AURORA | Two candidates are running for the Ward V Aurora City Council representative: Bob Roth, who’s served since 2010, is hoping voters will put him back on the dais. First-time candidate and Emerge Colorado graduate Alison Coombs is also vying for the seat.
Ward V includes Aurora neighborhoods such as Heather Gardens and runs south of East Iliff Avenue between I-225 and extends to South Flanders Street in some parts of the ward.
Roth boasts endorsements from the Aurora Fraternal Order of Police, which is the bargaining arm for police benefits, the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, the Aurora Realtor’s Association and current Mayor Bob LeGare and at-large councilman Dave Gruber.
Watch the televised Aurora ward council candidates debate here
Coombs, who works in human services, has been endorsed by Colorado People’s Action, which supports immigrant rights, criminal justice reform and environment protections, Colorado Black Women for Political Action, the Sierra Club, Conservation Colorado and a handful of local labor unions.
If Coombs wins the seat, she’d join three other Emerge Colorado graduates on the city council: Nicole Johnston, Crystal Murillo and Allison Hiltz, who were elected in 2017. Emerge Colorado trains women Democrats to run for local and state elected seats.
Roth was first elected in 2011 after being appointed to the Ward V seat in 2010.
Last year, Roth invited ethical questions with the creation of his own consulting business, saying on the business’s website that he has the “ability to affect change at the local, state and even federal level.”
Roth told the Sentinel last year that he is by no means in the lobbying business and that his work in the construction industry does not include trying to change policy. He said the change that he can affect is how local governments perceive his clients.
Earlier this year, Roth voted against a proposed transparency measure that would have required lobbyists to register in the city of Aurora. Roth said in the Sentinel’s questionnaire the proposal was a “solution looking for a problem.”
Coombs, however, agrees with the bill’s proponents.
“People have the right to know who is trying to influence our elected officials. The decisions and policies our elected officials make impact our cost of living, our job opportunities, and our quality of life,” she said in the Sentinel’s election survey. “Transparency ensures that residents of our city can hold our elected officials accountable to putting people first in all of their decisions.”
The two also differ on issues such as using incentives to attract business and raising the minimum wage, like neighboring Denver is currently considering.
Roth is opposed to raising the minimum wage, but Coombs said she supports helping businesses raise the minimum wage to $17 per hour.
On business incentives, which have lured in major economic development projects like the Gaylord Hotel and Amazon warehouses, Roth says they are helpful.
Coombs said they should be limited and instead focus should be on existing local businesses.
Like the rest of the city, affordable housing and growth has become increasingly important to Ward V. Coombs said she believes all new development should include affordable housing and that “new development must include concrete plans to address increased demands on public safety services. We cannot let expansion for its own sake to make our city less safe.”
Roth, whos routinely been on the side of forcing fewer regulations on builders, said he’s “been a very vocal advocate for moving the needle even further on correcting the construction defects legislation that is currently in place.”
“If we had more attached for-sale products (condos and townhouses) available, it would greatly help people at both ends of the spectrum, those that are trying to get into homeownership for the first time and people who are empty-nesters wanting to downsize their lives,” he said in an email.
“Some argue that there are not more for-sale attached due to market conditions. I would point to two facts that refute that idea; one is the abysmal percentage of this product compared to what we had prior to this legislation and the other is the average time that a home in this category is on the market as compared to a single family home. There is a strong desire and need for these units and they would definitely help a great deal in allowing people to realize home ownership for the first time.”