Matt Benjamin
Matt Benjamin is running for his second term on Council in 2025. He said he’s running again to to keep pushing for the types of progress that he believes Council has accomplished since the difficulties of the COVID pandemic everyone was experiencing when he was first elected in 2021.
“We had 700 employees that were furloughed at the city, and businesses didn’t know if this was going to last one more year or ten more years. Residents also had the similar uncertainty – were kids ever going to go back to school, or are they going to be sort of stuck learning on computers for indefinite periods of time… and it’s quite remarkable the progress we’ve made in bringing the city back to an operating function and to stabilizing a lot of that community uncertainty as best we can here in Boulder,” said Benjamin.
Mini-Bio
Benjamin grew up in Malibu, California, but believed he was never meant for the L.A.-area life and enjoyed spending time with family in central Idaho, where he fell in love with the wilderness and learned how to ski. He came to Boulder in 2001, and graduated from the University of Colorado with degrees in astronomy and astrophysics in 2005. He went on to work for about 11 years with Fiske Planetarium at CU-Boulder (leaving in January 2017).
He first ran for Council in 2017, earning 7,561 votes and finishing 11th in a race for five open seats, but he continued to stay involved with civic affairs after the election.
In 2018, he served as a member of the city’s Election and Campaign Finance Working Group. In 2019, he became executive director of “The Coalition,” a collaborative effort involving local political groups Better Boulder, Open Boulder, South Boulder Creek Action Group, and Boulder Progressives. He served as a Board member with Open Boulder. In 2020, Benjamin led the successful “Our Mayor, Our Choice” initiative campaign, which brought direct Mayoral elections using ranked-choice voting to Boulder.
In 2021, Benjamin was elected to Council by finishing second in a race for five seats, receiving 16,501 votes. While on Council, he has served on the Boulder Improvement District, as chair of the Colorado Municipal League policy committee, as a member of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art board, and as a member of the Council Engagement Committee. Today, Benjamin works as a professional photographer, specializing in wildlife and astrophotography, and selling or licensing his images for either digital or print.
His campaign website is https://www.mattbenjaminforcouncil.com/
Concerns about Boulder’s economic future?
Like many candidates, Benjamin said he was very concerned about real and potential funding cuts to local federal labs, not just over economics but also because he describes Boulder as a “research hub for much of the country.” In addition, local research can lead to spin-off businesses and various connections with the University of Colorado. He said Boulder needs to protect what businesses it can and diversify its economy, adding, “If we can’t completely protect the existing ones, maybe there’s a way to transfer a lot of the individuals and their skill sets to a newer industry that gets created here, so we don’t lose those individuals and families from our community.” Benjamin gave an example of Boulder’s strong quantum computing sector as an area in which the city should focus.
Does Boulder spend taxpayers’ money wisely?
Benjamin said he hears from community members often about shortfalls in providing “core services,” so he wasn’t surprised by the poll saying about half of the respondents don’t think the city spends wisely. For examples of core services, he mentioned complaints about street conditions, snow removal, upkeep of Downtown Boulder, and recreational facilities. “Boulder, in its sort of unlimited well of compassion and liberal values, often wants to be everything for everyone and wants the city government to be everything for everyone,” he said, but then noted that he believes this will have to change with new budgetary constraints. He said the city moving forward should pivot toward “maintenance and stewardship of the infrastructure we have.”
Crime Concerns?
Benjamin noted that while there were high crime statistics during the peak of COVID, statistics are generally trending downward now. However, he added that “if people don’t feel safe, we still have to recognize that people not feeling safe is something we still have to address.” He said the city has made recent improvements, since the Boulder Police Department is now considered fully staffed with about 190 officers, there are now dedicated officers patrolling Downtown Boulder, and the city’s Safe and Managed Public Spaces (SAMPS) teams have been cleaning up encampments along the Creek Path.
However, crime management in Boulder might not only be a city issue, and Benjamin noted that the state legislature has passed recent laws that made detaining offenders more difficult. For example, he mentioned one law that says judges need to use “the least restrictive means possible” with regards to bonds for certain crimes, which might allow offenders who were arrested to be released nearly immediately. “We can control municipal crimes, but municipal crimes are not the issue here. These are state-level crimes that are causing a lot of the issues, and it’s the state’s decriminalization bills that have really harmed municipalities,” he said, adding that local state legislators are aware of his opinion.
Homelessness Objectives
The city recently received a report on homelessness strategies from Clutch Consulting, and Benjamin urges patience as the city works on implementation. “If people want unsheltered homelessness to be eradicated in six months, then they have unreasonable expectations,” he said. Noting that the report suggested a price tag of $13 million yearly to fund certain recommendations, he said the city doesn’t have that amount of money, but could still work on some of the components like reducing the amount of time unhoused people with no real connection to Boulder spend here – by perhaps routing them to communities where they might have family or connections to help them get what they need. He also said the City of Boulder should not need to handle the lion’s share of regional homelessness issues, and urged Boulder County to step up efforts to bring about improvements that involve other cities in the county and the county itself.
Core Arterial Network Projects
While he has heard concerns about the proposed CAN project for Iris, Benjamin said he believes “there hasn’t been a single transportation project in 20 years that’s gone through as much engagement.” Through community input including meetings, town halls, stakeholder engagement and council meetings, he said various ideas were heard and some were incorporated into the present design. While part of the objective for Iris planning was to create better bike safety, Benjamin said it will also keep auto traffic flowing with a center turn lane and the ability to convert bike lanes to auto lanes in case of emergency. “I think the community should be proud of all that engagement. It’s not like the design on Iris was decided in the back room and some dark corner of Council Chambers,” he said.
Council Meeting Open Comment Period
Benjamin has supported recent policy changes regarding the City Council Open Comment period, to “manage people’s conduct in a way that preserves their speech, but makes sure that their conduct cannot rule the roost more or less, where it cannot continue to disrupt the business of the city.” He believes the new direction has been “working a bit,” though there have still been meeting disruptions after the policies were established. Benjamin says he has always appreciated Open Comment because it gives residents a chance to “freely express themselves,” but he is disappointed that some residents have lost enthusiasm to attend due to a volatile environment that occasionally leads to meetings being called into recess.
Boulder and International Issues
While not completely ruling out addressing international issues at times, Benjamin believes it shouldn’t happen unless the city is really on top of the local issues that the Council must manage as its core responsibilities. “I don’t think we can use or take the time and energy away from local issues that matter to the people that live in Boulder on events or things that are happening, half a world away. We don’t have the capacity to tackle that,” he said. He believes action in Boulder would have “zero influence” on outcomes, and would rather focus on pragmatic city business as opposed to what he called “performative” actions.
New Administration in Washington and Boulder Impacts
Calling for a balanced approach, Benjamin favors opposing federal actions where necessary, but avoiding city actions that would “put a target” on Boulder’s back. He favors lobbying through elected officials to protect Boulder’s interests, picking and choosing actions instead of thinking “every battle is our battle,” and would not favor demonstrative city action that could lead to negative reactions.
Performance of “Progressive Council”
While saying everyone has their own definition of what “progressive” means, Benjamin believes the current Council majority is making progress and making improvements. He added that while people involved in politics sometimes get very tribal, members of the current Council have collaborated despite being in different camps, and the progressive majority has recently worked on stronger policing and pushed for less leniency for offenders – which might not be considered a “progressive” direction by all progressives. “If having a better transportation system, better streets, safer intersections more ability to build middle income housing, and affordable housing is considered progressive, then I say, yes, more of those things,” he said about his intentions moving forward.
Climate Action
Benjamin said the city could help address climate concerns partially through carbon reduction strategy, but also through resiliency-based adaptation measures. For carbon reduction, he mentioned getting people out of cars through better bike infrastructure and better transit, along with “phasing ourselves out of the use of natural gas” and moving toward home electrification. On resiliency, he lives along the western edge of Boulder and said the city is “massively unprepared” for wildfires that might enter the urban areas, even though it’s been years since the Marshall Fire demonstrated real dangers. He said he would focus heavily on flood and wildfire mitigation in the years to come. “I don’t think any of us could live with ourselves if we had an option to do more and we chose not to,” said Benjamin.
Need More Housing?
Even though there are housing units “in the hopper,” Benjamin believes the city needs to keep pushing to add new housing, partially because not all of Boulder’s existing or planned housing will meet resident needs. Like many candidates, he called out a need for middle-income housing that’s favorable for families with kids, and noted there will be a need for housing suitable for older residents who want to downsize out of a larger home that they don’t need anymore. He also mentioned support for locating dense housing near transit stops and corridors.
CCRS Ballot Measures (City of Boulder Issues 2A and 2B)
Benjamin supports both CCRS ballot measures, saying they will enable the city to build infrastructure that will be useful for generations to come.
County Mental/Behavioral Health Tax (County Issue 1B)
During this early September interview, Benjamin was undecided on Boulder County 1B, or at least not quite ready to offer support. He said he wanted to clearly see clear spending objectives, how outcomes would be measured, and more about stakeholder interaction before saying “yes.”
Endorsements
Benjamin has received endorsements from Open Boulder, Boulder Progressives, Sierra Club Indian Peaks Group, Better Boulder, Stop Antisemitism Colorado, Moms Demand Action, Engage Boulder, Daily Camera, and approval from Planned Parenthood Votes.
Follow The Money
Benjamin has raised the maximum of $11,994 in campaign contributions, including $100 maximum donations from current Council members Mark Wallach, Aaron Brockett, Nicole Speer, Lauren Folkerts, and Tara Winer; former Council members Bob Yates, Macon Cowles, Leslie Durgin, George Karakehian, and Rachel Friend; District Attorney Michael Dougherty; CU Regent Elliott Hood; state Senator Judy Amabile; and state Representatives Lesley Smith and Junie Joseph.
