03.11.24 POP Co-Chair CandidatesCo-Chair Candidates March 2024
Victor King
Summary: Simply put, I want this panel to be successful in ensuring that citizens in Boulder can hold
police accountable for years to come. I also hold perspectives of someone who was homeless, who
has been arrested multiple times with felonies, navigated personal substance use recovery, works in
the mental health industry and now is a homeowner in the city of Boulder as a single father and a
black man. My leadership style is a courageous leader who doesn't shy away from difficult decisions
or challenging situations. I am willing to take risks, confront obstacles head-on, and make tough
choices, even in the face of uncertainty or adversity. I demonstrate commitment, work ethic, and
values through my actions every day. Inevitably, there will be setbacks and challenges along the way.
I demonstrate resilience in the face of adversity, bouncing back from failures and setbacks with
determination and perseverance. I am deeply passionate about the vision, goals, and the mission of
their team. I challenge the team to stretch beyond their comfort zones, pushing them to reach their
full potential. This approach may involve providing constructive criticism, setting high standards, and
holding individuals accountable for their actions. In summary, my leadership is characterized by
fearlessness, honesty, accountability, passion, and resilience. By embodying these qualities, I hope to
inspire and empower their team to achieve greatness.
Soledad Diaz
Summary: I would like to offer myself to serve as a co -chair. I think my personal and professional
experience, and that I was part of the working group that worked on the new ordinance, serve me
well to be in this position. I see this work as a service to my community, and to my fellow panelists. I
want to work on shifting our Panel's culture and move towards effectively engaging with our
community.
Bill de la Cruz
Summary: Leadership style and why I want to be co -chair My leadership style is rooted in both
adaptive and relational leaderships practices and processes. As a relational leader I value the
relationships I have with the team and know the relationships team members have with each other
are important. When there is conflict the relationships, we have with each other support us in
moving through the conflict. My practices are inclusive, empowering, purposeful, ethical and
process oriented. I strive to live the practices of relational leadership and know I will never be
perfect. Knowing I am not perfect, my approach to life and leadership is about practice and not
perfection. Adaptive leadership is the concept that the all-knowing leader is a thing of the past and
in 2024 impactful leaders are adaptable and adaptive. The four practices I use as an adaptive
leader are emotional intelligence, organizational justice, development, and character. The use of
emotional intelligence supports in building trust, and using courage, and justice within team
culture supports team outcomes. To reach our outcomes I facilitate curiosity, dialogue, and
creativity for generating ideas as a team. As an adaptive leader I can say I do not know, or I’m sorry
or I do not have the answer, knowing that the answers are within the team so collaborating and
including the team in conversations are critical for our success. Technical problems are problems
that are known and easy fix. Adaptive challenges do not have a known fix and require creativity to
solve for. The issues our team is facing are adaptive because there is not a known fix that has
worked to restructure the justice system. These leadership styles enable me to guide and
participate with the team in a collaborative, humble and meaningful way to impact our team
outcomes. Why I want to be co-chair I want to be co -chair to support the facilitation and guidance
of our team to have the impact we want. I wanted to be on this team to impact how policing is done
in Boulder and ideally, create a model of policing that is self-aware and more understanding of the
humanistic outcomes. As co-chair I will work with the other co -chair to create agendas rooted in
our scope of work and that result in achieving the purpose everyone on the team is looking for. I
believe it is important for us to create a shared vision for our role, knowing that each of us has our
own personal “why” for this work. I appreciate your consideration and support for me to be a co-
chair on our team.