Mike Waid, or “Mayor Mike,” as he was known for eight years in Parker, is a unique politician. He’s a conservative maverick who often performs in musicals like “The Full Monty” at the PACE Center, and in the town’s annual holiday ballet. Why? “Because my sons love ballet,” he says.

Waid describes himself as “a bearded fat dude who eats too much meat and drinks a lot of tequila.” He certainly stands out with his long facial hair, ear piercings and enough tattoos to scare the prim right out of proper Parkerites.

“I once had a lady come up to me and say, ‘I like everything about you, but I can’t vote for you.’” Waid said. “I asked her why, and she said I don’t look Republican enough. And so I said, ‘Would you prefer a clean-cut socialist?’”

This from a man who was accused of being a communist for wanting to build a town library. He was also the Town Council member who made the motion in 2008 authorizing construction of the $21.7 million PACE Center, which pre-COVID welcomed 225,000 audience members a year.

Waid is an open-minded libertarian when it comes to social issues but he’s as Republican as they come on fiscal policy. He chose not to run for a third term in November, and many in the town already have come to regret that decision. His successor, Jeff Toborg, is facing a recall effort after spreading conspiracy theories about everything from the Capitol insurrection to the COVID vaccine on the social media site Parler.

I interviewed Waid for “CO2020,” a world-premiere video documentary theater project that explores the seismic events of last year based on conversations with more than 50 community voices. The two-hour film, produced by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, launches on Monday and will be available for streaming through April 18.

In a pandemic-fueled year that included civil unrest, closed schools and a shattered economy, the coronavirus affected Waid on a personal level. Not only was he leading the response in a wealthy town whose hospitals never saw a big surge in COVID cases, he was one of thousands thrown out of work by the subsequent shutdown. Just not from the mayor job.

“Being mayor does not pay the bills,” said Waid, who estimates that over his eight years, he probably made about 12 cents an hour for his service.

Waid’s day job was Director of Operations at Vehicle Vault, a car museum and event center in Parker. When the virus hit, his layoff was inevitable. “I had never been unemployed in my life,” he said. So here you had the mayor of Parker filing for unemployment – though he never had to use it because he was quickly hired by a local bank.

“But just by going through the process you experience the emotional tribulations that go along with all of that,” he said. “It’s one thing when you quit a job you’re not happy at. It’s another when all of a sudden that control is stolen from you.”

Waid’s wife is a teacher and their two sons are now in college. “Thank the good Lord, we’re not extravagant people,” he said. “We don’t have multiple houses and fancy cars. But I’d sure like to keep my kids in college, and I’d sure like to keep food on the table.”

You don’t have to convince Waid that COVID is “absolutely” a real thing. He should know. “My own son almost died from H1N1 10 years ago,” said Waid, who contracted the swine flu himself a year later. But he also firmly believes that governments and health departments alike have been manipulating the COVID reporting data from the start to further political agendas, and that jerked-around business owners have paid the price.

“I don’t care who you are – if anyone out there thinks we have not been manipulated, controlled and used as a power chit, you are full of crap,” Waid said. “I’ve seen it from both sides. I have watched government leaders at all levels manipulate the data for political purposes. This is not a gray area. This is black and white. I’ve called them out on it. And I’ve been ostracized for it.”

Waid was particularly galled at the start of the pandemic, when people who died “with COVID” were being included in the count of people who died “from COVID.” It also bugged him that daily updates from the state weren’t yet including real-time numbers of COVID patients in hospitals. He claims one prominent elected official told him: “We have to scare people so they will stay home and mask up.” But, Waid says, “I believe God gave us the ability to think for ourselves.”

Make no mistake, he added: “The loss of even one soul to COVID is monumental. But what do you need to hear, and who do you need to hear it from, to feel safe again? I’ve had people say, ‘When nobody gets sick and nobody dies,’ Well, I had a cousin die from taking aspirin. Reye’s Syndrome. A family friend’s 29-year-old son died from the Bubonic Plague. As someone who was 30 minutes away from losing my son to H1N1 – I understand that panic. But there is never going to be a scenario in terms of emergency management that allows for nobody ever getting sick and nobody ever dying. What we have to do is to minimize the impact as much as possible.

Waid is excited and a little anxious to see how he is portrayed in the “CO2020” film dropping on Monday. Unlike a traditional documentary, most interview subjects are played by area actors. Waid is being played by award-winning Denver actor Warren Sherrill, though he feigns indignancy that he wasn’t allowed to audition for the part himself. After all, Waid did play Principal Glad Hand in “West Side Story.” But, as a fellow artist, he’s looking forward to seeing this creative project rise from the ashes of 2020.

“I’m just a firm believer in ‘more love, less hate,’” he said. “That’s not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. That’s a human thing.”

BREAKOUT BOX under related content

CO2020 / Glance

● What: World-premiere video documentary theatre project

● Who: Presented by Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company

● Directed by: Stephen Weitz

● Written by: Heather Beasley, Ilasiea Gray, John Moore, Jada Roberts, Lynde Rosario and Stephen Weitz

● When: Available for streaming April 5-18

● Ordering: https://betc.org/