Doug Linkhart

Real Solution: Economic Prosperity

Doug's number one priority is to improve Denver's economy and create sustainable prosperity for the whole community. As Mayor, Doug will help businesses create jobs and connect Denver residents to those jobs. To strengthen Denver's economy, Doug will make Denver a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship.

As a proven leader for the whole community, Doug has worked to improve the economic vitality of Denver neighborhoods and worked with business leaders and regional interests to enhance Denver's place in the global economy. He has led efforts to create Mile High Holidays, the Business Assistance Center, Global Denver, Economic Prosperity Center, Bridges to Work, and Bank on Denver.

Doug's Real Solutions to Support Business and Create Jobs

• Make Denver an incubator of innovation and entrepreneurship, creating partnerships among nonprofits, local colleges and universities and the business community. Use the economic gardening model pioneered by Littleton to provide assistance to entrepreneurs and home-based businesses through the Denver Public Library and its branches.
• Create a network of free assistance for entrepreneurs composed of attorneys, accountants, marketing experts, and other local professionals.
• Create a seed capital fund for business startups and small business expansions. Focus particularly on startups that provide "triple bottom line" benefits by helping the economy, sustainability and populations in need of assistance.
• Exempt businesses with only one employee from the head tax.
• Establish a Gap Financing Fund to provide businesses with small, short-term, low-interest loans to support jobs and help them cover payroll or other needs in times of crisis.
• Cut the red tape and uncertainty faced by businesses expanding or starting a new facility. Eliminate select permit and inspection requirements and make it easier to waive specific requirements, especially for rehabilitation of older buildings.
• Help existing businesses stay afloat by establishing a hotline for businesses with problems or questions.
• Maintain and strengthen downtown's role as the city's job center and help neighborhood business districts by strategically investing in infrastructure, anchor businesses, arts and culture and tourism.
• Implement regional strategies for workforce development, invest in infrastructure, target specific business sectors for growth, and enhance Denver's position in the global economy through partnerships with the state, metro-area mayors, Metropolitan Economic Development Corporation, and various Chambers of Commerce.

Doug's Real Solutions to Support Working Families and Create a Ready Workforce

• Partner with nonprofits and labor organizations to expand apprentice and job training programs to help connect people to good-paying jobs. For example, when FasTracks says it needs thousands of construction workers for several years, we need to make sure that local residents get those jobs.
• Establish Economic Prosperity Centers in different parts of the city to help people get better jobs, learn financial management, and start new businesses.
• Reshape assistance programs at the Department of Human Services to remove the cliff effect, in which people lose benefits as they earn more money, and provide more one-time assistance to get people back on their feet.
• Expand the city's partnerships with banks and other businesses, higher education, and nonprofit organizations to provide financial and career education and help people get access to no-cost accounts at financial institutions.
• Enhance job training and readiness programs for populations in need of extra attention, including the homeless, welfare recipients, people reentering the community from the Corrections system, people with disabilities, and the aging population.

Doug's Real Solutions to Connect Young People to Jobs

• Work with Denver Public Schools to provide financial education to students as part of the standard curriculum or in after-school programs for all students.
• Expand the Bridges to Work program to increase job opportunities for young people year-round and create pathways from high school to college to a job.
• Use the Public Safety Cadet program as a model for encouraging students to stay in school and entering a job as a teacher, engineer, or other professional.

Real Solution: Common Sense Government

Doug is the only candidate with a detailed plan for next year's budget shortfall. Doug proposes common sense approaches to making city government more efficient, more transparent, and more responsive to the residents it serves.

• Eliminate duplication and inefficiency across city departments through performance audits and consolidation of overlapping functions.
• Make city government more transparent by publishing detailed budgets, contracts, and performance data online for residents to review.
• Streamline permitting and licensing processes to reduce wait times for businesses and homeowners.
• Empower neighborhood organizations by giving them a stronger voice in land use, budget, and development decisions.
• Improve customer service at all city agencies by establishing performance standards and training programs.

Real Solution: Reshape Public Safety

Doug Linkhart knows that public safety starts with crime prevention, includes rehabilitation, provides access to treatment for mental illness and addiction, and focuses public safety resources where they are most appropriate. Public safety currently consumes half of the city's budget. By shifting a fraction of the city's public safety budget to front-end programs that prevent crime and provide appropriate treatment, Denver will spend less on criminal justice without compromising public safety.

• Reduce the population of Denver County Jail through alternatives to incarceration when appropriate and improved efficiencies in processing. The jail currently holds 1500 people awaiting trial, many of them traffic offenders. Electronic monitoring and an improved bond schedule could reduce incarceration costs without impacting public safety.
• Orient more county jail programs toward rehabilitation and prevention.
• Use cost savings to provide treatment for mental illness and substance abuse. Crime Prevention and Control Commission programs have already demonstrated the value of investing a fraction of the city's public safety budget on programs that keep people from entering the criminal justice system. Crime is down, while at the same time jail bed use (at an average cost of $50 per bed per day) is also down by 227 beds per day.
• Promote public policies that encourage successful re-entry for people released from jail and prison into the community.
• Support the efforts of a police force whose members are placed in danger on a daily basis, but also communicate a zero tolerance policy when personnel act outside the boundary of professional behavior.
• Eliminate red tape that hinders the police force's ability to hold officers accountable.
• Explore efforts like Jefferson County's Juvenile Assessment Center that work to reduce further involvement with the juvenile justice system for at-risk youth.
• Support the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver (GRID), an effort to provide youth with alternative social supports.
• Re-allocate resources so that police are able to respond to more crimes reported upon people and property (such as burglaries).
• Allow public safety experts to respond to emergency calls with the right tool. When there is a repeat history of calls from a household, the force should have the option to respond with a crisis intervention team or mental health specialist.
• Refine the emergency response system so that paramedics are stationed at fire stations, offering the opportunity to save public dollars without impacting public safety.

Real Solution: For a Greener City

Doug Linkhart is the environment candidate. With a strong track record of environmental knowledge and accomplishments, Doug will make Denver the greenest city in the country, increasing waste diversion, reducing greenhouse gases, and enhancing the quality of life for the whole community.

Two key ingredients for achieving these goals:

• Retain and expand Greenprint Denver, with a new set of aggressive goals and plans for implementation through all city programs and community partnerships.
• Make the necessary investments up front to create long-term energy savings and pollution reduction.

Expand Recycling

Recycling is one of the most cost-effective strategies to combat greenhouse gases. Doug will implement Denver's new Solid Waste Plan, converting the current dumpster-based system to a 3-cart system to provide recycling and composting to every home. The "Green for Green" program will cover the costs with a monthly fee determined by participation level.

Alternative Transportation

Doug will work with Metro-area leaders to get FasTracks completed as soon as possible. He supports the current position of the Metro Mayors' Caucus to ask the voters for a tax increase of 0.4% to complete the system in a timely manner. Doug will implement the new "Denver Moves" plan to improve bicycle routes and install new sidewalks and crosswalks.

Energy Efficiency

Doug believes Denver must invest up-front in order to save later. With an annual $29 million Xcel bill, Denver can save millions of dollars by investing in energy efficiency, including conversion of street lights to LED lighting and basic conservation measures in all city buildings.

Better Air Quality & Water Conservation

Doug has been a leader in the effort to convert coal-fired power plants in the Denver area to natural gas. As Mayor Doug will appoint Commissioners to the Denver Water Board who help expand water conservation efforts.

Real Solution: Engaging the Aging

Denver's population of people 55 and older is one of the city's greatest resources. They want to give back, volunteer, mentor, and remain active contributors to our community. Doug will expand the Age Matters Initiative and create new opportunities for older adults to stay engaged, healthy, and connected.

• Expand the Age Matters Initiative to promote volunteer opportunities, mentoring programs, and civic engagement for older adults.
• Improve transportation options for seniors, including expanded RTD access and paratransit services.
• Support affordable housing options that allow seniors to age in place in their own neighborhoods.
• Create intergenerational programs that connect older adults with young people in schools and community centers.

Real Solution: Parks and Recreation

Denver is blessed with a great park system, thanks to early city leaders who had the foresight to acquire the city's remarkable open spaces and create one of the best recreation programs in the country.

• Make recreation centers free for kids under 18 and expand hours to include evenings and weekends.
• Create more programming and activities for teenagers using money from Doug's Community Investment Fund.
• Invest in maintenance and improvement of existing parks, trails, and recreation facilities.
• Expand partnerships with neighborhood organizations to develop community gardens and green spaces.

Real Solution: Put Kids First

Our kids are hungry. Our kids are homeless. Our kids aren't learning. Denver has the most rapidly growing rate of childhood poverty in Colorado. Without housing or raised by adults with little education, it is critical that our community help our youngest children learn. As an economist and a father of three teenagers, Doug knows how important it is for Denver to invest in our kids.

Kids and Health

• Make recreation centers free for kids under 18, expand hours to include evenings and weekends, and create more programming and activities for teenagers.
• Keep community health centers open longer hours and on weekends and develop new school-based health centers at East High School and selected middle schools.
• Continue the Safe Routes to School program with funding and coordination to help schools improve safety and encourage kids to walk or bike to school.
• Work with nonprofit organizations and faith-based organizations to promote healthy lifestyles, create more local sources of healthy food, and combat obesity.

Kids and Education and Employment

• Implement the Ready Kids, Ready Families, Ready Communities Initiative, a community-based plan for investing in early childhood education programs for kids three and under.
• Plug the gap in the Denver Preschool Program by using the Community Investment Fund to cover the costs of preschool for four-year-olds during the summer.
• Expand out-of-school opportunities for young people, including recreation, education and employment programs after school and during the summer.
• Expand the city's mentoring programs by supporting the Denver Mentoring Collaborative and allowing city employees up to eight hours off per month to volunteer in schools.
• Support efforts of the Denver Scholarship Fund to ensure that all kids who want to attend college are able to do so.
• Create pathways to careers for high school kids by expanding the Bridges to Work youth employment program.

Kids and Safety

• Work with Denver Public Schools to implement restorative justice programs in place of the current system of police officers arresting kids in school for minor violations.
• Support current efforts to create a Juvenile Assessment Center to help reduce further involvement with the juvenile justice system for at-risk youth.
• Support the Gang Reduction Initiative of Denver (GRID).
• Invest in family support services to prevent kids from entering the child welfare system.

Real Solution: Our $100M Budget Solution

Doug is the only candidate with a detailed plan for next year's budget shortfall. Doug proposes a Community Investment Fund that redirects savings from criminal justice reform, energy efficiency, and government consolidation into investments in our neighborhoods, our kids, and our economy.

• Save millions through alternatives to incarceration and Crime Prevention and Control Commission reforms.
• Reduce energy costs through LED street lighting conversion and building efficiency upgrades.
• Consolidate duplicative city functions and improve procurement processes.
• Invest savings in economic development, youth programs, and neighborhood infrastructure.