CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In this edition of “Meet the Candidates,” Mark Moody shares with Cap City News how he envisions governing Cheyenne if elected as a city councilmember. Moody is one of three people running for Ward III.
The following are responses that Moody shared with Cap City News. To view the Q&As of other candidates who have also submitted answers to us, click here.
What are the top three issues you believe the City Council needs to address immediately, and how do you plan to tackle them?
Issue #1-Crime/Law & Order: Voters have stated this is a top issue that needs to be addressed. To solve this, the city needs to hire at least 3–4 more patrolling officers per shift; allowing the police department to enforce the ordinances, including traffic violations, not just criminal.
Residents in Ward 3 and throughout the city have mentioned there is a problem with speeding, especially late at night. The city needs to enact a zero-tolerance ordinance for both drag racing and excessive speeding, this is a safety issue. Many traffic deaths in the community can be attributed to reckless driving and speeding.
The city needs to enact an ordinance prohibiting Cheyenne from becoming a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants. Governor Gordon has stated every state is a border state presently because of minimum federal enforcement at the southern border by the current administration. Presently, Denver and Boulder are sanctuary cities, both less than 100 miles away from Cheyenne. We need to prevent this problem from happening in Cheyenne and the State by setting precedent.
Issue #2-Affordable Housing: This is answered in the question related to affordable housing.
Issue #3-Transparency & Accountability: Presently many voters in Ward 3 feel their voices are not being heard. There needs to be town halls with constituents once a month during a weekday night to allow more options for residents. The meet and greets on Saturdays at Dazbogs need to remain. There also needs to be a town hall once a month with the mayor to take questions and concerns from the community.
Large projects, public board meetings, and major ordinance changes need public input; public meetings for these need to be advertised through social media and other media publications. This would improve transparency and allow for community public input. Large projects and major companies moving to Cheyenne should need to be transparent and have public discourse, like meetings/input occurring in Casper related to the proposed gravel pit.
How do you propose to manage the city’s budget effectively while ensuring essential services are maintained and improved?
The city council and mayor need to treat the city’s money as if it was their own.
Wyoming law states the city is required to provide the following to residents: fire response and law enforcement, infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), sanitation (trash removal), sewer, and water. These must be funded as required by law and improvements need to come about as needed.
Every fiscal year the proposed budget needs to be reviewed line by line with public input, especially with large line-item proposed budget increases. We must ask the following questions (not an exhaustive list) when analyzing the budget to remain in the black and be fiscally conservative: is this required by law, are the increases improving the necessities, what are potential impacts to the community, what are potential impacts to city employees.
What are your plans for promoting affordable housing and addressing homelessness in Cheyenne?
Affordable Housing: At the city level, we need continuous review of the UDC codes, removing unnecessary codes for developers — more codes lead to increased housing prices. The city council has made efforts to delete some of the UDC codes however this needs to be expedited. To achieve this, there needs to be a working group of citizens with two city councilmen appointed by the mayor to review the UDC codes monthly and bring about recommended changes to the Public Service Committee every month.
Also, the city needs to make it easier for apartments/multi-family housing to be situated above retail space, especially in downtown. Presently there are empty buildings downtown and they could be utilized for housing. Presently, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has allowed for denser duplexes and triplexes in some areas previously zoned for single-family homes. This is something that can be utilized to decrease rent.
Presently Wall Street corporations and private equity firms, particularly BlackRock, are attempting to buy single-family homes in Wyoming. There needs to be a city ordinance to stop this; I do think it should go further and have a statewide law to prevent this. Nebraska tried to pass a similar law earlier this year. This impacts not just potential new homeowners but local real estate agents; these corporations and private equity firms do not understand the respective communities they are buying property in. Real Estate agents can answer questions about the schools, activities to participate in, respective developments within the community, history of the community, and other amenities available, whereas those working for the major corporations and private equity firms would not have this firsthand knowledge.
Homeless Problem-The Supreme Court recently ruled 6–3 in City of Grants Pass vs Johnson; permitting municipalities to enact encampment bans across the country. In 2023, the city did pass a night curfew for encampments by the Crow Creek area, though it is not a full camping ban. In various areas of the city, some homeless camps are situated within concrete storm pipes; this is both a safety and sanitation problem. There needs to be a camping ban within these specific areas, the homeless could be seriously injured or worse if rushing water was present. Also, when encampments are near these areas could be potential littering/pollution impacting our water resources.
To give a helping hand to the homeless population, the city could work with the various shelters including Comea and the future Stagecoach shelter by offering those in the shelter to assist in completing daily city tasks such as: washing police cars, trash pickup in downtown, cleaning sidewalks, etc. Psychologically completing these low liability tasks aids folks in learning to take responsibility and have a feeling of accomplishment from hard work. It’s a win–win for the community as they are improving city resources and improving themselves.
Homeless Veterans do have access to resources offered by the VA, there needs to be information available to them at the respective shelters and city building through pamphlets indicating how to obtain help.
How will you ensure that the voices of all community members, including underrepresented groups, are heard and considered in City Council decisions?
As stated in the first question, there needs to be more town halls with constituents, once a month during a weekday night and continue the Saturday meet and greets at Dazbogs. There needs to be a town hall once a month with the mayor. Large projects, public board meetings, and major changes need to be advertised through social media and news media publications in order to allow public input.
Presently citizens trying to join a public board must visit the city website, the city Facebook page or read the opening in a newspaper to know if an opening is present. Information related to the public boards needs to be advertised by the council and mayor; meetings and openings could be announced towards the end of the agenda at council meetings.
Previously stated, for large projects and large companies coming to Cheyenne, there needs to be public meetings and input, like what is occurring in Casper regarding the gravel pit. It is important to have the public involved in these major decisions and that they are not hidden until the last minute.
What initiatives would you support to enhance environmental sustainability and green spaces within the city?
Environmental Sustainability-One of the cleanest sources of energy sources is natural gas-we need to expand the infrastructure of the current natural gas plant; presently more manufacturing and data centers are coming about requiring more electricity. Solar panels and windmills are not effective for large-scale energy usage; both require massive land usage (this impacts agricultural land) and neither source has the energy storage capacity when compared to natural gas. If private companies and homeowners want to utilize solar and wind for electricity usage that is their right, however, the infrastructure needs to be on their property and not subsidized by any government entity.
Green Spaces-Greenway-Presently there are over 40 miles of Greenway within the city; some parts of it need to be addressed regarding safety and infrastructure. Examples of addressing these aspects are tunnels under the streets and a section near Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Any expansion needs to be scrutinized if it is wanted by the community.
Is there anything else you’d like voters to know about you?
I humbly ask for your vote for the Primary Election, August 20th and the General Election, November 5th. My motto is “New Leadership for Cheyenne” this is to bring fresh new perspectives to the citizens of Ward 3 and abide by traditional Wyoming values, the Cowboy Code of Conduct. At present, the issues listed in the first question need to be addressed and the focus needs to be on improving the resources/functions of city government.
For more information, please visit my website: https://markmoodyforwyoming.com/ or my Facebook page: Mark Moody For Cheyenne City Council.
To contact directly please email me at: markforcheyenne3@gmail.com.
