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About Ben
Ben grew up in Boulder County. He attended Flatirons Elementary, Base Line Junior High,
and Boulder High School. After graduating from Williams College in 1989, he taught high
school in Switzerland for a year and then worked in the private sector for polling firms
in Washington, D. C. and back in Boulder. Ben graduated from the University of Colorado
School of Law in 1996. For seven years he worked for the Boulder County Open Space
program -- the first five as an attorney and the last two as a manager of capital
projects and stakeholder outreach.
In his present position of County Commissioner Ben oversees a budget of $270 million and
1,000 employees. Ben also chairs the Boulder County Consortium of Cities, an organization
of representatives from the County's cities and towns that deals with major regional issues. The Consortium recently created a countywide sustainable energy plan
and is also discussing agreements that would reduce sprawl by fostering cooperation among
the various entities that presently compete for sales tax revenue.
At the state level, Ben represents Boulder County on Colorado Counties' Local Government,
Tax and Finance, and Public Lands Committees. He also serves as the Boulder County
representative to the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council, a group that oversees the safe
transition of Rocky Flats (a former nuclear weapons plant located just south of Boulder
County) to a wildlife refuge.
Ben was appointed by the President of the Senate to the Oil and Gas Severance Tax Working
Group. This group was charged with devising improvements to the present system of
collecting and distributing of severance taxes.
Ben was also a member of a conservation easement tax credit task force convened
by Majority leader of the House Alice Madden. The task force developed a set of
solutions (which ultimately became legislation) to save the state's conservation
easement tax credit program; a program that has preserved 500,000 acres across
Colorado by adding and enforcing strict rules and controls.
Ben was recently named to a Western Governors Association task force charged with protecting
wildlife corridors and crucial wildlife habitat across the west.
In his spare time, Ben enjoys the Colorado outdoors. When he is not injured, he plays soccer in Boulder's adult soccer league. Ben is single and lives in Lyons.
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