Ward III encompasses much of central Aurora, including the neighborhoods of Del Mar Park, Towncenter Mall of Aurora and the Aurora Municipal Center. Council Member Marsha Berzins, who was elected in 2019, is leaving the seat due to term limits. The two candidates vying for the seat are Jono Scott, an Aurora native and pastor, and Ruben Medina, who formerly worked in the city’s parks and recreation department.
Ward III encompasses much of central Aurora, including the neighborhoods of Del Mar Park, Town Center at Aurora mall and the Aurora Municipal Center. Council Member Marsha Berzins, who was elected in 2019, is leaving the seat due to term limits. The two candidates vying for the seat are Jono Scott, an Aurora native and pastor, and Ruben Medina, who formerly worked in the city’s parks and recreation department.
Encompassing much of central Aurora, Ward III will get a new city council representative for the first time since 2009 when sitting Council Member Marsha Berzins was elected. She is term-limited this year.
The two candidates running for the seat — which represents a portion of the city that runs from East Mississippi Avenue to East 6th Avenue and stretches roughly from Airport Road on the east and Havana Street on the west — both have experience with how the city operates, Ruben Medina having been an employee and Jono Scott serving on the Citizen’s Advisory Budget Committee.
Scott is an Aurora native now raising his family in Ward III. The longtime pastor of Woodside Baptist Church lists crime, economic development and transportation as his top three issues. He’s received endorsements from the Aurora Police Association, the Aurora Firefighters Local 1290 and local chapter of the Fraternal Orders of Police, which is the police department’s bargaining unit.
Medina previously ran for the Ward II seat in 2017, losing to Nicole Johnston, who since resigned her seat to move to Colorado Springs for a job and to be closer to family. Medina worked as a parks and recreation specialist for the City of Aurora. He’s been endorsed by organizations such as the Sierra Club, Colorado People’s Action, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and Conservation Colorado.
Like much of the city, Ward III has seen an increase in crime and youth violence.
During a candidate forum last month, Scott said in order to address crime, specifically among the city’s youth, there must be more programs available. One solution he offered was to connect out-of-uniform police officers with local sports teams to forge a connection between the cops and kids.
Programs that connect with kids and help keep them out of trouble is something Medina said he’s already worked on, including teen nights at Moorehead Recreation Center in north Aurora and a non-profit organization called Change Agents, which pays teens to help out in their community.
One of the two candidates will end up representing a region of the city that many leaders have deemed a prime location for some kind of tourist attraction. Last month, Mayor Mike Coffman hinted that a performance theater would fit nicely into an old movie theater at the Town Center at Aurora mall.
That’s a vision of Scott’s as well.
“One of the subcommittees on which I have participated on the Citizens Advisory Budget Committee was the ‘Events and Venues’ subcommittee. We explored and presented a four-phase plan which would bring additional revenues and entertainment to our great city,” he says in the candidate survey. “One of the phases includes utilizing three empty theatres that are currently in the Town Center (yes, already in the Aurora Mall) and retrofitting them into a 1,000 seat entertainment venue.”
He’d also like to see a professional sports venue call Aurora home.
For Medina, a venue like Fiddler’s Green or indoor venue that could hold 10,000 to 12,000 people is ideal for attracting dollars to the city.
“This will build more commerce, jobs, and keep our money in our city – because we currently spend it outside of Aurora,” he said. ‘This venue would let us bring more small businesses here, and assist the current hotels, restaurants, and other businesses we already have. Having other cities’ money in our economy would be a boon for us.”
Whomever is elected will also have to grapple with a ballooning homeless population in the city. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, city staff say the number of unhoused residents has grown and there aren’t enough shelter options, forcing many people to sleep in tents across the metroplex.
The solution from Mayor Mike Coffman and half of the current city council is to ban urban camping, allowing the city to “sweep” sites when there are enough shelter beds available.
If elected, Medina said he wouldn’t support Coffman’s proposal.
“Instead of wasting city resources on police, sanitation, etc. to move and displace people, let’suse this money to add more opportunities to get more help for these community members. We need more programs like PATH, Comitis, Bridgehouse,” Medina says in his candidate survey. “We need to tackle this from many angles. To me, it starts by talking to these community members one-on-one and finding the right fit for the situation they are dealing with.”
Scott, on the other hand, said he’d support the ban and would prefer to empower nonprofits to help the city’s homeless.
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Our biggest issue for the past-4 years has been one of representation by our lame-duck council person. Ruben Medina will solve that one and represent us well.
Mr. Medina will only represent the Ward III free spending socialist’s well not so much the citizens looking for less government in our lives. If you want less government then Reverend Mr. Scott is your man.
The Reverend Mr. Scott, the candidate mailing out two mailers that lie about his
opponent? I think not.