AURORA | Candidates for local school boards, Aurora’s City Council and a variety of state offices talked chiefly about equity, mental health care and affording housing at a forum Tuesday.
The event, held by Aurora Mental Health and Recovery, featured contenders for Aurora’s at-large and ward seats who told personal stories, made policy pledges and repeated calls to work across political divisions.
“I’m not just running to run,” said Rob Lee Andrews, at-large council candidate. “I’m running to bring people together so we can solve these issues.”
Andrews, a Democrat, said his platform is based on diplomacy, equity, sympathy and kindness.
He tied his trajectory for a city council seat, from a childhood of housing instability, to playing quarterback at Hastings College and later serving as a college trustee, because of his family’s access to stable, affordable housing.
He also talked about his path from helping his mother decide on candidates to vote for when he was young to working with former Gov. Bill Ritter when he was 24 years old. That eventually placed him in non-profit work where he said he was able to work to in programs focusing on reducing crime recidivism.
Multiple candidates said the city’s approach to policing and emergency responses should shift resources spent on reactive strategies, for more proactive, preventative spending and policies.
At-large city council candidate Alli Jackson, a Democrat and a social worker raised in Aurora, said her family’s experience with serious mental illness and a brother’s combat-related PTSD taught her the cost of going without services.
“Preventive healthcare is where we can save money and really start to plant those seeds of wellness,” Jackson said.
She said she wants to work on partnerships with nonprofit groups, therapists to create more treatment beds, instead of adding more correctional officers.
“Right now, our city is trending toward reactionary efforts and ‘tough on crime’, which can help, too, but it’s like putting a Bandaid on a broken leg,” Jackson said. “It can help to give some alleviation, but it is expensive to incarcerate folks who do not need incarceration, when they need mental health services.”
At-large candidates Watson Gomes, unaffiliated, and Danielle Jurinsky and Amsalu Kassaw, both Republicans, did not attend the event. Jackson, Gomes and Andrews are at-large challengers. Jurinsky and Kassaw are incumbents running for second terms.
Ward I candidate Gianina Horton, a Democrat, said her platform is based on police accountability and alternatives, making sure the city is protecting and supporting immigrant neighbors that she says need not ony affordable housing, but also “dignified” housing and landlord accountability.
“Everyone deserves to have budget-friendly housing that matches their income level, and it still be a good place, a great place to call home, and that’s what Ward I needs,” she said.
She linked policy to her lived experience, and talked about a period of time when her father, an immigrant, was placed in detention at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement GEO facility in Aurora and deported while she was in high school.
She said that immigrants need to be celebrated for their innovation and cultural exchanges with Aurora and the community, instead of being villainized.
Ward I candidate Rev. Reid Hettich, unaffiliated, talked about shuttered storefronts and crime concerns along the Colfax corridor and complimented the neighborhood’s resilience and what a possible Downtown Development Authority can bring the neighborhood in coming years. The DDA project is being proposed to local, neighborhood voters this fall.
He said that the city needs to have a stronger partnership with providers like Aurora Mental Health, which he says is a strong and much-depended on feature in Ward I.
Hettich said he knew Aurora was his home when his neighbor, who didn’t speak much English, let him know when he left his garage door open. He said Ward I is the favorite place he’s ever lived.
“I love this part of town,” Hettich said. “The people are warm and friendly, hard working and ambitious. They want to do good things. They want to support their family. I love living here.”
Both candidates are running for the open Ward I seat. Incumbent Councilmember Crystal Murillo is not running for a third term.
Former Ward III Councilmember Marsha Berzins, a Republican, is running to reclaim her council seat. She said Aurora must remain affordable “at all income levels,” from nurses and electricians to service members at Buckley. With a small-business background, she said there needs to be businesses “regulations as low as possible” to help firms hire and reinvest.
Berzins also said that as a mother of five she would make a great mediator on a divided city council.
“We have a lot of very smart people in Aurora, but we just don’t work together like we should,” Berzins said.
Berzins is running against incumbent Ward III Councilmember Ruben Medina.
Medina said he hears from the community frequent requests for youth mental health support, and he is working to establish a Youth Empowerment Center. He also proposed intergenerational programming for an aging city, especially for older adults.
His prize goal, however, is bringing a minor-league baseball team to Aurora, a dream that’s brought the city close to realizing before. Through a privately financed, multi-use 15,000-seat stadium for a possible minor league team, he hopes to diversify city revenue.
“I’ve been talking with a couple groups that are very interested in Aurora,” Medina said. “I’ve already mapped out some locations. We’re just in initial talks right now.
Ward II incumbent Councilmember Steve Sundberg, a Republican, highlighted new programs addressing homelessness and behavioral-health coming online through the city, from a regional “navigation campus” to wellness and homeless courts. He also said crime metrics are moving “in the right direction,” crediting city police and policies. Crime rates in Aurora mirror those across the metro area, and much of the country, in dropping substantially below what they were during the height of the pandemic.
“I’m excited about the future,” Sundberg said. “We’ve planted some seeds, they’ve been watered, and they’re coming to fruition. So I’m very optimistic about Aurora.”
He said the city has filled the demand for apartment units and affordable housing and rents are decreasing because of it, so now the city needs to pivot toward more first-time homeownership.
Recent statewide studies show that rents are flattening across the metro area, but communities along the Front Range, including Aurora, must build tens of thousands of more living units to meet expected demand. An influx in population statewide over the past decade and flat housing starts are to blame for high rents and home costs, according to numerous recent studies and reviews.
“We want to push smaller-lot homes, the little homes they used to buy after World War II,” Sundberg said. “So let’s encourage home ownership.”
Ward II candidate Amy Wiles, a Democrat, and a single mother, health-care strategist and small business owner, said her adult children can’t afford to buy in the ward she lives in. She advocated for youth amenities and basic infrastructure in rapidly growing neighborhoods.
“Rooftops don’t build communities,” she said. “Community needs infrastructure.”
From a lack of parks and no library to the need for safer streets that are more welcoming, Wiles said she is running to make Ward II more of a community and for a business-friendly city hall.
“It’s a challenge out there for small business owners, and we have to find a way to make it more accessible for them,” Wiles said. “We make them jump through a lot of hoops, and we’re not very friendly when it comes to that.”
Aurora city council and school board races will be decided Nov. 4, and mail-in ballots are expected to be released toward the end of October.
A baseball stadium would certainly be nice but it wouldn’t make much of a dent in the city’s floundering retail tax base. What’s needed is something that boosts retail and dining year-round. Perhaps a flexible concert venue busy 100-150 nights/year with an average of 4,000 patrons per night. To also host high school graduations in May, perhaps a max indoor/outdoor capacity of 10,000 or 12,000.
For the moment put the desires of Aurora residents aside. Patching the hole in retail requires a strong solution that creates regional draw and that entices the leisure traveler. Ideally we would leverage quick highway access to draw people to Aurora to spend. This is a recipe for the much needed infrastructure to also serve community needs. City Council’s current venue study was chartered to completely miss the mark here.
Also consider the lessons leaned by Irving, Texas when they replaced the Dallas Cowboys (800K fan visits/year) with over 2 million concert fans per year when they built the CITY-OWNED Toyota Music Factory which is operated as a public-private partnership (P3) with LiveNation serving as operator for the main 8,000-seat pavilion. Recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaHDyRBbR9U
Under the P3, Irving’s financial exposure is tightly limited whereas the commercial partners take the risk but are also obviously incentivized to fill the concert calendar, create draw and collect rent. Aurora could do similar while retaining the much-needed sales tax. We just need the political will to (a) pull out of the Denver SCFD before the 2028 reauthorization and (b) redirect much of our .1% cultural sales tax towards a new Aurora district focused on Aurora’s cultural needs.
Its truly sad more candidates aren’t taking a clear stand here. Does state party leadership and the lobbyists for Denver’s venues really have this much sway in Aurora’s election? Independent candidates don’t have this partisan conflict.