2003 Denver Mayoral Runoff Election
Update: Results from a News4/Rocky Mountain News poll show John Hickenlooper leading Don Mares 59% to 31%.
Update: Don Mares announced an endorsement from the Northeast Denver Ministerial Alliance tonight at Los Cabos II.
The Rocky Mountain News has an article about the Urban Land Institute forum yesterday. From the article, "Neither Mares nor Hickenlooper took political jabs at each other during two forums Wednesday, but instead discussed potential budget cuts and the city's struggle to create new jobs during a poor economy." Here's the coverage from the Denver Post. The Post quotes Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth as saying, "It's a whole new ballgame. People will see (Mares') experience over (Hickenlooper's) hype." The Post also has an article on the candidates and their views on mental health with some coverage of the ULI forum last night.
Highlights of the ULI forum for city employees. The candidates were not asked exactly the same questions as Don Mares had to leave early. Mares wants to avoid layoffs and cuts in benefits doing them as only a last resort. Instead he thinks he can find the dough in Internal Service funds like fleet maintenance, lobbying contracts, and delays in capital projects and other expenditures that do not make sense in down economic times. Hickenlooper wants to trim the benefits package 5-6% because at an average of 45% benefits are out of line with the private sector and he doesn't believe the city budget can sustain the >5% growth in benefits that we've averaged over the last 10-12 years. Hickenlooper added that in his talks with employees these cuts are preferable to layoffs. He was also asked who he would appoint for Planning and Public Works. Planning, he said, needs someone with experience running a large bureaucracy but the person also has to have vision. He avoided slamming Public Works (Parking Management is under Public Works, the current manager is Stephanie Foote) and stated that the manager must have experience running a large department and familiarity with all the agencies under Public Works. He didn't take the bait so he did not name names. Hickenlooper also wants to create an incentive system for employees to increase productivity. As an example he talked about the permit process. He said he had talked to developers that would be willing to pay an additional $10,000-12,000 in fees if they could cut the time to get permits in half. He added that he has talked to employees that would love to get an additional $10,000-12,000 in bonuses each year. Hickenlooper is not against the ordinance requiring developers to create affordable housing in their projects saying that, in talking with developers, they haven't found the requirement to as "onerous as they thought it would be." All you DIA kids can take heart, Mr. Hickenlooper called the airport "well-managed" and he likes the fact that there are two years of reserves to cover the outstanding bond debt in the event that UAL folds on July 22nd.
Don Mares doesn't believe the runoff election is decided. From the article, "John thinks he's got it won,' Mares told his campaign staffers. 'We know he doesn't have it won. This is doable."
The Rocky Mountain News cornered Tim Knaus to ask him about his fundraising for negative ads in the mayor's race. From the article, "Tim Knaus, who left Don Mares' mayoral campaign because he thought they were going to launch negative ads, admitted Wednesday he raised money to finance attack ads against Mares' opponents."
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