Marlene Knobbe, grandmother of Aurora shooting victim Micayla Medek, tears up during a press conference, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28 at the Summit Event Center. Families of 11 of the 12 victims at the Century Aurora 16 massacre spoke to the press to voice their concerns with how donations to the victims were being handled. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

AURORA | After a closed-door meeting Friday with victims of the Aurora theater shooting, the committee responsible for the $5 million collected through donations said victims will have more say in how that money is doled out.

Marlene Knobbe, grandmother of Aurora shooting victim Micayla Medek, tears up during a press conference, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28 at the Summit Event Center. Families of 11 of the 12 victims at the Century Aurora 16 massacre spoke to the press to voice their concerns with how donations to the victims were being handled. (Marla R. Keown/Aurora Sentinel)

“We had a productive exchange of information and ideas on how the family of victims and other victims will be represented on the 7/20 Recovery Committee,” Kim Stuart, a spokeswoman for the city of Aurora said in an email.

The 7/20 Recovery Committee met with the victims and their families after many criticized the committee early this week, saying it lacked victim representation ahead been slow to pass the donations on to victims.

Since a gunman opened fire July 20 the Century Aurora 16 theater, killing 12 and wounded 58, donations to the victim relief fund have swelled to about $5 million. Officials said so far they have given $5,000 to each of the 70 victims or their families last week, and another $100,000 to several nonprofits working with victims.

The 7/20 group has formed a nine-member executive committee that doesn’t include victim representatives. The group is made up of city leaders and nonprofit officials.

Amid criticism from some of the victims this week, officials affiliated with the 7/20 group said they have always planned to have victim representation on the board, but are still working out what that representation will look like.

In a statement Friday, the victims and their families said some progress has ben made.

“We have an agreement in principal and are cautiously optimistic that victims will not only have a robust voice but a vote and be directly involved in decisions of the disbursements of all the monies collected for the Aurora victims. We’ve been promised that the victims will have seats on both the advisory board and a seat on the executive board,” the statement said.

The victims said they hope to have the money doled out in the next 30 to 45 days.

Friday’s meeting was held behind closed doors, with no press allowed. Officials said that was necessary because some of what the group will discuss could be confidential.

In her email Friday, Stuart said the two sides are finding common ground.

“There are already many areas where we are in strong agreement. For instance, we absolutely agree that the committee’s work needs to be a collaborative process,” she wrote.

Stuart said the next meeting has not yet been scheduled.