Monument Mayor Mitch LaKind announces he will not seek reelection
MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) -- Monument Mayor Mitch LaKind announced he will not seek reelection in November, ending six years of service in town government.
LaKind will officially step down from office in January 2027. KRDO13 sat down with the mayor to discuss his tenure.
LaKind served two terms on the Monument Town Council before completing one term as mayor. He cited fatigue as a factor in his decision to hand over leadership.
“I've gotten to the point where I'm counting down the amount of meetings I have left,” LaKind said.
During his tenure, LaKind pointed to Monument achieving home-rule municipality status as his greatest accomplishment. The status grants the town broader self-governing authority.
“We can set our own direction,” LaKind said. “They can do referendums and they can create their own laws as they see fit, so long as they don't have any kind of supremacy over them by the state or the federal government.”
Conversely, LaKind stated his main regret was failing to solve the town's ongoing water challenges. Monument relies on 13 wells for its water supply and shares those water resources with surrounding areas.
“The biggest thing for us is to figure out where that renewable or reusable water supply is going to come from,” LaKind said. “And that's my concern, is that we I been sitting on the council for six years. We have not made the decision yet which solution we're going to select and that getting the money to, to fund it.”
Local officials also recently addressed regional development concerns by placing a six-month moratorium on data centers. LaKind noted that the environmental impact on Monument, Palmer Lake and unincorporated areas needs further review.
“I think the understanding of what the environmental impact would be if data centers [came to] a region like where Monument and Palmer Lake and the unincorporated areas are, it needs to be looked at further,” LaKind said. “Water is one issue out of the whole thing. The other issue is that we don't have enough electricity per our own utility provider.”
The mayor's office was also inundated with emails regarding proposals for a Buc-ee's location in the Tri-Lakes area. However, LaKind said the public feedback had no impact on his decision to step down, noting that the development focus was in neighboring Palmer Lake.
“We had nothing to do with Buc-ee's,” LaKind said. “They never officially submitted any paperwork to the town of Monument. I don't know what would have happened if they had, but they only went to Palmer Lake.”
As he prepares for the end of his term, LaKind offered advice for his future successor on managing local government.
“Be transparent, be real with the people that you are,” LaKind said. “You're dealing with. Treat the town staff with the dignity and respect they deserve, because they're the ones that are actually doing all the work to make the town successful.”
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