1 week Ago By Ryan Spencer
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A Republican challenger will take on the Democratic incumbent in a race for the District 1 seat on the Summit Board of County Commissioners in this year’s general election . Summit County resident Allen Bacher, a Republican, is vying for the seat currently held by incumbent Eric Mamula, a Democrat, who is seeking reelection after a committee appointed him to fill a vacancy on the board earlier this year. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov.
5. Whoever is elected to the District 1 seat on the Board of County Commissioners will serve the remaining two years of the term left open by the resignation of former commissioner Elisabeth Lawrence . Prior to being a commissioner, Mamula spent 16 years on the Breckenridge Town Council, serving as mayor for about eight years.
He said he has owned Downstairs at Eric’s on Breckenridge Main Street since 1989. Mamula said he will continue to focus on the “really critical things government needs to take care of,” like roads, transportation, housing affordability and sustainability if he is reelected to the District 1 seat. “I believe in spending taxpayer dollars on the things that the government is supposed to do for you and not doing things that are outside of that real need of the community,” Mamula said.
“All of these things feed into my belief that the local community really needs a say.” Bacher, who ran campaigns for a commissioner seat in 2014, 2020 and 2022, is a retired businessman and an adjunct professor at Colorado Mountain College. He said that he has owned property in the Peak 7 neighborhood in unincorporated Breckenridge since 1991.
If elected, Bacher said he would focus on reducing property taxes, slashing regulations, especially those on short-term rentals, and shrinking the size of government. “I believe this county has gone way down the wrong road in its current direction,” Bacher said. “I have the seasoning, the experience, the intellect and the ability to put this county back on the right track.
” On housing, Mamula said that he believes that those who work in the county should be able to live in the county. Because local businesses rely on workers, he said that having an affordable housing landscape is a “financial driver” for the county, since it makes it easier to hire. Mamula said the need for housing in Summit County is “a crisis.
” He said housing affordability impacts not only those on the lower end of the income spectrum — but also at “all income levels.” “There is no doubt we need to produce more units whether they are built or are deed restrictions that are purchased,” Mamula said. “It is really important that we keep pushing along with this.
You’re never going to solve this in a day. This is a long struggle.” Bacher said that he believes that housing should be dictated by the market with minimal interference from the government.
He said that the government buying housing to deed restrict it is a “folly plan” and that he supports private-public partnerships on housing. Where the government can help is in freeing up land to build housing on and reducing regulations that make it difficult to build, Bacher said. He said the price of land is “ridiculous” in Summit County in part due to a “mania for open space as opposed to appropriate use of space.
” In particular, Bacher took aim at short-term rental regulations that the county has passed in recent years. He said the short-term rental regulations have impacted the local tourism economy and forced “mom and pops looking to have a retirement home” into selling their property. “Ceilings and floors have unintended consequences and do not work,” Bacher said.
“Let the market set the parameters, not bureaucrats, plain and simple. They have made short-term rentals the boogie man.” Mamula declined to comment on the county’s short-term rental regulations, citing an ongoing lawsuit.
As Breckenridge mayor, Mamula supported short-term rental regulations, saying at the time that there was an imbalance between the inventory of short-term rentals and long-term rentals. Bacher said if elected as a commissioner, one his top priorities would be to reduce property taxes. He noted that Mamula and the Board of County Commissioners earlier this year voted against a mill levy reduction that would have slightly curbed property taxes for homeowners.
Driven by a surge in home values, property tax bills rose for most Colorado homeowners in 2024. In Summit County, that led property tax bills to increase by between 30-40%, according to an analysis by Summit Daily News . “Just because the values have gone up doesn’t mean the government is entitled to take more of your money,” Bacher said.
“They haven’t done a whole lot to deserve it.” Bacher said he would work to reduce the costs of county government by analyzing the necessity of positions that open up through natural attrition. He would also review programs, like those run by nonprofits, receiving county funds, which he called “social engineering projects.
” Mamula defended his vote to not to reduce the mill levy, saying that the county has “some big needs,” such as $20 million in repairs to Swan Mountain Road and funding public safety. He noted that other entities like the school district and fire protection districts also have an impact on local property taxes. Mamula also added that he would be interested in exploring a program that offers a property tax break to people who rent their properties long-term.
“It’s definitely a push and pull,” Mamula said. “I would like to cut out as much unnecessary spending as we can find, and I think that is what we’re working on right now.” Mamula said that transportation and road conditions are among his top priorities as a commissioner.
He said that he supports putting more money into county road projects, like Swan Mountain Road, as well as exploring the possibility of microtransit to complement the free Summit Stage transportation system. Mamula said he also believes sustainability programs — like those aimed at diverting materials from the landfill to increase its lifespan and ones aimed at working to use more “green energy,” such as investing in electric buses — are important endeavors that can establish the county as a leader in Colorado. On transportation, Bacher said that the Summit Stage provides a “valuable service,” and that he would like to see it continued and expanded.
But he specifically criticized plans for all-electric buses, calling it a “fools game.” While recognizing that the Summit County Sheriff is its own elected position, Bacher noted that the commissioners control the Sheriff’s Office budget and that he would push for more attention to immigration issues. “It’s just a matter of time before somebody from the Venezuelan gang down in Denver comes wandering up here,” Bacher said.
“What is (the Sheriff) going to do about it?” Mamula pointed to wildfires and snowstorms as two of the biggest threats to public safety in Summit County and described the Sheriff’s Offices System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team, known as SMART, as an especially important program. Mamula also said that he believes the Strong Future fund established by a ballot measure to help finance early childhood care, behavioral health programs, fire mitigation, recycling and public infrastructure “has been a real win for the community.” He said it will be important to renew portions of this 10-year mill levy when it expires in 2028.
“It’s really important that we keep moving in the same way that we’ve been moving over the last couple years,” Mamula said. Describing Summit County as a “one-trick pony,” Bacher said also the county should diversify from its tourist-based economy and look to bring other businesses and industries, such as the technology industry, into the area. “Government in and of itself is grossly inefficient,” Bacher said.
“I will focus on the needs of the citizens and the taxpayers and the voters and no one else because my allegiance, my responsibility is with that group.”.
