David Martus is a first-time candidate for Boulder City Council, running on a platform of fiscal stewardship, increasing trust in government and reducing regulation and bureaucracy.
Martus works as a senior advisor at Upwelling Capital Group, where he is focused on strategy and business development. He previously held positions at several investment firms, most recently GSSG Solar, a renewable energy investment manager, according to his LinkedIn.
In a 2021 op-ed, Martus opposed advancing the CU South project before election day. He has also sought appointments to local advisory boards. He was nominated for the city’s Transportation Advisory Board in 2020 but was not appointed. In 2025, he applied unsuccessfully to join the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee.
Martus describes his politics as “pragmatic and non-ideological,” saying he’s focused on fiscal stewardship and building consensus. He is advocating for the city to introduce priority-based budgeting, reform its Title 9 land use code and increase transparency around decisions to cut programs.
Martus moved to Boulder in 1985 to attend CU and has lived in Boulder for over 40 years.
Occupation: Investment advisor
Neighborhood: South Boulder
Rent or own?: Own
Answers to questionnaire:
Affordable housing: Market-rate homes are out of reach for many teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters. What would you do to create more housing these middle-income residents can afford? What regulations, if any, would you change to lower the cost of building or renovating homes?
Increasing middle-income housing is more challenging than low-income housing, which has more sources of matching funding. The first thing we should do is modernize Title 9 (land use code) and streamline the permitting process. These two steps will reduce building & financing costs, lowering the cost of ownership.
Successful models similar to Burlington’s (Vermont) Champlain Housing Trust provide a useful guide: Burlington has built and stewarded permanently affordable rentals, shared-equity homes, and cooperative housing by retaining community control of land and resale affordability. Boulder could utilize its inventory of land available after city staff transitions to the Western Campus to jump-start a program like this, with the base infrastructure already in place.
Additionally, we should explore mechanisms used in locations such as Eagle County, Frisco, and Steamboat, where municipalities partner with homebuyers to create permanently affordable middle-income housing. The main mechanism would be combining a purchase subsidy with a price-appreciation cap to keep homes affordable.
Homelessness: What is one approach Boulder has not tried, or has not tried at scale, to address homelessness that you would bring to the council, and how should the city pay for it?
Boulder’s current strategy—services, shelter and treatment options, combined with enforcement against rough sleeping and service delivery in parks—is broadly working and should continue. What I would add is a more rigorous public performance dashboard. Residents should be able to see whether city spending is reducing chronic homelessness, connecting people to treatment and housing, lowering repeat calls for service, and keeping parks, trails, neighborhoods, and commercial areas safe and usable. I would start by evaluating and redirecting existing homelessness spending toward the programs that produce the strongest measurable outcomes, rather than adding a new funding stream.
Governance: Boulder is entering its third straight year of budget cuts while facing a roughly $400 million backlog of major facility needs. How do you assess the problem, and what specific spending, revenue or management changes would you support?
While I am a no vote on the bond, my priorities include maintaining safe, functional public safety and recreation facilities and addressing legitimate deferred maintenance.
Currently, Boulder’s total debt on its 23 outstanding debt issues issued between 2012 and 2025 is $742.0 million (principal and interest). Ballot measure 2K ($400 million bond, $650 million maximum repayment inclusive of interest) would, in a single stroke, almost double that.
Over the last 20 years, Boulder voters have only rejected one tax increase/extension at the ballot box out of 41 measures. This near-perfect track record of engagement between city councils and citizens reflects the consistent employment of a thoughtful process underpinned by accumulated community goodwill for a variety of programs and services.
Sadly, that trust and goodwill no longer exist. A survey conducted for the city revealed that only 45% of respondents surveyed would vote in support of the proposed $400 million bond issue, yet here it is on the ballot.
Before asking residents to assume this level of long-term debt, Council and staff should provide a transparent list of projects that distinguishes critical community-safety needs from simple improvements, identifies the full cost of each project, and specifies what, if any, lower-cost alternatives were considered.
Flock: Would you end Boulder’s use of automated license plate readers, yes or no? Why or why not?
Yes. I would end Boulder’s use of Flock Safety’s automated license-plate-reader system. I am particularly skeptical of relying on a private surveillance company whose business model depends on expanding camera networks, collecting vehicle-location data, and building ever-larger searchable databases.
Boulder has not shown residents clear, independently verifiable evidence that Flock has produced public-safety benefits commensurate with its privacy cost. The city has also not adequately answered concerns about data retention, data sharing, cybersecurity, vendor access, and mission creep.
If a future council considers any similar technology, it should first establish a public, independently audited record showing a specific need, narrowly tailored use, short retention, no immigration enforcement access, strict sharing limits, and a sunset provision.
Wildfire: 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?
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.
Local businesses and downtown: Many local businesses, especially downtown, are struggling with rising costs and stagnating sales. What city policy would you change to help businesses stay open and reduce commercial vacancies, and what would you do to bring more customers downtown?
Simply put, Boulder needs to compete to attract new businesses. Our lived experience is the exact opposite. We need to transform into a business-friendly city through a clear permitting and operating environment. Simply put, this lowers costs for new businesses. Improving public safety, for example, by matching police patrols to operating hours will make our commercial districts more attractive to customers.
We need to make Boulder cool again. We have lost our edge in this area, but we can regain it.
Closer: Imagine it is November 2027, one year after your election. What is one specific thing you will have accomplished?
The community and city staff recognize that I ask the right questions. They are detailed and, when needed, tough. Staff comes prepared with rigorous and well-thought-out details, especially the financial impact for all proposals. Answers are crisp, issues get addressed faster, and financial stewardship is improving. Community trust in city government is on the way up. It is a win for the community, city council, and staff.