Name: Gala Wilhelmina Orba
Website: galaforcitycouncil.org
Age: 39
Family: Mother Josephine Orba, father John Butsch, brother Montana Butsch, his wife Bea Jimenez
How long have you lived in Boulder: 10 years
Professional background: Certified life coach and acrobat, former high school math instructor and personal assistant.
Political/community experience: Slow food activist, 16 years; international volunteer for the environment; mentor to underprivileged youth; dedicated public servant in local school systems.
Education: BS actuarial science, DePaul Universtiy; secondary mathematics teaching license, CU Boulder; Western Herbalism certificate Chicago College of Healing Arts
What kind of new funding mechanisms, if any, would you support the city exploring and implementing to finance transportation network improvements?
I would like a portion of our property taxes to go to financing transportation networks improvements.
Do you think Boulder can build its way to better affordability? And if not, what kind of local regulations aimed at boosting affordable housing and limiting housing costs that would not require a change to state law to impose would you support?
We can certainly build our way to better affordability if we build affordable rentals and affordable homes. I support changing the occupancy law to four unrelated persons city-wide and creating clear laws around noise levels and street parking at the same time. I support loosening some of the restrictions on building new accessory dwelling units. I also believe we should be talking about changing state law.
Do you support instituting some type of fee on users or vehicles entering open space properties to fund their maintenance, and if so, what kind?
No, I do not believe we should charge to access our open space. I support 2H, the (.)15-cent tax as our way to pay for open space maintenance.