Vail Election: Tjossem says boost guest experience

VAIL, Colorado — Susie Tjossem hasn't stopped campaigning for the Vail Town Council since she lost in the 2007 election — and now, Tjossem says she's ready.

Since the 2007 election, Tjossem has served on the Planning and Environmental Commission and has gotten to know Vail's staff and how hard they work, she said.

“It gives me a better understanding of how this town works,” Tjossem said. “I understand the vision.”

Tjossem has also been a board member for the Vail Chamber and Business Association, serving as interim director through a difficult time. She's also been executive director of the Colorado Ski Museum for the last two and a half years.

Tjossem grew up in Denver and skied at Vail with her high school ski club. She came to Vail for a ski season when she was 20, worked at Pepi's Sports and ended up staying in town for the summer.

She said she made such meaningful friendships in Vail that it became really hard to leave. She worked three jobs at one point to make ends meet, then met her husband, Brad, who worked at Pepi's Bar.

She then went on to work for Vail Resorts, becoming the first female manager at the Lionshead Ski School.

She climbed the corporate ladder at Vail Resorts and became the vice president of guest experiences and product development for Vail and Beaver Creek before working for Booth Creek Ski Holdings, George Gillett's company. She has two children, Jenna, 22, and Bergen, 18, along the way and says she is going to be an empty-nester next year.

It's her corporate experience where she studied other resorts like Deer Valley, Utah, and Whistler, B.C., that she said could really help the town help put Vail back on top. Ski Magazine just ranked Vail third behind those two resorts.

She said Vail has to not only maintain guest experience, but make it better. She said resorts like Deer Valley go the extra mile, such as having ski valets greet people as they drive up to the resort to take their skis. She said Vail could use some of those ideas to improve its guest relations “without spending another dime,” she said.

“A lot of times it's simple ideas like that that get shot down,” Tjossem said.

Tjossem said she's a good team builder — something she things the Town Council could use right now.

“I want to be a good team member on council — we have to be a team,” Tjossem said. “That's not really happening on this council.”

Tjossem hopes to work on things like the town's relationship with Vail Resorts. She said the town is lucky to have a ski company here as strong as Vail Resorts, and the relationship between the two just doesn't seem right.

“Our goals are aligned,” Tjossem said.

Tjossem wants the town and the community's goals aligned, too, on things like the conference center fund. She said the $9 million fund should be the seed for a larger goal or project, and the town needs to get its “great thinkers together” to figure out what to propose to the voters.

The town's budget is another area the new council will likely have to continuously look at and adjust, she said, but Tjossem is confident in the town staff when it comes to finance. She said the new council should immediately prioritize the capital budget and also look for areas where the town could potentially consolidate services, jobs or programs.

“Is there opportunity for consolidation, I'm not sure,” Tjossem said. “Are there new things we can do and old things we can get rid of — we need to look at that.”

One thing Tjossem is sure about is that Vail is a special place to live. She said it's rare to find a community where so many different people are aligned on at least one thing — their love of the mountains.

“We all came for a ski season and stayed for a lifetime,” Tjossem said. “You don't get that in other places, that sense of community.”

Question-and-answer

Vail Daily: What makes you the best candidate for the next Vail Town Council?

Susie Tjossem: My 30-year career in the ski industry, rising to a vice president at Vail Resorts and then Booth Creek Ski Holdings, and my community volunteer roles on Vail's Planning and Environmental Commission and Vail's Chamber & Business Association, have best prepared me for this critical role. The ski companies gave me the high-level management experienced needed to be a successful member of the council team. At both companies I created and successfully managed multi-million dollar budgets and used a combination of passion, creativity and financial acumen to plan, implement and manage recreational products, services and amenities at mountain resorts, gaining valuable insights and experience in mountain resort tourism. The Planning and Environmental Commission introduced me to the town staff and how it operates, and allowed me to garner extensive experience with Vail's Master Plan, development plans and zoning. At the Chamber I have been an advocate for business, worked to put more “feet on the street” and reached out to build a collaborative relationship with Vail Resorts.

VD: With an unpredictable economy, how should the town spend its money?

Are there areas of the budget where you think money could be cut or added?

ST: Money should be spent on revenue generation and job creation ideas. Decaying infrastructure will need to be dealt with, but we cannot take our eye off the ball of stimulating our tourism and real estate-based economy. To stimulate tourism, additional money should be reallocated to fund special events which put “feet on the street” and add energy and vibrancy to the town, which ultimately results in increased sales tax revenues. To stimulate real estate, Vail should look to its neighbor, Avon, and temporarily eliminate many of the fees associated with building permit applications. To further reduce expenses, the town should look for opportunities to consolidate departments, eliminate redundancy and reduce administrative costs.

VD: The Vail Citizens for Action group is proposing an increase in the lodging tax to pay for more marketing, which would also free up some general fund money. What do you think of this idea?

ST: I would like to hear more input from the lodging community. Many acknowledge our lodging tax is one of the lowest compared to other mountain resort communities and perhaps there might be room to raise it down the road, but I want to ensure the marketing is effective. For now, it is a moot point because the initiative would not get to a ballot until 2010. I would also like to caution that we are careful when discussing this issue because we don't want our guests to think we are taxing them so we can market to them. If and when revenue is generated, I believe additional monies should be used to fund a large variety of strategically scheduled special events, key to putting more feet on the street.

VD: How transparent is Vail government?

ST: Not transparent enough - there are too many executive sessions and not enough notification to neighbors when building permit applications are submitted. Many I have spoken to feel there is too much happening behind closed doors, thus not giving the public the information or confidence that their best interests are being considered. I would like to see public input welcomed at the work sessions and a “topic of the week” open for discussion. I would also like to encourage use of an ombudsman, a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests. Jim Lamont acts in this capacity for the Vail Homeowners organization and is very effective. Additional ombudsmen could be used by citizens to help air their concerns if they do not have time to attend meetings, feel comfortable speaking in public or writing letters to the council members or local papers.

VD: Affordable housing is a topic that never goes away in Vail — how do you think the town is doing on affordable housing?

ST: The Town has made terrific progress towards its lofty goal of having 30 percent of all employees live within town boundaries. With the reduction in construction jobs, which filled up much of the employee housing, it may be time to take a break from aggressively adding deed restricted units and employee housing in order to reassess where we are and possibly reevaluate the unintended consequences of our stringent inclusionary zoning policies.

VD: What do you think of the job the current town council has done?

ST: I think more work can be done to build consensus within the council and listen to both sides of every argument. I will not make up my mind prematurely and will be respectful to those who come before the council. Also, many dollars are spent on studies that I believe could be in many cases, not all, investigated by the enormous talent base of those many individuals who live in Vail.

VD: How should Vail solve its parking problems?

ST: I am interested in hearing proposals for cost effective ways to increase our number of parking spaces. I do not support over-building parking to accommodate 15 peak days - instead we need to determine the adequate parking for 95 percent of the year. As we evaluate how much parking is actually needed, we can't forget that for the last four years, during Vail's renaissance, a lot of parking has been taken up by construction workers. Solaris, The Four Season and the Ritz Carlton will be completed in 2010 and the parking their construction has taken up will be available once again. Also, not to be forgotten, are the 400 incremental public parking spaces that Vail Resorts is proposing for Ever Vail, if the project is approved. The construction worker impact and Ever Vail public parking should be considered before we commit to publically funding additional parking at Ford Park.

VD: What's the most urgent issue Vail needs to address?

ST: Revenue generation and fiscal management are both equally important. Now that Vail is in the midst of the “new normal,” the town staff and council need to reexamine the town's opportunities for revenue growth and its spending priorities. Many revenue-generating ideas are not going to be popular, but it is our responsibility to investigate all funding opportunities that are available to the town. The town's top three spending priorities, transit/parking, employee housing and environmental initiatives, should be revisited.