YOUR AD HERE »

Final information about the Ward 3 candidates

Glenwood Springs City Council member and Ward 3 candidate for reelection Charlie Willman, right, makes a point during his debate with challenger Sumner Schacther at the Issues and Answers Candidates Forum on Monday, March 20, 2023 at Glenwood City Hall.
John Stroud/Post Independent

The Ward 3 City Council election features incumbent Charlie Willman and Sumner Schatcher who both have similar campaigns and a plethora of experience and service to the city.

Both Schachter and Willman have served on many city boards and commissions and with other organizations. 

Their experience is almost paralleled when it comes to ambition and civic service, though both chose different boards and commissions to serve, highlighting their areas of expertise. 



Willman is a lawyer with a well-rounded area of service and expertise, while Schachter is a finance guy with a more narrowed service expertise in planning and zoning, housing and education.

Willman’s experience



Willman has worked as a municipal judge, one of Glenwood Springs’ city attorneys, served on the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), the Glenwood Financial Advisory Board (FAB), the Transportation Commission, the Mountain Valley Developmental Services and River Bridge Regional Center boards and more.

On Council, he’s been appointed to the FAB, Tourism Promotion Board, Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association Board of Directors, DDA as an alternate and the Colorado Municipal League.

Schachter’s experience 

Schachter is a financial planner and investor, and served on the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education, Garfield Adult Literacy, Glenwood Springs Housing Commission, Glenwood Springs Planning and Zoning and more.

He also sat on the Glenwood Springs Community Housing Coalition to help guide the Question 2C lodging tax funding for workforce housing and the steering committee for the Comprehensive Plan 2023 update. 

Final thoughts from the Ward 3 candidates

“I think one of the things that might be different is that I have a history of actually effecting change that affects the policies,” Schachter said. 

While currently on the Housing Commission, he listed the commission working in conjunction with the city of Glenwood to bring the Habitat for Humanity to Council because they made it a priority, Schachter said. 

“Those things didn’t come from policy decisions, they came from work that I did with peers to make it happen, if you will,” Schacther said. “We may be focusing on some pretty narrow items, but I think the differences in terms of how we get things done and how we get policy affected may differentiate us.”

While Schachter has been on the Housing Commission, it also prioritized the preservation of mobile home park communities and converting them to ownership opportunities for residents to preserve affordable housing.

“The things that I’ve been involved with to effect and implement the policy, I think matter in terms of pulling together coalitions and alliances without some of the public dissension that has occurred in front of the public in Council,” he said. 

Willman said that when he ran for his first Council term, he had a broad understanding from his work on the DDA and the FAB, but he also put in all of the time to learn everything he could. 

“I came through with a lot of broad knowledge into Council in 2019,” Willman said. “I’ve increased that level of knowledge by understanding the city operations by going to city council meetings, work sessions and almost all extra meetings that exist.”

He said he hasn’t seen that same ambition in some of the other candidates. 

“I believe I can understand the budget better than most of the other council members currently on Council, and certainly better than those coming on to council,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to understand.”

Willman said he constantly puts in the work to have eyes on all parts of the city. 

“I have shown a work ethic and a desire to learn to be up to speed when I ran for office, and throughout the time I’ve been in office,” Willman said. 

Although each candidate had many more points they were passionate about, what it seemed to boil down to was their expertise, and how that can affect change. 

“I will take those collaboration skills and my ability to look toward implementation of specific policies and focus those priorities and help enact them at the policy level and not pick quite as long as it seems to take to do the right thing sometimes.” Schachter said. 

In the end, Schachter said he knows how to work to make policy happen, while Willman knows how the big picture process looks overall. 

“I bring the ability not only to listen to new ideas, creative ideas,” Willman said. “I bring a broad based knowledge of city operations and what I believe to be a very neutral and middle of the road fiscally conservative basis for making decisions, which are based on the knowledge of a budget and the budget operation.”

Campaign Finances

Sumner Schachter

Total monetary contributions– $2,350

Total expenditures– $1,378.72

Funds on hand at end– $971.28

Biggest donors:

Ted Edmonds– $400

Ruth Edmonds– $400

Lee Anne McCallum– $400

Mark Gould– $400

Rob Jankovski– $300

Five additional smaller donations all from residents of Glenwood Springs

Charlie Willman

Total monetary contributions– $2,650

Expenditures– $2,036.90

Funds on hand at end– $617.71

Biggest donors:

Steve Beckley– $400

Meldore LLC– $400 

Mark Gould– $400

Richard O’Connell– $300

14 smaller contributions, mostly in Glenwood with one in Basalt (Meldor $400), one in Carbondale ($100) and one in Denver ($250)


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.