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I am a small businessman doing business in downtown Longmont. Every election cycle we get candidates saying how much they are interested in and supportive of the business community. And every election cycle we elect council members who have little or no practical business experience. Has any council member ever owned, much less managed a profit enterprise, or managed a product, or project managed an endeavor, read a balance sheet; or managed small business taxes?
Finally, in Ron Gallegos, we have a candidate with business experience in both the corporate and small business world. Not only did he manage a product to market, but he also managed a team of process designers to a conclusion; as well as being a line manager in a union shop. Additionally, he owned and operated his own residential and commercial mortgage brokerages as well as doing finance and general business consulting. So finally, we have someone for council with hard business experience and expertise. Not just talking about supporting business and having a real-world business background.
Ron has ideas on how to improve the business environment as well as improve the general quality of life in our city. He’s calling for mixed-use development of retail-residential condo units for the working service providers in our community. He has a vision for the development of a major tourist strategy for introducing tourism as an alternative industry to our city. In this fashion, tourism and convention traffic could positively impact Longmont's sales tax revenue.
Ron believes that it makes more sense to build a rec center at Garden Acres Park; which could include a branch library, police substation, an auditorium, and meeting rooms without impacting the existing field uses or the ballparks. This can be accomplished by building up and not out.
Ron has a wealth of policy-making experience on the City Council, having been elected to the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities, the Colorado Municipal League, and the Hispanic Locally Elected Officials.
It is because he has had real business experience both in the small and large business arenas, and his governmental policy experience at the local, state, and national levels that I can lend my full-throated endorsement of Ron Gallegos for the Ward III council position.
Tomás A. Pérez; owner, Old Town Marketplace
