Last week, Tallis Salamatian, officially announced his candidacy for one of the at-large seats for Longmont City Council, an election that will be held this November.
The Longmont City Council is made up of seven seats, filled by residents of Longmont. In the 2021 election, open seats include Mayor, Ward II and two at-large positions. The at-large positions do not require a person to live in a specific area of the city.
Salamatian was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and moved to the United States with his parents when he was a young child. Where he grew up working in construction with his father.
From a family struggling to make ends meet, Salamatian quickly learned the value of money and hard work. This inspired him to pursue a career in business. Throughout his career, Salamatian has started several successful businesses.
Salamatian now spends a majority of his time helping local businesses learn how to grow and prosper, through volunteering, mentoring or educating.
“I have had some very successful business people, in my life, who were able to point me in the right direction. I am very cognizant that not a lot of people have that opportunity. I want to share the skills that I learned,” Salamatian said.
Salamatian is passionate about giving back and this is what prompted him to run for a Longmont City Council seat.
“I have always wanted to get into politics … and I find it really cool that Longmont City Council is really focusing on the issues,” he said.
Salamatian hopes to use his business background to “help improve what is already being done very well here. But I think that with my process improvement background as well as my finance background, I can make sure that every tax dollar that is spent in Longmont has the best possible return on investment,” he said.
For Salamatian, knowing where city dollars are spent, especially since the pandemic, is very important.
“There are people struggling right now and we are not conscientious of where the money goes then there are going to be people left behind,” he said.
In addition to focusing on the budget, Salamatian also wants to influence change on homeownership, education and skills training for next-generation jobs.
He also sees an opportunity to use empty or vacated office space, which has had less demand due to the pandemic, for affordable housing, he said.
“If we can use that real estate and turn it into affordable housing, that’s a win-win,” he said. “There are lots of things I think we can do once we start thinking outside the box.”
“People have more important things to do in their day-to-day so I think it is really important that their elected official has the skills that they can do that for you (look at the details of the budget) because … there are more important things that they (residents) should be spending their time doing. I want to give people the peace of mind knowing that, at least on that front, I am looking out for them,” Salamatian said.
To learn more about Tallis Salamatian click here.
Correction: A misspelling of the candidate's name.
