City Council Ward 1 race pits Schmechel against Cunningham, Richardson

The candidates disagree on the feasibility of a civilian oversight board, whether the city council should take action on climate change, and what the council should do about Laramie’s housing crisis.

Welcome to the Laramie Reporter’s 2022 Elections newsletter. This newsletter seeks to introduce Albany County and Laramie residents to the candidates who have filed to run and to explore the issues surrounding what promises to be an interesting, impactful local election.

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Four of the Laramie City Council’s nine seats are up for election this year. In Ward 1, residents will be voting to fill one open seat.

Currently, Councilor Fred Schmechel represents Ward 1 alongside two other councilors. He was appointed to the position by the other members of the council when his predecessor Jessica Stalder resigned in 2021.

He now faces his first election, which he must win to stay on council. But two challengers, Allison Cunningham and Micah Richardson, are also hoping to represent Ward 1.

Laramie City Council wards. Each ward is represented by three councilors.

Schmechel is the interim director of Impact 307 — the network of business incubators formerly known as the Wyoming Technology Business Center — and was appointed to council in part for his business expertise and commitment to economic diversification. He supported the rental regulations passed by the council in January and has supported efforts to increase Laramie’s housing stock.

Schmechel opposed the continued consideration of a civilian oversight board for the Laramie Police Department, citing legal concerns and concerns about police resignations. A Laramie Reporter investigation revealed Schmechel privately communicated with Councilor Pat Gabriel during a public meeting, convincing Gabriel to reverse the vote he had just cast. That vote reversal was enough to tip the balance against the oversight board, which was then rejected on a 4-5 vote.

Allison Cunningham serves on the Laramie Advisory Commission on Disabilities and is a cashier at the Bent & Rusty. She said she became interested in politics during the COVID-19 pandemic. She vehemently opposes the creation of a civilian oversight board and said the city government should not seek to address climate change or boost economic development.

Micah Richardson works with the nonprofit Wyoming Community Foundation and serves on the city’s Planning Commission. She said she was disappointed that discussion of a civilian oversight board ended when it did, and said she hopes there is still a way forward for civilian oversight of law enforcement. Richardson added she would like the city to take advantage of more grant funding opportunities, possibly by hiring a grant writer or sharing the county’s.

The primary will narrow the field down to two candidates for the general election. Most likely, that means one of the three candidates highlighted here will be knocked out during the primary election in mid-August.

(There is an outside possibility that a write-in campaign receives enough votes to come in first or second place during the primary, earning the write-in candidate a spot on the general ballot and knocking out two of the candidates highlighted here. But this is unlikely.)

The city council races are technically non-partisan, so whether you’re a Ward 1 Democrat or a Ward 1 Republican, the three candidates featured here are the ones who will appear on your primary ballot.

City council ward boundaries were redrawn during the redistricting process this year. Ward 1 previously encompassed downtown, the West Side neighborhood and West Laramie, but those three areas are now split between Wards 1 and 2 so that the north half of each are now in Ward 2. A high resolution map of the city’s new ward boundaries can be found here.

Cunningham, Richardson and Schmechel answered a series of questions from the Laramie Reporter about their backgrounds, opinions and hopes for the 2022 reelection. Future Laramie Reporter features will highlight the five candidates for Ward 2 and the two candidates for Ward 3.

Laramie Reporter: What should voters know about your background, profession and interest in politics?

Allison Cunningham: What is happening around you does matter. Before COVID-19 happened, I ignored what was happening around me. I didn’t care about politics. COVID-19 changed my perspective on how I see the world. I have a critical role in establishing a Wyoming Commission for the Deaf since April 2021. I am currently serving as a Vice-Chair on the Laramie Advisory Commission on Disabilities. I have been a cashier at The Bent & Rusty since October 2021. 

Micah Richardson: I have worked at the Wyoming Community Foundation, where I currently lead the grantmaking team, for nine years. In this role, I work to gain a solid understanding of issues and community needs and connect with others to find resources that make positive impacts. I am a member of the Planning Commission, which has opened my eyes to Laramie’s complex housing situation. My interest in politics stems from the fact that I am a curious person who loves Laramie and realizes answers aren’t always easy, but by putting community first, we can work to try to solve problems.

Fred Schmechel: Being personally involved in launching more than 125 startup companies is not where I thought my art or Master of Public Administration degrees would take me. I get to be a leader in solving a problem that a good number of people have done an awful lot of talking about but never seem to make a lot of progress on: economic diversification. I’ve succeeded by building programs that enable others' success. Programs that catalyze the creation of new innovative companies are enabling our young people to make their own opportunities here. I prefer collaboratively solving problems to politics.

Reporter: What does the city do well? What should the city improve upon?

Cunningham: The city has done a good job providing events, recreations and entertainments. It has a great police department. However, the city council and the Laramie Police Department need to be able to collaborate. The city needs to enforce littering and tighten the smoking ban. The city also needs to fix the sidewalks, get rid of BIRD electric scooters, and make the public accessible for all.

Richardson: I’ve found that the folks at the city really want to do best for our community. Resources are much scarcer here than in most other Wyoming towns and staff are always thinking about how to stretch Laramie’s dollar. However, I worry we’re missing out on valuable funding because Laramie lacks a grant writer. I’d love to see Laramie hire that position; or, as a commissioner recently suggested, share a grant writer between the city and county. Another area for improvement: I believe the community would benefit from a wider variety of communications to keep the public informed.

Schmechel: The city does a remarkable job of 1. being a good partner to our fellow governmental agencies, 2. innovating in an extremely resource-deprived climate, and 3. effectively pursuing all available grant funding that is available to us. But where we must do much better is in communicating with the public. Relying on historical methods of notifying the public grows more foolish with every canceled subscription to the newspaper. We must shift to a more proactive effort of communicating our opportunities, programs and successes to our constituents and encouraging their feedback.

Reporter: What role should the city government play in addressing climate change?

Cunningham: The city government should not have a role addressing climate change. The citizens should be able to decide how they want to address climate change.

Richardson: The city should continue to look for opportunities that address climate change at a local level. In 2021, Laramie was declared a SolSmart Silver City by the National League of Cities, which recognized the city’s efforts to support solar energy opportunities. I’d like to see these sorts of alternative energy efforts expanded. Additionally, the city has worked closely with the county and with water experts to think strategically about the Casper Aquifer. The aquifer is a valuable resource for our community that needs to be managed — especially as we experience more drastic temperatures more frequently.

Schmechel: Undoubtedly a professional side effect, but my inner pragmatist doesn’t believe climate change is going to be effectively addressed until a solution can demonstrate a viable economic model for doing so. Laramie should take efforts to minimize our carbon footprint because it will be a significant cost savings in the future, but we can also enable the companies we already are home to (Airloom, Evoseer, GigaChar, 9H Solar, ESal, and other emerging UW technologies, etc.) to bring the large-scale climate change the planet needs.

Reporter: What role should the city government play in local economic development?

Cunningham: The city government should not have a role addressing local economic development. The business owners should be able to decide how to run their business. No small businesses should be harmed by the government at any level.

Richardson: When thinking about the potential of new business coming to town, and supporting the local businesses we do have, we need to consider issues like housing and community vibrancy. Laramie should continue efforts to address housing shortages and affordability. Too many businesses have already gone elsewhere because Laramie didn’t have the capacity to house their workforce. The city should also continue to partner as it can with entities such as Laramie Main Street and Laramie Public Art to build a vibrant community that attracts visitors and community members to explore the city.

Schmechel: With our state distribution dropping for Laramie at a larger per capita rate than any other city in Wyoming, Laramie’s role in economic development is shifting from just enabling business efforts through zoning changes and the support of LCBA & Laramie Main Street to inspiring new business efforts as well. Laramie must develop a comprehensive and collaborative vision for how we will fund our community into the future. The city must inspire a culture of innovation and creativity that stimulates entrepreneurial activity. We also have to ensure we are utilizing every economic tool that we can to sustain ourselves.

Reporter: Should local law enforcement be overseen by a civilian oversight board or use-of-force review board?

Cunningham: Absolutely not! The city council and the Laramie Police Department should collaborate.

Richardson: I was disappointed that further exploration into a civilian oversight board was not approved by the city council. Boards help provide checks and balances for organizations. While police officers are experts in their field, a board, in some form, could provide outside perspective. If approached thoughtfully and with patience, I think a board has the potential to strengthen the relationship and provide shared responsibility between the community and the police force. Outside of an oversight board, I’d like to see continued educational opportunities around the mental health of those police interact with be prioritized, including the co-responder program.

Schmechel: I believe the six reforms recently put forward by Deb Hinkel in her recent July 6 statement are reasonable, measured, and would help restore public trust in all agencies of local law enforcement. While council must listen to the community — and my hope is that the recently passed community relations board assists with this — we also need to abide by Wyoming law. A civilian oversight board would require statute changes from the legislature as it would supplant the authority of the civil service commission that we are required to have. Council must also listen to all the lawyers.

Reporter: How should Laramie address its housing shortage?

Cunningham: Local residents and in-state University of Wyoming students should be prioritized before out-of-state University of Wyoming students.

Richardson: There is no magic wand, so addressing the housing issue will take a multi-faceted approach. The Planning Commission, which I serve on, has recommended steps such as decreasing setbacks in multifamily units to allow for an increase in units and allowing accessory dwelling units to provide additional living spaces. Another concept to explore is waiving certain building permit fees to incentivize builders to build. Other communities in our region who have experienced this unfortunate scenario can provide insights too. From them, we can learn about approaches that might fit our needs and population.

Schmechel: By every means possible. Laramie has 24 registered Class “A” contractors and many more who can subcontract on housing construction. We need to find ways to enable these contractors to grow and scale their efforts so that they can build enough houses to meet our needs. We need to support legislative efforts, such as creating the possibility of landbank programs. Laramie must collaborate with UW and WyoTech on this issue since both of those entities are already partially responsible for and being negatively affected by this issue. We should also explore a historic overlay for the West Side neighborhood as well.

Reporter: Do you support the rental regulations passed in January? Would you change them in any way?

Cunningham: Not that I know of.

Richardson: I’ve had two wonderful landlords while in Laramie; both were diligent about making sure the space my family and I lived in was safe. I am in favor of the regulations to ensure others can have a similar experience. The new procedures for landlords may feel like an unnecessary burden — especially for those who are doing things right, but the ordinance allows for the basic safety of a tenant to be met, which is incredibly important. I do worry about the city’s capacity to follow through on the ordinance.

Schmechel: Yes. Laramie is currently shifting from “just” a college town to a city with many economic opportunities. Recent business recruitment efforts by LCBA, as well as homegrown efforts spearheaded by the university and Laramie’s award-winning Main Street program, are shifting our housing needs away from college living and towards young workforce housing. Establishing these basic minimum viable standards is aimed at accelerating the adaptation to this shift in housing needed to retain the workforce that we need. The program should be allowed to run for a couple of years to get data, and then adjusted as needed.

Reporter: Do you own or manage rental property?

Cunningham: No, I have never owned or managed rental property because I cannot afford to purchase a home. I am stuck with renting an apartment.

Richardson: I do not but have considered the idea.

Schmechel: Yes, four years ago I purchased the apartment building where I continue to reside. In 2019 I purchased a condo on the north side of town as well. All told, I own five dwelling units, including the one-bedroom unit I live in and first moved into in 2011. The $1.67 per month per unit I pay in registration fees for each of the four units I rent is inconsequential to business decisions that I make.

Reporter: If elected, what would be your priorities on council?

Cunningham: 1. Saving taxpayers money. 2. Keeping Laramie clean. 3. Protecting the constitutional rights. 4. Supporting the Laramie Police Department. 5. Standing up for small businesses. 6. Making the city accessible for all.

Richardson: The issues discussed in the previous questions are all important, but housing would be top on my priority list. Not only does the issue impact families and businesses, but it can also be daunting for our senior population living on a fixed income who face rising property taxes. Secondly, the city does a good job to prioritize its limited funding. However, I want to ensure the city is seeking grant funding opportunities and partnering with the county and other entities for additional cost-saving opportunities.

Schmechel: We must focus on problems such as a lack of housing, developing the amenities that we all want, and improving constituent communication in both directions. But we must do all of this while utilizing the economic tools we need to in a very targeted manner. I’d like to see development at the airport to include lodging, restaurants and some limited retail to serve West Laramie. I’d like to see us explore an historic overlay for the West Side if those residents embrace it. I very much want us to develop our tourism economy in a sustainable manner.

Reporter: Finally, why should the residents of Laramie vote for you?

Cunningham: I enjoy advocating for the people and listening to their concerns. Laramie should be a safe, clean and livable town for us to live, work and play. The residents of Laramie are bigger than the body of the city council. The elected city councilors should work for the residents of Laramie, not the other way around. No taxpayers should be forced to pay for what they did not vote for. I believe in a small and hands-off approach to government.

Richardson: I love our Laramie community and hope to be a part of solving problems and making this place even better. I believe in listening to those I don’t agree with and trying to understand others’ perspectives. I guarantee that I’ll make mistakes from time to time, and I certainly won’t please everyone all the time. But I’ll do my best to listen, learn and be thoughtful about the choices that will most positively impact our community.

Schmechel: Laramie has very large problems that we have to face, and one of them is finding ways of sustaining ourselves, let alone continuing to grow, with diminishing state support. We can no longer cut our way to prosperity and must switch to an entrepreneurial mindset to serve the needs of ourselves and our neighbors. I’m one of the most experienced and successful public employees in the state at this. I believe my opponents are good, kind and thoughtful people, but they do not have my skillset or proven record of successes in this entrepreneurial manner of thinking.