Your ultimate guide to the Ward 1 Laramie City Council race
Your ultimate guide to the Ward 1 Laramie City Council race
With two seats on the ballot this year, five candidates are competing to represent south and West Laramie. Rental regulations and climate goals divide the contenders.
With five of the Laramie City Council’s nine seats on the ballot this year, there’s a lot at stake for the municipality.
The results of this year’s elections will shape the future of the city’s affordable housing efforts and rental regulations. This year’s outcome will also likely influence how aggressively the city pursues its parking and climate goals.
In Ward 1, there are five candidates vying for the two seats on this year’s ballot. The four candidates receiving the most votes during the Primary Election this month will advance to the General Election in November.
The candidates for Laramie City Council Ward 1 are:
William Bowling, the Education Director for Relative Theatrics and Coordinator of Public Programs and Education for the UW Art Museum. Bowling moved to Laramie in 2021 and has been active in the local arts and theatre scene since then. A renter, he is highly supportive of the city’s rental housing code. Bowling has staked out progressive stances on affordable housing development, climate goals and LGBTQ+ acceptance. “I think Laramie can be an even more vibrant, welcoming community,” he writes. “And I am interested in working on its behalf to address a number of needs and issues that can improve quality of life for everyone.”
Sharon Cumbie, a current Laramie City Councilor first elected in 2020 and now running for reelection. Cumbie is a retired nursing professor and psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist. She has spent her first term on council advancing the integration of community mental health practice into law enforcement through both the Laramie Police Advisory Board and Albany County Mental Health Board. Like Bowling, Cumbie is a strong advocate for affordable housing and climate action, as well as LGBTQ+ acceptance. In 2023, she read the Pride Month proclamation before Laramie PrideFest’s annual downtown march.
Roxie Hensley, an attorney who co-owns several businesses with her husband, the most visible of these being the restaurant and bar bearing her name: Roxie’s on Grand. Hensley is chair of the Albany County Republicans and ran to represent House District 45 on two separate occasions. In the 2018 General Election, Hensley lost to the incumbent Democrat Charles Pelkey; in the 2020 election, she lost to Democrat Rep. Karlee Provenza, who had Pelkey’s endorsement and continues to represent House 45 today. Hensley’s main focus is “creating a business-friendly environment,” which she would do by reducing regulations. “A petty bureaucracy fueled by numerous and competing social goals is an impediment to energetic people who just want to get the job done,” she writes.
Paul Montoya, a radio engineer and local activist who played a leading role in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to halt the Rail Tie Wind Farm. Montoya has been accused of a felony for allegedly turning off transmitters used by Wyoming Public Radio, his former employer. If he is found guilty, Montoya could face up to three years in prison and would lose his eligibility to serve as a councilor. Montoya also ran a bed and breakfast for 16 years. On the campaign side, Montoya is highly critical of the city’s budget, believing the local government wastes money and overpays its administrators. He has listed fiscal responsibility and government transparency as his highest priorities.
Norbert Kriebel, a retired research analyst who once worked for Forrester Research who moved to Laramie in 2017 and became a local landlord. Kriebel initially agreed to complete the Reporter’s candidate questionnaire. But after receiving the questions, Kriebel declined to participate at all, saying he “will not likely have time to give adequate responses.” Kriebel noted “much of” what’s asked by the questionnaire had been addressed in some form on his campaign Facebook page. While that platform does include Kriebel’s stances toward parking, rental regulations and affordable housing development, he has not used that platform to address questions about climate change, LGBTQ+ issues or public transportation, which were all part of the questionnaire he did not complete. The Reporter reviewed his appearance on the Talk Shop radio program, his showing at a League of Women Voters forum and his campaign Facebook page.
How city council elections work
City council elections are non-partisan. That means candidates do not run as Republicans or Democrats. They might be registered with a party and might even be highly involved with a party organization — for example, Ward 1 candidate Roxie Hensley is the director of the local GOP party — but their partisan affiliation does not appear with their name on the ballot and the primary election does not identify partisan nominees.
Instead, the primary election is used to whittle each race down to twice as many candidates as there are seats.
In Laramie City Council Ward 1, there are two seats on the ballot. The primary election will whittle the field of candidates from the current five down to four, letting the candidates with the highest vote totals advance to the General Election.
All voters living within city limits, regardless of party affiliation, will find a city council race on their ballot.
The issues dividing candidates
All but one of this year’s five Ward 1 candidates completed a 10-question questionnaire from the Laramie Reporter.
On some issues, candidate responses did not greatly vary. For example, when it came to issues surrounding policing, no candidate went as far as to say Laramie should establish a civilian oversight board, but nor did any candidate say that the current Citizen Advisory Board was a failure.
Most candidates responded to this topic with some variation of Cumbie’s response that the board “needs time and space to mature as a cohesive group.” (However, Montoya would like to alter the structure and possibly the scope of city boards and commissions, including the advisory board, and Hensley was perhaps opposed to even the concept of an advisory board with her all caps pronouncement that: “The Police chief is an employee, and he is tasked with managing HIS DEPARTMENT LIKE ANY OTHER DEPARTMENT MANAGER.”)
But on other issues, the candidates maintained very different outlooks. The most salient of these differences are explored below.
Housing and Rentals
When it comes to housing policy, Bowling and Cumbie are the most progressive candidates in Ward 1, each praising the code changes adopted to allow denser housing in multi-family zones and each emphatically supporting the City Rental Housing Code. Bowling lists housing as a top priority for his campaign and Cumbie, the only incumbent running in Ward 1, has consistently voted for affordable housing measures and for the rental code itself.
Hensley and Montoya want to reduce fees and permit processing times but don’t explicitly advocate for denser housing. Hensley in particular believes the private sector will address housing.
When it comes to rental regulations, Hensley calls them a misguided “one size fits all” solution that will hurt the affordable housing stock. Montoya says rental regulations are “important” but adds that the city should address whatever issues are making landlords “hesitant” to comply.
Two years since registrations opened, about half of all Laramie landlords are still not in compliance with the law, according to city records and estimates.
Kriebel, as a landlord, views the current rental ordinance as a “disservice” to renters, and would try to restructure it. That restructuring plan, highlighted on his campaign Facebook page, does not address the health and safety standards outlined in the code, but elsewhere Kriebel has empathized with tenants.
“I’ll say that our state laws are very landlord-friendly, and they are — I’m not going to say they’re unfriendly to tenants — but they require tenants have a lot of knowledge,” he said during a radio interview. Kriebel added the current ordinance has “painted all landlords as bad landlords” but has also suggested that the city should do rental inspections, which it currently does not unless it receives a complaint.
Climate goals
When it comes to the city’s climate goals, Bowling and Cumbie are once again the most progressive candidates. They praise the city’s commitment to reducing emissions and promoting renewables, including its pursuit of Blue Sky grants. Both are interested in expanding and improving public transportation, which they tie to climate change mitigation.
“The idea of increased public transit is also inextricably linked to our emissions reduction plans,” Bowling writes.
Montoya has also celebrated the city’s push for energy efficiency and has attended several ribbon-cuttings for solar installations at city facilities. He adds he would like to see even more solar, though he speaks about it as advancing “localized power production” rather than as a manner for addressing climate change.
“These are great advances in providing localized power production with the help of Rocky Mountain Power,” he writes. “As a participant with the Alliance for Renewable Energy (ARE) here in Laramie, I am hopeful that we can work toward better policies regarding net-metering. This would hopefully encourage more local businesses and homeowners to consider localized power production.”
But while he is supportive of the city’s work to expand and install solar, he is less enamored with wind energy. Montoya was a vocal opponent of the Rail Tie Wind Project — a planned 26,000-acre wind farm near Tie Siding that turned Montoya and several other nearby landowners into political activists. Montoya has said he is not opposed to renewable energy generally, but anti-renewable sentiments and misinformation did play a large role in the campaign he joined against the Rail Tie.
Montoya’s top priorities do not include energy efficiency, emission reductions, renewable energy development or any other specific climate goals.
Hensley is to the right of the other candidates. She personally drives a Tesla and supports an “all of the above” energy approach for the state, but says mitigating climate change is a personal and global issue, not a local one.
“Honestly, Laramie’s carbon footprint, on a planetary scale, is insignificant,” Hensley writes. “Individuals have unlimited opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint and it should not be the Laramie City Council’s job to enforce those decisions.”
Kriebel declined to answer the Reporter’s questionnaire and did not speak about climate change during the League of Women Voters forum, during his Talk Shop radio interview or on his Facebook page. His top priorities include neither addressing climate change nor advancing the city’s climate goals.
LGBTQ+ issues
Laramie has the most inclusive city government in Wyoming, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The city has earned its accolades by passing the state’s first nondiscrimination ordinance, reading annual Pride Month proclamations and placing dedicated liaisons in the police department and city manager’s office. The city’s score this year will likely be even higher, now that the council has established a human rights commission.
Candidates were asked whether they supported these efforts and while none of them explicitly said they were opposed, answers varied.
Bowling said he supported these efforts and felt they were working.
“I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and I feel safe and supported in Laramie,” he writes. “I hope other members of the community feel the same. The question itself here really is the answer. We’ve passed a non-discrimination ordinance, and the council is vocal and present in its support of its LGBTQ+ citizens.”
As a councilor, Cumbie said she has long been committed to “creating a community climate that promotes personal safety and respect for others, including but not limited to the LGBTQ+ community.” She has also been a visible ally.
“I read the Pride Month proclamation before last year’s Pride parade and strongly support the City’s efforts to be inclusive and welcoming to all its residents,” she writes.
In his answer, Montoya did not address the city’s efforts directly, and did not share his personal view on the nondiscrimination ordinance or any of the other specific metrics listed in the question. He said he viewed Laramie as an accepting place.
“I have always thought that Laramie is one of the more diverse cities I have lived in,” he writes. “This is mostly because of the University of Wyoming. Being able to share and support cultures and varying lifestyles is one thing that makes Laramie a great place to live.”
Meanwhile, Hensley suggested the non-discrimination ordinance gave “special treatment” to a privileged group.
“The founding principle of our government is that all men are created equal in the eyes of the law,” she writes. “With that in mind, I do not believe that any group should be singled out for special treatment.”
The candidates’ complete answers to the Reporter’s questionnaire are available here.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Roxie Hensley’s position on climate change. The section has been updated to reflect her actual position.
As usual, Jeff -- while he claims to be a "reporter" -- shows himself to be a highly opinionated and partisan blogger, presenting biased accounts of the candidates. For the candidates' own, unfiltered words, as well as other useful voter information, see instead the League of Women Voters' guide at https://wyominglwv.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-Albany-County-LWV_Boomerang-Primary-Voter-Guide.pdf or the Vote411 site at https://www.vote411.org.