The Contenders: Thomas Wolf Focuses on a Homeless Encampment Fix

This is the second in our series on the Denver mayoral candidates, based on their responses to a Westword questionnaire sent to every contender on the ballot last month; see PBS12's "Humanize" piece on Thomas Wolf below.

A resident of Cherry Creek, Thomas Wolf says he'd bring the perspective of a political outsider and a financial professional's quantitative acumen to the mayor's office. But while Wolf has worked in investment banking for over two decades, his life has taken him on other paths, too.

Born in Iowa, Wolf has worked in construction, carpentry and general contracting. While in college, he even thought he'd become a doctor and took a surgery research class that found him retrieving organs for future transplants. And now, after a long career in finance in both the U.S. and Europe, Wolf is able to switch quickly between local politics talk and financial and economic jargon.

"To have somebody with numbers competency is of desperate need right now," says Wolf, who ran for mayor in 2011, too. But he also believes that the city needs someone who can focus on the homeless issue.

Why are you running for mayor?

To end the humanitarian crisis that is encampments. Encampments contain Denver’s neediest, and they require our help; the immediate answer is shelter. Additionally, encampments are also fiscal suicide for our schools' and city’s budgets. I will provide strong competent leadership which is the remedy our city needs. I know we all want Denver to be safe, clean and smart.

What is your plan to tackle homelessness?

I am not a politician, whose talk is cheap. I am a successful businessperson because I know to set attainable goals, under-promise and over-deliver. My plan focuses specifically on encampments and a return to law and order.

This crisis requires the proper allocation of resources to divide and conquer. Since this population has been measured as chemically-dependent, mentally-ill and criminal, the appropriate corresponding resources are clinicians, social workers and police officers, respectively. This triage is the remedy to this crisis.

Would you end homeless encampment sweeps?

Sweeps have been a failure. The metaphor I often hear is squeezing a balloon.

We basically need to have a truce with encampments and explain to them, it is a new day in Denver, and Mayor Wolf has directed social workers backed up by police officers to deliver the message: You will need to vacate your encampment. We can provide you shelter in city buildings or land. If you refuse to vacate, you will be arrested and charged with all of the laws you are breaking. If you vacate, but only relocate, you will be arrested and charged with all of the laws you are breaking. The only endpoint is when the last encampment has been provided shelter.

What is your plan to improve public safety in Denver?

End encampments, as they are the poster child for lawlessness. We spend over 25 percent of our budget on safety, so it clearly needs to be a focus and managed properly. Safety works for us; we need to better define how we would like to be protected and then just like every other department, measure their outcomes and proceed accordingly.

How will you work with Denver Public Schools to improve education and safety in schools?

The biggest thing I can do for DPS by far is end encampments because encampments are causing the value of commercial properties in our central business district to plummet. DPS derives 50 percent of its budget from property tax revenues, and commercial property is taxed at four times the rate of residential. We must heal our urban core as it is currently unsafe and filthy and tenants are leaving in droves.

What is your stance on the Park Hill Golf Course development proposal?

I am pro-parks, pro-green space, pro-transit-oriented development, and pro-affordable housing woven into the fabric of all neighborhoods. This project seems to offer all the above, but clearly, the devil is always in the details of execution and enforcement, and citizens are rightfully concerned with their city's ability to uphold this responsibility. If the development pays to change the easement, and builds a 100-acre public park that is preserved in perpetuity, at no cost to the city, that seems like an attractive deal versus the city bearing the expense of repurchasing the land, changing the easement, building the park and maintaining it. I look forward to being your next mayor and implementing the voters' decision.

How can Denver significantly expand its affordable-housing stock?

First off, when you get it built, make sure that it is deeded properly in a land trust so that this housing stock remains affordable in perpetuity. I did this in NYC, early in my career and those properties and the legal structure still deliver to this day.

The big picture is demand exceeds supply. A couple smaller fixable issues are the state needs to address the length of time builders are liable for construction defects and our city needs to expedite permitting, zoning, building and fire reviews to lower costs. I also think there is an opportunity with the city balance sheet to assist creditworthy renters with home ownership and equity creation, which is a double win because it frees up a rental unit. I have a plan to broaden access to affordable health insurance, which should improve citizens' budgets for housing.

Denver has historically been a car-centric city. Should the city take significant road space from cars for other forms of transportation (walking, rolling, biking, scootering, bus, etc.)?

Yes, our city should take a more active role in transit, including ensuring that our sidewalks are available equally and throughout, as well as safe transit corridors for all the different two-wheel modes of transport like bicycles. Both efforts will make our citizens and planet healthier.

What would you do if the Denver Broncos demand public dollars as a requirement for keeping the stadium in the Mile High City?

Let them know that the Sedalia Broncos ain’t really got a ring to it. To speak more broadly, my negotiating skills that I will bring to the table in all matters, on behalf of Denverites as your next mayor, widely distinguish me from the field, as this has been the bulk of my career in finance and where I shine.

Specific to the stadium, we are long past needing to subsidize multi-billionaires, and the Penner-Waltons are no strangers to the [environmental, social and governance] metrics that will require the stadium to remain in the heart of our city.

Violence during let-out in LoDo has been an issue for years. Would you support a staggered closing time that ends at 4 a.m.?

I think a better solution is to have excise and license fees, tiered far more aggressively — meaning charge a lot more — for liquor-only establishments, perhaps including a price for 4 a.m., too. I think the concentration of so many on the same block is also a contributor.

What question do you wish we'd asked?

"Will you sign a legal document that affirms you will not run for any other elected office?"

Yes! I think the reason Denver has never asserted itself as the vibrant world-class mecca it is, is because career politicians look at the job as a stepping stone to DC, and the current field of mayoral candidates is lousy with these characters.

They will not have the hard conversations and tough negotiations that are needed because they need that constituency for their next campaign. In the business world, this is akin to a CEO looking out for themselves versus their stakeholders and is called moral hazard, basically a flunk as fiduciary, your foremost role, and many times it is criminal. I have none of this conflict. I will exclusively serve for the greatest good for all Denverites first and foremost, and you can take that to the bank.
See answers from Kelly Brough, Thomas Wolf, Lisa Calderón, Andy Rougeot, Ean Tafoya, Renate Behrens, Debbie Ortega, James Walsh, Robert Treta, Leslie Herod, Chris Hansen, Mike Johnston, Trinidad Rodriguez, Aurelio Martinez, Terrance Roberts and Al Gardner.