidates and vote their conscience. So that's number one Number two, remember that the mayor does, right? A vote on city council. Absolutely. We're driving it. We reflect the Through the values of the city we reflect the policy at the council Through that we pass a budget. That's the monetary expression of the value of the community Okay Because of this council manager mod A way of governance that we have the mayor fundamentally is also our front door our spokesperson And I ask people to choose the person who they think would like to A reflect their values and be their spokesperson Fair enough Well, I'm just really honored that both of you Jarrah, I know you got a lot of time comparably to Jenny, but No, I'm teasing your granddad and this and that you get to Pop around and she's on 17 committees. So I'll just tease in a little bit But That you would share time with me here and that you would both agree to serve in a public sphere I'm really even though I was teasing you. I really am proud of you for taking that Challenge and I wish you both very much luck and success and every year. Have never well Kurt. Thank you for having us Yes, thanks for having us and make sure you still consider us in the mix Sure, of course Thank you for listening to today's episode of the local experience podcast This is Kurt Baer founder of the local think tank and host of the local experience And I'm here with Rory Shah 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 released curious about logo You can learn more about us at localthinktakes.com where you'll find more information about our chapters business resources and events for business owners and If you're looking for perspective, accountability and encouragement along your business journey Why not apply for a chapter near you today? Why not why not why not We'll catch you next time on the in-depth local experience podcast with me Kurt and with me Rory provide size business lessons in the local shorts. Bye