Photo by Philip B. Poston/Aurora Sentinel
AURORA | Even though Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan couldn’t attend this year’s state of the city address, the star of the show was still there: the city, as Hogan would have put it.
“The state of the city is one of the mayor’s favorite events,” his wife Becky Hogan wrote in a letter read at the luncheon. “But he always knew he was just the spokesman.”
Hogan announced earlier this week he is now receiving home hospice care after being diagnosed with cancer in March.
Instead of Hogan’s usual animated address to city, state and business leaders, Gov. John Hickenlooper took the stage to boast about Aurora’s success and the mayor who has helped make a lot of it possible.
“He’s always been so passionate about bragging on Aurora,” Hickenlooper said.
The governor said that the two would often joke about each other’s political affiliation. Hogan, a Republican, would supposedly tell Hickenlooper that in some ways he was more liberal than the governor.
Hickenlooper said he would respond, “I can put the argument right back on you and say I may be a Democrat but in someways I’m more conservative than you. The beauty of it was that he was a partner to anyone who wanted to give it a chance.”
Hogan and Hickenlooper worked together closely after the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, visiting families of victims and the wounded. Hickenlooper said together they reviewed information known about the crime scene.
The two also talked often about economic development, Hickenlooper said. Later on, councilwoman Marsha Berzins, who is acting as mayor pro tem, noted Aurora’s economy is growing at a steady 2 percent each year.
At last year’s address, Hogan said Aurora will someday be larger than Denver. The governor praised that outlook. He commended the city’s growing population, educational opportunities, diversity and swelling business community.
“I think Aurora is as vital today as any city in Colorado,” he said. “Aurora has become a big time city. A place where you can live and work and play.”