Boulder Weekly sent candidate questionnaires to all candidates on Boulder County ballots. These are their written responses, edited for length and clarity. Read more Election 2024 content.
Sandie Hammerly
sandiehammerly.com
Relevant experience
Town of Superior trustee (2016 to 2020, 2022 to current); Superior Parks, Recreation, Open Space and Trails Advisory Committee (four years, three as vice chair); Summit at Rock Creek HOA Board (seven years, VP, treasurer); 40+ years non-profit professional (executive director, finance director, marketing/fundraising director). I am now retired and am committing my full attention to the duties of trustee.
Priorities
- Mitigation of safety and quality of life risks created by flight schools at Rocky Mountain Metro Airport. Superior/Boulder County, and a separate group of concerned residents, have each filed lawsuits against RMMA and JeffCo, but this does not mean we should go underground while these actions play out. While the direct impacts of noise and pollutants are not the same amongst all of our residents, the safety issues and potential loss of property value of even one neighborhood could have devastating impacts on Superior’s financial future. Unchecked airport expansion will continue unless we, as impacted residents, band together to develop an organized citizen-based initiative to increase pressure on RMMA and Jefferson County to do the right thing.
- Fix our roads, pools, playgrounds and community gathering spaces. The town’s proposed sales tax ballot issue will enable us to move forward more quickly with these needed improvements and will help to share the cost burden with others who come to our town to shop. To do this effectively, we must listen to the needs of our residents while also applying factual analysis and fiscal discipline.
- Building Community. As a current trustee, it’s been an absolute honor to welcome home our neighbors who have completed their re-builds after the Marshall Fire. But our work is not even close to done and the town must continue support until everyone who wishes to return home has done so. We must ensure that Superior is livable for people of all ages and, specifically, a great place to age-in-place/retire, ensuring that those who once raised a family (here or elsewhere) are an active and engaged part of our future. We must actively recruit and retain both small and large businesses who are an essential part of our tax base and provide a great place for our residents to shop, work and play. We must protect and preserve the things that make each of our neighborhoods special.
Lightning round
Should Superior join local efforts to explore an increase to the minimum wage? Undecided. This is a complex issue. After speaking with many of our small business owners, it seems like most are already paying above minimum wage. However, we have an issue with fair wages being paid to those doing home-based work (such as housecleaning) – and we need to be sure that they are being compensated fairly for the hard work they do in circumstances that are not easily monitored. Our local chamber of commerce is doing research on this issue and I look forward to hearing responses from our local business community.
Do you support an end to the state prohibition on rent control? Undecided.
Do you support interventions for human-caused climate change? Yes. But the key to success is educating people so they choose to do the right thing, not telling them what they have to do.
Do you agree with the Superior resolution opposing HB24-1313 (Housing in Transit Oriented Communities) unanimously passed in April? Yes. State action such as this preempts local control on land use decisions. Furthermore, while the bill put huge requirements on localities to develop parcels, there was total lack of commitments by RTD to improve or even maintain levels of service.
Do you support the adoption of a home rule charter for Superior? Yes, see above.
Do you support for SB24-157 which narrowed the definition of what constitutes a public meeting? No. The availability of technology is not an excuse. The business of government must always be transparent. It’s not easy, but it’s right.
When was the last time you paid rent? How much was it? And where?
1995 for about six months in Colorado Springs. I don’t recall what I paid. I had savings and bought my first home at 23 and have been a homeowner ever since (in several states when I changed jobs) including 22 years in Superior.
Tell us about your decision to run for Superior’s Board of Trustees. Why are you running, and why now?
In addition to a personal stake in ensuring that the health and safety risks posed by RMMA are resolved, I firmly believe that while the direct impacts of noise and pollution are not shared by all our residents, that the financial impacts to Superior could be devastating if even one neighborhood loses property values as a result of the airport. In addition, I am firmly committed to ensuring that programs to engage and support seniors in Superior (the town’s fastest growing age group) — programs which literally did not exist prior to my efforts — continue to expand. First elected as trustee in 2016, I did not run for re-election for health reasons. In 2022, I was appointed to fill one of two vacancies that occurred on the town board. Having retired in 2022, I have more time, and, when added with my prior experience, believe I am doing an even better job than during my first term and will also do so for the next four years.
For incumbents, what are you most proud of from your most recent term?
First, that the town of Superior (in partnership with Boulder County) has taken legal action against Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and Jefferson County related to the health and safety risks and quality of life impacts caused by flight schools and piston aircraft. Second, our exemplary support of our residents who lost their homes in the Marshall Fire. I have been proud to join with fellow board members in personally visiting each family upon their return home. Third, taking the lead in getting targeted programming started for our senior population.
What would you say are the top three issues facing Superior, and what are your plans to address them?
See above.
The Superior Board of Trustees often votes unanimously. Is that a good sign, representing the ability to reach consensus, or a bad sign, representing a lack of diversity in opinion? What is a recent decision you agree with, and why? What is a recent decision you disagree with, and why?
I have heard this from a few residents, and I think it’s a misperception. What residents should be considering is whether it appears that each trustee is doing the research to be able to ask the right questions and to recommend improvements to proposals as needed. As an example, during recent decision-making related to short term rental regulations, trustee McCool and I ultimately voted yes but only after we convinced our colleagues to make changes to increase fire safety and ensure short-term renters better understand community expectations.
During my prior term I was not supportive of the town moving forward with Home Rule, but this time I voted yes, as I am concerned about the infringements that the legislature and governor’s office continue to make related to local land use decision-making. During my prior term, I frequently voted no because development proposal variances did not meet the town’s high standards as set forth in the design guidelines. Recently, I voted no on plans to build a hotel in Downtown Superior because the developers did not meet the commitments made to our residents through the same guidelines.
Given the realities of a changing climate and limited government resources, how do you plan on balancing mitigation and adaptation for already-impacted populations in Superior?
Superior has both a smart staff and knowledgeable citizen advisory committee who are helping us to navigate what everyone in town — not just the town itself — can do to help. From our trash collection contracts to efforts to gradually xeriscape our medians, the town continues to make choices to reduce use of water and increase actions that protect our environment. But our most effective efforts happen when we partner with others in the region. Earlier this year, the Denver Regional Council of Governments, for which I previously served as Superior’s representative and now serve as alternate, was awarded a major federal grant amounting to nearly $200 million aimed at reducing climate pollution and promoting sustainability across the region.
How do you think Marshall Fire rebuilding and recovery efforts are going? What do you think is going well and what is something you think the town should be doing differently?
As of Sept. 13, the town of Superior had issued 257 Certificates of Occupancy, meaning we were about 65% re-built. I was proud to personally welcome the first family back into Sagamore and am thrilled to see how far our re-builds have come. But until every family who wants to come home is home, our work is not done. We must be aggressive in obtaining federal dollars we are owed for recovery and make sure that we do all we can to mitigate the impact of future wildfires on our community.
Do you believe there is a need for more affordable housing in Superior? If so, what is your plan to make it happen?
For more than a year, the town has been working on an affordable housing plan and has yet to come up with the strategies that will work in our small town (four square miles) and are widely embraced by our residents. With only a few parcels of land left to build upon, efforts to update the town’s comprehensive plan should help provide better answers early next year. Based on our quickly aging population, we must look at homes with smaller footprints and single level living so that our seniors and empty nesters can downsize and allow their current homes to come available for new families. Affordable multi-family unit development proposals such as Kite Route Crossing in Downtown Superior (for which the trustees recently approved financial support) will also be a huge help in finding spaces for seniors to stay in Superior.
How do justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) factor into your policy making?
I have worked for nonprofits my entire life, most recently as the Finance Director of an area food bank. It’s part of my DNA. It’s not an issue of policy, it’s simply treating others how I would want to be treated.
What efforts do you make in your daily life to consider and understand people with different lived experiences from your own?
See above. Nonprofit organizations and government can only be successful by collaborating with and learning from and listening to others. The same is true of government and I’ve been doing so for six years as a trustee.
When’s the last time you changed your mind about something, and what was it?
During my prior term I did not feel the time was right to move forward with home rule. However, now I am a strong proponent as I am deeply concerned about the infringements that the legislature and governor’s office continue to make related to local land use decision-making. Home rule — by which our local decision making powers come from the state constitution rather than the legislature and executive branch — provides Superior and its residents with better assurances that local decisions remain local. I am not afraid to change my mind… as I receive better information.
What question would you ask a fellow candidate on the ballot?
Two years ago, I and two other former trustees hosted a Formers vs. Future candidate forum and posed questions based on our real life experience. Here’s one of the questions I asked, updated to today:
“No one who has never served on the board can possibly understand the time and background effort it requires to do the job well. As result, during the 2020 election we had two trustees who had little experience in town government who resigned halfway into their term. Please explain how you will fit this commitment into your schedule, what you are willing to sacrifice in order to do the job, and an estimate of approximately how many hours a week you have in your schedule to be a trustee. ‘I’ll make it work’ is not an acceptable answer.”