Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam Fuqua, 35 year resident of Boulder Housing is my top priority.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: You all know that too many families can't afford to live in Uptown.
I'm trying to hold gratitude throughout this campaign and if elected, for the opportunities that Boulder gave my family back in the 90s. We income qualified for an affordable townhome in a land trust development in what became the Holiday neighborhood. And I want to do everything I can to ensure that young families today and tomorrow have that same opportunity.
And when I think about my family's experience, I think it connects to something about Boulder, which is that at our best, we're not always at our best, but at our best the Boulder is a city that thinks ahead.
So for example North Boulder Sub community planning process, Holiday neighborhood planning process a recognition that we needed a large proportion of permanently affordable housing of many different kinds. We needed middle income housing, much of it multi unit. We recognize the density and access to transit are sustainability values. We recognize that if people can afford to live in the community they work
[00:01:11] Speaker A: in, their quality of life will be better and our carbon footprint will be lower.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: So housing is number one, sustainability is number two.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Building more neighborhoods like the one I
[00:01:22] Speaker B: live in, taking advantage of gentle infill opportunities.
Sustainability for me also includes a sustainable budget. We have to fund our infrastructure. We have to fund emerging needs like wildfire, risk mitigation, energy efficiency and finally transparency. I did eight years, eight quick years on the Boulder Valley Board of Education and I learned about transparency, open governance and I will always be an advocate for thorough and inclusive community processes.
And it also taught me how to steer a big ship that sometimes turns slowly, if at all.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: So I hope to bring that to Council.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Foreign.
[00:02:21] Speaker D: That was the voice of Sam Fuqua, a candidate for Boulder City Council, introducing himself at a recent forum.
Welcome to the Better Boulder Hearts and Minds podcast folks. I received a text message from Boulder county notifying me that my ballot is in the mail. I don't know about you, but I plan to cheat like hell by filling out my ballot and dropping it off at one of the Boulders county ballot dropboxes so that it can be counted along with all of the others.
It won't be easy because there are a lot of important choices to make and great candidates to choose from. This year, Better Boulder endorsed seven City Council candidates that we hope you will consider and we hope this series of episodes is helpful as you make your choices.
Our slate is the result of numerous one on one conversations in person, interviews in front of the entire board, lively discussions and multiple rounds of voting to see our full list of candidates, please visit betterboulder.com and click elections.
Our fourth candidate interview in this series is with Sam Fuqua, who is a first time City Council candidate. We met on a Tuesday evening at the Nobeau branch of the Boulder Public Library. We talked about his service on the board for bvsd, his extensive work with the library district and affordable housing, among others.
We hope you enjoyed this conversation with Sam Fuqua.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Sam Fuqua, thank you for being on the Better Boulder Hearts and Minds podcast.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: It's good to be here. Philip, good to see you again.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Great. Well, you are a new candidate and maybe give us just a thumbnail sketch of who you are and why you're running for City Council.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Sure. I'm a 35 year resident of Boulder, actually moved here in late 1991 because KGNU, Boulder's community radio station, hired me to be the news director.
So my wife and I came out here with our dogs. She was pregnant with our first child and for the first seven years or so we lived in a mobile home in Boulder Meadows, the city's largest mobile home neighborhood. And so I have direct experience with the pros and cons of mobile home residents.
And then in the late 90s, we income qualified for an affordable mortgage in a land trust community in what became part of the holiday neighborhood in North Boulder.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: And that is the single most important
[00:04:37] Speaker A: reason we were able to stay in Boulder and raise our kids and build a good life here. So my primary motivation is gratitude for the opportunity that Boulder gave me and my family so many years ago. And I really am motivated to do everything I can so that young families today and young working people have the same opportunities that we did. You know, I think we, we have done some good work in Boulder, particularly around permanently affordable rental housing for people in the 30 to 50% of area median income range. And all credit to Boulder Housing Partners, our housing agency, for that.
But the kind of affordable ownership, affordable mortgage opportunity that my family was able to get into in the late 90s, we feel lucky, you know, that we were able to do that. And I think it's even more challenging now. So I have a lot of ideas on what we can do to continue to expand affordable ownership opportunities. And also that missing middle, as it's often called the market rate, middle income housing, which is so difficult to create in Boulder.
So housing is my main motivation.
I worked at KGNU for a little over 20 years. I also managed a children's arts and literacy nonprofit in Denver and I would also highlight my track Record of board and commission experience Even though this is my first run for City Council, I was elected twice to serve on the Board of Education for the Boulder Valley School District. I served eight years, two years as president. And I think that prepares me pretty well for how to be part of a governing board, how to interact with my colleagues on the board, with the community, how to be transparent in decision making, clear in communication, and how to be strong on watching the budget. So I do highlight that school board experience as I'm on the campaign trail.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Well, I had this funny experience when you got up at a recent forum where I didn't recognize your face, but I recognized your voice.
And I assume, I don't think you had a verbal filler in that whole intro speech. You must be on the. You were on the radio. Yeah. A long time.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I have a face for radio.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: But yes, I, it. That's. A lot of people know me from being on KGNU. Although I left the staff in 2013, I have remained involved over the years as a volunteer and an occasional contractor. It's, it's my favorite radio station and I really like the community of people there.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: Very cool. Yeah, very cool. Well, I would love for you to highlight something you're proud of from that, Your, your time on the school board.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple of things.
We really made effort to expand early childhood education, particularly opportunities for lower income families for English language learners.
I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the fact that in 2014 we organized, passed and implemented what at the time was the largest school bond in state history was over half a billion dollars.
And the last year I was on the board, we did a long strategic planning process focused on equity and that led to investments over the, the next six years or so into some of our high poverty schools and investments that have yielded results. So I'm proud of that as well. The other thing I often mention is I pushed for a change in the start times for our high schools. And that may seem like a minor thing, but actually in the health and wealth and wellness of teenagers, I think it was a pretty big deal. We had some of our high schools starting as early as 7:30. And you know, anybody who studies teen biology knows that's not a time when a lot of teenagers can really be awake and focused. So another thing I'm proud of is we move those start times back. And that I think has made a difference in the health and well being of all our high school students.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Well, thank you for having a direct impact on my 17 year old who is a student at Nu Vista and really appreciates the later start times. Yeah.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: When does he go? Is it 8:39 or.
[00:09:08] Speaker C: I, I actually don't know. I'm usually out of the house.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: But it's definitely later, probably than it used to be.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Although New Vista was one of the better schools for recognizing that. And starting later, there were some of our comprehensive high schools where kids had to be there at 7:30. Yeah.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: And just to be clear for listeners, New Vista has a brand new building that is really remarkably full, thoughtful space that seems. Seems really welcoming and just creates the community energy when you walk through it.
[00:09:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: I was there for the Grand L paints. Fabulous.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:46] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: Well, I would also love for you to talk about your role as a commissioner or a board member for the library district. And also if you're interested, how you helped with the campaign for that vote as well.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: I was appointed to the library commission in 2007 and served five years. So that was my first interaction with the, an advisory board. That was when the library was part of the city and the commission was advisory. But I learned a lot about the library, how it operated, and its budget struggles. You know, being part of the municipal general fund budget was an ongoing challenge for the public libraries because, as you know, in a budget that is heavily dependent on sales tax, sales tax goes up, sales tax goes down. And when it goes down, you know, the library was competing in the general fund budget with things like police and fire. Well, you know what's going to get cut when the sales tax revenue goes down. Public safety is a core service. Libraries often got short shrift. So I could see that even in, you know, 2010, and tried to push some ideas for library funding at that time, including the district model.
It didn't happen. But fast forward many years later and some commissioners at the time. This is 2020, 2021. I'm thinking of Johnny Teeter and Juana Gomez.
They organized the Boulder Library Champions, and that was the group that got the measure on the 2022 ballot that created an independent library district.
I, you know, I was small part of the campaign, mostly running my mouth about how what a good idea it was and how it would help stabilize funding for the library. It passed thanks to the voters. And, and so in 2023, I was appointed to the founding board of trustees. And that was challenging work. It was like creating a startup government. You know, here's a new district. We have to figure out how we're going to approach personnel salaries and benefits how we're going to approach it, things that the city was handling, and we did it. It was a lot of work initially, but the initial board of trustees, great bunch of people led by Johnny Teeter, and we, we got the district up and running, and we delivered on the promises to the voters, including staffing the building we're in right now, the North Boulder Library grant, and opening a branch in Gun Barrel restoring some of the hours at the other branches. We've invested in our maker spaces, which I am a huge fan of. There's one in this building, the Novo Library, and there's one at the main library.
So, yeah, that was all part of getting the library district going.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Well, thank you for that effort and for the community support for that.
It's interesting to me. This is my first time to walk into this building. Somebody had an excuse to meet over here, but also it's been on my list of things to come visit and see. It's really beautiful building. And thinking about something, probably a mutual friend of ours said about how what she wants for Mother's Day is a library for her kids.
And there's a lot of kids here. And as I was walking in, the kids biking around, and then there's playground, and then I come inside, there's kids on computers and reading books, and it's kind of a neat place.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Well, coming back to my experience, my family's experience, when our kids were young, you know, and having a tight budget, we were at the library a lot. The library is one of the great free public spaces that we have in our town, and. And also one of the great ideas I think humanity has ever had. You know, free public space with knowledge and culture and entertainment. And it's a lot of it is about kids. Yeah. So we have some great spaces for kids at all our libraries, including here at Noble.
[00:14:07] Speaker D: Well, I know one of the things
[00:14:09] Speaker C: that you're passionate about is housing, and so we'd love to just hear you riff on what your priorities there, what your concerns are, what your expertise might be.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, well, a few things.
I think if I'm elected, I want to offer full support to our housing authority, Boulder Housing Partners, and their efforts to create affordable, permanently affordable rental housing for folks below 60% of the area median income. And they've done some really great work. They've grown significantly in the last few years with projects like Rally Flats, like Haven Hollow. That's the one where the sporting goods store used to be off 28th.
As you may know, they bought golden west, the senior apartment complex off of 28th Street. That is a huge win for low income seniors. So supporting BHP and other nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and Thistle Community Housing in their efforts to to create more permanently affordable housing.
The challenge of the missing middle income housing is a persistent one in Boulder.
We do have opportunities I think that I want to advance for gentle infill.
Creating duplexes, triplexes, multi unit buildings on single lots. I really want to help existing owners do that. I'm less interested in outside investors coming in and trying to cash in on those opportunities. I think we need to be really thoughtful and figure out ways to encourage existing owners to do those conversions so that, you know, a family who might be earning too much to qualify for One of the 60% AMI housing availabilities would be able to find something that would work for them and keep them in Boulder. Just like the affordable ownership opportunity in the land trust that my family was able to get in the 90s.
We need to work more on those. And then looking at parts of town and our new Boulder Valley comprehensive plan does this. Parts of town that may have been zoned for other uses like office parks. Let's be creative in looking at how we might repurpose them.
And the final thought there is the Area 3 Planning Reserve which is 500 plus acres just on the northeast corner of town.
I think most of it. I don't see us developing that for the foreseeable future and I'm not focused on that. But we are studying development in Area 3 and I support that. I'm particularly interested in the part of Area 3 that's called the urban edge. That's the piece of it that's right along Highway 36, basically across the street. Across the street from where I live in Holiday?
[00:17:09] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: And across the street from here almost.
There are some parcels there that I think offer great possibility for creating both more permanently affordable housing and middle income market rate housing.
I often talk about my neighborhood. You know, I live in Holiday. Holiday was about 30 acres, city owned it, I think bought it from the Drive in theater owner, that's its name namesake, the Holiday Drive in and contracted with a master developer, Boulder Housing Partners. There was a commitment to a high percentage of permanently affordable. I think 40% in holiday. And it's different kinds. You know, I live in a land trust owner an ownership opportunity. There's also affordable rentals and lots of different kinds of permanently affordable. And then a lot of market rate housing targeted at middle income folks. Small single family homes, rows of town homes, duplexes, triplexes. There's a nice park.
Holiday's not perfect, but it, it worked out pretty well and it provided a lot of more affordable housing. I, I look at that as, as really one of the models for what I'd like to see us do more of.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Yeah, there's some really, really beautiful co housing there as well. Yeah, I understand that the area reserve has, has another 30 acre parcel kind of directly across US 36 from holiday. That's kind of would be. Might be a perfect next Holiday.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: I think that's definitely worth, worth looking at.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: The city owns, owns parcels along 36 including yeah, one 30 acre parcel. You're right. The other thing I just want to highlight before we run out of time is coming back to my, my life in a mobile home neighborhood. I really think we need to recognize that we have about 1300 units of existing market rate affordable housing in our mobile home communities and we need to protect and support those residents.
And then there's another opportunity that's on the table right now with the San Lazaro mobile home neighborhood at 55th and Valmont.
It is up for sale and under state law the residents have a certain amount of time to match the offer. I told there's an offer on the table from an outside investor and the residents are organizing to get help to buy the park and convert it to a resident owned cooperative. Strongly supportive of that. As we're talking today, the Boulder county commissioners have announced that they are committing over $11 million in funding to help with that effort. Now if the city can annex San Lazaro into the city and access some of their housing funds, we can work with private nonprofits and supported lenders and philanthropic organizations. I really think we can pull it off and we need to try hard because you know, this is 200 units, hundreds of people who are our neighbors, who are working in our town, they're really already part of our town. We just need to formally get them in there and put the financing together. And that's 200 more units of affordable housing that we have that we have in Boulder. So really strongly focused on that part of the affordable housing piece as well.
We have strong supportive programs at the city for folks facing eviction, people who need rental assistance, and I'll always be advocating for those as well. So a few housing ideas there for you.
[00:20:52] Speaker C: That's awesome. Well, we're trying to keep this short and we're 17 minutes in, but you had a few interesting tidbits about the bond measure that's on the ballot or if you wouldn't Mind staying?
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Well, sure. I mean, I think if the bond measure passes, I will push for. And I've already been talking about this strong citizen oversight.
The, the bond that we talked about the past. In 2014 we had citizens bond oversight Committee, future bond has had that. That's a standard practice for the bbsd. And that committee is made up of professionals from the various fields, construction, engineering, finance as well as citizens. And it was critical for me as a board member to know that that committee was regularly meeting, was briefing us on each individual project where there were problems, we were transparent about it, where there were cost overruns, where there were savings. You know, it really not only helped me as a board member know that I was on top of how this change huge bond was moving forward in each of the projects, but also that the, the public knew in a transparent way and that's critical to, to public trust. So I'll push for that if the bond passes. And I think we. I would also want to take a second look at all the projects, seeing if we can value engineer any savings.
I was interested to hear last week that the city manager has identified a possible alternative to the public safety building. The $170 million that was.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: The biggest item. Yeah.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: Item in the bond.
So I'm hopeful that it's an existing building. Apparently there's not a lot of detail about it, but that I think would be.
Would be great if that worked out because that would be a huge, a huge savings. But we're going to need strong citizen oversight.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: So you're in favor of the bond?
[00:22:52] Speaker A: I am voting. I'm a reluctant yes, partly because, you know, I'm not happy about how we got here and it is, it's a lot of money. But I recognize that the longer we wait, the more expensive everything gets. We do need a new South Boulder Rec center and we do need to make investments in these other old buildings. You know, it's partly that past city councils didn't fund ongoing maintenance and there are various reasons for that. It's partly that the build. We have a lot of old buildings but, but if it doesn't pass, we're going to have to probably go back with a smaller request. If that's approved, we'll do that work. It will cost more because more time has passed and the other problems will still remain. So, you know, it's a tough choice, but I'm in favor of it.
[00:23:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: Great.
[00:23:43] Speaker D: Well, Sam, thank you so much for
[00:23:46] Speaker C: all the service you've done in our community so far and with your work with the school district and the library district and I'm sure you have your hands in all kinds of other things
[00:23:58] Speaker A: as well to do it. And I appreciate the conversation and I appreciate Better Boulder.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Sure. Well, congratulations on your endorsement from Better Boulder and I wish you all the best with your campaign.
I wonder if you have anything else you want to highlight for the voters.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Well, we haven't talked much about sustainability in the context of our are built in natural environment. I do support increased investment for wildfire risk mitigation. We are at high risk.
But I also want to protect and support our investments in greenhouse gas emission reduction. And I think decarbonizing the electric grid, supporting electrification, supporting getting our city fleet of vehicles to 100% electric are all things that I would push for if elected.
Transportation is another priority for me and support the efforts to create safe and protected bike lanes. And do you ride a bike and ride the bus? I ride the bus.
A couple things happened to me riding a bike a couple years ago and it's partly connected to my age. So I'm. I'm shopping for E bikes right now.
[00:25:14] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: But yeah, I'm a 204 and skip rider. Those are my main north south ways of getting around town. Right.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Great.
Okay. Well thanks so much for token time for this. Really appreciate you.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Thanks for doing it. Good to see you.
[00:25:29] Speaker E: Better Boulder is a non profit political action committee that endorses candidates and ballot measures and develops and promotes policies that we believe will make Boulder more vibrant, livable and connected.
We are working hard to create and enhance sustainable walkable neighborhoods and to champion well designed infill and redevelopment that reduces our impact on the climate, encourages less driving and keeps our community welcoming and economically thriving.
This podcast is not governed by a consensus driven approval process that carefully regulates messaging. Opinions expressed on this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Better Boulder organization.
We hope you enjoy the diversity of opinions and perspectives and that these conversations spark improved dialogue in the community.
Please visit betterbolder.com for official positions on a wide variety of topics. While you are there, please consider donating money if you value our work.
This episode of the Better Bolder Hearts and Minds podcast was produced and edited by Philip Ogren.
