Despite lawsuit threats, Aurora courts chief position changed for ‘better oversight’

AURORA | After threats of litigation and accusations of discrimination, the majority of city lawmakers still approved moving oversight of the city’s court administrator from the city council to the city manager’s office.

“This would (bring) litigation over a hostile work environment,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said during a heated discussion at Monday night’s council meeting. “This would (bring) litigation over discrimination, and it is blatant, blatant discrimination.” 

The current court administrator is Candice Atkinson, who did not publicly comment on the change.

The position has for decades been a direct appointee of the city council and reported solely to them. But after months of reports that the department, which oversees city courts and the city’s detention center, had coordination and supervision issues, lawmakers voted 7-3 on final reading to have the court administrator position moved to the city manager for more oversight. Proponents argued that the change aligns with common practices in other municipalities, mirrors other top-level city administration structure, and that it would streamline management.

“This is not a demotion,” Mayor Mike Coffman said. “This exists in law, in our charter, the ability to make this decision, and what it effectively does is it says, instead of having 11 bosses, she would have one.”

Council members approved the change on second reading with Councilmembers Jurinsky, Amsalu Kassaw and Steve Sundberg opposed. 

Under the current city Aurora Charter, the court administrator reports directly to the city council, one of only four positions, including the city attorney, the city manager and the chief judge. 

The position and responsibilities of the court administrator has drawn questions for months.

“I just wanted to note for the record, because it’s been applied otherwise,” Councilmember Alison Coombs said.” Before we hired this court administrator, I asked that we separate the court administrator from the jail detention, and that those not be one position and that they’d be under the city attorney.”

The ordinance said the change is intended to “streamline operations and align with best practices.” The administrator’s pay and benefits will still ultimately be set by city council, and staffing will remain tied to the city’s annual budget process.

“What I’m concerned about is some of the areas in which I feel the administrator position is in over their head, particularly as it relates to the information technology portion of this job,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock said. “We don’t have the requirements stated as to what is needed to effectively run our courts, so that we, as a city, are not subject to undue litigation, because we’ve fallen short in some of these areas. That’s my concern. It is not anything against Candace at all. I feel like she’s out on the island by herself, unprotected.”

Almost every other department in the city reports to the city manager’s office, including the Aurora Police Department. Officials stated that the court system’s move was intended to create better oversight and to align the department more closely with the rest of the city’s departments. 

Jurinsky said she did not believe that was the reason. 

“This is bad policy,” Jurinsky said. “This is retaliation. This is about the person, not the position. We will immediately be sued. This is blatant discrimination. This is a hostile work environment.” 

The push for a charter change followed a Management and Policy Finance Committee meeting in July, which raised a plethora of unanswered questions after an audit of the court administration office.

During the July meeting, City Auditor Michelle Crawford said that a review had identified significant technological weaknesses and poor cash handling practices in the courts system.

In July, it was also reported that detention center staff had adopted a policy using a triplicate receipt book and drop safe for cash bonds. Councilmember Curtis Gardner said he was concerned about an outdated system and asked why Aurora, the nation’s 49th largest city, continues to rely on outdated tools.

“I am curious as to why we are still using outdated, unreliable technology like a triplicate receipt book for detention receipts,” said Gardner last month, who previously managed a local credit union. “Books can get lost. There are a multitude of different things that can happen to them.”

At the Aug. 7 Management and Finance Policy Committee, Crawford reported progress on Court Administration reforms, including new policies for detention cash handling and case management. 

The courts had implemented policies and procedures for detention and case management, which include cashing checks and card tampering. 

Atkinson told the committee and city council members at an Aug. 7 meeting that the court is working to install Clover payment devices, which are integrated with the city’s Teller and Workday systems, to enhance reporting and audit trails. 

She said many reports already existed in the system but had to be converted to a PDF format by the court’s IT staff so that they could be requested and printed on demand by the auditor’s office.

There were still unresolved issues with a formal vending machine vendor contract, system reports, broader financial system controls and a third-party financial system audit. 

Kyle Peterson, senior programmer analyst for Aurora, told council members that while some processes remain manual, the city’s new Workday financial platform, combined with the Teller cashiering system, should provide enhanced reporting and audit trails going forward. 

“Teller in the middle does provide a lot of the reports that we’re looking for,” Peterson said.

Peterson said that integration with Wells Fargo devices and kiosk payment options is also underway.