Overview:
“Trying to turn the selection of the mayor pro tem into a referendum on so-called ‘Operation Aurora’ demonstrates a lack of understanding of how our form of city government works and the role that a local municipality plays in enforcement of federal immigration law.”
AURORA | Aurora City Council’s efforts to fill the vacant mayor pro tem position have hit a standstill, as a quietly contentious vote during the Dec. 2 meeting ended in gridlock, creating partisan tensions.
Councilmembers Steve Sundberg and Curtis Gardner are vying for the role after former Councilmember and mayor pro tem Dustin Zvonek stepped down from the city council Oct. 31, citing issues surrounding his family and a new job.
What is typically considered an innocuous, symbolic city council role has become a focal point for partisan rhetoric and fresh political tension.
The nine-member city council and mayor carried over the appointment after two tie votes failed to secure the position for either candidate. Without an appointment, the question will now be revisited at the next regular meeting Dec. 16, as spelled out by city council protocol.
File Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
Gardner is a conservative and former Republican, now an unaffiliated voter. He is an at-large council member and a Waste Management executive. He said in previous reporting that he could be a unifying voice and fill what he sees as a leadership gap on the city council.
He told the Sentinel this week, and in previous reports, he feels “uncomfortable” about repeated episodes of city council overreach, particularly in police and public safety matters, citing the frequent turnover in police leadership as a sign of city council micromanagement. Aurora recently clocked seven police chiefs over the last five years.
Sundberg, a conservative Republican representing Ward II, previously described himself as calm, reliable, positive and approachable. Sundberg, who owns Legends, a local bar and grill, said his level-headedness and objectivity were key qualities for the role.
Regarding the split vote on city council and new controversy, “I don’t believe I have much input on this topic yet,” Sundberg told the Sentinel Tuesday.
On Monday, the initial motion by Mayor Mike Coffman to appoint Gardner failed in a tie vote, with councilmembers Sundberg, Françoise Bergan, Danielle Jurinsky, Stephanie Hancock and Angela Lawson voting against it.
The second motion was for Councilmember Sundberg, and it also ended in a tie. Councilmembers Alison Coombs, Crystal Murillo, Ruben Medina, Coffman and Gardner opposed it.
With no winner, council members acknowledged city rules requiring them to defer the decision to the next regular council meeting. Coffman emphasized that the appointment was not urgent and that the delay would allow both candidates to lobby for votes.
On Tuesday, however, former Republican congressional candidate John Fabbricatore raised partisan spectre and criticized Coffman on social media for backing Gardner, whom he labeled an “anti-Trump” candidate.
Fabbricatore, a former Aurora ICE official, was defeated Nov. 5 for the 6th Congressional seat by incumbent Democratic Rep. Jason Crow. Crow won re-election with 59% of the vote.
“Mayor Mike Coffman, why are you voting against all of the Republicans on the Aurora City Council and instead voting for a socialist-backed candidate and ‘wet noodle’ anti-Trump Curtis Gardner for mayor pro tem? You are a puppet!” Fabbricatore wrote on X. “You are a fraud. Those puppet strings are getting pulled rapidly these days.”
Coffman, a Republican, is a former Colorado state legislator, state treasurer, secretary of state and formerly held the 6th Congressional seat as a Republican for five terms. He was taunted by Trump in 2018 after Coffman was publicly critical of the former president. Coffman lost the election that year to Crow. Upon Coffman’s defeat, Trump pithily said, “Too bad, Mike.”
Gardner publicly left the Colorado Republican Party on June 6 after Colorado Republican Party Chairperson Dave Williams sent an email statewide with a video titled, ‘God Hates Flags’ in reference to a regular slur the Westboro Baptist Church would use against LGTBQ+ community members. Party leaders also called for burning Pride flags. This rhetoric coincided with many talking points of President Elect Trump during his campaign. The missive reaped widespread outrage among Democrats and Republicans.
“I largely try to avoid commenting on partisan issues, as city council is a non-partisan job, but I can no longer stay silent on the actions of the Colorado GOP after their latest hateful stunt,” Gardner wrote on Facebook, June 6.
The Aurora City Council members and mayor are non-partisan offices, yet partisan politics has come into play among lawmakers for decades. In the past few years, partisan politics have spilled out frequently, drawing pejorative political slurs from both liberals and conservatives.
The city council boasts three registered Democrats, two unaffiliated members, siding mostly with Republicans on disputed legislation, and six registered Republicans. For the past decade, Aurora, and both Adams and Arapahoe counties, have become reliably Democratic strongholds for state and county offices. All of Aurora’s 11 state senate and state house seats are held by Democrats, except one seat in southeast Aurora. About half of Aurora voters are unaffiliated, 30% are registered Democrats and about 20% are registered Republicans. About 60% of area voters chose Kamala Harris over Trump in the Nov. 5 election, according to state election officials.
The role of Aurora mayor pro tem comes with almost no special rank or power. The chosen council member officially acts as mayor only during official meetings when the mayor is absent. Other than that, the City Charter dictates that the mayor pro tem designee assigns and coordinates city council committee assignments at the end of every year.
Not speaking for attribution, council insiders say that the normally obscure role takes on new importance with so much controversy, especially surrounding the police department and public safety. Currently, Councilmember Jurinsky is chairperson of the council’s Public Safety Committee, and fellow Republicans Hancock and Sundberg serve on the committee.
The council committees and chairpersons have no real power or control over city legislation, as spelled out in the city’s charter. The groups act to review city council bills and issues, but any city council member can take legislation directly to the council floor for a full-city-council vote, and sometimes recently do.
Jurinsky has, on more than one occasion, used the committee seat to elevate her own views on a variety of police and public safety issues. Most recently, she has appeared frequently on local and national far-right TV and radio news shows, accusing Aurora police and city officials of trying to cover up Venezuelan gang activity in northwest Aurora. The appearances resulted in then-presidential candidate Trump holding an October political rally in the city, where he promised to impose mass deportation across the nation, beginning with Aurora.
Jurinsky aligned herself with Trump on the issue, and has spoken on it as chairperson of the city council committee, even though her comments continue to be at odds with Aurora police and city officials. Jurinsky has also used her position on the committee to elevate her position backing a New York property owner police and city officials say are responsible for a variety of health and safety issues. One of the complexes was shut down by the city. Jurinsky, saying she’s speaking as chairperson of the city council committee, has disputed the police and city account, saying the complexes were overrun with Venezuelan gang members.
Two weeks ago, Jurinsky, while acting as chairperson of the public safety committee, said she was in conversation with the Trump transition team about “Operation Aurora” issues, and was concerned the city was not “taking this seriously.”
Neither Gardner nor Sundberg said Tuesday whether they would work to remove any council members from high-profile committees.
Since late summer, Jurinsky and Fabbricatore have aligned with each other at campaign events and frequently on social media. Fabbricatore pounced Tuesday on the split city council vote from Monday.
“‘Mumbles’ Mayor Mike Coffman strikes again!” Fabbricatore wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “This vote is to get an anti-Trumper into the mayor pro tem position so that you can roadblock Operation Aurora.”
Despite the controversy, Gardner urged against politicizing the appointment process.
“It’s telling that some are trying to turn this into a partisan process,” Gardner said. “Trying to turn the selection of the mayor pro tem into a referendum on so-called ‘Operation Aurora’ demonstrates a lack of understanding of how our form of city government works and the role that a local municipality plays in enforcement of federal immigration law.”
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain has said on several occasions in public that Aurora police cannot under state law, and should not, enforce immigration law because of the risk it would impose on all of Aurora, driving immigrants into the shadows to become crime victims, or desperate perpetrators.
Gardner went on to say he was grateful for the confidence his colleagues who supported him had. He said that he sees his job as serving all of the public, and in five years he’s sponsored dozens of ordinances and resolutions because he works with colleagues to find solutions to the issues facing Aurora residents.
“I’ve always said that we can disagree without being disagreeable – and I continue to treat my colleagues with respect even when I disagree with them on policy,” he said. “I know riling up the red team or blue team is great for clicks, but I’ll continue to focus on serving the residents of Aurora.”
It seems that there is a simple solution; the council members vying for the position shouldn’t be allowed to vote (clearly they voted against each other) and the mayor should not be allowed to put in his vote. This way there’s an odd number of council members voting and someone will be a winner.
Not so fast. Eliminating two nominees and Coffman will only make it worse, as I believe the charter rules require confirmation of six of total council–not merely a majority. If they can’t reach a consensus, the only solutions are for someone to switch their vote, to violate the charter (again) with a stalemate, or to go back to the drawing board for nominations.
Here we go again. Everything at the Aurora Council meetings turns into a scrap. This position only elects somone to run the meetings when the mayor is absent. Personally, I think this calls for somone in the middle, not grinding an axe at every turn. The entire council still votes on measures. This should be easy. Sheesh!
Vote for Council Member Gardner….the man seems to have a hold on sanity which the other one doesn’t
Its easy to remain sane when you play the wallflower and never bring forward any serious proposals that address the root financial causes that underlie the city’s most difficult challenges.
Gardner spent 7 years on CABC and holds a masters degree in municipal finance. Frankly, I couldn’t be more disappointed in his performance on addressing the city’s financial problems. He knows full well that the chronic shortfall in retail, dining and entertainment activity is a root cause of Aurora’s major issues across the board. He’s also fully aware that the Denver SCFD has been economically sodomizing Aurora for 30+ years. Its just politically easier to take on more debt to fill potholes and continue to subsidize Denver’s economy and cultural gluttony rather than pursue meaningful change to revitalize Aurora’s retail, dining and entertainment sector with the $8 million/year in cultural facility taxes already collected in Aurora.
But I can’t say that CM Sundberg has any more political courage to face Aurora’s revenue problems. I’ve seen zero evidence to date. Both Sundberg and Gardner know that without strategic action, the City is leaving over $40 million/year in additional sales tax revenue on the table. Instead, Council just approves more debt for street maintenance as they wring their hands.
Aurora City Council is rudderless on financial strategy. I’ll gladly listen to any hard evidence to the contrary.
Meanwhile, Aurora’s retail economy and sales-tax base sputters near the bottom and 59% behind Denver because there’s absolutely no actual political courage among any of the current council or mayor.
Extreme ideology over the past three decades has put Aurora’s retail economy, culture and community in the toilet. We have only Republicans and Democratic officials to blame. They’ve all convinced themselves that state party loyalty and campaign fundraising comes first while Aurora residents are played for fools.
CM Gardner: Its great that you now portray yourself as a moderate Independent. But eventually you need to actually do something other than say things make you “uncomfortable.” The city’s retail tax base remains in the toilet and you’ve delivered absolutely nothing of any consequence in 6 years. Have you even tried? What happened to this campaign promise? When do you plan to start working “tirelessly” as you promised? https://sentinelcolorado.com/opinion/letter-3curtis-gardner/
The three socialists on Council are far from non-partisan. They will always vote for the socialist train of thought. I doubt they like Curtis at all but you can bet they despise Steve. Luckily in this case, it just doesn’t matter much as the Pro-Tem doesn’t really do much historically. The Council will figure this out behind closed doors.
I predict that either the Mayor changes his vote and leaves the socialists with only Curtis and four votes or Steve takes his name from consideration realizing this job is just not that important.
Oh, and Jurinsky isn’t partisan? There’s a laugh, posturing next to Trump on the podium and bellowing on social media for his so-called ‘Operation Aurora’. City council = 6 Republicans, + 2 Republicans under an unaffiliated trench coat. Who’s worried about 3 Democrats? Our entire city council is nothing BUT partisan. What a mess!
Dear Sentinel, there’s a great opportunity here. The story states that all of Aurora’s state representatives are Democrats except one. 60% of residents voted for Harris. Why is the City Council so conservative? I have never read anything about that and have never understood it.
The answer is quite simple; Auroran’s are not likely to get out and vote for city council members. The voter turnout for the council member is abysmally low, so that tells me the voters really don’t care. This is what they got. Want to make a change; get the citizenry to educate themselves and exercise their right to vote. Otherwise, don’t complain about the situation you’re in. Voting for local politicians has a much greater impact on our daily lives than voting at the national level. People can’t seem to figure that one out.