AURORA | When Crystal Elliott isn’t working for the deputy city manager of Aurora, she’s representing the people of Commerce City.
[
And when Lynn Baca isn’t working in the purchasing department at Aurora’s city hall, she’s working for the people of Brighton, at Brighton’s city hall.
Although they’re employees of one city and council members of other cities, there’s a distinct division between their responsibilities and they say the dynamic doesn’t pose any conflicts of interest. But some Aurora residents question the ethics of their employment situations.
“We have very defined positions,” said Baca, a procurement agent in the city’s purchasing services division who handles regular and professional service contracts.
Elliott and Baca were both elected to their respective councils in November 2011. Both said they were driven to contribute to the communities they grew up in, which is why they decided to make bids for those councils.
“I’ve been in government for 18 years, and it was really an opportunity of civic and professional growth to move toward council,” Baca said. “With my government background it seemed like a natural progression to go that way and give back to my community.”
Elliott, the executive assistant to Deputy City Manager Nancy Freed, said her experiences working with Aurora City Council members also inspired her to run for council in Commerce City.
“I like to be in the community and helping out, and I feel like with council you have a little more leverage,” she said.
Elliott and Baca said a big difference between Aurora and the cities they represent are the population disparities. Aurora has more than 325,000 residents, while Commerce City has about 44,000 and Brighton has about 32,000.
Neither Elliott nor Baca have had to abstain from a council vote or recuse themselves from a discussion, and they both said they don’t foresee any conflicts of interest arising in their jobs.
“I’m not in a position where I’m privy to executive session material, and I’m not going to jeopardize my job,” Elliott said.
But Aurora resident Duane Senn, who was a chief surveyor for the city of Aurora for three decades until 2005, said their situation raises some ethical concerns.
“I would not feel quite so strongly about the ethics of it if you had somebody running the street sweeper in Aurora and being a Thornton City Council member,” he said. “I think it depends on the position.”
He takes issue with Baca’s position in Aurora’s purchasing department in particular.
“In purchasing, when you are privy to documents from two different municipalities, I don’t think that’s right,” he said.
The paradox speaks to a larger problem, Senn said, that municipal government ethics is falling by the wayside.
From a legal standpoint, there is no problem with being a city employee and seeking outside employment as a council member, said Kin Shuman, the city’s director of human resources.
Shuman said he has spoken with them both about the distinction and doesn’t foresee any problems arising.
It’s not unusual for government employees to seek public office in other cities. Chanell Reed, a management analyst for Aurora mayor and city council, ran an unsuccessful bid for Parker Town Council in 2010.
“It’s not something that’s happening in the vast majority of communities, but it’s not unusual either,” said Sam Mamet, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League.
In his 33 years of involvement with the league, he’s never heard of a situation gone awry where a city employee was a council member for another jurisdiction.
“Where a situation might get awkward is if you have a deal in which two cities are in negotiations over the transfer of some property,” he said. Water negotiations might also fall into that category.
“It would be interesting as to whether or not that individual would have to recuse themselves from the discussions,” he said.
Ultimately, Mamet said, it’s up to voters to decide whether they want their elected officials working in other cities.
Aurora City Councilwoman Molly Markert said there’s little potential for conflict and may help.
“I think it makes for better city employees,” she said. “They get how to serve people.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Mr. Senn’s assertion, “muncilpal government ethics is falling by the wayside” does not go far enough. Ethical behavior is based on the moral precept that there is right and wrong behavior above what the law requires. Whether these precpts are based on a religious philosophy, “universal truths”, or Nicomachean ethics, ethical behavior accepts that there may be good or evil intentions and ethical behavior reflects the good.
All to often the defination of ethical is “it is legal.” The politicians or anyone else that accepts this definition are unwilling to make the distintion between ethical and legal, which enables them to proclaim that we should not “judge” because ethics is a matter of personal conscience.