AURORA | Aurora residents seeking to fill the vacancy created by at-large City Councilmember Dustin Zvonek’s resignation this week have until Nov. 13 to submit their applications.
Council members agreed at their study session Monday on a process to replace Zvonek.
At the suggestion of Council Member Curtis Gardner, they chose to accept applications — which will be available on the city’s website and social media channels — from Oct. 30 through Nov. 13. Current council members will decide at their Nov. 13 meeting which candidates will be interviewed at an extended City Council meeting Dec. 2. Lawmakers will then hold a meet-and-greet even the week of Dec. 9 for the public to ask candidates questions and register their comments about applicants to council members. A vacancy vote among council members was scheduled for Dec. 16.
Zvonek is a Republican council member and mayor pro tem who was elected in 2021. He announced Oct. 14 that he is stepping down, noting his recent hiring at Denver’s 76 Group, a conservative political lobbying and public relations firm, and citing family concerns as the reason for his departure. His resignation takes effect Oct. 31.
Whomever the council appoints by a majority vote to replace Zvonek will hold the at-large seat until the next regular municipal election in November 2025.
Current rules require a potential council member to be a U.S. citizen 21 years of age or older and to have lived in the city for at least a year — both by the next municipal election in November 2025. People who are salaried employees of the city, hold another elected office or have been convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, perjury, solicitation of bribery, or subordination of perjury do not qualify.
The city council last tried to appoint a replacement among its ranks in 2021, when then-Councilmember Nicole Johnston gave two months’ notice that she was leaving her Ward II seat. The city council decided to accept applications for candidates, hold a virtual reception with questions from residents, interview candidates during a study session, and then vote on the candidate. Yet the ten remaining council members were deadlocked 5-5, unable to reach a six-vote majority needed to make an appointment, leaving the seat open until Aurora bar owner Steve Sundberg won it in the November 2021 election.
Zvonek’s resignation also opens the position of mayor pro tem, whose sole responsibility is to assign council members to committees. The city council is scheduled to make that appointment Dec. 2.
Let’s be clear the next appointment will be another lackey for Jurinsky…I’m calling it here first it’s like watching a car accident you know can be prevented but still happens. This council is full of yes men and this vacancy will be no different.
Captain Obvious, I hope you are wrong but considering the last time this happened and the council was split 5-5 and this time there are more conservatives then progressives….you may very well be correct – depending on the candidates.
We can only hope for fairness and equity from this ‘council’
I’m so sick of this right-wing Council. We need to get rid of them this is a liberal Democratic City and the Republican mayor and his flunkies have destroyed it. More and more apartment buildings more traffic more crime and it is all their fault and it has nothing to do with immigrants. They have failed this city and it’s time to get a moderate or a liberal on the council