Candidate Profile: Lisa Smith For Arvada City Council

ARVADA, CO — Six City Council candidates are running for Arvada's Nov. 2 municipal election.

Patch asked candidates to answer questions about their campaigns and will be publishing candidate profiles as Election Day draws near.

Lisa Smith is running for Arvada City Council.

Age: 34

Family: Eli Feret - Husband. West Point Army Veteran

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

We both served in the military but no longer work for the government.

Education

Masters Degree of Social Work from Boston College
Bachelors Degree of Social Work from Colorado State University

Occupation

I currently work for Team Rubicon, a veteran-based disaster and humanitarian response organization.

Social Work - 11 years of clinical and policy work with a focus on housing, older adults, disabled and low-income populations
Military Police - 4 years in the Air Force guarding nuclear missiles

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website: www.lisaforarvada.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

Service is in my blood. It stemmed from my parents who both served the community as a public school teacher and social worker. I joined the military to continue that service and became a social worker to help our most vulnerable community members. I chose to run because I believe in serving the community in the best way possible using your unique skills. I truly believe that local policy can create the most impact in our community. I want to take my ground level experience in police and social work to bring real world solutions to our complex community challenges. I hope to take my work experience in the Boston Mayors Office around housing innovation to creatively tackle our growing housing challenge in Arvada. I believe we need to have diverse voices and perspectives at the policy table and I hope to bring that to Arvada City Council to collaboratively work together to continue to grow and strengthen our community.

The single most pressing issue facing our city is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The single most pressing issue facing our city is housing. One goal is to help create a clear, obtainable path for any renter to become a homeowner. I have ground-level experience in creating affordable housing programs that gives me a unique lens to approach this challenge in an innovative way, like investing in home-sharing, landlord rental guarantee programs, down payment assistance, and financial literacy programs.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

It is important to have a dedicated, service-driven leader that has a myriad of experiences to bring to the policy decision making table. My public safety, social work and community resiliency background brings a vast level of experience to help solve the variety of issues the city is facing. Additionally, having served the public my entire adult life, I bring a true passion to serve and advocate for our entire community and have the background to do it well.

How do you think local officials are performing in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

I served on the Arvada Chamber Resiliency Taskforce in our community and feel the city worked very hard to keep the city moving despite the challenges. They did the best they could in sharing the constant changing policies and adapted to the change with grace.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I would like to focus on our public safety and improving our multi-modal transportation system to ensure those that want to move around the city can do-so safely.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have piloted several local, state and national programs around housing and public safety and supportive systems to improve the quality of life for our older adults, disabled and low-income individuals. These programs not only helped the families but also saved taxpayer dollars. Programs such as nursing home reintegration, aging in place services, homesharing for students and teachers as well as universal application systems for at-risk children.

I have helped several communities recover and rebuild when a disaster impacted their community, to include a national response to the pandemic where we distributed several million pounds of food and personal protective equipment.

I helped run a fully functioning refugee camp, implemented a collaborative program for children in Chile, deployed personnel to Nepal after a deadly earthquake, responded to fires and floods in Colorado and across the nation.

I have created veteran programs to help with their transition out of service as well as served as a veteran transitional counselor.

I serve on several community boards and committees that help our residents around housing, public safety, healthcare and supportive services. The full list can be found on my website at www.lisaforarvada.com

The best advice ever shared with me was:

Everyone has a role, know it.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I am here to serve and advocate for my neighbors. I want to be part of the solution in Arvada to ensure we all have a healthy, safe and successful life. I hope to collaborate and engage our community to come together to solve our most pressing issues. It would be an honor to serve you all.