Sam Fuqua
The tables were turned a bit for this interview with City Council candidate Sam Fuqua, since he had interviewed this writer several times as a radio host with KGNU, and this time it was Fuqua’s turn to be the interviewee. Fuqua is making his first run for Council in 2026, but has been a local elected official with the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) school board, and has served on other local boards and commissions.
“My spark is gratitude for the opportunities that Boulder offered my family to afford a place to live, a good home, to take advantage of the city programs that were offered at a discount to folks without a lot of money, and to raise our kids and build a good life here … So, what can I do if I get on city council to ensure that young families today and tomorrow have those same opportunities? … And I think I can bring a, you know, a sense of how a governing body works, how you work together, uh, with other elected officials on the same board to, you know, steer a ship that sometimes turns slowly, if at all,” Fuqua said about his reasons for running in 2026.
Mini-Bio
Fuqua was born in Detroit, grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and moved to Minnesota to attend Macalester College in St. Paul. He earned a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and a minor in Journalism, noting that he wanted to pursue journalism but an advisor told him “he didn’t think anyone should major in journalism.” (Editor’s note: checks out.)
He and his wife moved to Boulder in 1991, since Boulder’s KGNU Radio had offered him the job of news director. Per his website, he stayed on staff at KGNU for about 20 years, and managed a children’s arts and literacy nonprofit in Denver for six years.
In public life, he was appointed to a city affordable housing task force in 2007, served on the Boulder Library Commission for five years, and ran successfully for the BVSD board in 2011. While with the BVSD board, he served two four-year terms and was the board president for two of those years. He was also appointed to the original Boulder Public Library District Board of Trustees in 2023, serving for two years.
Fuqua said his BVSD board experience does apply to potential issues that would face him should he be elected to Council. The city and the school district must work together on issues like transit, traffic patterns, and now the likelihood that BVSD will be closing schools and working on consolidation. He said one of the upcoming considerations for the city is what will happen with the facilities that will be closing, and how will the consolidation affect transportation patterns.
His campaign website is https://www.fuquaforcouncil.com/
On The Issues
Q – Concerns and Goals for Boulder’s Economy?
Fuqua said it will be important for Boulder’s economy to protect or restore jobs and funding at the local federal labs, though he acknowledged that “the levers that we can pull” at the city level are limited, so collaboration with the congressional delegation will be key. He spoke about flat or declining city sales tax revenue, and said local affordable housing availability would be one factor in keeping more sales-tax-paying residents in Boulder, hopefully with income they can spend locally because less of their earnings go to pay the rent or mortgage. Plus, more local housing might help businesses retain more employees. He said the city and CU don’t always agree on everything, but it’s the city’s largest employer so Fuqua believes it “can’t be a hostile relationship.”
Q – Does Boulder Need to Continue Pushing for More Housing?
Housing is a personal issue for Fuqua, and during this late August interview he frequently spoke about his own experience here. After he came to Boulder, he first lived in a local mobile home park. After about seven years he and his wife qualified for an affordable mortgage program, purchased a 1,400-square-foot unit in North Boulder, and said “more than any other single thing, that’s why we stayed in Boulder and built a life here.” (Editor’s personal note: checks out.)
Today, Fuqua says Boulder needs more permanently affordable units, along with more middle-income housing opportunities. He said he would focus on infill development, possibly even in industrial or commercial zones if it can be done without displacing businesses. Fuqua lives in a “land trust” community, where a third party owns the land and the homeowner owns the unit, and he believes that model could help make more affordable units possible. He is interested in looking to the large Area III parcel near 28th and Jay for more housing, but for now only part of it, and mentioned that there are concerns around the cost of extending city infrastructure into the area.
Q – Contentious Council Meetings and Policy Changes?
In 2025, certain City Council meetings got very heated during protests over the situation in Gaza. Fuqua said it was a “painful, divisive, and time consuming situation,” and while he believes people have the right to share views with elected officials, there have to be rules of decorum during meetings. Council eventually adopted new policies to minimize meeting disruptions, and Fuqua said “I think the city did their best, and I support the policies they put in place.”
Q – Public Safety Status and Future Direction?
Fuqua said he believes the city’s “on the right track” when it comes to public safety. He supports the city’s relatively new “Reimagining Policing” guidelines, which include goals of having the local police force try to build “relationships and trust,” through strategies including more community foot patrols as opposed to more patrols in vehicles. He would support what he calls a “modest” increase in hiring officers, and replacing old fire stations with modern facilities.
Q – Public Safety FROM Public Safety?
Like many candidates, Fuqua has concerns around the use of automated license plate readers, including but not limited to the Flock cameras that have been the subject of local controversies. He said he acknowledges that there are all kinds of other cameras in common use, and that there can be benefits to law enforcement if a camera can provide evidence useful in solving crimes. But he said, “If we’re if we’re going to use that technology, it has to be the narrowest possible window of retention of that information, and the narrowest possible number of people who can view that information.” Fuqua also mentioned a situation in which certain “lower-level” incidents involving policing were not shared with the city’s Police Oversight Panel (POP), and that Council wasn’t aware of these omissions. “It doesn’t necessarily mean the investigative process is the same for lower level complaints versus higher-level complaints, but I think they (POP) need to at least be involved at some level, even in the lower-level complaints,” he said.
Q – Downtown Development Authority?
Fuqua said he would have voted against sending the DDA proposal to DDA voters had he been on Council for the mid-2026 vote. In part, he said he was troubled by how some of the proposed DDA revenue could have come out of voter-approved dedicated funds. Like many candidates, he believes that the process leading up to the final DDA proposal was not inclusive enough, and Fuqua as a former Library District board member said the Library should have had a more active and early role in conversations. “The library brings a lot of people to downtown,” he added. He noted that DDAs in other cities have done or proposed potentially beneficial projects, but during the Boulder proposal he said he wanted more evidence about how this DDA might really boost the downtown. Since the city will move forward without the DDA revenue for the time being, he supports more festivals and events, since they bring people downtown, along with smaller opportunities like pop-up shops so businesses can occupy vacant spaces temporarily. He is interested in a community land trust model for commercial areas like Downtown, to possibly help create more affordable office or retail spaces.
Q – International Issues on Council Time?
According to Fuqua, he would listen to community members with concerns about international issues, and would thoughtfully review a Council resolution if a member brought one forward, but generally doesn’t believe international issues are the best use of Council time. “I don’t think it’s the business of the city. We have too much to do to make, you know, to make the lives of the people who live here better, and too many serious local issues to deal with,” he said.
Q – Directly Elected Mayor?
Until 2023, Mayors were selected by Council members rather than elected by city voters. Fuqua said he doesn’t believe he’s seen a big difference except for “some satisfaction among residents” who feel better knowing that all city voters had a chance to choose their Mayor.
Q – Climate Action?
Fuqua said it’s important to reduce carbon emissions, and since electricity and transportation are large carbon emitters, he focused on those topics. With electricity, he said Xcel Energy has missed certain emission reduction targets, and Fuqua believes the city should insist that future rate increase proposals should be tied to carbon emission reductions – implemented equitably so increases don’t hit lower-income people harder. He went back to affordable housing on this question, saying available housing in the city and possibly near transit opportunities could reduce vehicle miles traveled and in turn carbon emissions. Still, he said the city needs to find ways to adapt to climate change, including home hardening and mitigation efforts in the wildland-urban interface to protect against wildfires and the associated impacts. He supports expanding the city’s urban tree canopy for shading and cooling, and making sure there are cool (temperature) places to go in the city for residents who don’t have adequate cooling at home.
Q – Is Boulder on the Right Track with Homelessness?
Fuqua supports the All Roads shelter’s approach of attempting to get people into supportive housing if possible, and called out Haven Ridge (formerly Mother House) for its work supporting homeless mothers and children. Moving forward, he said he is concerned as to whether the city has enough beds available – not just during cold weather, but for the rest of the year as well.
Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?
Like many candidates, Fuqua said the city is working hard to get ready for Sundance, but is likely to learn what else will be needed after the first go-round. On the housing issue, he said he wants to make sure people living in local affordable housing units will be able to do short-term rentals for Sundance attendees. He is concerned that Sundance might attract people who would like to buy second homes in the area but won’t live in them most of the year. Like with local schools, he said it will be important to keep track of traffic patterns to accommodate the probably large influx of visitors, but overall sees Sundance as a likely net positive. “I think it’s going to bring a lot of people to Boulder, who are going to see Boulder as the interesting and beautiful place that it is, and I hope they come back and visit another season,” he said.
Q – Deferred Maintenance and Rec Centers?
Fuqua said he believes the city should have done better with facilities maintenance, but it does cost money and he said the city has faced recent economic challenges, like the pandemic, that might have pushed maintenance farther down the list of budget items. City voters will face a $400 million bond issue in 2026, a measure that includes a property tax increase, and Fuqua said property tax is a “more predictable and often more equitable” way of funding city needs relative to sales tax. If the bond measure is approved, he supports forming something like BVSD’s bond oversight committee to make sure there are independent eyes on the process, and he would favor trying to find ways to save costs on projects without “compromising the fundamentals” of given projects.
2026 Ballot Measures
- City of Boulder $400 million bond measure: Yes – he said he’s not happy about it but the cost of waiting on capital improvements will only get higher.
- City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: Yes
- Boulder County Increase from 3 commissioners to 5: He said in late August he was “agnostic” on this measure
- Boulder County Childcare Tax: Yes – he believes it’s an “investment that will pay off” for working families and workers in childcare or early education fields.
- City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: Yes
- City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: Yes – he said the higher debt limit would be necessary to support the $400 million bond, but added that this increase would put Boulder’s allowable debt higher than some other cities.
Endorsements: Fuqua has earned organizational endorsements from Boulder Progressives, Better Boulder, and Daily Camera.
Follow the Money: Fuqua has received maximum $100 donations from Mayor Aaron Brockett, former Council member Jill Grano, County Commissioner Claire Levy, State Board of Education member Kathy Gebhardt, and former BVSD board member Laurie Albright.
