Paul Wood is running for the at-large city council seat. Here’s where he stands on the issues.

By Kelly Ragan

Paul Wood is running for the at-large city council seat. The at-large councilmember is tasked with representing all of Greeley, rather than a single ward. 

At a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization, Greeley mayoral and city council candidates answered questions from the league and from audience members regarding where they stood on various issues, what their plans would be if elected, and more. 

Some of the major topics included housing, transportation, water, diversity, and communication. Candidates were also asked about three ballot measures, 2F (also known as Keep Greeley Moving), and 2G and 2H (also known as the water ballot measures). 

The NoCo Optimist included candidates’ opening and closing statements, answers (with minimal edits for clarity and brevity) as well as the questions asked for context. The NoCo Optimist’s goal here is to give you an idea of who a candidate is and where they stand on issues that matter to you. 

Opening statement

I was born in Greeley in 1950. I moved away for a few years, went to school and came back. In 1970 I got married and raised my sons here in Greeley. My parents and my grandparents grew up around here. I’ve always loved Greeley. I’ve always loved coming back to Greeley every time we got a chance. When I got the opportunity to move back here, I jumped on it. 

I worked on the farm for a little while as a mechanic. Then in 1978 I got the honor to go work with a crew of wonderful, wonderful guys with the City of Greeley Water Department. 

Since then, I spent 42 years with Greeley water. I’m licensed in water treatment and water distribution. I was able to go up from a maintenance technician to equipment operator, then on up to supervisor and assistant superintendent. 

I guess the reason I’m running is because I’ve always loved Greeley. I just can’t get enough of this, and I want to serve the citizens as best as I can. 

Question: As the city of Greeley continues to experience increasing population growth and diversity, moving from a town to a big city, this growth has impacted a number of areas such as housing, transportation and water to name a few. What ideas or strategies do you have to address future issues impacted by this growth? 

I agree that water is probably the most important thing that we have in Greeley, and I think we need to insist on very wise purchases and sales of water with a collective group of professionals. 

Regarding population and growth, there’s around 118,000 people in Greeley right now. That’s about 29,000 vehicles. And I know from like 3:30 to 6:30 in the evening, it’s tough to get around. The projection of 260,000 people or 250,000 people by 2050 would bring about 60,000 vehicles, really. We’re not ready for that. Our infrastructure cannot handle that. 

Along with that, I’d also like to say that growth needs to be very wisely controlled, very thought out. Growth with, you know, good rent, good prices, good costs on property, that sort of thing, so we that we can attract people to Greeley.

Question: Do you think the city is effectively communicating with the community about its activities and needs? If so, how are they doing that? If not, what needs to be improved?

I’m going to be very blunt on this subject. I think we need a lot of help. We’re not getting the word out to people, and I think COVID-19 was at one time used as an excuse to have Zoom meetings, which is a wonderful tool, but being able to meet in person and actually stand up and ask the questions that you need answers to is truly very important. 

If I’m elected to council, I will push for more open meetings. We need to get the public in here. We don’t have a large group in here tonight. We could have had a lot larger of a group if more people knew about it, so I really think that we really need to improve on our communications. I wish we had a good newspaper here, that would be really helpful.

Question: Offer some specific ideas on addressing growth and housing challenges. 

One of my concerns with Greeley's growth, and believe me I'm not an anti-growther whatsoever, but I do think that we're growing so fast, and I'm seeing buildings that appear to me to be kind of a barracks-type buildings going up all over the place. I've had a lot of people come to me and say they don't like to see that. 

I understand there's a lot of people that live in Greeley that work elsewhere, so one of the things we can do is get good jobs in Greeley, have good businesses in Greeley.

I intend to work with the commissioners and the Chamber of Commerce to learn more about growth and learn more about the city codes, an area that I've not previously been learned on so to speak. But I'm very strong on very healthy growth. I'd like to see Greeley grow but more slowly and more methodically with good intentions of having the prettiest city that we've always had. We've always shared a great city, I'd like to continue that

Question: About 40% of Greeley’s population identifies as Latino or Hispanic. But there aren’t many language services to reflect that. How will you support the Latino population and other minorities in Greeley, including undocumented people?

Well, that's a very interesting question. As a matter of fact, last night I was at a meeting with Greg Lopez (a prominent member of the GOP) and the Hispanic population. 

We were discussing ways we could get more involved with them, and one of the things I heard was a lot of the Hispanic people don’t believe that they’re welcomed in the Republican party. I’m not touting whether you should be a Republican or a Democrat, but just having known that fact that they’re frustrated with that, I plan to, on my own, work with Hispanic communities to try to get them to know who I am and what their needs are, what their fears are, what their likes and dislikes are. 

I think we have to reach out to them. That’s the very first step, reach out to the Hispanic population, and you know, find out what their needs are. 

Question: What is your position on Keep Greeley Moving? Why? What is your position regarding the changes to the home rule charter on water decisions? Please explain. 

COVID-19 played a big part in what happened initially when this water deal was brought forth. Nobody knew about it, nobody even in the city that we talked to even had any idea that this was going on at all. Even I, working at the water department, had very, very limited knowledge at the beginning of this issue.

So, I think that John Gauthiere (the man who wrote the proposed charter amendments) as a matter of fact, has probably more education than a lot of our water folks do in water projects, water sales, and water purchases. He's done it for many, many years and I would recommend everybody look into this issue with an open mind and really, really prepare yourself to not just buy the eggs because somebody brought the basket in. It might be rotten. 

I’m very blunt on this, this is something that's really close to my heart. I think we made a mistake and now that's one of the reasons that I'm trying to get on this board. I want to be here to help fix some of the mistakes that we've made in the past.

Closing statement

My intention is to act with uncompromising honesty and integrity in everything that we do, to work together in an inclusive environment that embraces change, new ideas, respect for our community and all who live here. To hold our city government accountable to the citizens of Greeley and for the betterment of this city. To provide a safe and desirable workplace where we can live and retire, and also by providing excellent services and reasonable taxes. To base our municipality on a strong fiscal government with a durable economy that recognizes the rights of all citizens.