Eagle County commissioner candidate Gregg Cooper has some different ideas
Commissioner candidate touts '2050' plan and says he'll serve without pay
Courtesy photo
Gregg Cooper has some different ideas about how the Eagle County Board of Commissioners should work.
At the top of the list is pay. Cooper, a Republican, says he’ll serve without pay and will encourage his colleagues to do the same until the county no longer spends its reserves as part of its annual budget.
Spending those reserves isn’t sustainable, Cooper said, and can be accomplished, in part, by consolidating many of the county’s services through technology.
Cooper said he believes he has at least a significant part of the answer to the county’s housing problem.
Cooper said home ownership is a better solution than renting, allowing people to build wealth and equity in the community in which they live.
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Small homes, small prices
Using a variation of the Habitat for Humanity model, Cooper would like to create a small home community using modified container units on lots of roughly 2,000 square feet on roughly 100 acres of county-owned land near the Eagle County Fairgrounds. Those homes could be sold for about $133,000 鈥� with the homes costing $75,000 and the remainder going for community amenities. That price would put those homes within reach of people making the average wage in the county, he said.
The same thing could be done in the Roaring Fork Valley near Basalt, he said.
The housing proposal could be done in 14 months, Cooper said, and is part of what he calls his “Eagle County 2050” plan. That plan includes economic development, public health, workforce development, environmental sustainability and other topics.
The plan is similar to plans that have been adopted in Saudi Arabia, where Cooper worked for many years, he said.
A big part of the Saudis’ plan for the future is economic diversification, something Cooper wants to see in Eagle County. Aviation could play a role, he said, as could a bigger focus on nature. And, he said, additional ski runs could serve as fire breaks.
Cooper’s career has taken him to the Middle East, as well as Mexico and other nations, but he grew up in the Denver area. He returned to Colorado and bought a condo in Avon in 2015, where he’s lived full-time for the past couple of years.
Cooper said one of the things he’s seen in watching town and county government is the disconnect between them, particularly regarding housing.
“Each town is trying to tackle housing on their own,” he said, adding that the problem is larger than any town can handle.
Cooper’s work abroad has convinced him that the county’s problems can be solved, and can be done without leaning into reserves or increases in property taxes.
If elected, Cooper would be the first Republican in years to serve on the Board of Commissioners and would be one voice among Democrats Jeanne McQueeney and Tom Boyd, who is running unopposed to replace outgoing commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry. He doesn’t see that as a problem.
“Everybody who sees these programs likes what they see,” Cooper said, adding that the other commissioners also have agendas.
‘There’s common ground’
“We’ll work it out,” he said. “There’s common ground. My goal is to solve the housing problem.”
But a big difference between Cooper and those currently serving is how he sees the job.
It’s been a long time since an Eagle County Commissioner held another paying job. Cooper thinks the commissioner’s job ought to be part-time.
While commissioners tend to spend a good bit of time in Denver lobbying the Colorado legislature, Cooper believes that role is best left to the legislators who represent the county.
“The focus of the county (commissioners) should be on (local) taxes, and the 2050 plan,” he said.
Cooper added that he thinks it’s time to revive the idea of making Eagle County a “home rule” government, with five commissioners representing specific districts, including the Roaring Fork Valley, saying that system is “fair for everybody.”
While Cooper is running against an incumbent, Minturn Democrat Matt Scherr, he believes he has a good bit of support.
“I’ve met some fantastic folks” while campaigning, he said, adding that he likes everyone he believes he’ll be working with when sworn in in January. “I’m expecting quite a (good) level of support.”
