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Incumbent candidate and real estate attorney weigh in on Summit County’s biggest issues ahead of Election Day

Republican candidate Bob Cottrell, middle, speaks to voters about his plans if elected to the District 2 seat on the Summit Board of County Commissioners while Democratic Party candidate Tamara Pogue, the incumbent, waits for her turn to speak at an election forum on Oct. 21, 2024, at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge.
Kit Geary/Summit Daily News

Ahead of the Nov. 5 election, candidates Bob Cottrell and Tamara Pogue made their case for why voters should grant them the District 2 seat on the Summit Board of County Commissioners.

Around 50 people gathered to hear the arguments on Oct. 21 during an election forum at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. Moderator Andrew Maciejewski, editor of the Summit Daily News, asked each candidate the same five questions based on submissions from the community.

Both candidates started the forum with two minutes dedicated to talking about their priorities and campaign platforms.



Cottrell explained why he was compelled to run for office and spoke about the difficulties he sees young families experiencing in Summit County due to the high cost of living. He said he and his wife made it to the county 30 years ago and didn’t have to face the challenges that families do in modern times. He added it is these “kitchen table issues” families struggle with that made him want to run. 

Pogue, the incumbent, also said issues regarding affordability played a role in her wanting to get into politics. 



“For me, affordability is not just something that I worry about for others — it is something my family struggles with every day,” she said. 

She said her time as a commissioner has helped her further understand how interrelated many issues are in Summit County while emphasizing that she has realized the importance of working together as a community to address the challenges. 

Each candidate was given a minute to respond to each of the questions posed by Maciejewski.

Question No. 1.: Local workers continue to raise concerns about the access of housing in Summit County. What do you think the county should be doing to address these concerns?

Pogue started by pointing out she doesn’t think there was a singular reason for Summit County’s housing crisis and that there isn’t a one-strategy solution.

She has advocated for a “multipronged” approach and “that certainly involves continuing to develop housing.” She highlighted projects she helped support while in office that brought more workforce housing to the county, including the Larkspur apartments in Breckenridge and Nellie’s Neighborhood near Frisco. She said she also helped push forward the Lake Hill development near Frisco which was stalled for decades before her term. Additionally, she touched on the role she played in facilitating a first-of-its-kind partnership to develop affordable housing with the U.S. Forest Service. 

Cottrell said he feels the county needs to “liberalize” accessory dwelling units by taking deed-restrictions off them. He said he understands concerns about removing deed-restrictions and opening the door for units to become short-term rentals, but he thinks it will ultimately result in more long-term tenants that are members of the workforce occupying the units.

He said he is “philosophically opposed to the government being a large landlord” and that he wants the county to “explore more inducements for private landlords” to incentivize them to rent to the local workforce. 

He shared some concerns about deed-restrictions on units and how they can cause units to not appreciate well and become “blighted.”

Question No. 2: An analysis by the Summit Daily News found the property tax bills increased by about 30 to 40% on average in Summit County this year. Do you think the county should make any changes to lower property taxes? Why or why not?

Cottrell said he thinks there should “definitely” be changes made to lower property taxes and that the current “Board of County Commissioners passed up that opportunity.”

He added that he knows that some of the incumbents in the state and county races worked at the state-level to address the issue and referenced the Colorado Legislature’s special session this September at the Capitol and said “nobody was moving very fast before that.” 

Pogue said there’s no question that property taxes play into the general affordability in Summit and that she was the only commissioner to support reducing the county’s mill levy. She also noted that she was the speaker of the house’s designee on the property tax commission and supported two reductions in Colorado.

She said while “there’s no question” the increase was more than some people could bear, the reality is Colorado has some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. She said a balance needs to be found between the taxes people pay and the funding the government needs to provide essential services. 

Question No. 3: Responses to our Voter Voices survey listed rising cost of living as the main concern heading toward the general election. What do you plan to do to help residents who are having trouble keeping up with their bills? 

Pogue pointed to the previous roles she has held in the county including being the executive director of Family & Intercultural Resource Center and the chief executive officer of the Peak Health Alliance. 

“It’s not just what I plan to do, it’s what I’ve done,” she said, noting how she has worked to help reduce the cost of health insurance for residents among other efforts to support “holding the line” on property taxes. 

She said she’s been an advocate for behavioral health care in addition to allocating funding in her position as a commissioner to organizations that look to support the local business sector and raise wages. She reiterated how affordability is an issue that warrants a multifaceted approach and said she plans to focus on that if elected. 

Cottrell argued initiatives in the county such as pay-as-you-throw — a volume-based pricing model for trash collection meant to incentivize more recycling — are increasing the cost of living in the community, especially for locals. 

He described himself as a free-market capitalist and said he agreed with some of the efforts Pogue referenced earlier that were related to working on increasing wages locally. “There are going to be employers that have to pay more of a living wage, more of a living salary,” he said. “These are things that we don’t have to legislate from a government body.”

Question No. 4: Our Voter Voices survey showed that people in our district are worried about democracy this election. Do you trust Colorado/Summit’s election process, and in what ways would you help promote democracy and engagement from the public while in office?

Cottrell said he undoubtedly trusts the election process in Summit County. He said in terms of promoting democracy, he is just a regular citizen with ideas who is running for office and he encourages others to do the same and advocate for what they want to see in their communities. 

Pogue said she also trusts the election process in Summit. 

“My commitment as a commissioner to democracy is pretty simple: It’s to hear from folks, whether I agree or disagree, and to work to craft together policy solutions that do the best we can do for our entire community,” she said.

Question No. 5: What do you think the biggest issue is facing our district, and how do you plan to help solve it? 

Pogue said she finds affordability and sustainability to be among the top issues. She addressed Cottrell’s comments about the pay-as-you-throw initiative and said the communities in which that has been implemented “did not see any increase in trash collection.” She said the effort is intended to divert trash from the landfill so the county can put off having to build a new one. 

She touched on wildfire mitigation, housing, infrastructure improvement and behavioral health as issues she has and will continue to prioritize. 

Cottrell agreed that affordability of housing was a primary issue in Summit. He touched on a point brought up by a candidate for a different race earlier in the night about utilizing accessory dwelling units to house the workforce. 

“There is that need, and we could do that — we could put people all over the county,” he said.

He agreed with Pogue on supporting behavioral health services. He said his family has been supporters of the Summit Community Care Clinic for over a decade and will frequently host people doing a residency through the program in their homes.


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