By Dan Karpiel

The Surveyor

The Surveyor reached out to all 10 of the major-party candidates for Weld County Commissioner and all nine candidates for the open County Commissioner seats in Larimer County and prefaced four questions, outlined below. Due to space limitations in print and a desire to provide as much detailed information as possible to readers, the candidates’ responses to the questions will be posted verbatim here.

1. Can you please provide a brief history of your background, i.e. career/occupation, family, history in Colorado/Weld County, etc., just some basic get-to-know-you information for our readers. 

 I earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. I worked in the oilfield for 5 years as a Field Engineer with stops all over the Western United States with Schlumberger Oilfield Services. They moved me to Colorado in the previous oil boom in the late 1990s. When the inevitable oil bust happened, I applied for and got retraining at the University of Colorado with a degree in Computer Engineering, for the last 14 years, I worked at Xerox as an outsource employee of Weld County Information Technology Department. I moved to Weld in 2005, I have been married for 16 years to Jennifer.

2. What prompted you to run for Weld County Commissioner District 3?  
The selection of Republican candidates is more of the last 40 years, no new ideas with the same tired proposals for government.

3. Can you please provide a brief outline of your political/ideological philosophy?  
I’ve worked at the county 14 years; I’ve been on the receiving end of several of the previous administrations poorly thought out plans. I’ve lived my life moving around and learning about the strengths and weaknesses of both private and public organizations. Change should be inherit in a system, but what we have here in Weld County is one party domination of the entire structure. The only thoughts within Weld County decision making all line up with Republican party thought, which isn’t always correct or even coherent. Growth hasn’t been planned for anyone’s benefit, only with a vague philosophy that private industry will ALWAYS know best.  Growth is always to be preferred and taxes are wasted by governments. An example of this is the growth of Metropolitan Districts which remove taxpayer control over how tax monies are spent and left to a developer which is seeking to increase their profits. If you are interested in how this can be problematic for our Republic, please call me at 970-785-2313.

4. What are the major issue(s) on which you want to focus your campaign and potential service as Weld County Commissioner District 3?

<No response provided>