Aaron Brockett
Aaron Brockett is a candidate in 2023 for a three-year term as a directly elected Mayor of Boulder. He is the current Mayor and has been since 2021. If he wins the 2023 race, he will earn a three-year term as Mayor, but if he doesn’t win he will no longer be on City Council unless he decides to run again in the future.
Q – Why Are You Running?
Brockett said he wants to continue as Mayor in part because he has learned first-hand the value of the job, and wants to keep working on the connections and issues he’s been working on since taking the gavel. Initially, he said he thought the job would be fairly similar to serving as a Council member, with the exceptions of working to set meeting agendas and going to events, but now believes being Mayor can help him make a positive difference in peoples’ lives.
“What I realized over time is that people in the community and outside the community really look to the mayor for help and for leadership and for representation,” said Brockett. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a phone call or an email saying, ‘Mayor Brockett, I have this problem, can you help me?’ If there’s a nonprofit or an event, there’s a real appreciation level for having the mayor present…I’ve really worked hard on the regional connections between myself and the city and other cities, counties, the state level, and the federal level, and so I built strong relationships with elected officials across different levels of government.”
Q – Will a Direct Mayoral Election Make the Position More Powerful?
Brockett said he understands he would still have just one vote out of nine Council members if elected, even if he wins the 2023 election, and does not intend to change his leadership style significantly.
“I think optimally it’s about service leadership..,you don’t want somebody to take an egotistical approach…and I think it’s about facilitating your Council colleagues in working together to make positive decisions for the community, said Brockett. “Of course there’s always a difference of opinion on Council and that’s appropriate and valuable, but you don’t want Council to become divisive – you want people to be able to work together through their disagreements. I think the pulpit may get a little bullier (after a direct election), and it may become a bit more common for news jurisdictions outside of the city to reach out to the Mayor.”
Brockett does not favor Boulder seeking a “strong Mayor” position, like Aurora might ask voters to approve in 2025.
Q – What If You Win but a Council Majority Opposes Your Position(s)?
The directly elected Mayor might be influential, but whoever wins will not be in an executive position – so there’s no veto power and it would be completely possible for a majority of Council to defeat a policy the Mayor favors. Brockett acknowledged this possibility, but said he has tried to work with everyone on Council in the past, and hopes to continue trying to work through differences.
“It’s not like I’m going to sit over on a side, and fight against some other side, but it’s about collaborating with who’s on the dais, finding common ground and moving policies forward that help the community and all or most of you can agree with,” said Brockett.
Mini-Life Story
Brockett was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His family moved to Massachusetts for several years and then settled in Sewanee, Tennessee. He enrolled at Swarthmore College, located outside of Philadelphia, graduating with a degree in music.
Brockett had a computer-related work study job in college in the mid-1990s, and eventually he and his wife Cherry founded a software development company called Charon Development. Charon developed a product called ProLease, a program for commercial lease management, but RMI Software purchased the product in 2019 so the Brocketts became employees of RMI. Aaron Brockett scaled back his workload because of the demands of serving as Mayor, and is currently not working with RMI but Cherry is.
He served as the Holiday Neighborhood HOA president, and was appointed to the City of Boulder Planning Board, where he served five years, chairing for two. Brockett was elected to City Council in 2015, finishing fourth in a race for five open seats, and was re-elected in 2019, finishing fourth in a race for six open seats. He served for a year as Mayor Pro Tem in 2018, and became Mayor in 2021. He noted during this interview that he’s been active in racial equity efforts, and the city passed “one of the only Racial Equity Plans in the country” in 2021.
Brockett entered the brief vacancy committee race for state Representative in House District 10 in 2022, but he finished third, so he continued his service as Mayor.
His campaign website is https://brockett4mayor.org/
Crime in Boulder
Crime has certainly been an issue in the 2023 campaign, and while statistics fluctuate, there have been significant reports of property crime in Boulder along with reports of violent crime. Brockett said it’s a serious problem that needs “real attention,” and noted the city and its police department work collaboratively with Boulder County and State of Colorado entities to deal with issues including organized bike theft. For example, “Operation Vicious Cycle” was a multijurisdictional effort to tackle organized bike theft that led to a number of arrests in 2021.
Brockett said the Boulder Police Department has been understaffed in recent years, but as of August 2023 they were “getting close to fully staffed for the first time in 10 years.” He also spoke positively about programs intended to handle situations that might not rise to the need for a uniformed law enforcement officer(s), including the CARE program – a non-police, non-emergency response team to deal with lower-intensity situations similar to Denver’s existing STAR program – the use of Downtown Ambassadors to help people in Downtown Boulder and University Hill with non-emergency issues, and the use of Urban Park Rangers to watch for situations in parks that might require de-escalation or other responses.
Police Oversight Panel
The city established a Police Oversight Panel, largely in response to a 2019 incident when a Black Naropa student was surrounded by police while simply picking up trash outside his apartment. The panel’s charge was in part to review complaints regarding police conduct. In 2023, the panel was in the news partially because City Council voted to remove a POP member, after outside counsel determined the member’s actions and postings critical of police on social media could have been seen as contrary to a part of the POP ordinance saying members should not exhibit “bias.” The POP actually suspended formal operations shortly after the Council vote.
Brockett said he believes the POP is “going to a good place,” partially because the city hired an outside consultant to recommend revisions to the POP ordinance. He said a better ordinance might help give a morale boost to the panel, and should help the POP get back to the business of reviewing cases. He was not in attendance for the Council vote to remove the POP member, but was quoted saying he would not have favored removal. Brockett said his opinion was partially because members of Boulder’s communities of color had roles in the member’s appointment and the creation of the POP, and partially because he spoke with existing members of the POP who were concerned that a removal for strong opinions could have been tantamount to what Brockett called a “rejection of their mission.”
Housing, Affordable and Otherwise
It’s no news flash to say there are issues with affordable housing in Boulder. According to Brockett, improving Boulder’s situation will require multifaceted strategies, including rezoning, policy advances, financial assistance, and city property acquisitions.
He spoke favorably about the city’s Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) system in which new multiunit developments must include 25% affordable housing, or developers can pay a Cash-In-Lieu fee to fund affordable housing off-site. He said the city has brought more than 200 new affordable units online for each of the past two years, and he expects to see more units as funding from the state Proposition 123 affordable housing initiative comes in. The city also recently launched a middle-income down payment assistance program, thanks to a ballot measure Boulder voters approved in 2019.
The City of Boulder stood out from most if not all Colorado cities by supporting Senate Bill 23-213, a massive bill geared toward creating state land use standards related to housing. Brockett was also the only Mayor who opposed a Metro Mayor’s Caucus letter expressing opposition to SB213 partially because the bill could have wrested local control of land use from local governments. Brockett said he often favors local control but believe it should be taken on a “case-by-case basis” to evaluate if state control is more appropriate. He said it was beneficial for the city to have a seat at the table regarding 213, as the city was able to weigh in on a list of eight changes it sought to the bill, including limiting rezoning for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) to only areas appropriate for a given community – instead of upzoning entire transit corridors. It seems likely some type of bill or bills with topics found in 213 will be introduced in 2024, and Brockett said he hopes there will be more robust affordability requirements in this year’s bill(s).
He is interested in having the city perform what he called a “deep dive analysis” around the feasibility of converting the Boulder Municipal Airport to housing and/or other uses, but said in August 2023 that the costs of doing so were uncertain and there could be issues including contractual obligations with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Local Political Partisanism
Brockett said he has seen how Boulder has evolved over the past “8-10 years” toward its own version of a two-party system in local politics. However, he said the alliances within the camps also keep evolving, and added that there have been a number of issues on this current Council where votes did not wind up exactly along what some people might perceive as a 6-3 partisan line. He said some of the reasons for local partisanism include that organizations work together to be more effective in campaigning, and that elections in general can get “a little more heated and a little more divisive.”
“But I absolutely do not think we should be sitting in camps, sniping at each other. I’ve always tried to work with every CC member, on most issues. We all need to work together,” said Brockett.
Homelessness
Brockett said he does not believe Boulder has a disproportionately larger issue with people experiencing homelessness compared to peer Colorado cities, and said Boulder’s levels of services for the unhoused are generally comparable to cities including Denver, Ft. Collins, and Colorado Springs – although they’re larger than other cities in Boulder County. He added that the COVID pandemic is one factor that has contributed to increased unhoused populations across the state and nation. “This is a challenge that people are struggling with in our entire society, because as a society we are failing to provide the safety net we need for the people who are most vulnerable,” said Brockett.
He would support increased city funding for services available to the unhoused, though not without considering if cuts would become necessary for other city services, while understanding that funding should come to Boulder as a result of the state’s Proposition 123 revenue. Services and programs he might consider moving forward include expanding Permanent Supportive Housing units, which already exist in Boulder, and looking to other examples including the efforts of Mayor Michael Johnston and his administration in Denver. Brockett noted that Denver has “safe outdoor spaces” and tiny home villages, while Longmont is creating a tiny home village for unhoused veterans.
The unhoused population is by no means monolithic, and Brockett said the city is involved in collaborative approaches between the city and Boulder County to manage people who are considered “high utilizers,” including those with repeated interactions with law enforcement and those in need of health-related services. He said this is an effort to reduce the burden high utilizers can put on the rest of the city, and to help put them on sustainable paths or in sustainable futures. Brockett does not support allowing the unhoused to camp “unrestricted” in public spaces, and voted in favor of a so-called “camping ban” in 2021, but noted that “requiring people to move” doesn’t solve problems so the city must continue to focus on solutions.
Climate Action
Boulder has a goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030, though Brockett noted it might require actions from outside entities including Xcel Energy, the Public Utilities Commission, the state General Assembly and others to make the goal a reality. He mentioned that by 2019 there will be no coal-burning electrical plants operating in Colorado, and wants the state to avoid bringing any fossil fuel-burning plants online into the future.
Brockett said he is paying attention to the possibility that the state might pass legislation enabling Community Choice Energy for local areas, which could allow the city to pursue a greater mix of renewable energy than Xcel currently provides. The city passed a new Climate Tax in 2022, and Brockett said the city might be able to use tax revenues on programs such as a partnership with Xcel called Zero Emissions Communities to help fund the marginal cost of new renewable energy. On the transportation front, the city has launched its second round of e-bike rebates, an effort to get more people onto bikes and out of cars.
He also noted that the city will be working on climate resiliency efforts into the future, such as increasing the city’s tree canopy with an “equity focus” to make sure the city’s marginalized populations can enjoy the benefits of shade and beauty even if they are lacking financial resources.
Safe Zones Ballot Measure (Question 302)
Brockett said he doesn’t believe this initiative is “the right answer.” He said the city already prioritizes areas around schools for encampment cleanups, which he supports, and he voted in favor of a ban on propane tanks on public lands while serving on Council. Brockett said he believes the ballot measure’s prioritization on clearing areas 50 feet within paths and sidewalks where there are prohibited uses – areas that cover a large amount of the city – might lead to situations where other potential problems or risks might need to be deprioritized.
Sales Tax Extension, 50% of Revenue for Arts (Issue 2A)
Brockett voted to put the tax extension measure splitting revenue between arts/culture and General Fund uses on the ballot, and said it was preferable to an initiative that would have devoted all of the revenue from the tax extension to arts and culture. He said he believes city General Fund needs will be met even with devoting more funds to the arts, thanks to general revenue now available to the city because the 2022 Library District ballot measure passed.
