AURORA | Murphy Creek’s new governing board will remain in place after ex-members ousted by the intervention of Aurora’s City Council decided not to run in a special election to reclaim their seats.
The special election was an opportunity for residents of the east Aurora neighborhood to ratify or reject Murphy Creek Metropolitan District No. 3’s five new board members — Margaret Booker, Dennis Lyon, Glen Muller, Alex Ortiz and Joshua Rodriguez — who the council voted to appoint in December.
While the appointments were opposed by the ousted former board of Richard Berge, Bob Gaiser and Doug Schriner, the five appointees were the only candidates who filed to run in the election by a March 5 deadline.
Since there were exactly five seats available, the election originally scheduled for May was called off, and the five assumed their seats as elected officials automatically.
The board, which consists of Murphy Creek residents, is responsible for managing a $1 million landscaping and facilities budget funded by fees levied on the district’s 1,400-plus homes.
Councilmember Steve Sundberg, a Murphy Creek resident himself, sponsored the installation of the new board, saying Berge, Gaiser and Schriner “went rogue” when they voted to seal off an alley against the city’s wishes. The three said the changes to the alley were meant to discourage speeding past the adjacent garages of residents.
The council was empowered to replace the old board after real estate development companies associated with Murphy Creek’s developer, Harvey Alpert, called out procedural problems with the district’s recent elections, claiming the three were serving illegitimately. The matter was raised during an ongoing legal dispute between Alpert’s companies and former board members over land fees.
Removing a metro district board was a rare and possibly unprecedented act by a Colorado municipality, and a special election was scheduled for the first part of 2024 that would allow residents to vote on the composition of the board.
At the time, some of the appointees said they were unsure whether they wanted to continue serving beyond stewarding the district through the transitional period leading up to the election. They’ve since warmed up to the idea.
“I feel we currently have a dedicated, hardworking board,” Lyon wrote in an email March 15, explaining his decision to run for an elected seat. “I also feel we are just getting started, and I want to work with this board to continue serving the residents of Murphy Creek Metro District 3. I will also add that I feel driven, to a large degree, by a ‘servant’s heart.’”
The former directors, too, said they were uncomfortable running for re-election as they faced the legal challenge from Alpert’s companies. In January, an attorney for the companies did not rule out the possibility of the developer actively supporting or opposing candidates in the special election.
“I gave no thought of running again with the strong possibility of the developer supporting the new officers against me financially,” Gaiser wrote in a March 14 email. “Also, my opinion piece in your paper against new legislation to weaken construction defects surely angered the developer even more.”
Schriner wrote March 16 that he simply “decided to step aside and let others contribute.”
Lyon said the group will take their oaths of office May 22. Booker, Lyon and Rodriguez will serve one-year terms expiring in May 2025, while Muller and Ortiz’s terms will expire in May 2027.
As for the two lawsuits that informed the decision to remove Berge, Gaiser and Schriner, the City of Aurora dropped its complaint related to the alley in January, while the dispute between Alpert’s companies and the district continues in Arapahoe County court.
The alley that passed the home of former district board member Matt West became the center of a regulatory dispute between the district and the city when West first installed speed bumps with the board’s permission to try to compel vehicles to slow down.
City workers dismantled the speed bumps. The board then voted to install landscaping and bollards to block vehicle traffic where the alley joined Coolidge Circle, prompting the city to sue West, his wife and the district.
While the district pointed out that it and the West family owned the land where the landscaping was installed, the city argued the changes interfered with an easement allowing the public, utility workers and emergency vehicles to travel through the alley.
The district ultimately paid to remove the landscaping after the city’s lawsuit was filed and hundreds of residents signed a protest petition.
West has since died, and the court accepted a joint motion to dismiss the case Jan. 23, with the defendants acknowledging the easement and agreeing not to undertake additional work in the alley without the city’s written approval.
West’s wife, district manager Shannon Torgerson and Lyon all declined to comment on the outcome of the case, as did city spokesman Ryan Luby on behalf of the Aurora City Attorney’s Office.
No such resolution has come in the case brought against the district, its former board and a variety of district officials and consultants by Alpert’s companies, which say the former board’s attempts to collect fees on undeveloped land in Murphy Creek amounted to an illegal attempt to punish the developer for the slow pace of construction.
Recent filings include grappling between the companies and former Murphy Creek attorney Brian Matise over Matise’s attempts to recoup attorneys’ fees after a judge agreed to dismiss the portion of the case concerning him personally.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled to take place March 29.
Does it seem like the conservative city council is at it again? Just seems ‘off’