As I moved to Parker two years ago from Highlands Ranch, this is the first time I've had to examine candidates for Parker Town Council. While I've never attended a town council meeting, I hope to change that in the near future, and with this election, I hope to come to know more about the council members. Therefore, I attended the September 11 th public debate for council candidates hosted by the Parker Toastmasters. As I understand the current situation, the Parker Town Council has 3 open positions. Seven candidates participated in the Sept. 11 forum that last only 90 minutes: Lisa Coe, Tim Danahey, David Heath, Gary Lasater, Trace Kaker, Franceen Thompson, and Mike Waid. Two other candidates, Debbie Lewis and Randall Strunk, were unavailable to attend the forum. So of these 9, only 3 will be selected. 6 will be rejected.

The best thing about this public forum is the fact that the Toastmasters put the entire event online so everyone can see it. I invite you to view it and compare your impressions to mine.

Parker Toastmasters website: http://parker.freetoasthost.ws/

Online video available: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1736515172166312228&hl=en

Here's how I saw it. While I applaud everyone for their desire to serve, this isn't kids' soccer where everyone gets a trophy. I thought there were clearly 3 levels of candidates: The first being those that demonstrated a command of knowledge of the town council's past decisions, the current economic situation, and a vision of the future. The second being those that seemed like a "good neighbor" who wants the "best" for our town, but didn't offer much in way of details about what that meant. The third level consisted of those who were "glad to be there", but could not even explain why they were there.

The FIRST LEVEL consisted of 3 candidates: current council members Gary Lasater, Trace Kaker, and Tim Danahey, who sits on the Parker Planning Commission. Kaker demonstrated an excellent command of the Town's past actions and a very calm demeanor in making several point-by-point explanations to the audience. Gary Lasater also did a good job in providing "the bigger picture" analysis needed, but his interaction with the local historical society member raised a question to me as to whether Gary has been an elected official for too long, having too strong of political alliances with established political groups. (50:30 - 54:15) Tim Danahey seemed to bring a new vitality along with an expertise that will bring Parker forward. Tim offered probably the best "new idea", and that was what he called " Live Parker by Parker" - encouraging residents to shop in Parker instead of the surrounding communities, and that should start with the town itself. He suggested offering contractual incentives for the town's public works contract vendors to use local businesses in fulfilling those contracts.

The SECOND LEVEL consisted of Mike Waid, Lisa Coe, and David Heath. Mike Waid came across as very warm, approachable, and good hearted, but lacked a clear message. Some very general pro-small business statements were positive, but no details were ever offered. My most negative reaction was to Lisa Coe, who came across as harsh and critical, without an explanation of any fundamental core-belief that would explain her criticisms and without a real vision of where she wanted to lead Parker. She did clearly state her belief that taxes were too high ( See video at 0:17:20). Her conclusion was apparently based upon her belief that the Town of Parker had a budget that allowed the town to immediately pay for both the Cultural Center and the new Police Station at the same time, concluding that taxes don't need to increase. (0:17:20-54). Ms. Coe complained of 20 businesses closing their doors in the past 6 months, stating that Parker didn't need more restaurants, and that more town sponsored retail development is not needed. (19:20 - 20:18) Trace Kaker interceded at this point, as a voice of reason, reminding the audience that the free enterprise market was working in Parker, as 17 of the 20 closed businesses were restaurants, yet sales tax revenue from restaurants had barely been reduced as a result. She concluded that Parker residents had not reduced their spending, but had used their ultimate judgment and had only patronized those restaurants with the quality of food and service they demanded. (20:20-21:00) Lisa Coe then discussed the "necessity" of such things as the new Police Station. While she acknowledged that Parker "definitely needed" the police station, and that having a Cultural Center would be "nice". However, she again echoed the pessimistic refrain of a poor economy in concluding that the town council should have prioritized the police station over the Cultural Center. (21:15 - 21:45) It is this specific negativity of Ms. Coe that struck me most, as her conclusion seemed contra-logical given her concerns over the economic vitality of Parker businesses. As I am a strong supporter of the Cultural Center, it could be that her criticism just raised my eye-brow, but her complete lack of reasoning behind the pessimistic attitude just struck me wrong somehow. The town council, and their studies, clearly show that the Cultural Center's effect upon the economy of downtown Parker would act as a great catalyst, generating a draw of people to Parker from the entire Southeast metro regional area. I can't help but notice that this is exactly the solution suggested by Tim Danahey, and addresses Ms. Coe's complaint exactly. So her opposition to the best solution to her chief complaint is rather paradoxical and ironic. Her lukewarm support of the library bond issue also showed a complete lack of leadership I would want from an elected official, as she almost encouraged voters to oppose it. (28:40 - 29:30) Thanks, Lisa, for nothing....absolutely nothing. David Heath lives in my neighborhood, and as a retired military member, he has my thanks, but beyond our joint love of our Parker neighborhood, he failed to articulate any message of note, other than he supported the library bond issue.

The THIRD LEVEL belonged solely to Franceen Thompson. She stated she wanted to see "better communication" between the town and its citizens and business people; at least that is what she read from her prepared written statement. Her support of the library bond issue was probably her highlight of the night, as she even knew the actual per capita cost of the bond issue to be amazingly low ($27.00). However, her absolute low point came when the moderator served up what seemed to me was the biggest softball of a question ever asked in the history of American politics: "If you were elected, how would you take Parker from being a "good community" to a "great community"? Thompson responded, " Well, I think Parker is a great community. I don't know what I'd do specifically, off the top of my head. I wish I could have a great answer, but I don't. (1:22:48 - 1:23:30) I still shake my head at the rookie mistake over such a lost opportunity.

From what I saw at this debate, Trace Kaker, Gary Lassater & Tim Danahey clearly came out as the most viable effective leaders, but not necessarily in that order. While I realize that I haven't heard Debbie Lewis or Robert Strunk, and I hope to do so, I would also want to hear more from Mike Waid. The rest of the group really doesn't seem to have anything of merit to offer - especially Lisa Coe. Franceen Thompson, bless her soul, might make a great volunteer for the community, but her weak performance might help her realize that she should stick to the sidelines, the sooner the better.

The job of town council member can not be easy, and the hard work will mostly be unnoticed and definitely underappreciated, but it will be important. The coming few years may be turbulent, so the town needs a steady hand of consistent, strong, and conservative financial controls, but hopefully the seeds for downtown development have been planted and watered - good caretakers will be needed to feed and promote this development to bring in an income of steady tax revenues derived from visitors from outside of Parker. The choices may become clearer between now and November - but we need to pay attention and make educated choices.