How long have you lived in Nederland?

3 years in the 1970s, 5 years this chapter.

Briefly describe your current career and home life.

I’m married with adult married sons in Boston and Denver. My wife Dawn and I built our home in the Dyers subdivision west of the fire department during the COVID years … that was a challenge!

I’m working as an independent consultant, at the intersection of clean renewable energy and capital. I really enjoy exploration through global travel, forming business ventures, and building and maintaining relationships I value. For hobbies, I like to ski, hike, bike, play racquet sports, walk in our mountains every day, and I always love to explore and learn how to do new things in new ways.

Briefly describe your educational and professional experience and explain how your skill set can best serve the Town of Nederland.

My undergraduate degree is in finance & accounting from CU Boulder, and my MBA is in global management from the Thunderbird school, now part of ASU in Phoenix. Before that I attended Jesuit prep school in Chicago. This led to a career in banking, satellite communications, IT, renewable energy, and finance/capital markets.

As acting mayor and Mayor ProTem, I had to get immediately immersed in town finance & operations, starting around my top focus areas around public safety, housing and land-use policy, transportation, and county/ regional/state governance through my Directorship on the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), testifying in front of the state legislature, working with county, state, and federal officials, meeting other mayors and trustees through the Consortium of Cities, serving our less fortunate as a member of the Peak to Peak Alliance and a Director for the Nederland Food Pantry, and recently completing the DRCOG Civic Academy – a 12 week course on good-governance practices. My academy project was a plan to improve our housing situation in Nederland. I serve as Trustee Liaison on the Planning Commission, and before that served on the Board of Zoning Adjustment. I served on 3 subcommittees for Envision 2030. And I’m now Mayor ProTem.

In education, I was a founder and Board Chair for Summit Middle School in Boulder, and I was assistant scoutmaster when my boys were young. There’s more, but this should give you a good idea of who I am and what led me here.

In your words, please explain why you want to run for this position. I served as acting mayor in 2022 and understand the required time, focus, dedication, and professionalism required to effectively serve our town, our wider community, and our Board of Trustees as their leader and spokesperson.

Over the past 22 months, here’s what I’m seeing on the Board of Trustees and why I’m running for mayor.

Our meetings are poorly organized and led, often starting late, often without adequate preparation. And so we meander late into the night, make sub-optimal and incoherent decisions and “kick the can down the road” with non-decisions - keeping us from achieving our priorities. Town citizens and potential board members shy away from being “in the room” at 10:30 or later.

We can certainly do better than this with more thoughtfully prepared agendas, “crisper” meeting cadence that requires thought and preparation, delivers coherent decisions, at a pace that keeps us alert, on-point, thoughtful, aligned, and effective. As Julian Taylor reminded us in 2022, no mayoral election should exclude competition. My record over the past 2 years sets me apart from my opponent’s record and leadership style. Given what we have said we want to accomplish, a change in leadership is needed.

Of the major projects/issues facing the BOT which would you make your top priorities?

We are a “Board of 7”, and we’ve collectively made and ranked our strategic objectives. See my personal ranking below; I took this from your question.

#1. Securing water rights

#2. Bobcat Ridge annexation

#3. The commitment to Proposition 123 and affordable housing development,

#4. Downtown redevelopment (new retail options, businesses, and job creation)

#5. Repair and upgrade water and sewer infrastructure systems

#6. TEENS, Inc. childcare expansion proposal (This is private, not public)

#7. Code change to come from the comprehensive plan update

#8. Streets improvements from the multimodal transportation plan

#9. Tourism initiatives (includes #9 below), including an interconnected

#10. Chipeta Park pump track (or wherever it ultimately goes)

#11. Keeping animals’ ordinance (and code enforcement)

There are other priorities not mentioned here, including upgrading our public safety and disaster preparedness, balancing our budget and getting “back in the black”, upgrading our digital infrastructure (broadband), improving meaningful citizen engagement and public discourse, and taking a look at Home Rule for Nederland in our future.

Who, if anyone, would you consider a mentor or figure who inspired you to run for this position? How did they inspire you?

I have been inspired and lucky to be working side by side with Eric Coombs Esmail and will miss his leadership now that he is not a candidate for another term. Eric does his homework, does not let untrue assertions go unchallenged, speaks his mind clearly and persuasively, and is willing to go the extra mile (writing AIMs, crafting legislative language and policy positions) when something urgently needs to be done, like retaining and supporting our Town Administrator. I can always count on Eric to frame our issues properly, and many times have “nuanced” my decisions based on Eric’s input.

Have you ever, or are you currently, serving on any boards for any non-profit organizations? If not, what organizations, or causes, have you considered joining?

I am Treasurer & Director on the Nederland Food Pantry, serve in the same capacity with the Private Directors Association, I’m on the board for the Authority that runs Nederland’s RTD Eco-Passes, and have been asked about serving on Nederland’s Library board. On DRCOG, I’m an active member on the state’s Area Council on Aging, and may do more in this area as Dawn and I are dealing with aging parents and beginning to age ourselves.

Of Nederland’s various boards and subcommittees (Board of Zoning Adjustment, Nederland Downtown Development Authority, Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board, Planning Commission, Sustainability Advisory Board, Youth Advisory Board), which would you be most interested in serving as liaison for and why? (Mayoral candidates please answer hypothetically).

I’ve served on the BZA, Planning Commission, Sustainability Advisor Board, and attended many DDA meetings. I’ve really enjoyed my sessions with the Youth Advisory Board, and even as mayor will want to continue with that. We don’t have a citizen board focused on public safety issues; we probably should.

Taking into consideration that the community is outspoken against tourism but the Town budget is seemingly reliant on tourism revenue, as Mayor, how would you mitigate tourism-based initiatives as they come up on the agenda?

The town has been critical of the program that town government has done around tourism management. But I don’t accept that we are “down on tourism”. To the contrary, we support our festivals, our ski industry, our live music events, Ned Gravel, and other “big ticket” programs that bring tourist dollars and attention to our quirky community. Now, we need better developed business options to support & sustain our visitors and make them want to stay a little longer. They go “down the hill” to Boulder, or over to Estes Park for that now.

Have you reviewed the 2024 Strategic Plan?

Yes, quite often. Of the listed priorities for 2024 which are most important to you as a resident of Nederland? In your opinion as a resident of Nederland is there a priority for the Town that was not listed in the Strategic Plan? See above, especially around the advantages that come with Home Rule. My personal top priorities right now include securing our water rights, and building enough new housing to bring the cost-curve down to where families can afford to live here – especially our youth, who most often have to live elsewhere when they grow up. We are squandering our most important investment and resource.

The Town of Nederland, having committed to Proposition 123, is required to provide 13 affordable housing units in three years. What are your suggestions for how to achieve this goal? Do you believe that the Boulder County requirements for what constitutes affordable housing is acceptable for Nederland?

First, Boulder County does not set our housing requirements, requirements; we do. Having studied our housing gap at length, I think we are on the right track to build these 13 units, and a lot more.

DRCOG is watching us … Nederland was the first mountain town to finish our housing study, and there will be federal, state, county and regional resources available to help us build what we say we want. Serving on both the Planning Commission and Board of Trustees, as well as the DRCOG board has helped me enormously in understanding the housing challenge and how we can resolve it.

How familiar are you with the Town of Nederland’s 2024 budget?

VERY familiar; we spend 75 days on it.

And unlike my opponent, I did not vote against my own budget or attempt to disrupt passing it on January 2.

How would you mitigate a discussion or action item on your agenda that is of concern to the community but is not prioritized in either the budget or the 2024 Strategic Plan?

In Q1 we will re-review our Strategic Plan, recognizing that we have achieved some of our goals, and need to set some new ones for 2024. We have been very careful to ensure that every element of our strategic plan is tied to a budget line item. “Concerns of the community” are sometimes unclear, far from unanimous, and often unsupported by verifiable facts and the personal advocacy and the “elbow grease” required to make new efforts a priority worthy of precious budget dollars and board attention.

Creating consensus around key priorities takes time and effort, and I hope that we can enlist more of our community productively in the effort – like what happened around our precious Mud Lake recreation area.

In relation to the several proposals on the BOT’s table that involve large development projects either in the heart of downtown Nederland or sprawling (loaded term, by the way) just beyond our borders, requiring annexation, the term “responsible growth” has been used liberally. How do you describe responsible growth for Nederland? “Responsible growth” can only come from consensus around what the majority of us want and are willing to stand up for.

Anyone can always reach out to me; any time at tmahowald@gmail.com or 303-517-5077