Benita Duran

Benita Duran, a current member of the Boulder Public Library District Board of Trustees, is making her second run for Boulder City Council in 2026. She said her 2019 run was somewhat about having the experience of running, but she’s had other important experiences since then and says “This time, I’m in it to win,” and with winning would come the ability to serve the community.

“I’m running for office because I care, and I’m concerned about our future. I’m running because I want to help people who are here, stay here. And what that translates into is helping people with policies that can make life easier. So, as it relates to small businesses in the economy, it’s making our systems work better for folks, whether it be city permitting or finding city services to connect with, it’s about helping people to get off the ground and get their businesses going,” she said on some of her reasons for running.

Mini-Bio

Duran was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado, and earned an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Denver. In her senior year at DU, a professor encouraged her to interview mayoral candidates in Denver for a paper, which was where she met former Mayor of Denver Federico Pena, and she wound up working as a volunteer coordinator on his campaign and on Pena’s transition team after he was elected. She worked for the Mayor for eight years and handled a wide variety of responsibilities, and during that time earned a master’s in public administration from the University of Colorado.

Knowing of Duran’s interest in city government, a friend encouraged her to apply for a project administrator’s job in Boulder, and she was hired. Her projects to follow included work to help launch the Dairy Center for the Arts, and to set up what was once the Community Access TV (CATV) public access TV studio in the Dairy. She also worked on annexations in north Boulder during the time of the North Boulder Subcommunity Plan process.

Duran eventually left the city, and the private sector engineering firm C2HM Hill hired her as a government affairs director for five states. She stayed with C2HM Hill until 2008, when she landed a position with Denver Public Schools in which she tackled projects including establishing their office of community engagement, along with issues of transportation, safety, and environmental principles. After a period of working for DPS, she decided she wanted to be closer to home, and started her own business focusing on community development. She eventually landed a job as project manager for the Latino Cultural Arts Center in Denver.

She decided to run for Boulder City Council in 2019, and did not earn a seat on Council but picked up 11,579 votes in her first run. Since that run for office, her life took a major detour as she spent significant time as a caregiver for her husband and life partner, Brad Gilbert, the former owner of People Productions, who was suffering from a serious illness. Gilbert passed away in 2024. Duran was appointed to a five-year term on the Boulder Public Library District Board of Trustees in 2023.

Her campaign website is https://www.benitaduran.com/

On The Issues

Q – Has Directly Elected Mayor Been a Good Experience?

To Duran, having a directly elected Mayor has been a positive experience, but she also spoke positively about the ranked-choice voting system Boulder used in 2023. Boulder does not have a “strong Mayor” system like some cities, but Duran said she’s worked under a strong Mayor system as well as the “Council – Manager” system used in Boulder, so she understands the scope of both systems. Near the end of answering this question, she mentioned that she’s interested in exploring a geographic district system for Boulder City Council, whereas today city elections are conducted with an “at-large” system where Council members can run and be elected no matter in which part of the city they live.

Q – Contentious Council Meetings?

In 2025, some Council meetings got heated and had to be called into recess as people demonstrated vociferously against the situation in Gaza. Duran said it was sort of “crazy” that these meetings happened when they did, because she was working with the National Civic League at the time on finding ways to broaden engagement in local meetings, and “getting people of all ages and elements of diversity to participate.” She said Boulder agreed to participate, and City Council members were supportive, and toward the end of this particular project the contentious meetings began. Duran said she was no longer involved in the project at that point, and the meeting tone in Boulder changed in part because world events happened that influenced thoughts and opinions at the local level. In retrospect, Duran said she does not like to “shut peoples’ voices down,” and she would prefer “finding the ways for that for genuine engagement to happen with people, and for people’s voices to be heard.”

Q – International Affairs On Council Time?

Duran is not opposed to discussing international affairs at Council, and recalled a time in the 1990s when Council did discuss doing business with an engineering company that had ties with the government in Burma (which we now refer to as Myanmar). “We’re in a world economy, and it behooves us to allow for those voices to be heard,” she said. She added that she cut her teeth in local government under Denver’s Mayor Federico Pena, where she learned the values of “keeping our doors open and accessible to all people,” adding that “You can’t deny the world that we’re in.”

Q – Status and Needs of Boulder’s Economy?

To answer a question about the local economy, Duran primarily spoke about the challenges small businesses face in issues like a demanding permitting process and costs that eat into the bottom line – again noting that delays in getting a business running are costs, since “time is money.” This early September interview took place near the old Breadworks space on the east side of Broadway and Alpine, a space that has been vacant for quite some time. Duran noted that there are plans to put a new business in that space, but she’s heard that the time it’s taken so far to get up and running “has been well over a year.”

Q – Downtown Development Authority?

Duran said she would have voted to put the DDA on a ballot for people with connections to the DDA had she been on Council, but said there were problems with the process at the time. The tax increment financing piece of the DDA could have impacted the Library District, and Duran as a district Trustee said she told people associated with the DDA effort that “you guys have got to be talking to us,” but instead she thinks the process “missed the boat on community engagement.” Still, she says she’d like to revisit a downtown district, perhaps with considerations of how to avoid having tax increment financing collections for the DDA cut into dedicated funds for other purposes.

Q – Status of Boulder’s Public Safety?

Duran said she personally feels safe in Boulder, and believes that the Boulder Police Department does an “excellent” job. “We’re fortunate that we are not facing some of the issues that other communities are facing, and I think that our Police Department’s alignment with the District Attorney and others to help see that our community members are safe from ICE is really important,” she said.

Q – Public Safety FROM Public Safety?

According to Duran, issues around the use of surveillance cameras and threats to civil liberties should be part of a public process including City Council, not just left to the City Manager’s office. I just think it’s a bigger issue of governance and policy and accountability, and I believe council should own it. And council should own that process related to contracting, and ensuring that people are safe and secure, and not constantly monitored,” said Duran. She added that while this issue is big now, she believes it’s also growing, and re-emphasized that it should be on a City Council agenda.

Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?

Not mentioned yet is that Duran also sits on the board of Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Finance Authority (CECFA), what she called “the finance authority for cultural and educational facilities.” Duran said the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park was for sale fairly recently, and “the state did not want that entity to be sold to an out-of-state developer” which might have meant risking the loss of this historically significant building. CECFA’s role was shifted to include ownership, and Duran says she’s on a board of an entity that owns the Stanley Hotel.

So, what does that have to do with Boulder and Sundance? There’s a film center being constructed there, with involvement from Sundance, and Duran said there was some interest in locating Sundance in Estes Park. However, Boulder got the gig and Duran thought it was clearly a better fit for the festival than Estes. Meanwhile, CECFA structured financing for facilities that will hold Sundance events in Boulder, so in essence she said “Sundance is investing money into our facilities that benefit our facilities in perpetuity.” Duran also went to Park City this year to witness how a festival like this impacts a city. Moving forward, she also said she wants Latino filmmakers to have a role in Sundance right off the bat.

Q – Does Boulder Need to Continue Pushing for More Housing?

Duran said she supports trying to ensure that Boulder has a “diversity of housing stock.” This interview took place across Broadway from the Alpine-Balsam project, and she pointed across the street to say “I’m not sure that this is the right answer right now.” (note: people can see the major construction on what will be the City of Boulder facilities, but housing construction hasn’t started yet.) Duran was on the board of Boulder Community Hospital in 2015 when the property was sold to the City of Boulder, and she said there was excitement about what the project could be back then, but she concluded by saying “And here we are…”

Q – Climate Action?

While she said climate action programs will continue to be important, wildfire mitigation is a big priority of hers in part because “there are environmental conditions that have changed. She lives in the western part of town, which could be especially vulnerable to fires starting outside of city limits, and again mentioned that it would be good to have Council districts so people living in wildfire-prone areas might have direct representation.

Q – Is Boulder Meeting the Challenges with Homelessness?

Not surprisingly, Duran has served on boards pertaining to homelessness, including Feet Forward and Streetscape. She said in both cases it was good to work with Jen Livovich, who Duran said is “a leader who had lived experience in the issues of the unhoused, to help serve and connect with people.” Duran added that the city is benefiting from the work of Clutch Consulting, who delivered a plan on homelessness to Boulder as a “third party” able to address issues in a neutral way. She also believes that fuller utilization of the All Roads shelter in north Boulder, including use as a day shelter when before there was no real day shelter in Boulder, has been a net positive for the city.

Q – Rec Centers and Deferred Maintenance?

While answering this question, Duran wondered aloud “why basic infrastructure, improvements, and capital investments aren’t a standard part of the city budget.” She said she believes a South Boulder Rec Center project could have been done with existing money in a deferred maintenance fund, and added that she believes some of the projects mentioned in the upcoming bond measure could be funded in more imaginative and practical ways. For example, she noted that the city might sell some of the buildings that won’t be needed once employees move to the complex at Alpine-Balsam, and suggested the city could use money from the sale to fund a rec center project. At the time of this interview, her Library District board had just decided to cut some personnel due to declining revenues, and she believes the City of Boulder also needs to make some tough financial choices in order to in part fund infrastructure investments.

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder $400 Million Bond: Duran is opposed to this measure. She had already said in this interview that there might be other ways to fund projects, and added that she didn’t believe there had been enough quality community engagement on this issue so voters could understand and agree that the measure made sense.
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: She said she was supportive “with reservations,” rhetorically asking if the measure would really get to the problem.
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: Yes – as a mother, she said she understood how hard it was to get childcare 20 years ago.
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: Yes – and she added that she’s very supportive of collective bargaining in general.
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: Yes – although she noted that the increase was “amazing.” She said the increase would align Boulder with other communities and enable it to utilize future bond measures, including the 2026 measure if it passes.
  • Boulder County Increase 3 Commissioners to 5: Yes – but she said she wants to see more diversity among elected officials, including the Board of Commissioners.

Endorsements: Duran has received organization endorsements from Open Boulder and the Daily Camera.