Glenn Vaad | |
---|---|
Member of the Colorado House of Representatives from the 48th district | |
In office January 10, 2007 – January 9, 2013 | |
Preceded by | Dale Hall |
Succeeded by | Stephen Humphrey |
Personal details | |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Mollie |
Profession | transportation engineer |
Glenn Vaad (born c. 1941[1]) is a former legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado. First elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Republican in 2006, Vaad represented House District 48, which encompasses western Greeley and southwestern Weld County, Colorado.[2]
Vaad earned a bachelor's degree in industrial construction management from Colorado State University.[1] He spent most of his professional career within the Colorado Department of Transportation in many roles, including highway engineer, a management consultant, auditor, and legislative liaison.[3] During his time at CDOT, Vaad spent 10 years working on the extension of Interstate 70 near Vail, Colorado. He retired in 1998,[4] after 31 years with the department.[3] He also served as Secretary of the Colorado Transportation Commission.[5]
A volunteer fire fighter and emergency medical technician, Vaad has been elected to the Mead, Colorado Board of Trustees, of the Saint Vrain Valley School District Board of Education,[5] (where he served for nine years,[6] including a stint as board chair.[5]), the Weld County Board of Commissioners,[3] and served on the Weld County Planning Commission, the Mead Sanitation Board,[5] the State Child Welfare Allocation Committee,[7] and was a charter member of the Skyline High School Education Foundation.[5]
On the Weld County Commission, Vaad represented District 2, which covered the rapidly growing southwestern portion of the county, including the communities of Dacono, Frederick, Firestone and Mead.[7] First elected in 1998,[8] Vaad, who rose to chair the board of commissioners, faced no opposition in his 2002 run for re-election.[9] As a Weld County Commissioner, Vaad was noted for pressing for a regional airport in rapidly growing northern Colorado,[10] and for a northern Colorado regional Council of Governments.[11] Vaad also served on the North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Planning Council, a regional group that proposed a Northern Colorado regional transportation authority,[12][13] another of his regional priorities.[9] Vaad also pushed, unsuccessfully, for the creation of a business incubator in Weld County.[8][14]
Vaad is married and has lived in Mead for three decades; he and his wife, Mollie, have two children, Joel and Nicole,[1] and three grandchildren.[3] He has been an elder at LifeBridge Christian Church near Longmont, Colorado.[15]
In June 2005, Vaad, term-limited as a county commissioner, announced his intention to run for House District 48, a seat being vacated by term-limited Rep. Dale Hall, who ran for the state senate.[7] Vaad faced Democrat Michael Dugan in the 2006 race to in a race where regional growth and transportation funding were key issues.[16] Vaad won the November 2006 general election with about 58 percent of the vote.[17]
After his election, Vaad named transportation, public safety, and economic security his top legislative goals.[18] Because of his experience with transportation issues, Vaad was named the ranking Republican member of the House Transportation Committee and co-chair of the General Assembly's Transportation Caucus in his first term.[19] Vaad also sat on the House Appropriations Committee.[20] Vaad sponsored only two bills during the 2007 session, both of them concerning disclosure of confidential information (insurance records and employee salaries) by government entities.[21]
During the session, Vaad crossed party lines to support a controversial tax freeze proposed by Democrats to expand education funding.[22]
Following the 2007 session, Vaad was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter to a 30-member committee studying transportation funding options,[23][24] the Blue Ribbon Panel on Transportation Finance and Implementation.[6] and also served on the interim Transportation Legislation Review Committee.[25]
In the 2008 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Vaad sat on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Transportation and Energy Committee. [26]
In the 2008 legislative session, Vaad planned, as part of a package of transportation legislation proposed by Republicans, to introduce a bill to turn over responsibility for state highways within city limits to each municipality,[27] and to give cities a greater share of state transportation funds.[28][29] The bill died in committee, as did legislation to allow citizens to form a regional transportation authority by petition.[30] Vaad planned on continuing to advance his transportation agenda within the Transportation Legislation Review Committee, which met between legislative sessions.[31] In particular, he planned on reintroducing a version of his transportation funding bill in the 2009 session.[32]
Vaad also sponsored bills, signed into law, that required that old license plates be destroyed to prevent fake plates from being installed on vehicles,[33] and to specify the location of registration stickers on license plates.[34] Another bill to be introduced by Vaad would prohibit money from Colorado's College Opportunity Fund for being used for remedial university coursework.[35]
Vaad announced his intention to run for a second term in January 2008[6] and was nominated by acclamation at the Republican assembly in February,[36] although he faced a primary election challenge from Mark Charles Yingling,[37] who petitioned onto the primary ballot.[38]
Yingling ran a campaign positioning himself as more conservative than Vaad on issues including abortion, immigration, and taxes;[39][40][41] Vaad, however, accused Yingling's campaign of distorting his legislative record.[42] Yingling's campaign against Vaad also drew support from groups opposing gun control and illegal immigration.[43][44]
Vaad narrowly won the Republican primary, prevailing with 53 percent of the vote, less than 500 votes more than Yingling—an unexpectedly strong result for a challenger who entered the contest relatively late[38] and who did not even set up a web site.[44] Vaad will face Democrat Bill Williams in November's general election.[43] Vaad's re-election bid was endorsed by the Greeley Tribune,[45] the Denver Post,[46] and the Longmont Times-Call,[47] and the Windsor Beacon.[48] He won re-election, defeating Williams with about 60 percent of the popular vote.[49][50]
For the 2009 legislative session, Vaad was named to seats on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Transportation and Energy Committee, where he was the ranking Republican.[51] Vaad sponsored legislation to transfer control of some transportation projects to local communities,[52] and to allow Berthoud, Colorado to be added to the taxing district area for Aims Community College, pending voter approval.[53][54]
In January 2009, while at the state capitol, Vaad injured his hamstring and subsequently fainted, requiring him to be transported out of the capitol on a stretcher; he had no serious injuries.[55]
In October 2009, after learning that the Colorado Department of Corrections planned on leaving a newly constructed maximum security prison in Cañon City unused due to state budget cuts, Vaad proposed selling the facility to a private prison operator, and planned on offering legislation during the 2010 session to accomplish this.[56][57]
Vaad also planned on sponsoring legislation in 2010 to establish a "priority-based budgeting system" for the state of Colorado,[57][58] and also legislation to have a private firm perform a "contingency recovery" audit of state spending, in which a fraction of the savings found by the audit would be awarded to the company performing it.[57]
In October 2009, Vaad announced his intention to seek a third term as a state representative in the November 2010 legislative elections; he identified his "priority-based budgeting" proposal as a centerpiece of his campaign.[58]
Vaad ran in the 2012 Republican primary election for Colorado State Senate District 23. He was defeated by Vicki Marble in the Republican primary on June 26, 2012.[59][60] Vaad is succeeded by Republican Stephen Humphrey. Then in December 2013, Governor Hickenlooper appointed Vaad to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. He began his three-year term there in January 2014.[61]