This story was originally published on Aspen Public Radio by Aspen Daily News.
By Lucy Peterson, Aspen Daily News
Aspen voters elected Rachel Richards as their next mayor on Tuesday, granting the longtime public servant another term in office.
Richards, who had served 30 years in public office in the Roaring Fork Valley, garnered 1,435 votes, or 54.7% of the ballots cast, defeating first-time mayoral candidate Katy Frisch. Frisch garnered 1,189 votes, or 45.3%, according to complete but unofficial results released Tuesday night.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I think my experience in past partnerships was recognized,” Richards said. “I started the campaign saying that our problems in Aspen have simply gotten more complex, and that requires a full-time mayor.”
Richards will helm a city council with several major decisions ahead of it, including a search for a new city manager.
She was first elected to public office in 1991, when she served her first term as Aspen councilwoman. She served two consecutive terms as councilwoman and one mayoral term from 1999-2001. From 2007-2019 she served as a Pitkin County commissioner.
She was elected to city council once more in 2019, and at the end of her four-year term in 2023 she announced her retirement from public office.
Richards chose to run nearly two years after ending her tenure in public office, however, citing what she said was indecision among the current council and a desire to address evolving issues facing the city of Aspen.
Her first priority as mayor will be to begin searching for a new city manager. Former City Manager Sara Ott resigned last week after six years in the job. Her last day was Friday.
When she is sworn in on April 8, she will take the lead on a council that will decide whether to ask the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration to reopen a 1998 record of decision on the entrance to Aspen.
She also will lead the council through decision-making for the Armory Hall redevelopment. The current city council approved an expedited land use review process for the project, and it will soon go before the Historic Preservation Commission for review.
Complete but unofficial results show four of six city council candidates will go to a runoff: Incumbent councilman John Doyle, Mayor Torre, who was term-limited from running for re-election and decided to seek a seat on council; and newcomers Emily Kolbe and Christine Benedetti.
This cycle, 2,718 people cast votes, about 100 fewer than the 2,810 votes cast in the last city election in 2023.
Voters also approved Referendum 2, which asked voters to allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to use portions of the Marolt-Thomas Open Space as identified in the 1998 ROD, or any future RODs, for new highway alignments. The referendum passed by less than 100 votes — 1,369 voted yes and 1,276 voted no.
Richards was part of Aspenites for Action, the issues committee formed to support the referendum and oppose another referendum about the entrance to Aspen.
Voters rejected Referendum 1, which asked them to increase the vote threshold required to change the use of city-owned parks and open space from a simple majority to 60%. It lost by 700 votes — 952 voted yes and 1,652 voted no.
That measure was supported by the issues committee Our Parks Our Open Space.
Richards was excited to see Referendum 2 pass, but said the entrance to Aspen is only one of many issues the council will need to address moving forward.
“The issue is critical. Between the aging bridge and wildfire safety,” Richards said. “It’s predominant, but it can’t be the only thing. We have the Armory, we have just a whole series of things to try to work on.”
Frisch lost the race by just 246 votes.
Katy Frisch accepts the outcome of the Aspen mayoral race during an interview on Community Grassroots TV at City Hall on Tuesday evening. Jason Charme/Aspen Daily News
“There’s no one thing in a campaign, there’s never any one thing and Rachel has been in politics here in town for 30 some years and she has a great following,” Frisch said. “I gave it my best, I did everything I could.”
Frisch said she was proud of the campaign she ran and isn’t ruling out future political endeavors.
Richards will succeed current Mayor Torre. She said working together with her council will be imperative.
“It’s really going to be about developing good working relationships with our council, and seeing where we have a common ground,” Richards said. “I’ve always said, if everyone defines the same problem, you can start to find solutions.”
