Ryan Jamieson

Ryan Jamieson, a candidate for Boulder City Council in 2026, is making his first formal run for elected office, but believes his life experiences coupled with his interests in Boulder make him a viable candidate.

“We’ve got a town of entrepreneurs, and scientists, and triathletes, and all these people that talk a lot about making the city a better place and doing cool stuff here. But then every time they talk about working with the city, it turns into this horror story, this kind of Kafkaesque nightmare of how we’ve made it difficult to actually get things done…Now that I run my own company, I’ve got a bit more flexibility, and so I looked at this as an opportunity to use the skills that I have, to be able to make the city a better place that works better for everybody that wants to do cool stuff,” said Jamieson when asked about his reasons for running.

Mini-Bio

Per Jamieson’s website, he was born outside of Atlanta, and enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 19. With the Army, he served in Korea, Germany, Kuwait, and was part of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He earned a Bronze Star for his work in Iraq (in brief, awarded for heroic or meritorious actions in a combat zone).

Jamieson earned a degree from Arizona State University, then landed a job as an internal auditor with American Express. He has been working in the cybersecurity field for the past two decades, and currently has his own cybersecurity business. When asked to describe the top-level role of this business, he said, “I deconstruct complex businesses, their processes, their technology, to understand how it works. And then I put them back together with better, leaner, more secure processes. So that way, they can be defendable against the threats on the internet.”

He has not formally been involved in politics until now, but he said his experience in the military naturally made him more interested in understanding why the U.S. government does what it does internationally, and learning more about international policy and relations. He developed an interest in veteran’s affairs, and said he has worked with individual veterans to help them transition from military life into the civilian world. But he moved to Boulder about six years ago, and said he has been following local political affairs, reading local publications and attending the occasional City Council meeting. He concluded by saying, “You get more impacted by the changes that your City Council makes than the changes that they make in (Washington) DC.”

His campaign website is https://rjforboulder.com/  

On the Issues

Q – Boulder’s Economic Challenges?

Jamieson mentioned several times during this late August 2026 interview that he believes Boulder’s well-known demanding city processes makes it difficult for people interested in starting or growing a business to make these businesses thrive in a timely manner. He noted that there are commercial vacancies in Boulder, and the city relies on sales tax revenue, yet gave an example of a friend of his who was trying to open a restaurant but spent more than a year in what he called “permitting hell.” “And that’s a year and 4 months of no sales tax coming in because that space isn’t being used,” he said. According to Jamieson, this example was just one story, but there are others. He said this situation might even contribute to affordability issues, since businesses might need to charge more to make up for lost time where they couldn’t operate. In short, he believes if Boulder wants to improve its economic climate, one solution is to reduce bureaucratic obstacles.

Q – Public Safety in Boulder?

While it was perhaps the interviewer’s fault for teeing up this question by saying “I know Boulder isn’t Iraq in 2003…” Jamieson said he generally feels safe in Boulder, but can understand why people might have concerns. He said he was aware of violent incidents in downtown Boulder, including the 2025 flamethrower attack, and added that bike underpasses might have an element of danger because it’s darker and riders might not be aware of people sleeping or resting in them. He supports a “more visible police presence” in areas of the city as a deterrent, and greater security attention when there are large events. But he said he appreciates that he’s seen recent foot patrols from the Boulder police, and favors greater security coordination moving forward.

Q – Contentious Council Meetings?

Jamieson was aware of contentious Council meetings during 2025, and said it’s important for the people to have a voice but it’s also important for Council to get its work done. He said if the Council has a business meeting agenda, members of the public who wish to speak during the agenda items should stick to the agenda topic, while the city might be able to create a different forum for those who want to speak on other issues. According to Jamieson, “We have a citizenry that considers themselves global citizens … and are concerned about what’s happening in the world,” but he added that there is ultimately “very little” that Boulder can do about certain international issues.

Q – International Affairs on Council Time?

Jamieson started to answer this question with a few rhetorical questions of his own. Are international issues the best use of Council’s time? Do people committing “inhumane acts” care about Boulder’s opinion? He said he would prefer for people to have “rational assessments about how much our voice here in Boulder, Colorado can fix problems that are on the other side of the planet.”

Q – Downtown Development Authority (DDA)?

Jamieson said he would have voted to put the DDA measure before DDA voters if he was on Council. While he said the proposal at the time might not have been perfect, there are examples of where it’s worked in Colorado, and the authority or City Council might have been able to review and modify issues after the authority would have been formed. Like many candidates, he mentioned that there wasn’t enough outreach to all entities that the DDA might have affected in advance of bringing the proposal to Council. But since there won’t be DDA revenue for the time being, he noted that the city might still be able to increase the Downtown/University Hill business environments by reforming permitting and making it easier to do business.

Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?

Jamieson suggested that the first run of Sundance is likely to reveal some shortcomings, but he’s interested in how the city might work to address them in the year to follow. Rhetorically, he asked how the city might improve on weaknesses, play on its strengths, and help local businesses and individuals capture some benefit from the event. “I think a nightmare scenario is where there’s no local businesses that get a lot out of it, and a bunch of capital flows in to do random things, and then it leaves with all of that capital that they just made,” he said. Jamieson went on to mention ideas like allowing food trucks, pop-ups, and parties to help ensure that local entrepreneurs might make some money that’s being spent locally.

Q – Does Boulder Need More Housing?

According to Jamieson, he believes the city does need more housing “of diverse types.” He added that there’s a “big leap” between the typically very expensive single-family home in Boulder and the more affordable smaller condos in town. He supports greater focus on creating townhomes, duplexes/triplexes, and ADUs to help more people find affordable and practical housing solutions. To Jamieson, creating more housing and more types of housing could depend on reviewing and revising city processes, including zoning and land use codes.

Q – Is the City Properly Managing Homelessness?

Jamieson pointed out that it’s important to make sure people don’t look at homelessness as a monolithic situation – saying there are obvious differences between a person who just lost a job and a person who might even be out in the community committing crimes. “That’s two wildly different populations of people, and we can’t apply the same strategies to the whole group,” he said. During this late August interview, he said there is “no silver bullet” that will completely manage homelessness in Boulder, and added that he was currently working to learn more about the issues.

Q – Public Safety FROM Public Safety?

As a person who works in cybersecurity, Jamieson said he builds digital surveillance infrastructure for his clients’ security, but “I don’t want to live in a surveillance state.” Since there is community controversy over the use of Flock cameras or other automated surveillance devices, he said it’s important to make sure citizens aren’t “tracked in the real world.” He has followed Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel, and believes it’s beneficial that the POP provides “an interface layer where police can be held accountable for overstepping their bounds.” Still, he added that “being a cop is a hard job.”

Q – Climate Action and Future Actions?

While acknowledging the work the city’s Climate Initiatives Department has done, Jamieson believes the city should begin to focus more on wildfire resilience because serious wildfire is a more immediate threat. “The return on investments for things like efficiency … for insulation and energy reduction … those are important things, but the time horizon on that is pretty far out,” he said. Jamieson supports spending city money if necessary to help create a more defensible perimeter around Boulder, and to “harden” homes against fire vulnerability. He said it’s not just to protect property, but also to help minimize the risk to firefighters.

Q – Types of Taxes and Fees?

There has been recent controversy about a city Transportation Maintenance Fee and the property tax increase proposed with a 2026 city bond measure. Jamieson said he believes it’s prudent to diversify city revenue streams, but added that the city could continue to build sales tax revenue by building the local economy and attracting economic activity. “Reliance on sales tax is kind of like getting equity in the company that you’re working for, as a city government, because then your incentives are aligned,” he said.

Q – Rec Centers and Deferred Maintenance?

Jamieson said local recreation centers are “community hubs” for Boulder’s local life, and believes it’s important to make sure they’re available and well-maintained. However, he believes maintenance needs “flew under the radar” for a long time, and said maintenance was “buried in line items of individual department budgets” as opposed to being prominent in budget discussions. He supports greater clarity on the city budget moving forward, in part to make sure maintenance is not an issue that isn’t well-prioritized until facilities deteriorate to the point where conditions can’t be ignored.

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder $400 Million Bond Issue: Jamieson opposes this particular bond measure for a few reasons: he’s concerned about potential bond market fluctuation that might cost the city serious money; he isn’t convinced that the city has been a great steward of money recently; and he doesn’t believe the city has done enough in a transparent manner to show potential taxpayers that they should trust the city when it’s asking for this type of tax increase. He said he might support a bond measure of a smaller size “that exposes the city to less risk when the world is increasingly crazy.”
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: Jamieson opposes this measure because “the size of the tax as a penalty for homeowners is negligible and won’t provide the desired outcomes.”
  • Boulder County Increase from 3 Commissioners to 5: During a late August interview, Jamieson said he didn’t have a position on this measure
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: Jamieson was not in support of this measure, partially because he believes the tax would have a negative effect on local affordability.
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: Jamieson supports this measure.
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: During this late August interview, Jamieson re-emphasized that he doesn’t believe the city has been transparent enough about financial issues to support taking on large amounts of new debt. He said he might eventually be supportive of new debt if there are conversations that paint a clearer picture of how taxpayer money is being spent.

Endorsements: Jamieson has received organizational endorsements from PLAN-Boulder County, Open Boulder, and Better Boulder.

Follow The Money: Jamieson has received maximum $100 donations from current Council member Rob Kaplan; and former Council members KC Becker, Jan Burton, and Sam Weaver.