Democrat Hartman hopes to harness GOP support

Jeffco Commissioner Kathy Hartman was the first Democrat elected to the board in 14 years when she won the seat in 2006. And if re-elected this year, she would trump historical odds be becoming the first in 50 years to win two consecutive terms.

Emile Hallez Williams

Kathy Hartman

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But even in a Republican stronghold, it may not be entirely surprising that some conservative voters supported her. Hartman is a former Republican — she crossed the aisle in 2004 and took a number of Republican ideals with her.

“The Republican Party moved too far to the right for me,” she said. “If I were in (Washington) D.C., I would probably be considered a blue-dog Democrat.”

Hartman faces South Jeffco Republican Don Rosier, a political newcomer, in the November election.

Looking back on her term, she admits a feeling of accomplishment and said there are only a few things she would’ve done differently.

“I’ve done a lot to protect jobs in Jefferson County,” she said. “I was one of the early people to be pushing Congress to keep our Orion project alive.”

Among her prouder moments were efforts to finance and build the upcoming Foothills Animal Shelter and work to improve human services, she said.

“When I came into the office, the county had the worst food-stamp timeliness in the state. That is no longer the true. We are among the best,” she said. “We hired a really smart director, who then went back and re-evaluated the entire work process,” she said of department head Lynn Johnson, who was hired in 2007. “I was a strong advocate of hiring her. … We also added personnel. We provided human services with an additional 76 full-time employees.”

Contributions to land-use cases have been a notable facet of her tenure, she said, emphasizing a focus on maintaining stringent compliance with fire regulations and water access in mountain-area developments.

“I have at least brought attention to the fact that we need to pay attention to community plans,” she said, explaining sometimes-unpopular votes against approving zoning changes for proposed developments.

And Hartman touts her role in structuring county budgets that directed money into savings, ultimately helping to amass a pot that can be spent down during the recession, she said.

With the budget tied largely to property value assessments, county revenue has a two-year lag time behind the general state of the area’s economy.

“I’m proud of what we’ve done with the budget,” she said. “We have increased our overall savings by about $12 million … which we are going to need.” Bridging a budget shortfall in the coming years is a matter of creating efficiencies and spending reserves, she said.

She had a prominent role in guaranteeing employment benefits for partners of employees in same-sex relationships, she said.

“It wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t here.”

Concerning governmental transparency, a theme on which she originally campaigned in 2006, Hartman said the county has made progress. The county uploads video recordings of the commissioners’ public hearings, and Jeffco provides a searchable database of employee spending and checks written.

“You can search ‘Kathy Hartman’ and find out how ‘Kathy Hartman’ has used her credit card,” she said.

On the subject of e-mail communication with fellow commissioners, however, Hartman said she erred in disclosure but ultimately supported a correction to make electronic records public. An issue of her constituent newsletter last year indicated commissioners had electronic discussions that should have been carried out in public meetings.

“I made some mistakes. … I just goofed on e-mails and public meetings,” she said. “We now have all commissioners’ e-mails available for people to see. But because of that, they tend not to get used. … To have (e-mails) to go directly to the Web is a little intimidating.”

Hartman’s background includes social work management positions in her home state of Michigan, where she earned a master’s degree from Wayne State University. She worked as an investment adviser and most recently as executive director of Stride, a local nonprofit that aids impoverished families.

Contact Emile Hallez Williams at emile@evergreenco.com or 303-933-2233, ext. 22. For updates, check www.ColumbineCourier.com.