AURORA | Aurora City Council members say they’re ready to resume in-person meetings, but the decision came after a night of political chaos and personal attacks that laid bare the lawmakers’ deep divisions.
“There were many concerns that I still have had with the process of being virtual,” Councilmember Crystal Murillo said. “And I think that, in and of itself, it has been used as the political tool to silence folks who don’t agree with the majority.”
Murillo was one of three Democrats who broke ranks with the Republican-led majority on the city council and began holding public sessions outside of city hall during regular webcast meetings, which ended earlier this summer.
The majority on the city council agreed in June to curtail convening in person as push back against disruptive protesters demanding police discipline for the 2024 police shooting of Kylin Lewis.
City council meetings will be completely back in-person Nov. 17, and the public invited to be heard will be in-person as well, city lawmakers agreed Monday.
The question of whether to return to in-person meetings was brought back to the agenda and quickly unraveled into another chaotic and deeply personal exchange among city council members, continuing months of dysfunction that have repeatedly spilled into public view.
The discussion opened with Mayor Mike Coffman motioning to bring in-person meetings back to council chambers Nov. 3.
Then there was a webcast public comment, and the two speakers, Portia Terrell-Beavers and MiDian Shofner, both addressed the city council about their responsibilities as members. They said that some candidates up for election are more willing to address the public’s complaints and reminded the city council of how the upcoming election can influence change.
This follows months of Shofner and others, including Terrell-Beavers, who have been demanding police reform after multiple Black men have been shot by Aurora Police officers while unarmed. The group and many others began protesting regularly at Aurora’s City Council after the death of Lewis. Lewis was shot during his arrest in an apartment parking lot. His arrest was linked to charges stemming from a Denver shooting.
Aurora is currently under a consent decree, imposed by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in 2021. It was the result of investigations into allegations of the Aurora Police Department’s excessive use of force and discriminatory practices, particularly against people of color. Triggered in part by the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, who died at the hands of police and rescuers after being stopped, unarmed, the decree mandates broad reforms in training, accountability, use-of-force policies, data systems and community engagement.
“You are not in a space of power, you are in a space of responsibility,” Shofner said. “And somewhere, several of you got lost on that. The people you serve are the ones who are in power, because on Nov. 4, they actually get to exalt the only power that exists. Those who are voted in to serve are to do so responsibly. We will not forget the ones who turned away.”
When Terrell-Brewer spoke, she brought up how virtual, webcast meetings make everything take longer, making it more challenging for the public to engage. She said that the reason the meetings went virtual was that the leaders did not want to listen to their constituents. She also accused Councilmember Steve Sundberg and Amsalu Kassaw, two incumbent candidates running for reelection, of stealing other candidates’ signs, with claims linked to Sundberg’s Cybertruck. Neither offered evidence supporting their claims of sign theft.
This, along with Shofner referring to herself as a constituent, while living in Denver, riled many city council members, including Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who initially proposed holding all city council meetings virtually until a pending wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Lewis family against the city is completed.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said that in the Lewis case, five of eight claims were so-far dismissed. Resolving the remaining claims could still take up to two years, he said.
Jurinsky said that the reason she wanted the council meetings to go virtual was because of threats that she received from various protesters after a meeting at city hall. She said Murillo had heard the threats and supported her the night it happened, and then Murillo never supported her again.
Murillo said that she heard yelling that night, but could not discern any threats, and she told police that. She said she supported a fellow council member for being a target of public anger for any reason, but now her bigger concern is how the virtual meetings have been used to silence dissent or opinion from her and other city lawmakers, and the public.
“I was concerned about the situation,” Murrillo said. “I didn’t observe any particular interactions between Councilmember Jurinsky and others, but I heard shouting, and frankly, I wasn’t sure if that came from Councilmember Jurinsky or the others. I did tell her that I hope no violence comes to her, and that I do believe in.”
Jurinsky did not detail what the threats entailed.
Jurinsky accused Murillo of lying and said that someone would not say they wished no violence came to her if they did not hear threats.
After rounds of accusations against each other, Councilmember Françoise Bergan made a motion to change the date for returning to in-person meetings to Nov. 17, after the election.
When Coombs went to speak, Jurinsky started talking, thinking it was her turn. They both had their hands raised, but Coombs was next, and Coffman called on her. Jurinsky and Murillo argued back and forth until Jurinsky demanded Coffman use a technical procedure to end debate, cutting Coombs off from speaking altogether.
The vote passed with Jurinsky and Coombs both voting against it. Nine of the council members, including Coffman, voted in favor, with Councilmember Angela Lawson and Curtis Gardner absent.
At the end, Coomb aired her comment.
“For Councilmember Murillo to point out the ways in which some members of this council have been systematically silenced by procedural actions used by the current super majority that is held on this council, that that’s to be mentioned, and then people are going to turn around and use those exact tactics, is shameful,” Coombs said.
“It does not represent ‘I support you, no matter what your party is.’ You can print that on as many pieces of literature as you want. It’s not your action when you call people of other (political) parties demonic, when you use your super majority to remove their items from the agenda, when you use your super majority to shut them down for just trying to comment at all.”
She said it’s not unifying. It’s pettiness. “There has been more than enough pettiness on this council.”
Coombs also said she supported Jurinsky at the time in taking the meetings virtual because she was concerned that Jurinsky claimed she received threats. However, after she spoke to Murillo, she told her the same story about only hearing shouting and no actual threats.
She finished by saying that the public doesn’t engage with the virtual meetings because they think city council does not listen to them, while others fear other commenters when in-person.
“We need to recognize both of those perspectives and quit playing games,” Coombs said. “Show up, listen, do our jobs and certainly not carry on with this rhetoric that pretends toward unity or mutual respect and yet never, ever in action, does it.”
The city council is scheduled to next meet Nov. 3, virtually and webcast, the day before Election Day.
Just watched my tape of Mondays Council meeting and have a few thoughts related to this reporting.
Thankfully we Aurora citizens will have to deal with the lying, childlike, socialist legislator from Ward I for only one more meeting, ever. She did everything in her power to create verbal hostility to the last thirty minutes of the meeting while not showing herself at all in the videos. Can’t say this was important but certainly was noticed and petty making her to be my Queen of Pettiness.
Lesbian Councilman Coombs who generally is pretty good at choosing words while twisting the truth to meet her socialist philosophy doesn’t come across that well when ranting and raving.
For some reason, unknown to me, they yelled a lot about CM’s personal safety being the main reason that the Council went virtual. This was a minimal reason compared to the inability to get business done while the activists tried to control the in person meetings.
For Socialist Coombs to let the words, “stop playing games” come out of her mouth when that is all she has done in her six years on Council while hogging almost all meetings with her opinions on everything that occurs is an outright shame. It is the trained socialist way to create chaos whenever possible and she was taught well by Juan Marcano.