Aurora Vote 2023: 3 Aurora ballot questions passing, ‘gender’ bill failing

AURORA | Four ballot questions were sent to voters by Aurora’s City Council this fall, including a proposal to remove gendered language from the city’s charter, which was failing Tuesday night, as well as proposed changes to police and fire personnel rules, all of which were on track to pass.

2023 Aurora City Ballot Questions

Question 3A: Scrubbing gendered language from the city charter

As of Tuesday night, Ballot Question 3A was losing, with just 41.5% of voters among Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties showing support.

The measure would rewrite sections of Aurora’s City Charter that refer to city officials and employees using gender-specific language, removing personal pronouns and substituting in gender-neutral nouns.

Councilmember Alison Coombs sponsored this amendment, which the council voted unanimously to send to voters after conservatives objected to an earlier version that would have used the pronouns “they” and “them” to refer to individuals.

Currently, while some sections of the charter refer to officials and employees using phrases such as “he or she,” other sections use language that assumes those individuals are men.

The measure identifies more than two dozen examples of gendered language in the charter and also permits the city attorney to “make additional changes to the City Charter that are not substantive and that comply with the principals and goals of this ordinance if additional specific instances of gender specific language are identified.”

Question 3B: Letting the chief of police bypass officers for promotions and tweaking police and firefighter probationary periods

About 60.4% of voters expressed support for Ballot Question 3B on Tuesday. This item would grant the police chief the ability to pass over candidates for promotions “for a specific reason, without consideration of any legally-protected characteristics,” while allowing candidates to appeal that decision to the Aurora Civil Service Commission.

The proposed change — which along with 3C and 3D is endorsed by the Aurora Police Department — comes after officer Nate Meier was automatically promoted to the rank of agent just a few years after he was found passed out drunk in his police vehicle.

When asked in June whether he believed the change could encourage favoritism or exclude certain officers from command positions, interim police chief Art Acevedo said promotions beyond the rank of captain are already made at the chief’s discretion and that he thought it would give the chief the ability to respond more effectively to misconduct.

The measure would also clarify in the charter that the probationary period for new police officers and firefighters can be extended if an officer or firefighter spends more than four weeks on leave or restricted duty.

Currently, when a new officer or firefighter completes their academy training, they are employed on a probationary basis for one year, during which time their performance is evaluated and they can be fired by their respective chief without being able to appeal that firing to the Aurora Civil Service Commission.

At the end of the probationary period, if the officer or firefighter’s performance is found to be satisfactory, they are hired on a permanent basis and exit probation. If not, they are fired.

The charter amendment would clarify that the probationary period for an officer or firefighter who spends more than four weeks either on leave or on restricted duty “such that a full performance of the conduct and capacity of the employee could not be fully evaluated” is to be extended by an equivalent amount of time, to give their agency the time to evaluate them fully.

Question 3C: Expanding opportunities for police and fire candidates from other agencies

Ballot Question 3C was also on track to pass, with a healthy 67.7% of voters expressing support. 3C would give the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue more leeway to consider candidates with experience working at other agencies for job offers and promotions.

Aurora’s City Charter currently stipulates that no more than half of the list of candidates offered police and firefighter jobs at any one time can be so-called lateral candidates.

Also, when someone with prior law enforcement experience is hired to serve as a police officer, they are not credited for their past service when waiting to become eligible for promotion to the rank of sergeant.

The measure would remove the limit on the number of lateral candidates who could be hired at once and also credit cops for up to two years of service at another police agency, reducing the waiting time to be considered for the sergeant rank from five years to as little as three.

These changes come as Aurora police specifically have struggled to maintain staffing levels and recruit new officers.

Question 3D: Formalizing appointment rules for police leadership and pegging size of command staff to population

Ballot Question 3D was also on track to pass, with 69.6% of voters casting ballots in favor.

This measure would codify the current practice that police ranks higher than captain — including the ranks of deputy chief, division chief and commander — are granted by the chief, and officers in those positions may be demoted to the rank of captain without having recourse to Aurora’s Civil Service Commission.

It would also tie the maximum number of command staff positions to the total authorized size of Aurora’s police force, which is itself pegged to the city’s population, as legal agreements with the Aurora Police Association require that the city field two officers per every 1,000 residents.

Despite this, Aurora’s City Charter specifies that Aurora police may have no more than four commanders and four division chiefs. The measure would instead establish that no more than 1.5% of officers may be ranked as commanders and no more than 0.5% may be ranked as division chiefs.

It also specifically allows the chief to add another deputy chief position with the city manager’s approval when the department’s authorized sworn strength reaches at least 800 members and then again at 1,500 members.

Aurora police employed 633 sworn officers in September 2023, with another nine in field training and 46 in the academy, according to information shared with the city’s Public Safety, Courts and Civil Service Policy Committee.