ABOUT UCHI
Hi, I'm Ursula 'Uchi' Cruzalegui
MY BACKGROUND
As a dedicated community member, I have spent years working alongside my neighbors to address local issues. My commitment to public service is driven by a deep understanding of the needs of our community and the importance of fair and transparent elections.
A COMMITTED CANDIDATE
My career has been rooted in collaboration and community engagement. I believe that the Clerk & Recorder's office should prioritize the needs of the public, ensuring that every voice is heard and every vote counts. Together, we can foster an environment of trust and accountability.
EXPERIENCE
Educator
I worked as a paraprofessional at Carlson Elementary for 3 years. I signed up for this job because I had heard that the school was desperate for reliable people who loved kids. I immediately fell in love with the work in spite of the challenges the school faced due to a limited budget. My job was to work with children who needed the most help. I spent time outside of working studying hard to learn the skills I needed to lift these kiddo’s up. Seeing students make progress out of our shared effort was one of the most rewarding things I have experienced in my life.
The last two years were in the Pre-School, where I learned more about leadership in one of the most difficult settings anywhere: a room full of three and four year olds that were away from their parents for the 1st time in their life. I fell in love with the kids I taught and my heart bursts every time one of them sees me and runs in for a hug.
EXPERIENCE
Customer Service
I have worked in the service industry since I was 16. I worked at Loveland Ski Area as a ski technician and as a server for many years at the Mainstreet Restaurant and Westbound & Down. This work has taught me the value of customer service and endurance. Waiting tables is physically and mentally demanding work. My ability to keep a long to-do list in my head while focusing on the experience of my customers is hard earned.
I will take this customer service skillset to the Clerk and Recorders office, ensuring that you get what you need when you come to the office from an efficient and friendly community member, just like if you came into the Main Street Restaurant.
EXPERIENCE
Planning Commission Member (2017)
I have volunteered as an Idaho Springs Planning Commission member for nine years and currently serve as it’s vice chair. My love for this community has driven me to always come prepared and sustained me in this volunteer role for over a decade. I have a reputation as the commissioner that highlights and asks the most questions from the very lengthy packets for our monthly meetings. I think carefully about the right questions to ask so the commission can understand what is best for the community in any given situation.
The Planning Commission makes recommendations to the City Council about project proposals, the city code and re-zoning cases. What I learned about how to design healthy and functional communities while getting a bachelor’s degree in architecture gave me a foundation to analyse the master plans, code revisions and individual cases that have come before the commission. I brought the same level of dedication that it takes to earn an architecture degree to the work on planning commission and I'll bring it to the position of Clerk and Recorder.
EXPERIENCE
Scraps-to-Soil
I am a co-founder and current president of Scraps-to-Soil, a local non-profit that built the Idaho Springs Community Garden, created the Pumpkin SMASH event and has hosted countless educational events in the community. I will take the leadership lessons I learned as an executive at Scraps-to-Soil into the Clerk and Recorders office. This executive role demands people who know how to manage and lead, because a paycheck and a job description only earn half of a person's capacity. The rest comes from what I have spent my time with Scraps-to-Soil learning: Leadership.
Within a year of moving to Clear Creek County full time, I got to work with my husband, George Marlin and his Cousin, Cameron Marlin. This has been a labor of love for nearly my entire time in this community. I had to learn so much to build this organization and its programs.
Starting and maintaining an all-volunteer nonprofit without a large endowment has taken endurance, innovation and resilience. I have had to learn everything from non-profit governance and accounting to gardening and plumbing. The most important skill I’ve had to hone is positive leadership. It is hard enough retaining employees and keeping them motivated when they are paid. Keeping people going in a volunteer role is another level of difficulty. I’ve made and learned from many leadership mistakes, and I’m proud to have built a team of dedicated volunteers that care about the work and consistently show up to make our programs better.
EXPERIENCE
Designer and Drafter
I have worked as a drafter and done design work on projects like homes, community gardens and compost facilities. Drafting and design work demands attention to detail and creativity. The work does not wait. Deadlines are non-negotiable. In Architecture school I often had to work around the clock to meet a deadline with the quality of work I expected of myself.
The Clerk and Recorder’s requires attention to detail and endurance to produce accurate records on hard deadlines. I have shown that I can excel under that kind of pressure, producing quality work on a tight timeline and showing up the next day with ideas about how to do it better next time.