Outgoing mayor reflects on a decade of public service in Longmont

“I don’t care what my legacy is. Nobody is going to remember me in two years, let alone 200 … I hope people in the end will chuckle at my oftentimes not acting like a mayor, because I’m just a member of the community that happened to hold a gavel for four years,” Bagley said. “But I don’t want a legacy. I don’t look at a legacy as necessary, required or even wanted, I just want my life back,” outgoing Mayor Brian Bagley said about his time serving Longmont. 

Bagley was candid in an interview after exiting his role of Longmont’s mayor and a decade of public service in the city. Bagley was first elected to city council in November 2011 and then his first term of mayor in 2017. 

There are things he’s proud of — the Sister Cities partnership with the Northern Arapaho, getting oil and gas out of Longmont’s residential areas, the Village at the Peaks development and helping secure the CostCo development — but mostly Bagley is ready to step out of the public eye after his years as mayor and council member, he said.

Bagley would like to be remembered for being in the middle, championing Longmont businesses and supporting a strong economy, as well as supporting Longmont’s LGBTQ and Latino communities. When Bagley first ran for city council ten years ago, it was because he wanted a movie theater, he said.

“I had a young family and the movie theater in the old mall was sticky and smelled bad, so I wanted to find a way to get rid of the old mall and build a movie theater,” Bagley said.

Bagley said he ran for a second term in city council because nobody else would and then for mayor in 2017 because he didn’t like the other candidates at the time. His second mayoral term was as much about unfinished business as it was not trusting the efficacy of the opposition, Bagley said. This time around, Bagley said he’s exhausted and ready to hand the reins over to someone else.

“The public does not understand what public service requires. They are under-appreciative, they are judgemental and just mean,” Bagley said. “That’s not to say all the public, but the most vocal members of the public are mean. I don’t like working for mean bosses.”

Bagley does hope he is remembered for positive actions like spearheading the removal of oil and gas from Longmont’s residential areas and fighting the 2013 lawsuit from former Governor Hickenlooper’s administration and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, among other parties. Bagley credits a collaborative effort from city staff and council members, as well as the Governor’s office and representatives from the oil and gas industries, for getting drilling and surface disruption removed from city limits.

“It required a lot of work and a lot of compromise,” Bagley said.

One of the more recent and significant actions Bagley led as mayor was the recent partnership with the Northern Arapaho at the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The historic agreement between Longmont and the Northern Arapaho through the Longmont Sister Cities Association marked the first time a city formed such a partnership between a sovereign nation. Bagley’s involvement with the Sister Cities project and the Northern Arapaho will continue, though likely not in an official capacity, he said. Bagley was hopeful that Joan Peck would continue to support the relationship going forward, but he will continue the relationships he’s built with the Northern Arapaho regardless.

“The first time I met the Northern Arapaho — their ceremonial leaders and business council — was a good day,” Bagley said. “The day we signed the Sister Cities agreement was a great day.”

Bagley’s mayoral administration was not without controversy, particularly during 2020. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bagley was outspoken in his opposition to the business shutdowns for the first 12 weeks of the pandemic. His opposition was not because he didn’t believe COVID was real, Bagley said, but because the shutdowns posed a risk to crippling the local economy. 

“Spit in my mouth is what I said, what I meant was ‘don’t lock me up, it won’t do any good,’” Bagley said. “My whole point was if you think locking yourselves up in a house and avoiding the brutal facts of reality was going to help anything, it helped nothing. It didn’t buy us time.”

While opposing the lockdowns, Bagley said he still believes social distancing and masks where appropriate were necessary. In November 2020, Bagley proposed a local ordinance as a direct response to Weld County’s lack of compliance following Gov. Polis’s emergency mask mandate and capacity restrictions, specifically prohibiting Longmont hospitals from caring for Weld County patients. The following day, Nov. 25, Bagley issued a follow-up statement addressing his remarks and retracting the ordinance.

“When I called out our neighboring county and its elected officials for publicly refusing to enforce the law, I did so out of concern for all of Longmont’s residents who are impacted by the poor decisions of some individuals and the public officials who are failing to do their duty to uphold the laws that are being put in place to protect us all, regardless of party loyalty, political conviction or county of residence,” Bagley said in the statement. 

Through the major accomplishments and struggles during his time in politics, Bagley fondly remembered the smaller moments — helping a mother getting a housing voucher, helping businesses get patio permits or meeting with a resident having a dispute with a neighbor.

“All the things you don’t think a mayor should do, those are the best parts of a job,” Bagley said. “I started because I wanted a movie theater, but that’s not the reason I stayed.”

The worst part, he said, was the tedium of city council meetings. Still, with public service in the rearview mirror, Bagley acknowledged there were things he would miss — including his fellow council members, even the ones he didn’t get along with. Bagley was grateful for the city staff, singling out Harold Dominguez and Eugene Mei’s direct reports in particular.

As for the future of Longmont, Bagley was hopeful that the Longmont community could find a way to move past anger, hate and political divide to focus on seeing each other as people. For Longmont residents to find greater acceptance and love for each other moving forward, to be happy and truly involved in making a strong city together.

“Serving in this capacity has been an excuse to rub shoulders with some of the best people I’ve ever known,” Bagley said. “I’ll miss that.”