Arnold, Bergan and Kaiser vie for Aurora Ward VI council seat

AURORA | Three candidates have filed to replace longtime incumbent Bob Broom, who is term limited, for the Ward VI seat: Francoise Bergan, Brian Arnold and PK Kaiser.

Bergan said her primary goal, if elected, would be to manage the booming growth and construction in southeast Aurora. 

“Road improvements are a huge issue. I want to make sure medians are taken care of and that we address road conditions,” she said.  “A lot of people are interested in Gun Club Road being widened.”

This summer’s Rocky Mountain Air Show at Aurora Reservoir left thousands snarled in traffic on East Quincy Avenue and on South Gun Club Road. But funding road improvements, such as those that are direly needed to accommodate a growing population in the southeast part of the city, has been a struggle for years.

Last year Aurora voters said no to Amendment 68, which would have allowed gaming at Arapahoe Park and provided the area with $17 million for traffic mitigation, and $17.5 million annually for community resources such as fire and law enforcement services.

Broom said of the measure that gaming at Arapahoe Park would worsen already decrepit infrastructure near the track on East Quincy Avenue and Gun Club Road. He claimed that in order to sufficiently prepare those roads for the heavy traffic gaming would generate, about $62 million of improvements would need to be made.

In 2012, Aurora voters rejected extending a property tax that would have generated about $5 million annually for local transportation projects, including widening Gun Club from Quincy Avenue to Aurora Parkway.

“I’m very cognizant of residents not wanting taxes and fees to go up. I’m trying to be creative,”  Bergan said of potential solutions. 

She said one option for funding ward-based and citywide road improvements could be to use surplus money from the annual city budget.

“We’ve had a surplus in the last four years in the budget. Allocating more of the surplus towards public works and roads, eventually you play catch up,” she said.

She said bringing Ward VI into the 21st century when it comes to communicating with residents would be another priority if elected. She said she wanted the ward to have more of a presence via town hall meetings, Facebook, newsletters and other social media.

In 2012, Aurora voters rejected extending a property tax that would have generated about $5 million annually for local transportation projects, including widening Gun Club from Quincy Avenue to Aurora Parkway.

“In Ward VI, we’re so far away. The residents aren’t aware of what’s going on in the city and vice versa,” she said.

Arnold, a teacher at a school in Montbello and track coach at Cherokee Trail High School, agrees.

“If I get the opportunity to serve on city council, I need to do a much better job of communicating with residents,” he said.  “Just having town meetings is antiquated for today. I know how to utilize today’s communication systems to inform residents. Whether that’s through Nextdoor, email, text, or Channel 8.”

Arnold said if elected, he would also like to live-stream his town hall meetings so they could be accessible to residents who can’t attend.

In 2014, Arnold lost the race for the District D Director position on the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education to incumbent Randy Perlis.

He said he is running for a council seat this fall because he believes he can have a bigger impact.   

“A lot of who I am and what I want to see is more city-focused,” he said. He said though he lives in the newer part of Aurora, he is also connected to older parts of the city, and is focused on making sure the city’s resources are shared.

Arnold serves on Aurora’s Gang Reduction Impact Program steering committee, mentors foster kids with the Shiloh House, and was recently elected as a board member with Aurora Warms the Night.

He said his experience with the city’s gang reduction program has made safety a top priority for him.

“On the northwest side of Ward VI, a lot more crime is happening,” he said. “It’s about having the right ratio of officers to citizens, making sure there’s enough officers and making sure they’re in the right places.”

He said he agrees the top priority in Ward VI is transportation and infrastructure improvements on Gun Club, Arapahoe and Smoky Hill roads. He said the lack of Regional Transportation District service to the Southlands Mall is also an issue for employers and workers in the area.

Arnold said one idea he is looking at for infrastructure improvements and road maintenance is increasing what residents pay on their monthly water bill.

“On the northwest side of Ward VI, a lot more crime is happening,” he said. “It’s about having the right ratio of officers to citizens, making sure there’s enough officers and making sure they’re in the right places.”

“Just a couple of dollars per month per resident creates the amount of money that is needed for road maintenance,” he said. “Others think there is money in the budget, but there’s not.”

Arnold added that there are not enough traffic lights in his ward, and that the city needs to continue to work with developers to find ways to fund more of them. 

The City of Aurora recently started requiring developers of future housing developments in the city to set aside a certain amount of money toward future traffic signals in escrow in case the neighborhood becomes so heavily trafficked that one or more signals are eventually needed.

Editor’s note: PK Kaiser, who has run for several city and county seats, did not return a request for comment for this story.