AURORA | Aurora City Council members agreed Monday night to formally consider whether detention centers operating in the city should notify the fire department when they experience any infectious outbreaks.

The ordinance, proposed by council member Allison Hiltz, follows a bevy of outbreaks at the immigration detention center in north Aurora from earlier this year. She told council members at the group’s study session on Monday that those incidents identified a gap in city code.

From the beginning of the year through mid-March, there were 15 cases of mumps and nine cases of chicken pox reported at the GEO Group Inc.-owned facility on Oakland Street. Chickenpox cases were reported at the facility last November, too.

Earlier this year, The Sentinel reported a miscommunication between GEO Group staff, ICE officials and the Tri-County Health Department regarding the reporting of infectious disease. Both the facility and TCH say reporting has improved.

The ordinance would apply to four facilities in Aurora: the GEO immigration prison as well as the Aurora municipal jail, Aurora Mental Health’s Crisis Stabilization Unit and Jefferson Hills treatment center. Those facilities would have to notify the Aurora fire chief of any outbreaks within 48 hours of a case occurring, according to the ordinance.

Hiltz has argued that first responders should have a clear idea about the health and safety of a detention facility if they’re ever to be called to an incident.

Council member Dave Gruber asked whether public safety officers would know if there were similar conditions at an apartment complex. But Deputy Fire Chief Stephen McInerny said a detention center is a different scenario because that population is locked into one defined area, whereas residents in an apartment complex are not.

The GEO-ICE center has been the subject of numerous recent protests, including on last week at the home of the warden of the prison, and another protest last weekend where opposing factions faced off at a protest at the prison.

The proposed ordinance now moves to a full, formal vote of the Aurora City Council.