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Bob Dinegar
Residence: Denver
Profession: Transit advocate, semi-retired bus driver
Education: St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas
Experience: Transit advocate, lifelong learner, entrepreneur with retail, manufacturing and technology sales background. Non-profit board member/officer. Drove RTD buses for four years. President, ATU Local 1772
Campaign website
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
1) Expedited system optimization plan – bus and light-rail trips shouldn’t take twice as long as driving. Offer frequent service, including weekends, cut long routes in half and consider using 16-passenger vans instead of 40-passenger buses on certain routes.
2) Increase ridership – Establish safety, transparency, and frequent, rapid service as RTD’s brand identity. Ongoing problems have eroded public trust.
3) Frontline employee retention – If they feel cared about, content and safe, riders will sense that, and feel the same way, increasing ridership. Promote employee homeownership through transit oriented development on RTD properties, offering down payment assistance.
As RTD faces governance reform efforts in the legislature, what changes, if any, would you support in how its all-elected board is selected?
A brief study of RTD’s history reveals that taxation without representation has been tried before, and corruption followed.
I opposed the transit reform efforts in the capitol last Spring but gained legislators’ respect in doing so. We should look at redrawing the individual RTD districts’ boundaries to better align with other considerations and consider creating a couple of ‘at-large’ seats on the RTD board, to give each voter effectively three representatives.
Creating a non-voting advisory board to preserve institutional wisdom and add input from external subject matter experts is a topic worthy of discussion.
What specific actions, if any, should RTD take to improve safety and security on its system, and is increased policing part of the solution?
Yes, but we need proactive, community-based police work. RTD provides service in municipalities whose police only engage after incidents occur.
Police shouldn’t treat social problems as criminal matters. Weapons don’t belong on public transportation and violent behavior is never acceptable.
RTD’s decline in ridership stems from being perceived as offering unsafe, unreliable service. In Manhattan, 38% of people, rich and poor, ride the subway. Its relative safety is partly because so many ride.
It’s never acceptable for riders to feel intimidated when riding RTD. We need more riders and an increased emphasis on the STAR model of proactive law enforcement.
Do you support RTD’s ballot measure in this election that would permanently extend its exemptions from revenue limits under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights?
I do. Depriving RTD of these funds would be self-defeating, a regional suicide for a pittance in return.
Gathering signatures to get my name on the November 5th ballot, I heard many people express their dissatisfaction with RTD. Often, they’d been to cities with robust transit systems that deliver great service.
Most wish RTD would step up its game. Great cities have great transit systems. This vision is a reality just waiting to be switched on! I’m willing to work hard for a better future with safe, reliable rapid transit. We can have this civic treasure!
Kiel Brunner
Residence: Denver
Profession: Data scientist/Cyber security analyst
Education: B.S. Political Science – Kansas State, M.S. in Applied Data Science – Syracuse
Experience: A data scientist, researcher, partner and dad, who is focused on ensuring our Regional Transportation District (RTD) is a meaningful part of our climate future.
Campaign website
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
To achieve our climate goals, RTD must prioritize: improving ridership, strategic planning and collaborating to build transit-oriented for our future. First, we need to enhance transit services by providing rapid, frequent, and reliable service with a comfortable experience, making it consistently the best choice for the Denver metro area. Second, after regaining community trust and boosting ridership, RTD should develop a strategic regional plan focused on social equity, economic growth, and climate sustainability. Third, by collaborating with advocates, governments, and businesses, we can expand services, complete existing projects, and build transit-oriented communities, securing a better future for Colorado.
As RTD faces governance reform efforts in the legislature, what changes, if any, would you support in how its all-elected board is selected?
RTD serves a complexly large region of over 3 million people, with a budget over $1 billion. RTD’s success or failure impacts the lives of peoples depending on reliable transit and our climate future requires we explore all possible solutions to governance to improve ridership, strategically plan and grow our communities. Board members with relevant expertise and experience would increase effectiveness, efficiency and better serve the public. RTD’s diverse region creates resource competition for ridership and coverage goals within a limited budget. Failing to strike a balance between coverage and demand can lead to poor service for all and low ridership.
What specific actions, if any, should RTD take to improve safety and security on its system, and is increased policing part of the solution?
Safety is paramount to address workforce challenges and improve ridership, ensuring our climate goals. Busier is safer and prioritizing frequency and reliability can increase ridership. RTD should continue partnerships with the state, which helped with proven free-fare programs for ozone days, youth and students. I worked with ACLU and law enforcement on de-escalation and use-of-force policies and believe using compassion and multi-faceted approaches improves outcomes. We should expand RTD’s pilot ambassador program if data shows improved customer service and safety. Non-violent problems should use civilian emergency teams, like Denver’s STAR program and law enforcement should protect our community by de-escalating violence.
Do you support RTD’s ballot measure in this election that would permanently extend its exemptions from revenue limits under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights?
I support all deBrucing measures, especially those improving our environment and economy. TABOR can be a dangerous fiscal policy, leaving the government and the people served without options during economic volatility. I worked for Bernie Sanders and helped him spread his message of social and economic equity, and I deeply believe we need to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money, progressively fund our priorities and allow for governments to plan for the future. DeBrucing allows us to maintain the flexibility needed to navigate economic challenges, ensuring that our environmental and economic goals remain achievable
Chris Nicholson
Residence: Denver
Profession: Political data consultant
Education: B.A. in Political Science — University of Southern California (2009)
Experience: Led Global EIR, an immigration policy non-profit. Managed over a dozen political campaigns. Wrote Javascript and Python code at Infinicept.
Campaign website
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
As a full-time RTD rider I know the focus has to be quality, safety, and reliability. Before RTD can earn the revenue it needs to run more service, it first needs to demonstrate it can deliver service that people want. Together with six other candidates we drafted a shared plan, A Commitment to Riders, to address the core challenges RTD faces. Our detailed plan lays out a clear path to dramatically improve quality and rebuild trust by delivering real safety and reliability.
You can read our plan at fixRTD.com.
As RTD faces governance reform efforts in the legislature, what changes, if any, would you support in how its all-elected board is selected?
I was a leading opponent of the RTD reform bill because it would have reduced Denver’s voice on the board and eliminated majority-minority districts. Silencing the people who most rely on RTD is the wrong way to fix RTD. But after 50 years, we should be very open to change. Adding members appointed by the mayor, DRCOG and the governor and modifying the number of elected members to accommodate them makes sense to me. It would make the districts bigger but not unreasonably so.
What specific actions, if any, should RTD take to improve safety and security on its system, and is increased policing part of the solution?
RTD needs to both be safe and feel safe. Presence is fundamental to a feeling of safety. We want to widely deploy transit ambassadors who can assist passengers and ensure compliance with the code of conduct. This will reduce the burden on transit operators and give customers an immediate feeling that someone is looking out for them. We should also hire enough RTD officers so they can serve as effective backup when they’re required.
On fixRTD.com you can read our security plan: Safety You Can Feel.
Do you support RTD’s ballot measure in this election that would permanently extend its exemptions from revenue limits under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights?
Absolutely. RTD has a lot of improvements to make in the coming years and cutting the budget would only make fixing existing problems that much harder. Nearly 200,000 people use RTD every day. As a full-time bus rider I’ve met so many people that would be stranded without RTD. The mom taking her toddlers to daycare on the 83L with me in the morning. The kids who can’t afford the school bus who take the 38. The students and service workers on the FF1 at night. We need to deliver for these people, not leave them behind.
How candidate order was determined: Candidates are listed in the order they appear on the Colorado Secretary of State’s General Election Official Candidate List. Questionnaires were not sent to write-in candidates.
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