hello I'm Tamra banks and welcome to
Denver decides this Community
Partnership is dedicated to accessible
and transparent elections the
partnership includes the League of Women
Voters of Denver in turn aber hood
cooperation and is presented by Denver
atetv our mission today is to present a
candidate forum in anticipation of the
general election coming up on Tuesday
November 6th
among other offices this election
includes the candidates vying to
represent constituents in Colorado's
State House from district number four
House District four is located in west
central and Northwest Denver our format
includes time openings and closings
statements which from each of the
candidates that will be followed by
rounds of questions that have been
submitted by the organizers of the forum
since we do have a time limit we may not
be able to get to all of the submitted
questions all of the candidates will
answer all of the questions and all of
their responses will be timed our timers
are out front where our candidates can
see them so let's begin by meeting the
candidates vying to represent Colorado
State House District number four as your
next representative the candidates are
standing left to right facing the
audience in the order that their names
will appear on the November ballot so
beginning at my right is Robert Dave
John and on my left is Adina Gonzales
Gutierrez let's welcome our candidates
to the forum today and one more note to
the candidates on behalf of the forum
organizers the audience here tonight and
our viewers at home we sincerely urge
you to be honest direct and forthright
to help the voters distinguish one
candidate from another we will begin
with with one-minute opening statements
from each candidates we will proceed in
ballot order with these statements so
once again starting at my right mr. John
your opening statement please and again
you have one minute my name is Robert
Dave John I'm proud to be the Republican
candidate for hd4 originally I was part
of the trumpian revolution that took
over Washington and I'm running because
I want to keep Colorado great it's a
wonderful place Serena and I live in one
of the best neighborhoods in the city
we're neighbors and after this is all
said and done will still be neighbors
will still work together to preserve our
neighborhood I can be contacted at Dave
for the number-10 ver at gmail.com or
303 eight nine eight four nine ninety
three thank you all right thank you Dave
and now an opening statement from is
Gonzalez bootie ettus hi I do want to
thank the organizers for putting this on
because it does take a lot of work my
name is sadhana Gonzalez Gutierrez and I
am the Democratic nominee running for
State Representative for House District
four I wear a couple of hats so not only
am i a candidate but I'm also a mother
of three beautiful children a wife and
partner to my husband of 14 years and
I'm also the director of a program
called the Denver collaborative
partnership where I work with children
youth and families in the City and
County of Denver I'm a third generation
Denver resident a sixth generation
Colorado and you know I owe a lot to
this community where I learned so much
this is the community where I learned to
stand up for myself and for others and I
really would be truly honored to serve
the people of House District four Thank
You Serena so now it's time for the
questions for the candidates each
candidate you will have one minute for
your answer and we'll start reverse
order from the opening statements so we
begin with sadena Gonzalez Gutierrez and
your first question is name two
important issues that you pledged to
reach across the aisle to the other
party to work for a Colorado so two
important issues you know you know
because of the work that I do at you
know I work with children youth and
families and I would believe that
the other crop the other side of the
aisle would be just as invested in those
kinds of values as well and so when I
think of those things I think of things
like juvenile justice making sure that
youth that are ending up in you know
these types of systems are receiving the
treatment that they need another area
that I would you know like to work on
some issues would be around education
making sure that again our children they
they we want to make sure that they're
set up in the best possible way and I
truly believe that people have that same
value and so in order to do that it
would take reaching across the aisle
making sure that we're funding our
education properly and that we're not
leaving anyone behind thank you said
Anna Dave the same question for you name
two important issues that you pledged to
reach across the aisle to the other
party to work hard for Colorado the most
important critical issue facing our
neighborhood our house district at the
moment is transportation traffic we're
headed towards gridlock I would hope we
could reach together to make sure the
highways are adequately funded to allow
people to get to work each and every day
both winter and summer bike lanes are
wonderful but people have to get to work
in the winter also and I would hope we
could reach across the aisle for that I
would hope we could reach across the
aisle on taxes I know we have a
disagreement about Tabor but we're going
to have to figure out a way to spend the
tax money coming in in an efficient
manner we're going to have to debate the
tax windfall because of the Trump tax
cuts that'll add fourteen hundred
dollars on average to every each and
every Colorado resident the pays
taxpayer and it doesn't matter if we
agree or disagree on issues we have to
reach across the aisle thank you
so on our next round our next question
for the
we will begin with mr. John and the next
question is what should the state do to
handle some of the mentally ill who
repeatedly end up in jail or homeless
instead of getting behavioral or mental
health assistance tough question without
inflicting on people's rights the
homeless have been with with us in
Denver from the very beginning of Denver
but when you're faced with a situation
where people will not get help
eventually you might have to incarcerate
them so they get that help I think of a
friend of mine son that was hooked on
heroin and went through several programs
and was unable to quit until he was
locked up and forced to change his ways
get better Oh scuse me but we're gonna
have to Amanda Mandy some of these
people get treatment chemical treatments
and our next person to answer is miss
Gonzalez Gutierrez again my question is
what should the state do to handle some
of the mentally ill who repeatedly end
up in jail or homeless instead of
getting behavioral or mental health
assistance so first off I want to say
that mental health and substance abuse
addiction are public health issues and
they should be treated as such
and I do not agree with soly
incarcerated individuals because they
have those particular health issues you
know I work with a lot of individuals
that are facing addiction that have
mental health issues and what we want to
do is make sure that they can be
reintegrated back into our communities
and receive the treatment and the
resources necessary so that they don't
either end up back incarcerated and
sometimes you know with mental health
and with substance abuse treatment it
doesn't just happen overnight and it
doesn't take one
time so it's about being persistent
having the you know resources in the
communities and not just incarcerated
individuals strictly because of that
fact okay our next round of questions
thank you we will start with Serena and
the next question is gentrification and
home affordability has become a major
issue in our city what can be done at
the state level to help yes I mean this
is something that I heard regularly when
I was knocking doors during the primary
I mean we knocked over 32,000 doors it
was amazing and affordable affordable
housing was one of the number one issues
that people talked about on the doors
and so that is something you know I've
talked about how do we create a fund at
the state level there are other
communities there are other states that
have a fund that they are able to use
you know whether it's taxes or credits
from when people are purchasing a home
to be able to build affordable housing
at a state level while partnering with
our municipalities the city of Denver
does have funding that has been set
aside to promote affordable housing but
I want to make sure that we're not just
looking at median income housing but
also low income housing and a lot of
times what I'm hearing as I'm going to
all the different R&O meetings is that
they are talking about this median
income and there is a high need for
low-income housing as well thank you
same question for you Dave and I'll
repeat it gentrification and home
affordability has become a major issue
in our city what can be done at the
state level to help at the state level
we are somewhat limited in our options
we can keep taxes low to keep the price
of housing in general lower we can
modify building codes at the state level
to allow the construction of smaller
more affordable housing
gentrification there's no fighting it
there's no stopping it it's inevitable
we have to learn to enjoy it help those
people learn how to enjoy Denver but the
state's options are limited primarily to
lowering taxes keeping expenses low
thank you
round for now Dave we'll we'll start
with you and again we'll have one minute
to answer who are the major contributors
to your election campaign myself I have
not solicited funds from my friends and
neighbors because of the overwhelming
vote totals by party in our district but
I felt the need to run anyway because we
should always have conflicting
viewpoints brought out into the open
opposition makes both of our arguments
better we want people to be involved
that's my goal but no I haven't raised
any money thank you for your answer
Serena the next the same question for
you who are the major contributors to
your election campaign so the major
contributors have been my friends my
family first and foremost in every which
way if we're talking financial
contributions that has been you know a
lot of friends and family and local
people in Colorado so individual donors
I have also received support from
various unions and organizations such as
SEIU afl-cio well you know folks in the
labor world pipefitters local 208 just
to name a few Colorado aft which is the
teachers as well as DC ta and so I have
received you know some good amount of
support from a lot of those
organizations as well thank you our next
round Serena this question starts with
you what concrete and measurable steps
will you take to learn how your
constituents feel about legislation that
could affect their na
hoods such as liquor and marijuana
licensing well as I mentioned earlier
the job that I do right now is the
director of the Denver collaborative
partnership and in that job I facilitate
Staffing's with families with other
agencies that sit around a table and we
work out plants with families and so I
say that because that would be a
somewhat of a similar model is about
coke governance and talking to the
community members that are being
impacted by these things and getting
their inputs because I am just one
person and I would hope that I can rely
upon my neighbors rely upon community
members to come to the table and talk
about these issues and so those are some
of the steps that I would take in order
to address those and of course doing
amounts of research to be well-informed
before going forward with any kind of
decisions thank you Dave the question to
you what concrete and measurable steps
will you take to learn how to your
constituents feel about legislation that
could affect your neighborhoods such as
liquor and marijuana licensing the most
important thing I would do is make
myself available to the constituents in
our district at all times both through
telephone email personal contact
fortunately in Denver we have registered
neighborhood organizations which are a
forum pre-existing forum which can be
used to contact constituents they meet
once a month I would endeavor to go to
them as often as I possibly could
I would avail myself of the resources
within the legislature the budget office
the Senate caucuses this house caucuses
and do research on my own but you know
the biggest thing is to make yourself
available all right mr. John we will
start
this next round of questions with you
and the question is what do you see as
the biggest challenge within your own
district and what has been or will be
your plan of action to resolve the issue
the biggest problem we have is traffic
development gentrification unfortunately
in the state scheme of things we can
only ameliorate the traffic make sure
that the routes state highways going in
and out of our neighborhoods are
accessible at all times are capable of
carrying the traffic needed for our
constituents the other two can't do much
about but traffic is the biggest thing
we can and should do something about
right now we're facing a closure on i-70
it's gonna block major traffic in Denver
we need to be talking about how to
resolve that thank you today another
question to you what do you see is the
biggest challenge within your own
district in what has been or will be
your plan of action to resolve the issue
sure so while knocking doors again I
think that the top three things that I
continue to hear on the doors were
affordable housing health care and
education those were the the top three
things and there are things that kind of
you know are involved in all three of
those things including things like a
living wage and you know access to
health care and if you don't make a
living wage how can you then afford
housing and so in order to address I
mean I know I named three but you know
it's going to take a lot of work it's
going to take just as mentioned before
is reaching across the aisle and and
bringing partnerships along with to go
on that journey and address all of those
issues and so I'm ready to do the work
and I'm ready to work with not only the
members of the district but colleagues
down at the State House okay thank you
so for the next round we're gonna do
what we call a lightning round so this
will be really fun I'll ask the
candidates a question and you can only
answer yes no or pass no expanding okay
okay
here we go we will start with sadena
sorry we're gonna start with date first
przemek remember which the way we
started okay first question yes no we're
pass amendment 64 legalizing the sale of
marijuana in Colorado passed nearly six
years ago before the law passed or after
have you sampled what the industry has
to offer not from the industry no
although I amendment yes narpath's no
yep yes I have to say yes all right next
question
start with Serena do you know what a
selfie is yes yes
starting with Dave do you get your news
from a traditional newspaper that is
when printed on paper no no should Mile
High Stadium starting with Serena be
sedate excuse me should Mile High
Stadium be moved or rebuilt somewhere
else to make way for the for more
housing development no what's the choice
now yeah I just realized to ask you yes
or no we're gonna do a do-over oh it
should should not face yeah I'm sorry no
no no you're absolutely right we'll do
it over should Mile High Stadium be
moved or rebuilt elsewhere to make way
for more housing so it's one question
should it be built or should it be moved
or rebuilt somewhere else so it's
either/or no sure yes or pass so should
it stay where it is
how should it be moved to rebuild I say
it should stay where it is if yes is to
stay I say stay okay our next question
starting with Dave do you or any family
member own a firearm yes yes last
question Sarah Anna you answer
do you currently own or do you plan to
own an electric car yes all right
no oh sorry no I do not ok let's give
the panelists a big round of applause
and the moderator alright for our next
round of questioning it's going to be
the candidates turn to ask the questions
of one another each of you will ask your
opponent a question and hopefully he or
she will have an answer for you we will
reverse the ballot order and begin with
Senna Gonzalez Gutierrez so Donna you
will ask Dave a question and Dave you
will have one minute to answer sorry
setting Dave what would be your plan to
properly fund education per pupil
because you know in Colorado we are
amongst the lowest I believe we're 48th
or 49th in the country and how we fund
our schools the best thing we can do is
reduce administrative expenses okay that
was under a minute now Dave it's your
turn to ask a question of side Anna and
you have one answer when I made it to
answer do you foresee a limit to raising
taxes in Colorado I think that's a
really you know big question to ask
without having all of the details and
that's something I would want to you
know I would want to do some more
research on and understand how that
would look you know I certainly don't
want to put you know constituents in a
bad place when it comes to taxes and you
know we'd want to have those
conversations very thoughtfully okay
let's do one more round of one-on-one
Dave now you can ask a question and
sadena you have one of the things that
anchors our society and nation is
property rights the right of people to
be secure in their own homes
do you support property rights
can I am I allowed to ask I'm not
allowed to ask a clarifying question or
no no I'm sorry can you repeat the
question
do you support property rights I
honestly I I need to know more
information on the property rights
before I can answer that question so I
feel like I can't give a okay okay all
right moving along today no now it's
your turn to ask Dave one and I think
you kind of mentioned this earlier but I
am still kind of curious as to why you
haven't filed a you know a Campaign
Committee you haven't filed for a
campaign committee with running for
office being a realist I have encouraged
people that have offered to support my
campaign financially to put their money
in races where there is much more even
numbers of Republicans and Democrats
where Republican candidates stand a very
good chance because one of the essential
things is that we maintain control of
the legislature both in the house and
the Senate all right all right that
brings us to the end of the one I want
questioning right yay
take a breath everyone and it's time now
for closing statements each candidate
will have a minute and a half for
closing statements which means and we'll
start with reverse reverse order of the
opening statements which means we will
begin with sadena Gonzalez Gutierrez you
have 90 seconds for your closing
statement
thank you so as I mentioned earlier my
husband and I we are raising the fourth
generation in North Denver my three
beautiful children and we're raising
them you know on the values of education
compassion and advocacy you know I see
it as our job as adults as community
members and leaders to lead by example
and leading by example with those values
I think we've talked about tonight how
Colorado has experienced tremendous
growth over the last decade and you know
that has left some
of our community members behind and left
them at a disadvantage really and so I
want to make sure that community members
are receiving their basic human rights
rights like rights to a living wage
rights to affordable housing to
affordable health care quality education
so that people can may remain remain in
their communities and not be
involuntarily displaced thank you
you know affordable health care is a
priority and must include mental health
and substance abuse treatment as well as
reproductive health care
I am completely honored to be the
Democratic nominee for House District 4
and to hopefully be this next state
representative and I am committed to
working and listening with the community
members so that we can build a strong
Colorado by building up our families and
building up our communities if anybody
cares to learn more about our campaign
you can visit my website at sadhana for
Colorado comm you can email me at
sadhana at sadhana for Colorado comm you
can also give me a phone call at seventy
two zero six six three eight four seven
three I welcome your support and I you
know I'm asking for you to vote sadhana
for House District four on November 6
sorry time I didn't I didn't see you
either thank you okay thank you
and now a closing statement from Roberts
Dave one of the primary reasons I'm
running is because I believe it that the
best thing we can do is keep taxes low
so people can afford to stay in their
own homes the best government we have
governance the least we don't need
government involvement in all sectors
people should do that at the local level
by themselves with the assistance of
government I support the right to keep
and bear arms and the one thing I would
like to do is increase vocational
education in
public schools for too long the edge'
Kratts have denigrated blue-collar
workers the blue-collar workers is what
keeps our society running
we need more plumbers we need more
electricians we need more sewer workers
and it should be the PARP should be part
of a education the availability of
education to do that and to have school
choice if you're not getting the right
education you want you should be able to
go somewhere else
alright now it's the audience's turned
let's show our appreciation to these
candidates for their participation skip
a big round of applause thank you to
both of you well done we hope we have
given you a fair look at each candidate
vying to represent you in Colorado State
House of Representatives from district 4
our thanks also to the Denver decides
partners which include in turn a Berhad
cooperation and the League of Women
Voters of Denver Denver decides is
presented by Denver eight TV now
remember the election is Tuesday
November 6th let your voice be heard be
sure you are registered and get out and
vote for complete election information
online go to Denver decides calm I'm
Tamara banks thanks so much for being
with us tonight
you
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