Durango City Council candidate Kip Koso said his election bid is a natural extension of the volunteer work he has done in Durango for much of his life.
His professional background is steeped in the health and wellness of people, and as he turns his attention to City Council, he said his run for office is about the health and wellness of the community.
About this series:
This is the third of a five-part series profiling the five candidates running for Durango City Council. Ballots will be mailed to eligible electors March 10, and the city’s municipal election will be held April 1. Voters can register or update their addresses until March 24 and still receive a ballot by mail. Voting in person is also possible through election day. Candidate profiles in this series include:
- Sunday: Chris Elias
- Wednesday: Shirley Gonzales
- Today: Kip Koso
- Sunday: Jessica Buell
- March 12: Olivier Bosmans
Koso brings nine years of experience at the SunUte Community Center and as the Permanent Fund director for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. He developed small-business experience from chairing the Local First board of directors, and he has participated in several volunteer roles, including Leadership La Plata in the early 2000s.
The city continues to look for ways to expand its affordable and workforce housing inventory. Koso said he likes the city being a catalyst for more housing, but wants to ensure the city isn’t consumed by its housing needs when child care is also a critical issue that needs funding.
“We’re 150 slots lower than we were in 2019. We’re 1,000 short on child care slots. It’s really important that we pay attention to that as well,” he said. “... We could do more to help with the child care issue, and I’m hoping to be a part of that.”
The child care workforce has a “notorious lack of a cohesive voice,” he said, because there are many small operators and a high turnover rate among workers.
He said small child care centers with limited capacities are more likely to have a measurable impact on child care availability than a “mega child care center that takes 250 kids,” and the city can help existing centers and explore how to help more centers open.
Koso said the city has limited resources when it comes to helping people experiencing homelessness, but it should enable nonprofits to provide services to those who need them.
On minimum wage, he’s not a fan of a blanket raise in the city without input from businesses about how such an action would impact their bottom lines.
When it comes to city partners, he said his nearly decade-long stint with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the relationships he built with tribal leadership along the way give him an innate leg up in building the city’s relationship with the tribe.
He said he possesses an understanding of the importance of sovereignty and the historical trauma experienced by the tribe that’s hard to attain without immersing oneself in tribal culture, he said.
Whether it’s SUIT or La Plata County, the latter of which the city recently butted heads with over the jailing of municipal inmates and 911 service and administrative fees, maintaining healthy relationships is important, he said. The issues of the day will change with time.
Koso rhetorically asked how many things the city and the county are doing right by each other, versus one present issue – the jail – they don’t see eye to eye on.
“It’s incredibly important that we remember to try and maintain the relationship, because we’re always going to have some topic that we have to wrestle with and we have to deal with. And we have to find the happy compromise,” he said.
Who is Kip Koso?
Kip Koso, 58, said he’s been an avid volunteer in the Durango community his entire life. He grew up in Durango and moved away for college, returning in the 1990s with a family of his own.
He said the biggest volunteer effort he’s been involved with was founding and working with the Boys & Girls clubs of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and La Plata County.
“We saw a real need for after-school programming out in Ignacio and for the tribal kids,” he said.
The idea resonated in Durango and La Plata County as well, he said. The success in Ignacio led to the establishment of the Boys & Girls Club of La Plata County, located at the Durango Recreation Center.
He’s said he has also supported and been involved in Durango-area staples such as the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, the Taste of Durango food and drink festival, and the Durango Cowboy Gathering.
His passion for the Boys & Girls Club, in addition to Big Brothers Big Sisters programs, is reflected in a particular stance he took as a City Council candidate: The city must do what it can to improve child care access in Durango.
He said both the city and the county have points to be made on the jail issue – he doesn’t think it should have resulted in litigation – and none of the reasons are worth ruining the relationship over.
“You don’t ruin the relationship over the current issues that you’re wrestling with because there are more down the line,” he said, adding compromises can be reached.
Koso said he strongly supports reauthorizing the 2005 half-cent sales tax for another 30 years through 2056. Durango Police Department needs a new building and has needed one for decades, and that’s key.
Renewing the sales tax would also benefit parks and trails, including Durango Mesa Park development, a “once-in-a-generation opportunity for the city,” as he described the project.
He said Durango Mesa Park has real potential. It’s important to start the conversation about a music venue and its potential to earn revenue that would further park development.
Koso said the Downtown’s Next Step project makes sense if utility repairs and upgrades must be made beneath Main Avenue. In that case, the opportunity is there to improve walkability while construction is occurring.
cburney@durangoherald.com
