A questionnaire was sent to the following candidates for the 2020 election consisting of these questions:
- How should Albany County address the COVID-19 pandemic for the rest of 2020 and 2021?
- What do you think the role Albany County has in providing free COVID-19 testing and vaccines to its citizens?
- What is the common ground between Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter? How do we get there?
- With the state and university budget shortfalls, how will this affect Albany County? What are you prepared to do about this?
Here are each of the candidates responses:
Ward 1
Brett Glass
- Teton County, once among Wyoming’s frontrunners in COVID-19 infections, imposed a mask mandate and other moderate restrictions and thereby reduced its rate of infections. Laramie County, where Cheyenne is located, has followed suit, and so should Laramie, which is now Wyoming’s COVID-19 “hotspot.” The University of Wyoming – having promoted, rather than controlled, the spread of the virus with its current policies – should consider going virtual until a vaccine is available and has time to take hold. In the meantime, it should implement high bandwidth direct network peering with all local and in-state Internet providers to facilitate enhanced virtual learning as well as safe remote access by faculty and staff.
- Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon has already announced the availability of free testing. The County should cooperate with the state to make these tests readily available.
- Everyone wants police to be unbiased, fair, and competent. Fortunately, Laramie is blessed with one of the most diligent and ethical chiefs of police we could ever hope for, and most of our cops are good as well. That isn’t to say they’re all perfect – I have seen some abuse their authority and even lie in court – but for the most part they’re good law enforcement professionals. Our biggest challenge, as our city grows, will be to keep it that way. We must avoid the importation of toxic culture and an “us vs. them” attitude that we see in big city police forces, and this means careful review of new hires, strict ethics standards, and good training. We already have several levels of oversight in place within the City government and should open the process up to the public as much as we can so that we can all serve as an oversight board and have confidence in our police. It’s also time for Laramie to have an elected Mayor, to make sure that the executive who supervises the police department is directly responsible to the public.
- The City of Laramie’s budget is bloated and needs careful trimming. The City also wastes money, and flouts state law, by awarding no-bid contracts. As an engineer and small business owner with a head for numbers, I have an intuitive sense for when things don’t add up. If elected to Council, I will advocate for smarter spending. As for the University: Over the past few years, the University has engaged in profligate spending – planning new “luxury” dormitories and building an entire new building with (as it has now admitted) far more space than it actually needs. This money should be going to education, not empire building. The University also competes unfairly with local businesses, operating side businesses such as apartment complexes which fail to contribute their fair share of taxes. The City Council, alas, has only indirect influence over much of this, often having to appeal to state legislators who do not live here or understand the impacts of poor decisions by UW. The best it can do is advocate – and act, within the limited scope of its authority, to steer University policy in the right direction.
Brian Harrington
- No submission
Kaleb Heien
- No submission
Andrew Summerville
- It is important to understand that in our structure of government, the City of Laramie doesn’t have direct authority over public health orders, that remains with Albany County Public Health Officer and the State Public Health Officer. The city can continue to educate and advocate for our citizens to follow best practices and recommendations made by the CDC or other medical authorities. One area the city can and should continuously act on directly is the health and safety of our city employees and city facilities in line with state health guidelines.
- Working in partnership with county, state and federal officials, the City of Laramie can help with coordination, facilities and logistics as these programs are rolled out by the state or federal government.
- Law enforcement is an essential function of our community, however one of the most important responsibilities of the city government is to be responsive to their community needs. Conversations need to happen ongoing between community groups and our all law enforcement agencies that operate within the City of Laramie. No one can know what it is like to stand in the other person’s shoes and as a community we have a responsibility to listen to all stakeholder groups and to work together to make the system better.
- The shortfalls will have a long term impact on critical city revenues that are required to provide essential public safety, health, and infrastructure services within Laramie. This economic impact only exacerbates an already underfunded city government. I have long been an advocate of giving the city more options to raise their own revenue through ballot measures so that the community has a direct say in what services and amenities are available. We will have to double down in 2021 and beyond on our economic development initiatives, including entrepreneurship and business recruitmen
Ward 2
Sharon Cumbie
- No submission
Tim Hale
- Working with the Albany County and State of Wyoming Health Directors, the Laramie City Council should continue to track the spread of COVID-19 by contact tracing. When hotspots are identified, sharing the information via public news media and social media helps train citizens what are dangerous practices and places to avoid. The State is good at providing information that the City Council should help disseminate to the populace.
- The State of Wyoming is already providing free saliva testing, available through Vault Testing, by going to the health.wyo.gov web site to request a kit. Costs are waived with a valid Wyoming address. It takes 2-3 days for results to be provided. When vaccines become available, the federal and state governments will set guidelines and restrictions for who gets a vaccine and how. The City Council’s role is educating citizens of availability through social media, radio ads, and local news media.
- As their names imply, both organizations care about the quality of lives for the people they represent. Starting with this basis, that life is important, at all stages and under all conditions, it is critical to learn from each other the roadblocks that hinder a quality life. Rational people can then work toward a common ground, while emotional responses can hinder progress. Trained mediators can help facilitate rational discussions.
- Financial shortfalls at the state level trickle down to counties and cities through reduced sales tax and grants. It is time to take a hard look at budgets, justifying and prioritizing each and every expense. There may be services that can no longer be offered or must be severely reduced. Tough times require tough decisions and tough people willing to make the decisions
Jayne Pearce
- No submission
Mark Andrews
- The Albany County attorney told the Laramie City Council and the community that the City Council does not have the authority to act, only Albany County can act. The action City Council took months ago was, in part, asking Albany County to act. At this point, one of the five (Shuster, Shumway, Stalder, McKinney, and Gabriel) City Council members who voted against asking Albany County to act must change their vote. If not, the current City Council can only support efforts to keep our city employees safe and healthy within the guidelines set by the state of Wyoming.
- The Albany County attorney told the Laramie City Council and the community that the City Council does not have the authority to act, only Albany County can act. The action City Council took months ago was, in part, asking Albany County to act. At this point, one of the five (Shuster, Shumway, Stalder, McKinney, and Gabriel) City Council members who voted against asking Albany County to act must change their vote. If not, the current City Council can only support efforts to keep our city employees safe and healthy within the guidelines set by the state of Wyoming.
- Great question, and the most difficult to facilitate during a global pandemic. It requires a willingness to listen and talk. It requires a safe place to listen and talk. It requires the ability to change. Some need to accept that racism is real, it exists. While others need to accept that the functions of law enforcement are necessary in society to keep us all as safe as possible.
- Most states provide municipalities the ability to raise their own operational funds. This is not true in the state of Wyoming although, recently the state has provided a very limited number of new instruments to allow municipalities the ability to raise operational funds. Municipalities in Wyoming need more instruments, tools in our tool box! I will continue to ask our local state elected representatives for more tools to operate autonomously. The state also distributes funds to municipalities unequally. I will continue to advocate for a per capita distribution of state funds
Ward 3
Pat Gabriel
- City and County officials are working together along with the State Health Department to provide the best possible information to the citizens on how to address COVID-19. Many businesses and The University of Wyoming are involved with testing and mask requirements to help deal with the pandemic. I feel that the City is doing its part in trying to assist those who have questions and other concerns about COVID-19. Even though Albany County has recently seen a spike in cases, officials continue to work on testing and other methods like shelter in place to help fight the virus. There’s no easy solution to COVID-19, we all have to work to eliminate its spread.
- Free COVID-19 testing is available through the State, plus if you work or are a student at UW free testing is done weekly. Officials have done a good job in trying to make sure testing is available to all that request it. As for vaccines, we all wait for the testing to be completed before its available to the public. I’m hopeful the State will have a program that will provide vaccines either free or at a small cost to the citizens.
- We all must come together to respect both sides of Black Lives Matter plus the women and men that make up our Police force. We have an outstanding Police, Fire and First Responder group in the City that provides so much to our citizens. Peaceful protest is guaranteed by the Constitution and we must find a way to respect both sides in the discussion of BLM and Blue Lives Matter.
- As a City Councilor, budget shortfalls are affecting all of us around the State in a variety of ways. At the City level, our experienced City Manager and support staff will help guide Council in future decisions on how to best handle budget questions. Cuts will have to be made, services will suffer. Council will proceed the best way possible to work with those in the community, communicating the State and City shortfalls being experienced by the energy downturn
Klaus Hanso
- No submission
