John Lembke, a Longmont-based mechanical engineer, announced earlier this month that he is campaigning for an at-large seat on the Longmont City Council. Lembke’s guiding priority within his campaign is to build the best city for future generations with respect to safety, financial sustainability, education, and economic opportunity.
“I am going to tell people what I believe they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear,” Lembke told the Longmont Leader. “I am going to present bold ideas.”
Lembke, who holds master’s degrees in engineering management and mechanical engineering, has been an avid supporter of ranked choice voting and is the founder of Ranked Choice Voting for Longmont. He explains that one candidate can become the mayor of Longmont with just over 25 percent of the vote because there are four candidates in the race. “I really want us to get to multi winner ranked choice voting for our at-large seats,” he said. “Electing people at-large was banned in all federal and state elections for being discriminatory. It is the worst way to elect people.”
Lembke suggests housing can become more affordable by modifying needlessly restrictive zoning, fire, and building codes that “make it impossible to build housing that the median family income can afford.” Lembke would like to remove building taxes and only utilize a Land Value Tax.
“I would implement this in a revenue neutral fashion, so the city would not see a change in tax revenue,” Lembke explained. “Right now we have land speculators choking off development in the city, then we punish people that actually build homes. For most people in the city their tax would remain unchanged. For people that put in an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit), or convert their home to a duplex they wouldn't suddenly get a big jump in taxes. The properties that would see increases in taxation would be land speculators, big box stores, private equity investors, and short term rentals.”
In order to make childcare more affordable, Lembke said the Longmont Economic Development Partnership and the Longmont Health Department should train and help more people open in-home daycares. Lemke also has ideas for making traffic safer by encouraging lower speeds on residential streets where people live and work. He says traffic circles are a safer, cheaper option for reducing speed and accidents in school zones and around the city.
“We need to start moving ourselves away from Federal and State funding and become more self-sufficient,” Lembke said. “This requires us to change the way that we develop, build roads, and manage our city. We need to end the rigged taxation system and stop paying fortune 100 companies to move to our city at the expense of small businesses.”
Lembke suggested that every public-private partnership between the city and a corporation should provide an ownership stake or municipal stock portfolio to receive something tangible. He explained that the city paid $7 million to bring Costco into Longmont when they should have received $7 million in stocks.
Lembke explained that for both of his master’s degrees, the primary focus was in energy systems, which gives him knowledge and experience that will help the city achieve its sustainability goals. “I definitely thought I would be designing power plants at this point in my life,” Lembke said. “I took classes in environmental law, assessing sustainable technology from a financial perspective, building energy efficiency, and air pollution control. For us to hit the sustainability targets the city has set I believe I am well trained to get us there.”
Lembke also spoke out during the public comment portion of the city council meeting on July 8 in support of small businesses that will potentially go out of business if a higher minimum wage is implemented in Longmont as it was in the unincorporated areas of Boulder County. He suggested a minimum wage increase should only apply to large, profitable industries to protect small businesses in the area. “We saw what happened in unincorporated Boulder County,” he said. “They raised the minimum wage. Several businesses immediately closed. They could not increase efficiency and automate fast enough in order to stay in business.”
Two at-large city council seats are up for election this November. Jake Marsing, Alex Kalkhofer, Crystal Prieto, and Jennifer “JJ” Jeffery have also announced their candidacies. Former candidate Patrick Dillon announced this past weekend that he is suspending his candidacy for one of the two at-large seats.
