Joe Rice

Joe Rice (born May 7, 1967 ) is a former legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado, an Iraq War veteran, and a former mayor of Glendale, Colorado.

Rice presently works for Lockheed Martin Space Systems and also is a member of the United States Army Reserve.

Born in New Castle, Indiana, Rice earned an associates degree from New Mexico Military Institute in 1987 and a bachelor's degree in history from Metropolitan State College of Denver in 1989 while serving in the Colorado National Guard.

He later earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Colorado at Denver.

After being discharged from active military duty at Fort Carson, Rice settled in Glendale, Colorado in 1990.

Rice and his wife, Dr. Kendall Kershner-Rice, were married in 1990, and have three children — twins born in 2000, and a younger son born in 2005.

They currently live in Littleton, Colorado.

Among his hobbies, Rice enjoys jogging.

Rice enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 17.

After two years of enlisted service, and completing ROTC, Rice spent three years on active duty as an Airborne Ranger Infantry Officer.

His military service included duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a staff officer during UN peacekeeping operations, and as project officer for a Colorado National Guard program to provide medical care to poor civilians.

From 1993 to 1995, Rice was the manager of Dismas House, a halfway house for ex-convicts.

He was elected to the city council of Glendale, Colorado in 1994 and to the post of mayor in 1996 on a platform of developing a "resident-friendly" community in the Denver enclave.

Between 1994 and 2003, while in the National Guard and Army Reserve, Rice worked in the private sector as a customer service supervisor and trainer with MCI, JD Edwards, and Wells Fargo Bank.

In 1994, Rice was elected to the Glendale, Colorado city council, running on a platform of shifting the small Denver enclave's business base away from adult-oriented businesses and towards a more "resident-family community."

He was elected mayor in 1996.

During his first term, Rice proposed new regulations on erotic dancers at Glendale nightclubs, garnering strong opposition from local business owners, who formed the "Glendale Tea Party" and elected three members to the city council in 1998 in response to the new regulations.

Running for re-election, Rice faced opposition from Tea Party member Mike Dunafon, who promoted accusations that Rice used racial slurs and denigrated African-American and Mexican citizens.

Rice was also criticized for being absent from Glendale during six months of his term as mayor, while he attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.

Rice was re-elected in 2000 and later resigned from the post of mayor in 2003 when called up to serve the first of five tours on active duty in Iraq.

In Iraq, he has served as an advisor to the Baghdad city council and to Iraqi security forces.

In his first legislative campaign, Rice was criticized for his association with Dismas House founder Bob Sylvester, who was found guilty in 2000 of sexually abusing inmates.

The incidents for which Sylvester was tried occurred after Rice left his employment at Dismas, and Rice testified on behalf of the prosecution during Sylvester's trial.

Presently a colonel in the United States Army Reserve, Rice has been called up to serve five tours of duty in Iraq — from March 2003 to May 2004, where he was a senior U.S. military advisor to the Baghdad City Council; from October 2005 to February 2006, where he advised coalition forces on interactions with Iraqi civilians; from October 2007 to January 2008, where, as an operations analyst, he evaluated Iraqi military and police forces; and from May to October 2009, where he was involved in training Iraqi security forces.

Building upon his work in Baghdad, Rice has also helped coordinate the Baghdad-Denver Region Partnership for Sister Cities International since 2004.

The partnership brought several delegations of Iraqis, including business leaders, government officials, and scholars.

The most recent delegation was composed of Iraqi teenagers who lived with Colorado families.

From 2004 to 2005, Rice worked in government relations for the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Rice won election to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2006 and represented House District 38, which encompassed Greenwood Village, Bow Mar, and Littleton, Colorado as well as parts of Englewood, Centennial, Aurora, and Columbine Valley.

At the time of his first legislative campaign in 2006, Rice also worked as a self-employed management and training consultant, and was vice president of RIGOR Engineering Corporate Services, a consulting firm specializing in engineering project management.

Rice served 2-two year terms in the legislature, from 2007 to 2010.

In 2008, Rice was appointed to the Board of Directors for Sister Cities International, and in 2009, he helped sponsor an Iraqi family's relocation to the United States.

While in the legislature, Rice focused heavily on transportation issues and was a key sponsor of a 2009 transportation funding bill increasing vehicle registration fees in order to address a backlog of bridge and transportation requirements.

Other key measures he promoted included the creation of a statewide cold case homicide unit and a reduction in the business personal property tax.

Rice also earned a Masters of Strategic Studies degree from the United States Army War College in 2009 via their distance education program.

In 2009, having experienced the situation in Iraq firsthand for multiple years, Rice described progress in security and government and supported President Barack Obama's military plans for Iraq and Afghanistan.

He narrowly lost re-election in 2010, losing 51% to 49%.

Rice was called to serve a fifth tour of duty in Iraq with the Army Reserve from January thru August 2011.

His duties included helping to implement the drawdown of US forces from Iraq and establishing partnership programs between Iraq and the United States that continue beyond the final withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq in December 2011.

Rice has completed Airborne and Ranger training, and has been awarded the Combat Action Badge, the Expert Infantryman's Badge, two Bronze Stars and the Joint Services Commendation Medal.