A 50-year-old community engagement coordinator with the YWCA of Boulder County, is running for the at-large seat on the Longmont City Council.
If elected in the fall, Shiquita Yarbrough would be the first Black woman to serve on the city council. Yarbrough said she is keenly aware that Longmont’s government was once dominated by the racist Ku Klux Klan.
“Although the Ku Klux Klan’s control of Longmont City Council in 1925 may seem like a long time ago, a century of moving forward without acknowledgement of wrongdoing can leave wounds,” said Yarbrough in a news release. “I look forward to helping Longmont chart a course into the next century of equity and inclusion, by not not only providing representation, but by ensuring all voices are heard in our community.”
Yarbrough, whose son graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder, has lived in Longmont for nine years and has served on nonprofit boards including KGNU Community Radio and the League of Women Voters. She also supports racial equity work with her role at the YWCA, according to the news release.
Yarbrough said there have been positive changes made in Longmont in terms of equity, but they are not arriving quickly enough. “I’m all about action,” she said. “... Our youth and the next generation, like my children, deserve more. They also deserve representation. That is why I am running for Longmont City Council.”
Affordable housing is a key issue, said Yarbrough, a single mom. When she arrived in Longmont in 2012, she filled financial gaps by working two jobs or earning supplemental income, just to make ends meet, she said in the news release. “Now, when I should be established, when it should be getting easier, it feels just as hard,” Yarbrough said. “I know it feels that way for so many families in Longmont who I will fight for on city council.”
She said, in an interview, residents are “busting their tails” to save for a home in Longmont and “can’t get anything they can afford. That’s just crazy,” Yarbrough said.
Local homeless also should not have to wait for a month or two for an assessment to get some form of permanent housing in the city, she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed disparities among the city’s minority population in getting access to health care, an issue that should be a top priority for the city council, Yarbrough said.
“We are all important and we should make sure we all have access to health care, it’s a basic essential need,” she said.
Yarbrough said she also wants to make sure Longmont Police continue to work hand-in-hand with mental health professionals to go out on calls to aid emotionally and mentally challenged suspects.
She also wants to make sure the needs of Longmont’s youth are being heard. “It’s important for us to support them. Their voices need to be heard,” she said.
Yarbrough is one of two people who have declared their candidacy for an at-large seat on the city council. The other at-large candidate is Tallis Salamatian.
Tim Waters, currently the Ward 1 city council member, is running for mayor. Marcia Martin is running for re-election to the Ward 2 seat.
