Everyday in Fort Collins presents a new adventure of sorts. A small college city located north of Denver, FoCo is home to CSU, and an amazing community that thrives more every year.
Fort Collins is also a community that is undergoing major elections this year, These include Representatives from every district, and an election that will decide who becomes mayor this April.
Gerry Horak, Jenny James Arndt, and Molly Skold are the three candidates set on becoming the next mayor for Fort Collins.
In an attempt to better understand the local politics present in Fort Collins we sat down with current mayor Wade Troxell for a Zoom interview discussing the future of Fort Collins.
After introducing myself, we set off to paint a clearer picture of the mayor, the elections, and the city.
Hello, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Who you are and where did you grow up?
Im Mayor Wade Troxell. I’ve been the mayor for the last 6 years and I’ve been on city council for the last 14 years. First two terms were on city council for district 4 and the last 6 as mayor which is for the city of fort collins.
I was born in Fort Collins and I went to Colorado State University on a football scholarship. I played 4 years, captain my senior year, I was an engineering student, and after I finished my undergraduate degree I just wanted to be a student so I went on for my masters in mechanical engineering. After that I worked at Kodak as a mechanical engineer.
When I was working at Kodak I got a call from my masters advisor asking if I’d be interested in a PHD and so I did a PHD at CSU in mechanical engineering.
Troxell’s area of expertise on campus is robotics and automation.
When did your city council journey begin?
In 2007 I was first elected to city council, probably when you were just a little boy. I’ve been on council since.
Growing up here I had a chance to see great leadership in our community, I saw the kind of leadership that makes Fort Collins the wonderful place to live that it is today, this is a very engaged population.
When I was born the population was 20,000 people, now it’s 177,000 people. And it’s just really been an honor to serve as its mayor.
Can you tell us a little bit about your term? What has the experience been like?
Fort Collins is a lovely and great community. I’ve served three terms, and I’m at the end of my third term.
My first term our theme was innovation, we’re an innovation community. How it’s not only innovation in terms of technology, or the economy, but it’s also innovation in the way you think about things. Oftentimes when I think about it, legislators are really stuck in the past and do things like incrementalism within how they approach things. I think one of the most common things keeping cities back and city leaders back is average thinking, and you have to think about exceptional thinking in your community and engaging within to make it a better community. Innovation has definitely been a key aspect.
Inclusion has also been a key aspect while being mayor. Including those that only find themselves in our community for a short time, including students.
Troxell describes viewing students as a vital part of CSU that brings the vibrancy to the evergreen community that makes up Fort Collins. A city founded in 1864, and a university founded in 1870.
We’ve really been joined at the hip from the very beginning and it is important that we be durable partners working together for a better community for all within.
The last part is really more about iconic. We’re at a point in our community where we can recognize and execute iconic things that last for hundreds of years.
What are some of the greatest challenges you faced as mayor?
Troxell describes this year as one of the hardest of not the most difficult to manage.
In Larimer county over 200 people have died with Covid over the last year, and it’s also played a big part economically when in March and April we essentially shut down our economy.
With the last year, the pandemic, there were the health aspects, there was the economic aspect, we also had the social unrest and having honest conversations within our community about that.
We’ve also had forest fires within the last year and some that have threatened our water system, and our watershed.
How has the city been dealing with Covid 19, and how has the government been affected by it?
We’ve had to change how we do our city council meetings, we’ve done them remotely but we’ve also done them in a hybrid fashion where it’s some remote and some in person, protecting those that are vulnerable.
What is the most pressing issue in Fort Collins right now?
There are a number of things in the council priorities. It’s really about looking into the future. There’s a few policies to wrap up and I don’t think there’s anything too earth shattering coming up in the next couple of months. From my perspective it’s really about laying the groundwork for the future.
We have an election in April and its key that we elect people that are passionate and love Fort Collins.
Who are you endorsing for mayor?
I am supporting Molly Skold for mayor. I am supporting Jeff Hanson for district 5, Nick Armstrong for district 1, Gavin Kasinsky for district 3. Those are important seats to keeping Fort Collins the wonderful community that it is.
You said you were endorsing Molly Skold for mayor, why do you believe she is the best fit for mayor?
She grew up in Fort Collins so she knows our community well. Being multi generational in Fort Collins, she has great experiences in building midtown experiences in Omaha, Nebraska as the vice president of Mutual Omaha. She has a great vision for Fort Collins that is really built around being intentional for our future and engaging all within our community.
She’ll be a strong leader and she’ll do a great job .
What are some of the most concerning challenges the new mayor might face?
I think affordability, attainability of housing. I think we have to change U + 2, and think regionally. A lot of the challenges don’t just happen in Fort Collins, such as transportation, water, and energy, so we really have to think and engage regionally and be a collaborator.
What are your plans after your term ends?
I’m on the faculty of Colorado State University so I’ll continue in that role, and I hope to get involved in some public policy as it relates to technology things. As I’ve been doing with drones, and autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles.
Is there anything else you’d like to add to our conversation?
We are very fortunate to have a caring community that cares about each other, cares about issues such as health and the environment, and multi mode of transportation, and higher education and those sorts of things.
An important part of leadership in the city and importantly mayor and the council members is not being pigeon holed into serving just one issue and advocacy role, you really have to serve all in our community and love all within our community, and we have to love the community more than yourself.
I think Fort Collins has great promise and our future is really for us to be intentional to reach our future together and looking forward for that leadership to continue.
