The One-Woman Council: Interview with City Councilmember Kristin Stephens

Fort Collins City Council is composed of seven members, and currently, only one of them is female. That lone female voice is Kristin Stephens, representative for District 4 in southern Fort Collins.

With an extensive volunteering record under her belt, Stephens ran and won a successful campaign bid in 2015. She is now on-call basically 24/7 as a representative to the highest governing body of the City. She is at weekly Council meetings working on your utility bills and affordable housing, approving City funding and projects, and helping citizens remove the rotting deer carcass from their backyards (yes, that’s a thing that actually happened). Of course, Stephens is not only a council member. She is also a Ram, a mother, and an active community member.

I sat down with the busy Stephens at Sweet Sinsations right before she headed down to another Colorado State University event (being the spirited Ram she is, she was, of course, decked out in a CSU shirt and green and sold scarf), and we talked about the need for diversity in government, local issues, and student voices.

Note: The following interview has been edited for clarity and cut for length.

YE: So what’s it like being a public figure?

STEPHENS: You know, it’s interesting because know I’m so used to it, I’m not really sure. I’m not really a well-recognized figure, so I always say people don’t recognize me unless I’m in my sweatpants in the grocery store; then people will come up and say “Councilmember! Can you help me with something?” so like….

YE: I feel that.

STEPHENS: So I think there’s a lot of responsibility in presenting yourself, and I don’t just mean like physically how you look but how you act and how you carry yourself. I mean, especially in Council meetings, I think it’s really important that we speak civilly to one another that we solve problems as adults and build community census. In government there’s too much — especially at the federal level it seems like — people who don’t get along. And I don’t think that’s what people want to see from leadership. I think they want to see people who actually want to solve the problems that our community is facing.

To me it’s really important that people in the community see themselves represented in government bodies and so I don’t feel like we have enough diversity on Council and as the only woman, I feel like I need to provide good leadership so that sets an example for people who want to run and women in the community to make sure their voices are being heard so, it’s just a lot of responsibility being a public figure. But that’s alright.

YE: Yeah, it’s kinda like you’re always on.

STEPHENS: Your work’s never done. Yesterday was kind of a weird scenario, but I had somebody email me and say that they had like a deer carcass in the natural area near their house that was rotting and could I help them? And of course, I wish I’d known about it earlier because I didn’t want them to have to deal with that, but I called the City manager. It’s a lot of after hours stuff [like that] where people don’t know where to go, so they call me. It’s basically like having a 24/7 job.

YE: Wow that’s crazy. How do you balance Council with your outside life?

[*Note: Stephens works as a graduate assistant in the CSU Statistics department.]

STEPHENS: It’s not always easy to balance both. I take vacation time to go on City conferences because my job here [at CSU] does not realize that that is also work. I have a 14-year-old son so there’s a lot of balancing in my life. But you know, the work is rewarding and when you can feel like you’re making a difference — and you don’t always feel like you’re making a difference — but when you do, it’s worth it.

YE: Is the hours, the responsibility — is that part of what may be keeping the Council from being representative of the population demographic-wise?

STEPHENS: I think it’s probably a couple things….We get paid $850 a month; it’s a lot work for $850 a month. It probably doesn’t even equate to minimum wage. That it feels like a full-time job but doesn’t pay like a full-time job makes people feel like “gosh I have to have two jobs and how would I balance that?” So I think it appeals to people who are already retired or have an extremely flexible job or are independently wealthy and don’t need to have a job or whatever scenario that it’s hard for just regular people to know how to fit that in.

And I think some people don’t even realize that it’s something they can do… I think a lot of times for women, they think they have to have this incredible amount of experience before they even do something like [run for office]….I talk to a lot of women and people of color that I feel like should really consider running. So I’m always trying to look out for that. Because, you know, I feel like if there were more diversity on council, people would maybe pay more attention, and pay more attention to the work we are doing if they felt that they had more of voice. Whatever I can do to help that, I try to do.

YE: So being the only woman on the board — going back to that — how does that influence the way the Council works and the way you do your role on it?

STEPHENS: I think the board is better because there’s at least one woman on it. It’s just good to have balance and a different perspective. And I think if we had more diversity on Council, we could make better policy. Better policy just comes from a diverse group of thoughts.

People bring different strengths to the table and so being the only woman on Council, there’s a lot of pressure for me to make sure that a woman’s voice is being heard. I try to speak at most meetings. I try to give my input. I think I’m also the only one who has children in K-12, and that’s a big deal. I feel like women are good at building consensus and hopefully I do that.

YE: I was at the February meeting a while back with the homeless lockers voting, and I noticed you were the only YES vote. Does something like that happen often where you just have a very different perspective on things?

STEPHENS: It’s one of the only times I’ve been the only one who voted for something. But, I would say I often do have a different perspective. I have a very middle-class lifestyle so I understand some of the struggles people are dealing with in Fort Collins so I think I bring the perspective of someone who is still very middle class and still kinda has to work pretty hard to make ends meet.

With the lockers, it was interesting because people were very concerned about the neighbors who were very vocal…

YE: Yeah, I covered that whole saga for the Collegian and it was…yeah.

Stephens: Yeah, I think that as elected officials sometimes we have to help people get to a place where they can understand some things — I mean, not to rip people up but to really get them maybe to understand why this is important in our community. So with the lockers or with low-income housing, or something like that, you know: We’re gonna be OK. This will work out. And we need this in our community.

YE: How do you feel the community interacts with City Council and how that affects the ability the City and Council is run?

STEPHENS: I do wish, you know, more people would be involved. We deal with a lot of issues that touch people’s everyday lives. People get really excited about Federal issues and yet, we are the ones who decide your utility bill. All these things that affect the quality of our daily lives are dealt with at the municipal level. So, I wish more people would be engaged. There are some people who are super and others who don’t….The diversity of opinion is not always there.

YE: With that diversity, do you have anything to say to the student population as far as civic involvement —

STEPHENS: Vote!

YE: That works.

STEPHENS: I love it when we have students come to Council. Like I just feel like seeing different faces and people who younger is nice. To me it’s really nice. I’m like, “Yes come and tell us what we need!” Because I think we’re helping create the community for the generations that are coming behind us and so I want to know what young people want. I want to know what college students want in our community. I really want to know what college students want in our community…I want people to be so comfortable coming to Council and being part of our government when they’re young, that they continue that for the rest of their lives, you know? I think trying to learn a little bit about it, even if you just come and sit in the audience — you can watch it on TV too. I’m sure it can get kind of boring, but then when an issue comes up, if you’ve kind of experience it, you’re pretty comfortable speaking in front of that group.

I’m hoping that with ASCSU, we’re going to find some opportunities for more students to serve on City Boards and Commissions, because I think that’s really good experience. I think having shorter terms too for college students. They can sit on any of the boards — I think we have 32 from the water board, golf board, affordable housing board….There’s almost something for everybody. I think the more opportunities we can open up, I think that that would be really good.

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City Council meetings are held every other Tuesday evening at 6pm in City Hall. They are open to the public.