register |  login
› LITTLETON
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

Stuart Macdonald running for KCRMD board

Contributed by: Stuart Macdonald on 4/10/2008

Editor's note: Voters will be electing three members to the Ken-Caryl Ranch Metropolitan District Board of Directors on May 6. For more candidate profiles and information on the election, click here. YourHub.com asked the candidates running to answer a questionnaire to get to know them better. Here's what candidate Stuart Macdonald had to say:

My name: Stuart Macdonald

My age: 46

My Family: My Wife Wenonah, Daughter Brittney and two sons Nathaniel and Doug.

Education: BA Economics UCLA. Many classes in Urban Planning.

What I do: I am a Senior Software Engineer developing Corporate Firewalls and work in the field of Network Security.

My favorite place in town to hang out: I am not the hanging out type, but my favorite place is our beautiful trail system or coaching my kids soccer teams on a field within our community. Some might even accuse me of hanging out at the Ranch House given the duration of the numerous meetings I have attended there both before and after I joined the KCRMD Board of Directors in January 2008.

What I like most about living here: The surrounding Open Space and knowing that with good stewardship, it will be there for generations to come.

My interests and hobbies: I am a volunteer Youth Soccer coach and have done so for over ten years. I greatly enjoy working with kids and teaching them about soccer and being very good sports. I am an avid sailor both at Dillon and on the Pacific. I am currently restoring a 30+ year old Sailboat as a hobby.

My favorite thing to cook: I cook a mean BBQ at home and awesome grilled freshly caught trout on my boat.

People who inspire me (and how): I am most inspired by how my three kids approach and resolve the many challenges faced in their young lives. My Daughter who at age 15 tore ligaments in her ankle that would have ended most aspiring soccer careers. After a successful surgery, she defied the odds, proved that focus, hard work and determination does bring results and today, she has represented her country on the U20 Woman's National Soccer team. My in-laws who as a young family arrived in our country from the Philippines with a suitcase and a dream and became highly productive, hard working members of our society and sent all of their children to college. From a former co-worker who as a young woman left everything behind and swam night and day to escape the horrors of post-war Vietnam to restart a new and successful life in America. Collectively these experiences give me hope in that with hard work, good character and a determination to succeed, anything is possible to achieve.

How I have contributed to the community: I have served on the KCRMD Board of Directors since January, 2008 having been chosen from a field of six applicants. During my short tenure on the Board I have researched and written articles in our community paper informing citizens on important issues facing our community. I helped define and setup a Finance Committee for the KCRMD, which as Treasurer, I will head. I have actively participated in my community since 1998. I have attended hundreds of KCRMA and KCRMD meetings and to the extent possible as a resident, have contributed to those meetings since 1998. By being an informed citizen, I have grown to appreciate and respect the hard-working KCRMD staff and their responsibilities. I served on the KCRMD's Field Allocation Committee to develop a plan to fairly use our limited inventory of Youth Sports fields. I served on the KCRMD's Valley Park Committee. I worked with the County, other residents and the KCRMD to implement an appropriate traffic control solution within our community near the Equestrian Center. I worked with KCRMD staff to ensure that our fields can be efficiently used such as getting the KCRMD to install a French drain at Community Park to alleviate flooding and the resulting field closure.

The biggest issues facing the KCRMD now: Our community and our way of life is in trouble. No, it's not due to mismanagement, incompetence, or wasteful staff... Since 1994 the Real (adjusted for inflation) increase in the KCRMD's budget has been 13% while our property values have doubled! The KCRMD, which manages and maintains the many assets of our community today collects 7.6 percent less in real property tax revenue than it did in 2002! Unfortunately during this same time, operating costs have risen well in excess of inflation. In 2004, due to a decline in District assessed values, the District's tax revenue fell. In 2004, a snow storm destroyed the indoor tennis bubble and the District was faced with an unexpected $462,000 expense for replacement of the facility. This replacement coupled with the decline in property tax revenue virtually depleted the District's reserves. The District has responded as any fiscally prudent and responsible entity would by greatly cutting staffing and other costs while attempting to adequately perform their job. Today, our District Manager does the job of two people with a salary for one. The District has tried outsourcing only to discover that they could provide the service at 54% of the cost. In 2004 and on to 2005, the District also was sued by both Foothills and the PMD all due to the PMD not conforming to its Service Plan. Essentially, the PMD businesses want to disband their District, send their residents to Foothills and then to not have to pay property taxes ever again! The current lawsuit between PMD and KCRMD is over $3.5M in recreational facilities that are clearly defined in the original PMD Service plan that upon completion by the PMD were to be operated by the KCRMA. Upon payoff these facilities were to be deeded to the KCRMA - read dues payers. This amounts to $853 per residence across the KCRMA. Without the lawsuit, the KCRMD would have lawfully annexed the entire PMD filling the void left by the deceased PMD and would be nowhere close to the financial condition they are in today and would not be approaching residents for more money. Combined, all of these factors have placed the District into the precarious financial situation it is in today. The District needs additional funding to restore its reserves and to be in the fiscal position necessary to properly maintain our community assets to the high quality levels our community deserves.

Why I am running: Because I care immensely about the well-being of our Ken-Caryl Ranch community. We are truly at a crossroads which I believe that with my leadership and my analytical and complex problem solving skills, I can restore the KCRMD and our community to a place that due to its abundance of well-maintained amenities, remains an icon in successful urban planning and a top place to call home. I believe that one's interest in their community shouldn't stop at the curbside. I believe that if the kids have grown up and moved on, your interest in the community should not diminish to the point where you no longer feel that it is necessary to fulfill your community obligation of paying taxes on your property. I believe that we all benefit in-terms of higher property values through the presence of an abundance of well maintained community assets including: pools, open space, tennis courts, equestrian center and other community facilities and services and planned community events that bring people together. I believe in holding members of our community responsible when it comes to paying for promised services such as the $3.5M owed to our community by the PMD in the form of Recreational Facilities including Soccer, Baseball fields. I believe that there are services the District offers that could be changed for the better so that users pay for more of their facility upkeep. Doing so allows the District to continue to offer the best programs available to its residents and to have the quality of the facilities consistent with that of the surrounding community. Tennis, with its over $500K in revenue and a net gain to the District of $15K to $57K comes to mind especially when over the next six years the facilities will need to be improved by an estimated $500K. B&A day care has operated in this manner and since its inception has paid fully for their use of facilities, has contributed towards upkeep of the Community Center and will be purchasing replacement vans. This has been done from the fees they charge for their service and which are saved for future expenses. As a Board member since January and now Treasurer of the KCRMD I am proud to oversee the KCRMD Finance committee that with my efforts, came into existence during my short tenure on the Board.



SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos