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Former Steamboat Springs city councilwoman to run again this fall

Sonja Macys
Courtesy photo

The first candidate to file for the Steamboat Springs City Council’s District 3 seat is a familiar face in Citizens Hall who made government transparency and sustainability the staples of her first term on council.

Former councilwoman Sonja Macys said Tuesday she was surprised nobody else had stepped forward yet for the chance to serve in District 3 and replace term-limited council member Walter Magill.

So Macys pulled a petition and filed for the election Monday.



All city council candidates have until Monday, Aug. 28 to submit petitions.

In addition to Macys, only incumbents, including Scott Ford, Kathi Meyer and Lisel Petis, have announced they are running this fall.



If no other candidates submit petitions by 5:30 p.m. Monday, there would be no contested races in this election.

“Part of my decision (to run) is I’m really eager to get back involved with the local community,” Macys said.

Macys, who served on the council from 2011 to 2015, has been spending a lot of time on the Front Range in recent years working as the development director for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.

She said she’s kept up on city issues and wants to rejoin the council to keep giving back to the community.

Macys previously served as the executive director of Yampatika, a local nonprofit that promotes environmental literacy.

Macy listed the pending question of annexation in west Steamboat and balancing the desires of the community with its limited revenue as examples of issues she wants to help tackle.

“I’ve been kind of surprised in the wake of Steamboat 700 (the failed annexation in west Steamboat), we haven’t stepped back and developed an annexation policy, which I think would be helpful in these discussions,” she said.

Asked how she thought the current council was doing, Macys offered praise.

“What seems to be really positive in this group is a willingness to work on issues,” she said. “I think the pendulum has swung in terms of having a group that’s interested in digging in and having debate and spending more time working on issues than the council I served with.”

During her tenure on council, Macys often found herself voting the opposite direction of the council majority.

She was the lone council member to oppose the controversial sale of the Iron Horse Inn, and she was critical of a contract negotiation that resulted in the city spending $267,000 in public benefit escrow money to buy back public Yampa River access the city had before it sold the property.

In addition, she also opposed some of the closed-door sessions the council held and favored prohibiting the use of confidential memos between the city manager and the council under the open records exemption known as “work product.”

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210, email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ScottFranz10.


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