AURORA | A nonprofit’s use of a house owned by the city has prompted a city lawmaker to file an open records request with the city itself about the arrangement.
Ward IV Councilman Charlie Richardson said he has filed an open records request with the city for emails concerning an arrangement allowing Fair Share Jobs, Inc. to use the city-owned home at 10901 E. Warren Ave. at Havana Heights Park.
“I had no idea this was going on,” said Richardson during Monday’s regular council meeting.
When Aurora City Council recently reviewed a proposal to provide space in a city-owned home to a local nonprofit, both the nonprofit and city staff said the house was vacant. But the nonprofit had been operating in the home since 2014, with many members of council unaware of the arrangement.
During a public comment portion of the Feb. 8 meeting, Aurora resident Lori Flanagan said she sent she sent a letter to then-Ward IV Councilwoman Molly Markert in September 2014 questioning the use of the property based on Aurora’s zoning code.
“It has been designated as a park,” she said. “The use of the building for parks and recreation seemed logical and acceptable. The use for police paperwork seemed logical and acceptable. It didn’t seem the 501(c)(3) organization fit the criteria.”
Markert claimed at the meeting she learned about the nonprofit requesting use of the city-owned space through an Aurora Sentinel article published in December, where council members gave initial approval for a proposed lease at study session.
At that meeting, Tom Barrett, director of Aurora’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department, said the property was a single-family home used by park rangers. The information included about the proposal at that same meeting also described the home as vacant.
Markert, who was a member of council when the proposal was first discussed, said council agreed then that the home’s zoning would not allow the nonprofit to use it in a capacity similar to organizations such as Aurora Sister Cities International, which is housed in the Aurora Municipal Center. Under the agreement included in the December meeting details about Fair Share, the city would provide the home with furniture and trash pickup, while Fair Share would pay phone, cable and internet service and also pay for water, natural gas and electricity costs.
“Imagine my surprise when I noticed the same nonprofit advertising on their website that they have an office at Warren and Joliet as recent as February of last year, which would be within three months of council saying ‘no,’” she said referring to a Fair Share Facebook post from last year that listed a volunteer meeting happening at the home.
Aurora City Council adopted a new policy on organizations seeking to use city spaces in March 2015, but Fair Share Jobs’ arrangement with the city for the Warren Avenue home pre-dated that policy’s adoption, according to Aurora city communications director Kim Stuart. The new policy requires approval from city council at both study session and a regular city council meeting.
After the meeting, Aurora City Manager Skip Noe confirmed that city staff had given Fair Share access to the home in September 2014 as well as keys to the property, but that the current policy did not exist at the time. He said city staff told council members that Fair Share was being allowed to use the home some of the time when council created the policy last year.
“We acknowledged that permission was given for this group to use this facility for a number of evening meetings to be held by their board,” he said, later adding that authorizing the temporary use of the home as a meeting space wasn’t a good decision in hindsight.
Fair Share chairman James “Dr. Daddio” Walker said after the meeting the nonprofit was given keys to use the building but would not give any more information about the nonprofit’s agreement with the city for use of the building when pressed.
“No one went over and squatted and took over the building,” he said.
Noe added that Fair Share’s use of the building was similar to what the city allows for other groups that use city facilities.
“There are groups that have used that building for various meetings over a long period of time,” he said. He added that the city provides an open reservation system for groups that allows groups to use almost every conference room in the Aurora Municipal Center and that those groups do not need council approval. He said the permission given to Fair Share was no different.
“The only permission that was given to this group was for board meetings, and that was our understanding and that was within our authority to do,” he said. “It’s not the same use that was anticipated with the license agreement that was proposed. That was a more permanent occupancy where they (Fair Share) would have office hours during the day, etc.”
Noe said the permission for some use of the building was given by the staff responsible for the building, the city’s Parks Recreation and Open Space Department. Noe stood by the park staff’s description of the building as “vacant” when the issue was presented to city council members in December.
“It was vacant in terms of our understanding of how it was arranged, was they (Fair Share) were going to be able to use it for a number of evening meetings, but the rest of the time, it was vacant,” he said.
Aurora does have licensing agreements with Aurora Sister Cities, Visit Aurora and SolarTAC to use free city space in exchange for providing services to the city.
Fair Share Jobs, Inc, a nonprofit formed three years ago to reduce the high unemployment rate for African Americans in Colorado, requested use of the city-owned space to provide training, and provide working space for volunteers and staff.