Thursday's Eagle Town Council candidate forum was the equivalent of speed dating for voters. With 14 candidates running for five seats, including three vying to succeed Mayor Scott Turnipseed, every second counted at the microphone.
Candidates made their pitches to a packed room at the council chambers on Broadway and to those watching at home via livestream. Kevin Brubeck, a former council member, moderated the event, which was hosted by the Eagle Chamber of Commerce.
The 11 candidates vying for four seats on the council got turns at the mic first. While all spoke passionately about why they love Eagle and their motivations for wanting to serve the community, there were some sharp contrasts between candidates over the best path forward. Debates over how to manage growth, how to create affordability and economic vitality for workers and businesses, and how to grow tax revenue, emerged as central themes.
On one end of the spectrum were candidates Robert Dagostino and Todd Morrison, who advocated for drastic changes.
"If we're going to conquer the hill, we're either going to drill through it, go over it, or blow it up," said Dagostino, a former Navy SEAL. "And in some cases, the blowing up is sometimes good because when you put the pieces back together, you get a different perspective of the town and the people, how resilient they are."
Morrison, the owner of a construction company, detailed his frustrations with town staff and called himself a "livid constituent" who would be a "change agent."
"If you hire me to do this job, I'm going to be pounding on these people," he said.
At the other end of the spectrum were incumbent Council member Geoff Grimmer and others such as Gina McCrackin, Mark Bergman and Scott Schreiner who pushed back against sweeping changes and instead advocated for building on and improving plans that have been built through rigorous stakeholder engagement.
"Those long-term plans that have had 40, 50, 60 people all show up to give their best input, our goal should be just to execute those plans," Grimmer said. "If you come in, kind of lone-wolf style, I think what happens is in the long run, the town scratches their head after 10 or 20 years because we didn't reach any of our goals."
"I think understanding the function of government and how things can actually be done within communities, within budgeting and staff capacity constraints are incredibly important," McCrackin said.
How should Eagle grow? It's a question that generated a lot of different opinions throughout the night. Some, like Timothy Haley, strongly advocated for activating the large East Eagle parcel north of town, envisioning it as a driver of tax revenue through sports tourism and a public-private partnership.
Haley acknowledged that the parcel has been controversial over the years. The ambitious Eagle River Station plan originally approved by the town in 2012 would have brought some 732,000 square feet of commercial space and 550 rental units online in two phases. It ultimately never happened after dozens of contentious hearings that split the community between those who wanted the financial windfall from tax revenues and others who saw it as a death knell for Eagle's small-town charm.
Haley, who works in commercial banking, emphasized that tax revenue is essential for funding town amenities.
"I spend all day with business owners, and I know that in order for a town to thrive, tax revenue is king. Tax revenue is a lifeblood of a town," he said. "If you start to squeeze that, as you look down Main Street, you wonder, where's all the businesses? That's what's impacting the town. You can't get art done. You can't get the river park done. You can't get more trails done without tax revenue."
Others, however, expressed reservations about unchecked expansion.
Bergman cautioned that expansion "doesn't necessarily mean economic stability" and stressed the need for strategic planning and knowing "who's going to pay for it."
"I believe in smart growth that protects and preserves our mountain culture, our connection to the outdoors, our shared community, and our small town character," Schreiner said.
Casey Glowacki, who owns popular restaurants in Eagle Ranch and Edwards, emphasized the importance of attracting more traffic and retail to the town, arguing that "a rising tide lifts all ships."
"When I talk to other business owners around here, they want more traffic, more competition," he said. "I'm running on greenlighting projects to get us to that."
Several candidates expressed concerns about Eagle's high tax rate and its potential to discourage shoppers and businesses. Tania Jordet said Eagle has "the highest tax rate in the valley" and that it discourages people from shopping in town and going elsewhere.
Jordet Kunkel and Morrison highlighted the need to streamline processes for new businesses and address issues like high tap fees.
"I had a friend that tried to open a hair salon here, and she was so discouraged by the water tap fees that the owner of the property had already paid," Jordet said. "And then the town wanted to make her pay them as well. So, this is like a double tax. But that doesn't make any sense. So, she was discouraged. She did not open a business. She left and got work elsewhere. And then that's what we want to prevent."
Kunkel, who owns two businesses in town, said there's too much red tape and confusion when it comes to doing business in town.
"When I started going through the process myself, I found that there was conflicting information between what I found on the website and from what I was hearing from the town staff," he said. "I'm hearing that there's still those issues going on, that there's these conflicts between what is being put out in public and what you're hearing from the staff. That needs to be dealt with immediately. It's really hard for any investor to want to come into our community and spend money if they don't know how much money they're going to spend."
Morrison said the town needs to be run more like his business.
"I spend $20 million a year in the Town of Eagle, OK?" he said. "The staff is too slow with regard to plan review. The staff is too slow with regard to permit approval. The staff is too slow with regard to major subdivision applications, and they're too slow with PUD. If you can't keep up, find new staff who are capable, OK? Because I'm telling you, we have people on staff we could pay half, and they'd be twice as effective."
Affordable housing was another dominant topic, with candidates grappling with the challenges of rising home prices and the need to retain a diverse workforce.
Kunkel passionately argued that Eagle is "pricing out the working-class families" and emphasized the importance of deed-restricted housing to ensure that teachers, tradespeople, and small business owners can afford to live in town.
Schreiner echoed this concern, stating that "housing actually is economic vitality and sustainability."
"If we can't have affordable housing to house our workers, then we won't have businesses be successful," he said. "Basically, right now, we're at the precipice of where the people that actually run the town, our firefighters, our policemen, our retail, our restaurant, our hotel workers, our educators, and even our construction workers cannot actually afford to live in the town that they sustain and maintain. Our maintenance people on our streets, our road and bridge. Sooner or later, those people will find another town to go to and they will not come back."
McCrackin said Eagle is unaffordable for a young, working-class professional like herself, which is why she's running to have a voice on council.
"I, of course, aspire for homeownership, and I would love to see myself living in this community 30, 40, 50 years from now," she said. "It is damn near impossible for me to do that, as has been harped on a ton tonight. It will be a big goal of mine to focus on affordability of this community, especially for our young workforce that often live here year-round while serving the other areas of our valley's economy.
Scott Davison, who works with a titling company, said deed restrictions are something that always "need to be a tool in the toolkit."
"The most important thing that's ever going to sustain our businesses, sustain the housing, and help people all be successful together is by making good decisions at the base levels across all boards to ensure that people not only are successful in their own personal wealth to where they can eventually buy a home, regardless if it's going to be de-restricted or not," he said.
Despite their differences, many candidates emphasized the importance of community and collaboration. Dagostino stressed the need to "listen" to residents and "work in a sandbox the best." Grimmer highlighted the importance of building bridges with other entities, particularly the county, and working as "one team" on the Town Council.
"We have a great opportunity to leverage our position as a county seat, whether it's jobs, whether it's housing," he said. "These are things that are real things that have to be done to run a town. It is popular right now to be divisive. It is popular at the national level to think that the loudest voice wins. I would challenge that at a local level. I think we need to be teammates, the seven of us who end up on this council."
Bergman also stressed how important the relationship between staff and elected officials is to the success of a town.
"We've heard people talking about big changes, big sweeping changes, changing the way staff works," he said. "One of the most critical relationships we have is between your elected officials and the town staff. I don't think either side is perfect, but they have to work together, and there is a system for communication and working together."
Glowacki said he loved hearing ideas from McCrackin and Haley about their vison for Eagle's future, and that there was some amazing talent in the room.
He said his strength, from decades of working in restaurants, is relationship building.
"Anybody that's ever worked in a restaurant knows the contentious relationships between chefs and front of the house managers and servers," he said. "And how many times have I been a therapist in the office because I know how to work relationships through. That's kind of like what I do. So, I appreciate the opportunity. Put me to work."