In the lead-up to the Nov. 3, 2026, election, Boulder Reporting Lab asked each of the 19 mayoral and city council candidates to answer our questionnaire. Their answers are presented in a random order, but you can jump to each candidate’s responses, listed alphabetically below.
Mayoral candidates: Taishya Adams • Aaron Brockett • Jameson “Jamo” Goldstein • Aquiles La Grave
City council candidates: Benita Duran • Sam Fuqua • Jill Grano • Rachel Rose Isaacson • Ryan Jamieson • Tina Marquis • Dave Martus • Scott Rendleman • Jamillah Richmond • Ryan Schuchard • Lynn Segal • Tara Winer
Three candidates — Lisa Ann Jacobs, Fred Smith and Lee Gilbert — did not respond to BRL’s questionnaire.
Boulder faces greater wildfire risk than 97% of U.S. communities, and fire officials say another wildfire within city limits is a matter of when, not if.
Four wildfires have started in or near city limits this year. Last December, high winds and dangerous fire conditions prompted Xcel Energy to shut off power across large parts of Boulder twice in one week, affecting nearly 60,000 residents.
Boulder has already begun imposing requirements aimed at reducing wildfire risk. In May 2025, city council unanimously approved new requirements for fire-resistant materials and landscaping around new homes. The following month, council approved a major expansion of Boulder’s wildland-urban interface, or WUI, bringing roughly 16,000 homes into the city’s designated wildfire-risk zone and subjecting new construction in those areas to stricter standards.
Now the city is considering what comes next, including whether requirements to make homes more resistant to wildfire should extend to existing homes.
Most candidates said they support some form of mandatory home hardening in high-risk areas. Many favored phasing in requirements to give homeowners time to comply and providing financial assistance, particularly for lower-income residents. Others emphasized education and voluntary home hardening, including for residents outside the highest-risk areas.
A smaller group opposed or expressed reservations about mandates for existing homes, citing the potential cost to homeowners and arguing that Boulder should prioritize other wildfire mitigation measures.
Power shutoffs are another part of the debate. Many candidates said the city should push Xcel for clearer communication about planned shutoffs. Some called for burying more key power lines underground and investing in microgrids or battery backup systems to reduce disruptions from widespread power outages.
Question: Should Boulder adopt an ordinance requiring owners of existing homes and homeowners associations in high-risk areas to harden their properties against wildfire, yes or no? If yes, what should it require?
Is the city doing enough to push Xcel Energy to prevent or limit wildfire-related power shutoffs? What more should it do?
Mayoral candidates
Aaron Brockett
Aaron Brockett
Age: 53
Home hardening: Yes, we should. We need to build on the new Wildland Urban Interface building code that we passed earlier this year by mandating some pragmatic wildfire hardening in the WUI zones, with a priority of course on Zone 1, followed by Zone 2. Those requirements should be phased in carefully though to make sure they’re doable from a practical standpoint, including minimizing the loss of mature vegetation (other then junipers, those probably do just need to go), and from a financial standpoint, meaning that we need to make sure there are grant funds available to lower income households and those on fixed incomes.
Xcel: We are already pushing Xcel hard using all of the tools at our disposal, including intervening with their regulatory body the Public Utilities Commission, something no other city in Colorado does other than Denver. We have achieved some major victories, including securing hundreds of millions of dollars for undergrounding major power lines around Boulder, which will make the scope of any future public safety power shutoffs much smaller. We have also used our in-depth knowledge of the city’s electrical grid to work with Xcel to prioritize the most effective areas for future undergrounding. And, we communicate with them regularly to make clear the need to update and improve their energy infrastructure where it is failing.
Aquiles La Grave
Aquiles La Grave
Age: 47
Yep, with income qualified assistance. The fire danger in Boulder is extreme, however we continue to view home protection as mainly a homeowner responsibility. I should know, I’m one of the coauthors of the plan. We require evidence-based home protections for our most vulnerable areas; such as “IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home” standards. Homes that currently exist represent the biggest hurdle to this, therefore implementation will need to be phased in over a few years and protective measures provided will also need to be accompanied by significant financial help.
Begin with items that significantly increase the likelihood of survival. Venting systems that are resistant to embers, class A roofing materials, noncombustible space directly adjacent to buildings, fencing that is safe from fire, and managing vegetation. Next, aggressively seek out funding from county wildfire revenue sources and state/federal grant programs prior to placing the full burden of funding on the shoulders of homeowners.
My work on local wildfire preparations stems from the hard lessons learned from the past several Colorado wildfires. Success will not come from additional research or plans. Success will come when thousands of existing Boulder homes are made substantially more difficult to burn before the next fire season begins.
Taishya Adams
Taishya Adams
Age: 52
As we have seen in the many wildfires that have impacted Boulder, this is not an individual problem. In cases like the Marshall fire, these incidents can spread outside of neighborhoods or even across major freeways so we need to be as prepared as possible to prevent such a disaster from hitting our community. We must find ways to require a Detailed Home Assessment just like the state requires car emission testing. We have the new wildfire urban interface map which gives us detailed information about the number of homes and we understand that though we are in the same storm, we are in different boats.
Our city is moving in the right direction. We have already required new construction in WUI areas to meet a higher standard of fire resilience to prevent new builds from being part of the problem and we need to support the community in bringing their current properties up to recommendations by the International Wildfire Standards. This also helps homeowners who may be vulnerable to insurance loss. The challenge is how to accelerate the timeline for homeowners to address issues identified in the DHA.
At the same time, we know that many homeowners are house rich and cash poor. A bill of $8,000-15,000 is not attainable. I continue to advocate for a revolving zero/low interest loan program that the City of Boulder guarantees in partnership with a local bank. This would allow a pathway for income qualified residents to make the wildfire updates necessary in a timely manner. This also expands a critical industry and talent pipeline for unionized businesses to grow and a workforce that can live and work in our city.
Jamo Goldstein
Home hardening: Yes. For existing homes and HOA-managed property in high-risk areas, I support practical requirements to clear combustible material immediately around structures, maintain defensible space, and address vulnerable vents and other ember-entry points. The city should map the covered areas, give owners clear guidance and reasonable time to comply, and offer help to households that cannot afford the work. HOAs should be held responsible for common areas under their control. The goal is measurable risk reduction, not a sudden unaffordable mandate.
Xcel: No. Boulder should push Xcel to improve the infrastructure that makes emergency shutoffs necessary: inspect and maintain equipment in high-risk corridors, manage vegetation, and invest in targeted upgrades that reduce ignition risk and let outages affect fewer customers. The city should demand a public schedule for that work and clear reporting on progress. When a shutoff is unavoidable, Xcel must give timely, accessible notice, explain the criteria, and coordinate restoration and support for medically vulnerable residents and essential services.
City council candidates
Tina Marquis
Tina Marquis
Age: 55
Home hardening: Boulder should adopt an ordinance to ensure homes in the high risk wildfire urban interface are hardened. However, there are many homes that will harden their properties voluntarily, which should be our initial focus. I supported the council priority to create a new information and services hub, to help homeowners and homeowners associations find resources, materials and solutions to home hardening. A third of the homeowners surveyed haven’t hardened their homes simply because they didn’t know how to do it. We also need to ensure we have a good plan to provide risk assessments in target areas and track progress.
Finally, I am hoping that wildfire mitigation can bring communities together, as we understand how hardening a home can help a neighbor’s home during a wildfire.
Xcel: The city has a strong relationship with Xcel, but we continue to experience power outages with negative consequences for our businesses and residents. I support every option available to hold Xcel accountable for its role to provide reliable energy to the city of Boulder, including advocating for Community Choice Energy and developing microgrids, as well as its role to maintain our infrastructure to reduce ignition.
Jill Grano
Jill Grano
Age: 44
Home hardening: No to an immediate blanket mandate requiring every home and HOA in WUI 1 & 2 to meet comprehensive standards on a 3-5 year timeline. I support the goal of communitywide wildfire resilience, but the implementation must be legally defensible and developed in cooperation with residents. Most residents that I have talked to in these zones do not even know that there might be an expensive mandate coming their way.
I would establish a public process committee to help develop an approach that gets us closer to our wildfire resilience goals and that does not place a significant financial burden on residents. Before adopting more expensive requirements, we need realistic cost estimates, guaranteed financial assistance, and protections against displacement.
Xcel: On Xcel, the city has made progress, but I would push for stronger follow-through. We need public milestones for grid improvements that reduce ignition risk and limit the number of customers affected by shutoffs, including targeted undergrounding.
We need more advance notice about power shutoffs and a more targeted approach that limits disruptions to businesses, seniors, and essential infrastructure. We also need reliable updates on when power will be restored and a plan to support residents who depend on powered medical equipment.
Jamillah Richmond
Jamillah Richmond
Age: 42
Home hardening: Yes, Boulder should adopt a home-hardening ordinance for homeowners and HOAs in high-risk areas. Wildfires pose an existential threat to Boulder and Front Range communities, and though retroactive home-hardening presents real challenges for homeowners, it should be a priority for our city. To socialize this among Boulder’s residents, home hardening should be understood as a communal effort; the safer your neighbor’s home, the safer your home is, and vice versa.
Specific requirements should include clearing brush and highly flammable vegetation within eight feet of homes, closing off exposed eaves and vents, replacing wooden fences and decks with non-combustible materials, ensuring trees do not overhang on buildings, and using non-flammable roofing materials. The city should also advocate for the replacement of single-pane windows, both as a fire mitigation strategy, and as an energy efficiency upgrade for homeowners. This should come with an incentive program from the city to make it affordable for homeowners to update their properties. These upgrades should be pursued mindfully, with an emphasis on not harming Boulder’s urban tree canopy, to the extent possible.
Xcel: I think the city can do more to push Xcel to do its part to mitigate wildfire-related power shutoffs, and hold the utility accountable to its customers, rather than its investors. I am glad to see the city is hosting a joint forum later in October, but forums alone are not enough.
Xcel must inform businesses and ratepayers well in advance of power shutoffs, and provide accurate projections for when power will be restored. If the utility will not cover ratepayers’ expenses related to power outages like spoiled food or lost revenue, it should pay Boulder to help retrofit people’s homes and small businesses with things like generators and balcony solar panels to help them withstand power shutoffs.
Ryan Schuchard
Ryan Schuchard
Age: 49
Yes, in a targeted, phased way, with requirements informed by the most effective strategies and the resources to implement them equitably.
I supported expanding hardening rules from 4,600 to more than 16,000 properties and co-led the 2026 workplan item on a cost-benefit analysis and home hardening hub. I’m hardening my own home in stages.
Priorities:
- Create a comprehensive roadmap. Address Boulder’s roughly 50,000 properties, prioritizing strategies by risk reduction, cost, and urgency. Build a self-propelling program, where homeowners and service providers drive much of the work on their own, so progress doesn’t stall after an initial push. Ground this adaptation work in our broader climate initiatives.
- Make hardening achievable and affordable. Expand assessments into technical assistance. Establish standards and a contractor-to-city reporting workflow for affordable, single-transaction services. Resolve owners’ sticking points. Use the city’s convening power to cut costs, like aggregating demand for noncombustible fencing and organizing neighborhood-wide vegetation management. Help residents get low-interest loans. Create mechanisms so investments and support also reach renters’ homes, prioritizing assistance by need.
- Start with the highest-risk areas. Phase in requirements for existing homes and HOAs, beginning with vegetation management and debris removal. Incorporate landscapes that also conserve water and provide shade and cooling.
No. Xcel is responsible for reliable service, and the city has limited authority over many decisions behind it. But the city has its own tools of investment, policy, and partnership, and a duty to its community, so it must lead toward a more dependable, sustainable energy system as grid stress grows.
I led council’s January statement of expectations for Xcel and helped launch this year’s power resilience workplan. Xcel’s recent data showed Boulder’s outages lasted 20 times longer than in 2023.
Priorities:
- Protect those with the most at stake. Map vulnerable facilities and hard-hit groups with Xcel, and plan with community partners.
- Build smart backup power. Deploy batteries at every scale, from homes to neighborhood resilience centers to our urban core, as technology improves.
- Make outages shorter and more precise. Pursue state laws and rules that require and reward targeted shutoffs, equipment upgrades, and enough crews to surge where needed.
- Strengthen our negotiating position. Explore what a regional municipal utility or other provider could look like, so Boulder has options.
- Hold Xcel accountable. Enforce our franchise agreement and publish a performance dashboard. Create a council committee or task force to lead with greater rigor and focus.
Benita Duran
Benita Duran
Age: 65
Home hardening: Yes. There are standards and recommendations aligned with class 1&2 , WUI guidelines. Information needs to be more aggressively shared with residents in these areas. I am committed to seeing that we also have stronger communication on evacuation plans and exit strategies for all of Boulder and its daytime population.
Xcel: It never seems like enough when you’re the household that is without power and your neighbor across the street has their lights on. I have experienced that Xcel has improved its communication, really stepped it up in the second shutdown my household experienced, but it lacked accurate updates as time went on. I believe the council has had a strategy that has seemed to keep Xcel more accountable and responsive. We need to keep pressure on them to underground lines and improve communication.
Ryan Jamieson
Ryan Jamieson
Age: 46
Home hardening: Yes, phased in, with the money to help people in place before any deadline.
Hardening one house doesn’t do much if the house next door goes up: the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety found a hardened home still has about a 90% chance of being lost when the one next door goes up. That makes this a neighborhood problem, not an individual one. The city needs to coordinate hardening efforts neighborhood by neighborhood to ensure we have a hardened perimeter that buys time for our first responders to extinguish any fire that threatens our town.
I’d base the ordinance on the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home standard and start with the high-impact items first: a noncombustible first five feet around the house, ember-resistant vents and soffits, noncombustible gutters with guards, and no wooden fence attached to the house. HOAs should handle common areas and shared fencing. We have to work together, and we have to work quickly, we don’t know when the next fire will happen on a windy day.
Is the city doing enough to push Xcel Energy to prevent or limit wildfire-related power shutoffs? What more should it do?
No. I’d push for undergrounding and hardening to follow the wildfire risk map instead of whatever’s easiest to build to start with. I’d want consequences written into the franchise when Xcel misses a benchmark, rather than another sternly worded letter. I also want to get the Public Utilities Commission to push harder on our behalf, because the Boulder isn’t the only city at risk of fire that Xcel services.
Dave Martus
Dave Martus
Age: 59
Yes. Boulder should require existing homes in the highest-risk areas to meet a wildfire-hardening standard, with need-based financing options. Larimer County and Jefferson County were recently awarded over $19.5 million (combined total) in wildfire mitigation grants. The City of Boulder failed to apply for these grants. This should never happen again. That funding alone would have paid to harden roughly 1,000 homes against wildfire.
Beyond risk reduction, evidence shows that communities that reduce wildfire risk benefit from a larger pool of insurance companies that cover their location and offer lower rates than similar locations that have not.
Xcel: No, Boulder is right to press Xcel, but it should be more aggressive and better coordinated. Recent public-safety shutoffs have affected thousands of Boulder customers, and just last week, downtown Boulder and the Hill were plunged into darkness on a calm late summer night. This level of service reliability is unacceptable.
Beyond being more aggressive with existing plans, the city should explore microgrid solutions for critical facilities and consider subsidizing battery backups to power flowing locally, especially for commercial districts.
Sam Fuqua
Sam Fuqua
Age: 62
Home hardening: Yes but as usual the details matter. We will need very strong neighborhood engagement and legal confidence in any ordinance. We will need to provide funds to help income-qualified residents in the high risk zone come into compliance. And we will need to define the zone. I favor starting with the red zones–the highest risk areas of the Class 1 Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). Ideally, homes covered by the ordinance should be required to meet the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) hardening standards for a Wildfire Prepared Home. In order for the city and the impacted residents to know what specifically needs to be done to their property, we need to conduct a Detailed Home Assessment (DHA) for each property, starting with the red zones and ultimately for all properties in the Class 1 WUI.
Xcel: The city has standing to intervene at the Public Utilities Commission and should participate in the current rulemaking around Preemptive Power Shutoffs (PSPs). At the upcoming public hearing (Nov 23) and throughout the rulemaking process the city should advocate for actual penalties when Xcel does not meet their obligations to restore power in a timely fashion and for compensation to their customers for losses suffered during PSPs.
We should also push Xcel to increase the small amount of money put aside to underground powerlines. I’m glad they’ve done some of that work but we need to move faster.
Rachel Rose Isaacson
Rachel Rose Isaacson
Age: 29
Home hardening: Yes. Boulder should phase in wildfire hardening requirements for existing homes in the highest-risk areas. Current wildland-urban interface code requirements apply when property owners seek building permits; they do not, by themselves, address every existing home. I would start with property-specific assessments and practical measures: clearing combustible material immediately next to buildings, maintaining roofs and gutters, screening vents, and managing vegetation around homes and shared HOA property. Larger upgrades should have longer timelines, with rebates, grants, and hands-on help. We need to maximize our current support resources towards these highest risk areas as it’s the most equitable way of keeping our entire community safer from wildfire.
Xcel: No, Boulder should push Xcel harder. Public safety power shutoffs may be necessary during extreme fire danger, but repeated, lengthy outages cannot become the standing solution. The city has begun a power reliability initiative; I would turn its findings into a public schedule of commitments from Xcel. That means pressing for targeted undergrounding where justified, stronger lines and equipment, more precise shutoffs, faster restoration, and clear advance notice. Council should bring residents’ and businesses’ documented impacts to the Public Utilities Commission while investing in backup power for critical facilities and neighborhood resilience hubs.
Tara Winer
Tara Winer
Age: 68
Home hardening: Yes. In the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), the first two rows of homes backing up to Open Space, or about 1,500 feet into the built environment, hardening should not be optional, in my opinion.
The ordinance should require removing flammable trees and bushes near structures, 1/8 inch screens on vents so embers cannot get in, and a 5-foot noncombustible perimeter around the home. There are homes that are part of HOA’s that are right on the WUI, for instance in South Boulder on Shanahan Ridge. Our ordinance should require HOAs in high-risk areas to the same standards as all other homes.
Regarding cost, our Wildfire Resilience Assistance Program already offers up to $2,000 per property through the Climate Tax, and the county provides another $500 per household. For many people on the WUI, that still won’t cover the costs. We need to raise the amount both the city and county offer per household.
Xcel: The Xcel Partnership is producing some results. The city got Xcel to commit to harden infrastructure on five feeders serving Boulder. Xcel must now coordinate with the city’s Office of Disaster Management and give advance notice before calling a Public Safety Power Shutoff event. Xcel is adding and upgrading transformers at the Sunshine and NCAR substations. The 9216 power line, in our highest-risk wildfire zone, is being rebuilt.
Undergrounding is underway in our highest-risk areas, near Jay Road along Highway 36 and at Chautauqua. Xcel is also planning underground cable replacement for the West Pearl and Civic Center area, which will help with downtown PSPS events.
However, will Xcel do what it promised? Xcel is a monopoly, and even with PUC oversight, we can’t assume it will follow through, so constant monitoring is necessary. Community members are frustrated at the poor communication from Xcel during outages. However, Xcel recently made cuts in its customer service department. How does that make communication better? We’re all hoping for fewer wind-event outages this winter, but hope isn’t good enough. We need actual consequences, tied to our franchise agreement, if Xcel misses its own wildfire mitigation deadlines.
Lynn Segal
Lynn Segal
Age: 73
Wildfire: Same solutions generally as 1) and 2). Prevention is best and that goes for limiting building and especially population, the fuel for wildfires. How? Quantify the services demanded by each individual (ie. open space, water, rec. centers, libraries, agriculture, police, etc.) and use this to determine the quantity of people allowed for each development project, limiting it to carrying capacity.
Use neighbor groups to help each other to cut the low hanging fruit like junipers, the perimeter and high risk areas. Spread the responsibility over the whole community rather than those in the risk areas because all Boulder benefits. Do NOT allow high income developments like Mapleton Academy to infill their “fuel” on the western perimeter, that increases the cost to rebuild and subjects vulnerable seniors to risk when escaping with limited portals, one way out, east.
Xcel: No. Xcel is not held accountable. Example from the past, they were not cited for failing to maintain their causative detached wire in Marshall, that was reported by their own internal employee in public notice in the newspaper and ignored with impunity by Michael Dougherty. It had to be civil cases that were filed for the victims. MUNICIPALIZE. What Xcel “should” do is not going to happen. Wrong business model. For the shareholders, not stakeholders! One of our two lead technicals, Sam Weaver betrayed us after 10 years and four passed ballot measures, with Bob Yates in a chance meeting at a football game to upend the muni. He also violated meeting rules, meeting with Rachel Friend on land use at CU South with OSBT. That’s where CU South was cut. You have to have 3 councilors to meet privately with a board member. They were exposed. He was the swing vote on Mapleton Academy, after the affordable housing project at Fruehauf’s swung the deal for them. Up to midnight on that with every detail. IT WAS NEVER BUILT.
Scott Rendleman
Scott Rendleman
Age: 58
Home hardening: No, it’s not time for mandates that existing homeowners must retrofit their homes to meet Boulder’s Wildland-Urban Interface Code. Homeownership is already expensive, and homeowners should be given time to fully implement the Code’s recommendations that were adopted just two years ago. Several insurers are already expecting Colorado homeowners to engage in wildfire hardening for insurance discounts. This process should be allowed to play out.
In addition, we can have home sales in the Wildland-Urban Interface should include a WUI Code compliant disclosure which could become a point negotiation between buyer and seller.
Xcel: The power shut offs that occurred in December 2025 demonstrate that more needs to be done with Xcel. Boulder businesses had to close, and many restaurants lost food inventory. Residents too lost power and experienced significant interruptions in their daily lives. Residents and business need earlier accurate notices and updates during an outage. After each major shutoff event, Xcel should report to Council what the planning was before the shutoff, how long the shutoff lasted, whether the shutoff duration was timely predicted and whether the shutoff was for the shortest time possible. Council should also press Xcel for recommendations for improvements in all phases of a wildfire-related shut-off.