Johnny Olson is running for Greeley' City Council’s Ward III seat. Though he is running unopposed, see where he stands on the issues.

By Kelly Ragan

Johnny Olson is running for the Ward III seat on Greeley City Council.

Olson is running uncontested, but he was a good sport and participated in a candidate forum anyway. The forum was hosted by the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan organization, Greeley mayoral and city council candidates answered questions from the league and from audience members regarding where they stood on various issues, what their plans would be if elected, and more. 

Some of the major topics included housing, transportation, water, diversity, and communication. Candidates were also asked about three ballot measures, 2F (also known as Keep Greeley Moving), and 2G and 2H (also known as the water ballot measures). 

The NoCo Optimist included candidates’ opening and closing statements, answers (with minimal edits for clarity and brevity) as well as the questions asked for context. The NoCo Optimist’s goal here is to give you an idea of who a candidate is and where they stand on issues that matter to you.

Opening statement

I’ve been here for 30 years, and I truly believe this community is one of the best communities I've lived in, and I've been in a lot. I started my adulthood here. There are three things I think are most important in our crazy world, in our crazy times right now.

The first is safety and security. We all deserve to be safe. In my 30 years I've always felt safe. And we need to make sure that continues by giving our first responders all the necessary tools they need.

The second is community. We have to make sure we continue to care in this community. How do we do that we do that? By growth. We do that by smart economic decisions. We do that with business. We do that by caring about where people work live and play, and I think we can do better in this community by doing that.

Then there’s infrastructure. I’m a transportation guy. I've been doing transportation for 30 years, and my goal is to prioritize infrastructure, transportation, water and all the things that go around with economic growth, vitality and housing. My number one thing is to get the 35th and 47th built. By doing that, we have better multimodal choice, better movement, we will improve the environment, and we move forward.

Question: As the city of Greeley continues to experience increasing population growth and diversity, this growth has impacted a number of areas such as housing transportation and water to name a few. What ideas or strategies do you have to address future issues impacted by this growth?

When I was a director at CDOT, I saw a lot of communities that didn't grow – and they were dying. You have to continue to grow your community, to improve, and to bring more in. But you've got to do it smart.

I've heard smart growth a lot of times, you've got to have multi-family housing, single-family housing, and you've got to bring the economic vitality in with it. I haven't seen large business growth here since Leprino. In order to see that kind of growth, we need to have good housing, good transportation and infrastructure.

Question: Do you think the city is effectively communicating with the community about its activities and needs? If yes, how are they doing that? If not, what needs to be improved?

I look on the website, and I follow the city council, and I watch the council meetings. Overall communication has been pretty good. You have to want to be engaged. So, the question is how do we get people engaged? How do we communicate with people the way they wanted to be communicated to, and how do we engage them, so they want to be part of it?

Communication for a 30-year-old is different than communication for someone of my age. I think you really have to understand how you communicate, why you communicate, and how do you get people engaged.

So, everything can always be improved. I’m not going to say the city is doing a bad job or a good job, but you can improve upon how you communicate, and I do agree with the need for bilingual services very much so.

Question: The University of Northern Colorado is part of Ward II. It also affects the rest of the city. How would you work to engage students so they might want to stay in Greeley after they graduate?

I’m Ward III, but my wife graduated from UNC and my daughter graduated from UNC. One’s a nurse and one's in the medical profession.

I believe in higher education. I believe that we have to engage the the kids in the school. They're a part of our community whether they're from out of town or they're not, so I think there has to be some connectivity.

I mean how can the council, if we're sitting here, be engaged? Go and have some outreach programs, go to the community centers. Go do some of those things so they understand what the city's doing instead of once something pops up and they get upset, saying why are you doing this? Get them so they understand.

Most college kids don't want to get involved in the politics of life, and they want to just do their schoolwork and get done. So, letting them be part of it means going to them and making sure we're involved with them.

Question: How would you use your skillset while on council, for example reading contracts, advocating for public safety officers, reading scientific data, and/or your personal experience with water issues?

I write contracts, read contracts, develop contracts. I deal with contracts on probably a daily basis with my engineering background. I'm a professional engineer. I can read a lot of things and stay focused.

I think one of the skillsets an engineer brings is the problem solving. I mean we analyze things in a very detailed way. We look at things and put things in, I call them ledgers, you know left and right, what's good what's bad, and come up with an answer.

But I think my skillset brings leadership, vision and experience. I ran the department of 500 employees in 13 counties for nine years. I think I’m qualified and bring a great skillset that's going to help the city.

Question: What is the most important issue to you in the ward you are running to represent?

Ward III is much different than Ward II. We’re not the old part of the community, we're the growing part of the community. Right now, a lot of my ward has corn fields and wheat fields. We're going to continue to grow, so I think some of the important things are smart growth – making sure we're bringing in smart business, we're looking at walkable communities, we're looking at ways to get people to stay engaged in their communities.

But the thing that got me to run the most was Bittersweet Park, so I think I'm going to be dealing with that for a while. What that has done is create unusable space. I want to find out ways that we could have done that better, and I've dealt with that in my past, so hopefully working with the city staff to find out something to do there.

Question: What is your position on the Keep Greeley Moving ballot issue? What are your positions regarding the home rule charter changes on water decisions?

I think the city has done a great job with Keep Greeley Moving. I think they've proven themselves so we should be voting to continue that, so I'm 100% behind it. As the city continues to show that they can do the work, we should keep giving them that money.

When it comes to the water issues, I struggle. I’ve read both sides. I think when we start letting everyday citizens that don't have the time to read all the data, that don't understand what parts per billion are, or what's dangerous, what's not, we've had tons of studies and tons of experts. I think we need to leave it to the experts, and that's what the city's done since the 1800s. So, I think we need to continue to do that.

Closing statement

Being a being a civil servant, being a servant for the community is a main point of why we do what we do. When I talk to people, they say thank you, and just being thanked for doing what we're doing is important, and it makes you feel really good to be part of something like this. But as I've said in my past discussion, safety and security, community, and infrastructure are key to continuing to grow our community.

We have to do what's right for the city of Greeley and the people of Greeley. We work for the people, we don't work for ourselves. My background, my skillsets, my 30 years in transportation, my 30 years in leadership building back roads, connecting communities, working with communities – I don’t have an opponent, but I feel like I’m set up for being in the position.