Bud Starker tuned into politics at a young age.
Looking back, Starker says he’s not surprised he eventually served two terms as mayor of Wheat Ridge, the city he’s called home for 50 years.
Starker remembers participating in civil rights protests as far back as his childhood in the 1950s. When his mother worked nursing shifts, a Black nanny looked after Starker and his sister. She always rode the bus, but during the Montgomery bus boycott, his family piled into their ’54 Buick to take her home.
Starker also remembers watching John Kennedy and Richard Nixon face off in the 1960 presidential election. He was drawn to the Kennedy mystique, he said.
“That was pretty interesting from a societal perspective—how the national political scene works and doesn’t work,” Starker said.
Because of his father’s Air Force career, Starker moved frequently as a child, living in Alabama, Germany, Maine, Washington, D.C., and Tehran. He even served as student body president at his high school in Iran.
He moved to Colorado hoping to become a full-time skier. In 1968, Starker studied political science at CU Boulder, during a time when the world felt like it was “exploding.”
“The ’60s were a turbulent time in America,” Starker said.
Starker joined the anti-war movement, driving a VW Microbus to demonstrations in San Francisco and Chicago. In 1972, he and friends worked as poll watchers for civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in a small Mississippi town.
His first job out of school was as a carpenter. He stayed in the construction business for nearly 50 years, working as a superintendent, foreman, project manager, estimator, and eventually a business owner. He ran Starker Construction Company for almost 40 years, completing commercial projects throughout the metro area and along the Front Range.
His company built federal and state facilities, school district projects, roughly 80 Chipotle locations, and the first Chuck and Don’s Pet Food stores.
During the 2008 downturn, when Starker’s construction work slowed, he met someone at the gym who suggested he run for Wheat Ridge City Council.
After serving on council, others encouraged him to run for mayor. Two terms and eight years later, Starker is reflecting on his time in office, which ended this November.
“I tell people I think it’s the best job in government,” Starker said. “Being the mayor is an honor for me. I really enjoyed it.”
Starker has seen waves of development since moving to Wheat Ridge. When he first arrived, it was still a farming community. Over the decades, he watched the region shift from greenhouses and fields to more of a metropolitan feel.
Drawing on the reasons he chose to stay in Wheat Ridge, Starker approached development during his mayoral tenure with care. He loved meeting new people in the city and introducing himself as the mayor and filling his schedule with ribbon-cuttings.
“Most of the time people are happy to know the mayor,” Starker said. “It’s an easy entry for someone shy. It’s a nice icebreaker.”
Throughout his time in office, he prioritized making everyone involved in city decision-making feel heard and respected—even during disagreements.
“If you can feel like you were heard and appreciated and your point of view was respected, you may not have gotten everything you want, but at least you had the opportunity to speak and felt it was considered,” Starker said.
He extended that sense of comfort to community members as well.
“I’ve been on the other side, where I was just a citizen going in to talk to my city government about an issue,” Starker said. “It’s intimidating. I worked on techniques and approaches that would help people feel less intimidated and more comfortable speaking in an open forum.”
When he first entered local politics, Starker recalled a more divisive time. Council members who disagreed would head to different bars after meetings. Starker wanted to change that dynamic.
“Instead of thinking that these people are really bad people, why don’t we start thinking about the good things we might be able to do if we work together?” Starker said. “We had a new council and a new mayor, and I thought, well, let’s just see if we can overtly respect people.”
Starker saw many projects come to fruition as the city grew. One thing he didn’t expect was leading through a global pandemic. He and other officials studied the ever-changing health mandates and worked through federal funding.
“One of the things that impresses me most is the change in dynamics that we as a City experience,” Starker said.
He established more formal meeting procedures, such as using titles rather than first names and assigning council members agenda items before the meeting, which helped meetings go quicker.
As mayor, he could only vote to break a tie.
“I thought that suited my temperament because I don’t have a dog in the fight,” Starker said. “What I’m going to do is run a good meeting.”
While interacting with other mayors at Metro Mayors Caucus meetings, Starker shared one piece of advice with other leaders: always show up—A.S.U., for short.
“That’s really what your job is, to show up,” Starker said. “Nobody wants an elected official who’s sitting in a bar or out skiing or on vacation in Maui.”
Now that his time as mayor has ended, Starker is eager to focus on West 29th Restaurant and Bar, the restaurant he built himself after buying the land in 2011. Open for dinner service, the restaurant is perfect for date nights and celebrations, Starker said. He handles operations, maintenance, and marketing of the restaurant.
Starker remains active in the Associated General Contractors group, where he has chaired the Legislative Committee for more than a decade. Through that work, he testifies on bills and attends State Supreme Court hearings.
Even with more free time, Starker considers work a hobby. He plans to spend more time at the restaurant or taking on carpentry jobs. He’ll still slip away for the occasional ski trip with his sister. He recently took up weightlifting and trains with a coach weekly—but for him, work is the best way to stay sharp.
