Part II: LWVCC Host BV Trustee Candidate Forum

Participants and candidates mingle during the Meet and Greet portion of the LWVCC League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell

Part 1: LWVCC Host Buena Vista Trustee Candidate Forum focused on the “lightning round” question. Part II considers the questions asked by the media and AVV’s experience observing one of the “Candidating” tables.

The League of Women Voters of Chaffee County (LWVCC) hosted a candidate forum to introduce the candidates for the Town of Buena Vista (BV) Board of Trustees (BoT) on Tuesday, March 5. All six candidates running in the April 2 election attended the event.

Candidates for the four open positions are Thomas Brown, Maggie Huyck, Andy Matkovich, Micha Rosenoer, Andrew Rice, and Devin Rowe. Rice and Rowe are incumbent candidates. Rice was appointed by the BoT last year to fill a vacancy.

Three of the open seats are four-year terms expiring in 2028 and the fourth is a two-year term expiring in 2026. The top three candidates with the highest number of votes will be appointed to four-year positions, and the candidate with the fourth highest number of votes will fill the two-year seat.

The full video of the lightning round and media questions is available on the LWVCC’s website here.

Media Questions

Members of the media were allowed to ask one question each. Three media organizations were present, represented by Chaffee County Times Editor Hannah Harn, Heart of the Rockies Radio News Director Dan Ridenour (Dan R.), and Ark Valley Voice Publisher/Managing Editor Jan Wondra.

From Hannah Harn, “Being a trustee is a very public position, how would you react to someone coming to you and confronting you about a vote the trustees have made? If you are an incumbent, feel free to cite precedent.”

Incumbent Devin Rowe speaks with a table of voters during the “Candidating” portion of the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

Rowe replied, “It’s something that definitely happens to me a lot with friends and people who know me in town.” Rowe explained that he takes feedback well and encourages citizens to come to meetings to participate.

“I think that’s a huge help to us when people come for public comment and to realize that me, myself, I’m only one-sixth of the Board, so it’s important to voice your concerns and your ideas to the whole Board as a whole, either in person or online or by sending us an email.”

Rice followed, praising Rowe’s response. “I think it is our role to hear from the public when there is a decision that is disagreed with. That has happened once in my short tenure as a board member, and I just encourage, that’s great, but I’m not the only one who needs to hear it. Come to public comment.”

Rice stated they can’t live in a vacuum, so the trustees really rely on public involvement. And if someone is particularly “grouchy” about a topic, then they should try running for office too.

“It’s easy to complain, it’s a little hard to get in the game.”

Rosenoer highlighted her experience as a member of the Edgewater, Colorado City Council. “I served on City Council in Edgewater during COVID, and we had to make some really, really difficult decisions about community health, about renters, how to support a lot of people during really hard times, so this is not a new idea to me.”

“Generally there are a few principals I try to live by as an elected official or an appointed board member … We don’t need to know everything, but we need to be clear about what the values are that we’re leaning on when we make decisions,” explained Rosenoer.

“I think for me those values are how is this decision going to play out for small businesses, for the environment, and for working families, and I think if I’m really honest about those and welcoming to hear folks from where they’re coming from on their values and experience. I’ve never had an issue finding middle ground.”

“I think we need to be honest about what we know and what we don’t know and be ready to hear different perspectives on those issues.”

Matkovich replied, “When I picture myself in that scenario, I think the role would be to listen as a servant of the community.” He went on to explain that he sees the role of the BoT as a group intended to serve the community and the people in town.

Matkovich added, “Ask questions, like follow-up questions about their thoughts and perspectives and try to take those in account and communicate those to my fellow board members. As well as, if there’s something that I could share with them, the perspectives that we talked about in a specific meeting or research that I’ve done.”

Candidate Maggie Huyck speaks with voters during “Candidating” at the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

Huyck agreed on the importance of listening. “Genuinely that’s it, right. If there’s a confrontation to be had, it’s [time] to stop and listen, de-escalate if need be, rely on training that I’ve done for years if it’s needed but hope that it’s not, and really just to stop and take a minute to understand why they feel the need to confront and have a conversation about it.”

She emphasized the importance of listening, paying attention, and inviting them to speak during the BoT meetings. “This is a place for all of us to have a voice, and so it’s important to get it not just to one board member but to all of them.”

Brown replied, “Too often I think we often hear people speak, we don’t really listen to them. And I think, as a Board of Trustee member, the goal here would be to listen to what people have to say, but also not just listen, be responsive.”

Brown agreed they could be encouraged to come speak at a meeting but emphasized the need to respond. “If they just express their views and we look blankly at them and say come to the next meeting, I don’t think that’s effective. I think then if you can guide that person to Town Staff or to another venue that may assist and help them resolve the problem, and also we need to incorporate those ideas into future plans, programs, and procedures because everybody has good ideas in the community.”

“So if we listen to people, hear them and listen to them, and respond to them, I think we would be much more effective as a Board of Trustees as we move forward in the future.”

From Dan R, “Given the ‘my way or the highway’ of politics of today, I’m interested in knowing your feeling on the word compromise.”

Brown responded, “Compromise is essential to everything we do here. It’s going to be part of being a member of six trustees with a mayor. You can’t get your own views all the time and you must be able to compromise to accomplish anything.”

Brown explained the BoT needs to make informed decisions that take into account input from Trustees, research on the topic, information from town staff, and input from the community itself. “That leads us to a more informed compromise to make sure that we’re supporting the needs and interest of the citizens of Buena Vista, not necessarily outside players.” He cited Chaffee County, the state, and the federal government.

“Compromise is an important component to us as we make informed decisions and then adjust those decisions as necessary to best accomplish the policies or legislative goals of the Board of Trustees,” concluded Brown.

Huyck began by saying compromise is one of her favorite words. “It’s so important because it really brings that aspect of community more so together. If we’re not willing to compromise, then it must be something that’s really, really important and hopefully people are just listening and hearing both sides of the table.”

Compromise is crucial, if we don’t then we’re lost. If it’s my way or the highway, then everybody goes their own way and everything is lost, so compromise is crucial and exciting because it allows us to have bigger ideas and better ideas, so it’s one of my favorite words.”

Matkovich identified compromise as a way to keep moving forward instead of just “spinning around.”

“One of the things in product development that we’d hear a lot is, ‘I want it awesome, fast, and cheap.’ Well, that doesn’t work like that, but you can, if you can figure out where you can make adjustments, both to move the product forward or to move an initiative forward, so we can get a result,” concluded Matkovich.

Rosenoer praised compromise’s role in democracy but acknowledged the importance of leaning on convictions and recognizing when compromise isn’t possible.

“Compromise is lovely. I think it’s why it’s so great to live in a democracy because we have a voice and a vote and those things get tallied and measured, and they matter. I do think though that I have really strong values and some things can’t be compromised on, and it’s okay to vote no or say something when you see something bad happening.”

“I think leaning on the power of convictions is a really important part of our democratic process and there are some things that can’t be compromised on, like civil rights, anti-LGBTQ policies,” explained Rosenoer.

“There’s no in-between on racism, you know. So I think about where we can compromise and where we can’t, and, if we can’t compromise, I would just feel comfortable voting no, and that’s okay.”

Incumbent Andrew Rice speaks with voters during “Candidating” at the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

Rice opened his response with an analogy. “If you buy all-terrain tires that are snow-rated, that’s a compromise. . . They don’t function as perfectly as dedicated snow tires and they don’t function as good as dedicated all-terrain tires, but they’re good enough.”

“And sometimes you’ve got to let good enough, be good enough, and digging in your heels without compromising, you know, is really not a way to collaborate and work together. So I think compromise is a very important thing to remember. It’s not perfect, and we’ve got to move on.”

Rowe highlighted the importance of communication’s role in compromise. “It’s something I always say to someone who works with me, ‘If you have a problem or we have a disagreement, I think it’s really important to talk to me about it because I can’t figure it out.’ Or, if you’re upset at me, then I don’t know where to go from there.”

“I think another thing that I’ve learned being on the Board is to really not push your own agenda,” explained Rowe, who said he received advice when he started out to not come in expecting to “change this and fix that and do this,” but rather try to grow in a positive direction and work together for a positive result.

“I don’t always agree with the other members and sometimes I vote different, but I think it’s really important to move forward with the direction of the Board once a decision is made,” concluded Rowe.

From AVV’s Publisher Wondra, “Many people across this country are saying that we’ve never been more divided, at least since the Civil War. On a local level though, we have to get things done. We’ve just talked about your definitions of compromise and what that means, but working together as a community might be more than compromise. What is your opinion of  the cause of the divisions we’re all seeing outside our community, and, if you have a role as a trustee, what active steps can you take down here at the local level to heal the divide?”

Rowe immediately lightened the mood with a joke, “How am I going to save America?” He highlighted the practical nature of the BoT.

“I think the most important thing is that, on the local level, that we’re all the same and that we’re all trying to do the same thing. We’re all trying to work our jobs, make a living, figure out our life, and I think there’s not a lot of division in those kinds of topics once you get down to the roots here.”

“On the local level, we’re all just trying to figure it out and survive, and I think that’s the important thing to focus on.”

Rice also opened with a jest. “Do I understand your question is what’s wrong with the world and how you save it?” Wondra clarified that it was more about what trustees will do to help heal divisions should they occur or if they’re here.

“I think there are definitely divisions. I think one of the things that kind of exacerbates them is that we have a culture that speaks first and listening optional, and I think a bit of our social media and other avenues really exacerbate the rush to speak and not a rush to listen. . . As a trustee, my job is to listen.”

“The other thing I think is wrong, you know there’s the idea to love your neighbor as yourself, to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and try to listen and empathize with them. I think those are two things: to listen and to love your neighbor as yourself.”

Rosenoer said that she sees divisions occurring because of fear.

“I think America is incredibly divided because a lot of people are scared. There’s a lot of

Candidate Micha Rosenoer speaks with voters during “Candidating” at the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

economic, environmental things happening that are terrifying people, and we’re all trying to figure out how to make sure our children can grow up safely, our families are fed…”

“I think that brings out the worst in people sometimes, but also the best. And I think part of what is beautiful about living in a small town is getting to connect with people where they’re at and creating a culture where we aren’t so afraid to make mistakes and ask questions of each other.”

“I’m a young, Jewish mother,” explained Rosenoer whose son was in the kitchen during the event. “We might be the only two Jews in Buena Vista. I’m not sure. And I have a lot of friends who grew up here never meeting a Jew, always going to church, and we built some beautiful relationships just on saying, ‘What’s that like?'”

“I think that’s a really important question to ask is, ‘What is your life like?’ and then listening when people tell you.”

Matkovich replied that it was “weird to talk about national things in this hyperlocal environment.”

“I think the divide in the county that is publicized, is over-publicized and mostly media and corporations capitalizing on your fear to make money for their own pocket. I don’t really see that in my day-to-day life as much.”

My friends are my friends, I don’t really care that much and always treat people and their opinions, those are separate things. An opinion is just a thought, but that thought or opinion does not make up a holistic person.”

Huyck agreed, “The country is definitely more divided now than it has been ever from what I’ve read and heard and know.”

“The amount of information that’s available at our fingertips and the process of how to filter it is not always being taught, and so we don’t always know how to find what’s useful and what’s just there, so it just leads to an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and fear and division.

“I think at a very local level it’s just encouraging us to come together, spend time doing things that we all enjoy, like Andrew said, loving your neighbor as yourself that’s amazing. And giving people the benefit of the doubt.”

“Everybody has bad days sometimes,” explained Huyck, who added it can be perceived as division, but sometimes people just need to have a conversation and more time to think. She emphasized the importance of remaining focused on the community.

Brown replied, “I think the problem that we have to deal with is there’s openness and transparency where people get confused with respect to what we’re doing as a government or what we’re doing as a local government.”

“Sometimes people think that the system is against them or the government is against them, and that’s actually incorrect.” Brown said he believed the people voting in this Buena Vista election understand that, but he acknowledged this issues would still arise.

“We have to be open. We have to be transparent. We have to be fair and ensure that we’re meeting those expectations, the community at large will then respect that.”

Brown acknowledged some will be upset and be engaged, which returns to the topic of needing to listen.

“I think we’re more united than we think we are.”

The final question came from LWVCC Chair of Voter Services Grace Garrett. “If you could only have one win in this next term. . . What would that be and why?”

Brown chose raising Short Term Rental (STR) fees and applying those funds to long-term and affordable housing. “Increase our fees at least comparable to the level that Salida does, so that we can turn that money immediately into affordable housing, into daycare, into down payment assistance.”

Huyck said, “The biggest win I could ever ask for would be a genuine, true movement on attainable housing.” She cited actions, such as changing fee schedules, reallocating funds, or increasing fees on STRs.

Matkovich identified maintaining, improving, and building a robust water infrastructure as his big ticket item to plan for the next “25, 50, 100 years.”

Candidate Andy Matkovich speaks with voters during “Candidating” at the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

He also said, the BoT should immediately try to procure more water resources for the town.

Rosenoer agreed with her fellow candidates, citing a need for a dedicated funding stream for the Chaffee Housing Authority (CHA) to support their programs that support long-term, affordable, and retirement housing. “Then figuring out how to get more water rights to support the development we need to build that kind of housing in this community,” said Rosenoer, tying the previous ideas together.

Rice first joked that he’d like to get rid of Daylight Savings. Then he praised the current culture of the BoT and their ability to work together effectively, and said his one win would be to ensure any new trustees carry on that culture of respect. “There’s a diversity of opinions, but it is incredibly respectful. If I can play a part in preserving that culture with the next Board, for the sake of my enjoyment and for the ability to retain our staff, that would be a big win for me.”

Rowe echoed Rice’s sentiment and praised the Town’s staff. His win would be to continue retaining that talent and continuing to take their insight and knowledge into consideration when making decisions. “There’s probably hundreds of years of knowledge on our staff that really helps us as a Board really build and grow in a positive direction.”

Candidating

The “Candidating” portion of the event was organized much like a speed dating event. Attendees were separated into different groups at six tables and the candidates took turns with each group, rotating from table to table answering questions directly from attendees.

A common theme among questions at our table focused on affordable workforce housing, housing for the aging population in the area specifically, and childcare. All six candidates consistently understood the importance of these topics to the community as they cycled through the seat at the table.

Brown emphasized the need to increase STR fees and even suggested declaring a housing emergency in order to address the needs that the town faces. He also suggested going after more, permanent water solutions, though he praised the Town for their recent purchase of water from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District and suggested that water could be used to negotiate deals with those farther down stream.

Rice highlighted his ability to work as a team and emphasized the role of the BoT as stewards who are responsible for protecting and improving the community rather than someone who is in a position of power. Rice also agreed on the urgent need for elder care and housing and childcare in the area.

Matkovich explained that, regardless of money, people can’t buy something that doesn’t exist. He suggested encouraging economic prosperity would require outside investments to create options for purchase. He also said we would all need to work to “row the boat” together.

Candidate Thomas Brown speaks with voters during “Candidating” at the League of Women Voters BV Trustee Candidate Forum. Photo by Carly Winchell.

Rosenoer too agreed on the desperate need for childcare. She cited the Early Childhood Council as one organization in the area, but agreed that more resources were needed, especially to offset costs of licensing to encourage more childcare providers to be able to host a program.

She emphasized the need for funding to the Chaffee Housing Authority (CHA) to help provide homes for the aging population, along with more affordable housing, and expressed a desire to see more deed-restricted housing because developers cannot always be taken at their word.

Huyck explained her take on sustainable growth; that what the town does now must take the future into consideration and ensure that it fits both now and later. She also explained that attainable housing should be attainable for everyone, including working families and the aging population. Overall, she focused on making data-driven decisions, motivated by an inherent curiosity.

Rowe cited the Water Allocation Policy, which was passed by the BoT in 2023, as a tool to pressure developers into creating more affordable housing for everyone, including the aging population. He also spoke about the importance of partnerships in trying to get housing projects accomplished. Mayor Libby Fay praised Rowe for bringing the “human value” to the BoT.

Overall, the candidates were friendly, open, and focused on reiterating, and expanding their larger points when speaking with the tables. All six acknowledge the community’s focus on housing, elder care, and childcare.

More information on the upcoming April 2 election is available on the Town of Buena Vista’s Website.