Dave Martus

Dave Martus, a first-time candidate for Boulder City Council, has some stories to tell about how he got to this point. He has long had an interest in public service and applied for city boards without landing a seat, and very recently spent significant time as a caregiver for his mother, who passed away last summer. Then, he had a serious ski accident in January, saying he was “extraordinarily fortunate” to pull through, plus former Council member Mark Wallach resigned which created an extra open seat for the 2026 race, and it all led to a realization.

“One of the takeaways from that was a mantra – if not now, then when? So, I’m applying that sort of across my life in a lot of things, and I love Boulder. I loved it when I arrived as an 18 year old, and I love it as much today. it’s just an amazing place. The people are amazing, the community is amazing. Our backdrop’s amazing, and I thought that common sense would be a great attribute to bring to Council. That’s my superpower that I would bring, and here I am, a candidate for Council,” he said.

Mini-Bio

Martus was born in Oxford, England, but his family settled in the suburbs of New York City when he was still young. He spent his first year of college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York, but said he didn’t find it to his liking. He wound up looking at college brochures, and came across one for CU-Boulder with really nice pictures. “It was probably taken in late May – maximum green. It’s got the campus, it’s got the mountains. I came out that March, and I was intrigued. It was a sunny, 70 degree day, then I went skiing. I was ready to sign,” he said.

At CU, he earned an undergraduate degree that he described as a combination of entrepreneurship and recreation. He worked for small companies in the ski business and in the trade show field, then went back to CU to earn a MBA in finance entrepreneurship. He then went on to work with several finance firms, and worked eight years with Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), which manages retirement accounts for 300,000-ish Colorado public workers, including those from the City of Boulder.

Martus hasn’t run for public office before, but said he has applied to be on the city’s Transportation Advisory Board and Open Space Board of Trustees yet did not get appointed.

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

On The Issues

Q – Has the Directly Elected Mayor Been a Good Experience?

While noting that the ballot measure authorizing a direct election kept the Mayor’s position as a “weak Mayor,” Martus said he believes “most people are pretty happy with it” in part because it’s led to a “singular community voice.”

Q – Contentious Council Meetings?

In 2025, some Council meetings got heated with protestors vociferously denouncing the situation in Gaza. On the day of this mid-September interview, Martus had just attended a candidate orientation in which a council member spoke about personal safety, and Martus said, “That shouldn’t have to be a topic of discussion.” He said it’s important to protect First Amendment rights, but did not speak positively about when protests are directed in anger. To Martus, Council should be a part-time role in which members focus on “taking care of Boulder. The Council did adopt some meeting policy changes, and Martus said “concentrating public comment early in the meeting” has been a positive change.

Q – Should Council Deal with International Affairs?

To Martus, Council meetings do not seem to be the best forum for international affairs. “It’s not that I want to be ignorant about any of those issues. It’s just that there’s limited amount of time and resources to devote to the work at hand,” he said. He did mention that the city has a robust Sister City program with cities in other nations, which he said is well-known worldwide. On the other hand, he mentioned a recent meeting in which some Council members didn’t even want to take a position on a Boulder County ballot measure. “Let’s focus on Boulder first,” he said.

Q – Boulder’s Economic Status and Ideas?

Like many candidates, Martus spoke about how modernizing the city’s land use and permitting codes could help businesses get running and generating revenue faster and easier. He said he’s heard of some processes taking more than a year – time in which many businesses aren’t earning money – and said this type of delay could “bankrupt them before they could even open their store.” He’s lived in Boulder for decades and remembers when Boulder was a very desirable place in which to do business, but now things are more competitive and businesses might consider opening in Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, or elsewhere in the Denver metro area. “You have to basically promote yourself and say why you (a business) should be here. It can’t be because we have more regulation, or it’s going to take longer to open your business. It’s of course, going to steer people away,” he said.

Q – Downtown Development Authority?

Martus said he would have been a “qualified no” vote on DDA if he was on Council, saying the idea behind the DDA was “solid,” but the process wasn’t implemented as well as it could have been, with a notable lack of stakeholding with all parties that had interest in what would happen. He said the Pearl Street Mall itself seems to be doing “OK” when it comes to economic activity, but the rest of Downtown has fallen off by significant amounts. To Martus, moving forward it will be important to look at various categories of people to try figuring out who’s not doing business downtown, and posed a series of questions. “Is it Boulder residents? From the whole city? Is it the 15 minute neighborhood near downtown? Is it employees that come to Boulder? Is it day trippers that come from outside the city, that come for a hike, and spend, and go to lunch, and do other things? Is it out of town visitors?” He also said some of the financial assumptions needed more clarity, like if the baseline should have been “pre or post-Sundance,” or if it was tied to inflation.

Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?

According to Martus, the city is “on the right track,” but added he believes it will be important to watch the basics, including if people can easily get to venues, if there’s good signage, or if there are enough ambassadors to help people with questions. He emphasized the importance of making sure people can get around town efficiently, saying “The slogan is ‘park once,’ and that would be awesome.”

Q – Public Safety Concerns or Ideas?

Martus said “overall, I feel pretty safe in town.” However, he spoke about how Boulder is currently short a few officers compared to goals in the city’s “Reimagining Policing” plan, and questioned why it’s so difficult for the city to fill the vacancies. He said he knows some people do feel uncomfortable in certain areas of Boulder, including parts of certain bike paths, and noted that Boulder has a “mix of compassion and enforcement” with unhoused populations that might frequent those areas.

Q – Is Boulder on the Right Track with Homelessness?

Back to the mix of compassion and enforcement Martus mentioned in the previous section, he believes the current mix is in good balance. He said an important objective is to make sure people feel comfortable around the libraries or bike paths, adding that “It can’t be a coexistence, but you want people to feel safe.” Martus supported moving services for the unhoused away from the downtown area.

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

Martus said if the city is to reach its affordable housing goals, it should seek opportunities where certain developments can offer 100% affordable housing. Currently, developers can build fewer affordable units but pay “cash in lieu” to fund affordable housing elsewhere, but Martus said this only increases the affordable stock at “a pretty gentle slope.” He said city-owned properties can provide an opportunity for more affordable housing, citing what he called a successful land trust program in Burlington, Vermont where the city owns the land. In Boulder, he mentioned that the city is going to decommission city-owned buildings and move these offices to the complex being built at Alpine-Balsam. He said the city should investigate whether the soon-to-be-abandoned buildings might be good candidates for housing. Martus added that the city should be wary of issues associated with development, including availability of water and having practical transportation systems in place for all modes of travel.

Q – Climate Action?

When asked about the city’s Climate Initiatives Department and the carbon tax that funds it, he questioned if some of this revenue could be moved toward wildfire mitigation efforts. In his personal life, he said he has rooftop solar and a heat pump, so “I feel like at least my Boulder life is pretty (carbon) neutral.”

Q – Automated Surveillance Systems and Personal Liberties?

Martus said this issue circles back to “transparency and trust.” While the city has said auto thefts are down since the cameras started being used, Martus said he doesn’t believe city residents are being given the “granular data” so they can understand and have well-informed opinions about the value of the cameras. He said he’s personally concerned about privacy issues, while he believes others in the community have “massive mistrust” over how the data collected is being stored and used.

Q – Should Reliance on Property Taxes and Fees Increase?

According to Martus, the city has a basic obligation to keep the services it provides at consistent levels to the best of its abilities. “You shouldn’t have to say this year, you can run your full program, and the next year you’ve got to cut it 20%, and then in the next year, you can go back to 100%.” Like many candidates, he noted that sales tax revenues have been stagnant at best, but added that property tax revenues can fluctuate as well, but to a lesser degree. “That’s why you keep a good reserve on your books as a city,” he said. Martus noted that fees can be increased without a vote of the people, unlike tax increases under TABOR. With the recent Transportation Maintenance Fee, he said the city would add 3 FTE positions to administer the program, and said he tends to ask “if the juice is worth the squeeze” if costs eat up too much of the new revenue. Martus said the TMF will go on people’s utility bills, plus water bills are increasing, so he said it seems as if the trajectory might mean utility bills might wind up bigger than Xcel Energy bills.

Q – Rec Centers and Deferred Maintenance?

Martus said a 2021 city facilities plan called for spending 2% of facility replacement value on maintenance every year, but since then it’s been funded at about one-tenth of that goal. He said during this mid-September interview that he just contacted the City Manager’s office and was told there would be maintenance funding in the 2027 budget. “Often maintenance is the can that can get kicked down the road – then the problems slowly build up. I think of the old analogy of ‘how’d you go bankrupt?’ and I think Hemingway said ‘Slowly at first, then all at once … So we’re going to have to catch up one way or another, and it’s a huge challenge,” he said.

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder $400 Million Bond: Martus is opposed to this measure, though he says he supports public safety and the rec centers. He said the measure was presented without enough detail and clarity, also pointing out that the location for the public safety building hasn’t been determined plus the cost estimates have shot up since not that long ago. He recalled a bond proposal of the past where it was once for a large amount like in 2026, but it got cut down to a much smaller amount of money and passed, in his opinion at least partially because people were clear about what was going to happen with the money.
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: He opposes it, partially because he believes the ultimate revenue collection will be small while there will be challenges with how to enforce it.
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: In mid-September, he was undecided.
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: He opposes what he called a “10-times increase” in the debt limit. He questioned why Boulder’s limit had to go to 3% of actual value, when a fairly similar city in Ft. Collins uses 10% of assessed value.
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: Yes
  • Boulder County increase 3 Commissioners to 5: He supports it, partially because “Boulder County’s a big place” and the measure would lead to better representation.

Endorsements: Martus has received an organizational endorsement from PLAN-Boulder County.

Follow the Money: Martus has received a maximum $100 donation from former Council member Lisa Morzel.