AURORA | City officials on Sept. 6 outlined a process to select a person to fill the Ward I Aurora City Council seat vacated earlier this week by Melissa Miller.
Applications will be accepted from Sept. 6 to Sept. 14 and are available online at auroragov.org/departments/cityclerk/index.htm or by contacting the City Clerk’s office at 303-739-7094.
The deadline to turn in applications is 5 p.m. Sept. 14. The City Clerk’s office at 15151 E. Alameda Pkwy. in Aurora will be open at 7 a.m. that day.
At their regularly scheduled study session Sept. 24, council members will review applications and select candidates for interviews. The candidates will be interviewed at a study session meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 1. The new Ward I council member will be appointed at 5 p.m. on Oct. 4. at a special council meeting, and then formally sworn in at a regular city council meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 15.
Former Councilwoman Deborah Wallace said she will apply for the vacancy, and she said small business owner Kim Harrell was interested in the position also.
In 2009, Miller beat out then-incumbent candidate Wallace and Harrell for the Ward I seat that covers north Aurora and the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Miller resigned from her post on Sept. 4 because of increased travel requirements at her full-time job as an analyst for an engineering company based in Virginia.
Miller is the second council member to resign this year. In March, former Councilman Bob FitzGerald resigned, and Councilman Brad Pierce was appointed to fill his seat.
Ward 1 has seen its greatest accomplishments in the past 20 years during Ms. Miller’s short tenure as their council representative. Although a nice woman, Deb Wallace has neither the energy or understanding to continue to help Ward 1 grow. Her main concern is to regain her seat to finsh the time that she needs to acquire a full pension from the city. Because as she put it “it is an incentive for being on council.”
As they did with Brad Pierce, the old council guard will choose safely and go with Ms. Wallace for fear that someone will have new ideas on how to move forward. What a shame.
Due to the upcoming vacancy on the City Council, this would be a great opportunity to appoint a person of color to represent that population in Ward 1.