Like Water For Politics

Daily Camera - Sun, 03 Jul 05
By Greg Avery, Camera Business Writer

Eldorado Springs Water Dealer Serves as Lafayette Mayor

If it wasn't for Chris Berry's talkative personality, his clients who sell Eldorado Natural Spring Water may never know he's showing up for sales a call on his way to cut a ribbon or arriving from a classroom where he served as a living, breathing civics lesson.

When Berry isn't making sure a few hundred stores have a steady supply of cool bottled water to sell, he swaps his title of "account manager" for one more regal: mayor of Lafayette.

The 43-year-old runs Lafayette City Council meetings on many nights and, at other times, squeezes in ceremonies or represents the city on regional governing bodies.

On weekdays, Berry oversees accounts for stores reselling bottles of Eldorado Natural Spring Water, managing the needs of store owners and helping the local artesian water bottler compete for shelf space against the likes of Pepsi Co. and Coca-Cola.

Success in the political and the business worlds requires wanting to talk to people, whether it's going into a store to talk with its owner or jawing with constituents who want to make the most of an opportunity to bend the mayor's ear.

"Right at the top, you have to be a good listener: give people attention and hear their concerns," Berry said.

At the root of listening is a willingness to learn from other people's life experience and being open to the insights they might share, he said.

Boulder City Councilman Gordon Riggle knows a bit about this. He teaches leadership and strategy at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business.

He previously turned a Navy career into a stint in Washington, D.C., serving on the staff of both the Senate and the White House before becoming a representative for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., the Boulder-based defense and space company.

The most common attributes of people successful at decision-making in politics and business are a drive to get things done and an ability to adapt to the people around them, Riggle said.

Beyond that, though, the business and political worlds mostly diverge, Riggle said. The highest priority in business — the bottom line — makes its goals more easily defined than public policy, which ideally tries to reflect the will of the majority while accomplishing the most good for the largest number of people.

"That may not only be more difficult to agree on, but it's often more difficult to measure success," Riggle said.

Berry, who is in midst of his second year as Lafayette mayor and his fourth year on City Council, said he sees work in politics and in business as trying to bring people together and build community.

"That's the best part of it: being able to put the pieces of the quilt together and make it all into something tangible," Berry said. "It's a great feeling."

Berry unsuccessfully ran for a state senate seat last year. He says he isn't sure what his future political aspirations are once he's term-limited out of Lafayette office in two years.

His mayoral duties more obviously fulfill his community building impulses, Berry said. But he gets a lot of satisfaction working for a 100-year-old local company with a healthy product and involvement in countless volunteer efforts

"If you can match up that belief in a business as well, you get the best of both worlds," Berry said.

Flexibility in his work schedule helps him manage all the commitments in his public life, Berry said. But none of it would be possible without the strong support of his wife, Julie, and his four children, he said.

Paul Aiken

Chris Berry, mayor of Lafayette and representative for Eldorado Natural Spring Water, makes his rounds Wednesday as he chats with Fairview Conoco owner Rhonda Heyburn about a display case in the store holding bottled water.