EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story contains images of a profane text discussion sent to city officials, as well as extreme profanity couched in Sentinel-provided asterisks. Reader discretion is advised.
AURORA | A recent string of text messages threatening fellow conservative council members is raising renewed scrutiny of Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky’s behavior in office.
Her public and private tirades have prompted two other council members to call for her censure.
Jurinsky is the bar owner and at-large council member behind the false, election-season narrative that Venezuelan gang members have overrun parts of the city. She has a history of testy, sometimes profane rhetoric, and deemed by some as bullying.
At issue most recently is a string of text messages she sent to four of her conservative council allies — council members Françoise Bergan, Stephanie Hancock, Steve Sundberg and Dustin Zvonek — in advance of a meeting earlier this month. The texts were obtained by the Sentinel.
Jurinsky was angry about Bergan’s proposal to continue levying Aurora’s employee tax, which Jurinsky had worked to abolish as part of a campaign promise.
“I will not be at the meeting on Monday, and every single one of you can go fu** yourselves!” her first message reads.
“I fu***** campaigned on that you fu***** pieces of shit! AND FU** YOU DUSTIN!!”
“And I hear you’re a co sponsor, Francoise. You can definitely go fu** yourself! You’ve never owned a business or a fu***** thing in your life you pretentious bitch!”
“My friendship will literally (sic) every single one of you is dead! DEAD! oh, and my loyalty… also dead! I hope you all have miserable fu***** lives! I might make that happen for a few of you. FU** YOU!”
Jurinsky did not respond to the Sentinel’s inquiries for comment about the invective.
Sundberg defends his colleague despite her harsh words toward him and fellow Republicans.
“I don’t know one member of City Council who has not, in frustration, spontaneously expressed their passion. Many of us, including Councilwoman Jurinsky, can be fierce in our love for the city, as we want the best for it,” he wrote in an email to the Sentinel.
Bergan, Hancock and Zvonek — the three other recipients of the threatening texts — did not respond for comment.
Without mentioning the messages she had received a few days prior, Bergan called Jurinsky out for bullying her during an Oct. 14 city council study session about Aurora’s occupational privilege tax, also called the “head tax.” It requires employers and workers to each pay $2 per month per employee, and brings in about $5.9 million annually in city revenues. The council voted almost two years ago to repeal the tax, and it was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2024.
Council members agreed it posed a bookkeeping and financial burden, especially on small businesses. But those concerns shifted earlier this month when Bergan co-sponsored a plan to keep levying the tax indefinitely, using the revenues to first fund the two additional fire stations in quickly growing parts of eastern Aurora and, after that, directing the proceeds into the city’s public safety budget.
Jurinsky is chairperson of the city’s public safety committee and slammed Bergan at the council’s study session for not telling her that she was seeking to reverse the head-tax repeal. It was a signature display of Jurinsky’s combativeness, complete with swearing and pounding on the conference table.
Bergan called Jurinsky’s behavior “abusive and toxic.”
“Whenever we have a discussion and she doesn’t get her way, let me tell you what she does, she’s a bully and she has bullied a lot of people on the council over this issue, and she curses me out with cuss words and is vile,” she said.
Jurinsky tried to respond, but Mayor Mike Coffman shut down the spat between his colleagues.
At-large Councilmember Alison Coombs on Tuesday called to formally censure Jurinsky for what she describes as years of breaching “the norms of civility.”
“I’ve long said this behavior is unacceptable, and I want to make clear that it would be unacceptable for anyone, from any party, to act in this way while representing the citizens of Aurora as their elected representative,” Coombs, one of three progressives on the conservative-majority council, wrote in an email to the Sentinel.
She acknowledged that a censure wouldn’t likely remove Jurinsky from office nor “stop her from continuing her outrageous behavior.”
“But it would make clear to all our residents that her colleagues will not condone her disgracing her constituents with her vile rhetoric and lack of decorum.”
This isn’t the first time a colleague has tried to censure Jurinsky. In early 2022, then-Councilmember Juan Marcano initiated censure proceedings after she told a regional talk radio show host how she had encouraged then-police chief Vanessa Wilson to replace Deputy Chief Darin Parker. Jurinsky also criticized Wilson’s leadership of the Aurora Police Department, referring to her as “trash.”
The Sentinel sued the city for holding a vote in a meeting closed to the public to end those censure proceedings. Colorado’s Court of Appeals ruled for the Sentinel late last year that the vote broke the state’s open meetings law. The city has filed briefs asking the state Supreme Court court to reject the appeals court decision. Last month, the Sentinel filed briefs arguing for the Supreme Court to uphold the ruling, and to force the city to release recordings of the meeting about Jurinsky’s conduct and the vote taken to end censure action.
Progressive Councilmember Crystal Murillo supports Coombs’ call to censure Jurinsky, but she said she doubts the council’s conservative majority would stand up to a fellow Republican whom “they are all scared of.” Murillo recalled “many times” Jurinsky has yelled and stormed out of meetings, “and gotten in people’s faces looking like she’s ready to fight.” She described several occasions, while seated between Jurinsky and Bergan on the council dais, that she has had to intervene in arguments in which “Jurinsky would call Françoise names and literally threaten her.”
“That’s how she gets people — council and even staff — to fall in line because they’re threatened by her and they’re worried ‘What is she going to do to me? How is she going to retaliate against me? What is she going to say?’” Murillo said. “I would say the fear factor is pretty high.”
Over the last three months, Jurinsky has made national and even international headlines by appearing on Fox News and other conservative TV shows, stoking fears of undocumented immigrants and gangs in Aurora. In response to a gathering of Venezuelan migrants on their home country’s election day in July, she posted on social media that, “Thousands of these folks took over and completely shut down a part of our city. The police were totally over run (sic), and we’re (sic) forced to get out of the area for their safety. A police car was shot up.”
On Facebook, she added that, “This November’s election may, in fact, be the actual most important of your lives, your children’s lives, and your grandchildrens lives. Again, you all deserve the truth!”
Aurora police debunked her claims as misinformation.
Jurinsky went on to defend CBZ Management, the company behind three severely blighted apartment complexes in northeast Aurora that has falsely blamed its own repeated failures to address health and safety problems in its buildings on members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, also known as TdA. Jurinsky has asserted, falsely, that the group has overrun parts of the city.
Despite repeated insistence by city managers and police discrediting her narratives about the landlord and the gang, Jurinsky’s claims spread so far among fellow anti-immigrant conservatives that Donald Trump often repeats them on the campaign trail.
Since August, the former president has made Aurora — a city that has spent millions of tax dollars trying to lure more residents, businesses and conventions — a symbol of all that’s wrong with U.S. immigration policy and a metaphor for what he claims, contrary to U.S. Justice Department statistics, is rampant violence and murder perpetrated by migrants.
Trump has made a campaign promise to round up and deport tens of millions of immigrants, calling the plan, “Operation Aurora.”
Meanwhile, Venezuelans and other Latin American newcomers to the city say Jurinsky’s and Trump’s rhetoric threatens their jobs and safety.
Jurinsky has for the past several weeks used her X account to taunt Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow for providing support to the recent wave of 40,000 Venezuelan migrants into Colorado. She also has slammed Aurora police and city management for, as she claims, deliberately covering up the threat posed by TdA.
“Coloradans expect their elected representatives to act with civility and respect,” Polis’ spokesperson, Shelby Wieman, told the Sentinel Tuesday. “Gov. Polis urges his fellow Americans, and especially public officials, to disagree better and to constructively work to find common ground no matter one’s personal political or policy opinions.”
Debates over the city’s head tax and Venezuelan migrants aren’t Jurinsky’s first controversies since she was elected in 2021 as part of a conservative takeover of Aurora’s council. Late last year, a federal judge threw out a class-action case she filed against Arapahoe County’s Department of Human Services for what she claimed was agency-wide misconduct. She pursued the case after Robin Niceta — a former Arapahoe County social services caseworker and the ex-girlfriend of Aurora’s ex-police chief, Vanessa Wilson — anonymously and falsely reported that Jurinsky had sexually molested her own son.
Niceta made the report shortly after Jurinsky criticized Wilson on a talk radio show. Investigators later concluded that Niceta’s accusation was unsubstantiated. Niceta was convicted of charges for retaliating against an elected official and making a false report of child abuse as a mandatory reporter. She also pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges of forgery, criminal impersonation, attempting to influence a public servant, tampering with physical evidence and two lesser misdemeanors of second-degree forgery after faking having brain cancer to avoid prosecution in the case involving Jurinsky.
In a city government designed to have a figuratively strong city manager and weak mayor and council, it is Jurinsky whose voice has been by far the loudest this year. Even before she threatened her colleagues with text messages, people in and close to city hall grumbled not just about her effect on the city’s reputation, but also on the well-being of those working for the city.
Former Aurora Councilwoman Nicole Johnston, who represented Aurora’s Ward II from 2017 to 2021, works in El Paso County to improve mental health conditions in its workplaces. She never served directly with Jurinsky on Aurora’s council, but noted that municipalities are paying increasing attention to workplace culture, especially bullying, and that Aurora would be wise to do the same.
“Besides impacting the mental health for anyone on the receiving end…, my concern is the culture of toxicity she spreads to her council colleagues as well as the city staff,” Johnston said after reading Jurinsky’s texts, which she deemed “abusive.”
I had a relative bullied by coworkers while employed at the City of Aurora. I was harassed an extension of his employment. I second Nicole Johnston’s recommendation that the City of Aurora consider bullying as a factor in workplace culture.
I’d also love to see an ethics officer and ethics hotline.
Jurinski’s emails would have earned her a suspension and possibly being fired if she was working for a regular business with a good human resource team. Voters should take note of these loudmouths who get their way through intimidation. We should be sick of the Peters, Boberts, Marjory Taylor Greens, all the way to Trump. The replacement of civil discourse by the use of repeated vulgarities is corrosive and threatening. Council members should earn the right to continue to serve through solid work to create the conditions for the citizens of Aurora to thrive. I submit that Jurinski’s behavior and language has earned her a well-deserved defeat!
I guess you’ll have to add Biden and his comments recently to the list of people to be sick of.
This type of comment is irrelevant, unserious and inappropriate.
Oh look!
An entirely irrelevant comment!
You’re absolutely right, there should be decorum. But you failed to include in your rant the Schiffs, Waters, Bookers, Schumers, Holders, Testers, Jefferies and the entire “Squad” to name a few for calling for, or condoning, violence against the President and opposition party members. Oh, did I mention Biden, I didn’t but you wouldn’t care anyway. But we’re talking about proper behavior in Aurora, the rest of the country shouldn’t matter.
Sadly it won’t matter. Conservatives don’t care how vile a rep acts. All that matters is they say immigrants and crime are the problem and tougher policing is the answer…along with more handouts for developers and businesses. And Democrats refuse to vote in local elections.
And it turned out Jurinsky was right as Ten de Arauga was holding people. especially illegals, hostage as they were committing heinous crimes of sex trafficking, torture, and extortion. Even though Jurinsky was in direct contact with people being harmed and she was finally able to prove her allegations- the police chief, mayor, and the governor spoke out against her and the governor had her arrested. Not one of these three people should still be in office as they chose a dangerous gang over innocent people.
Stories of people being tortured by having fingers cut off, being scalded with boiling water, having a fingernail ripped out, being beat. And the democrat leadership refused to believe anyone about these evil gang members and allowed these crimes to happen and continue. Tren de Arauga is more dangerous and better organized than MS-15. Neither of these gangs should be in America.
Shame on everyone who ignored Jurinsky’s pleas to have these gang members rounded up and investigated. Every one who had been informed, including this rag paper, are complicit in the evil that happened to innocent people, whether Americans or illegal immigrants. No one should be tortured or held hostage by gangs.
Lori Smith, your comment is full of lies & is very hypocritical. Think about your last sentence and what is going on at the hands of “ice”.
When the City Council considers replacements for the departing Councilman Zvonek, it is incumbent on all members, conservative and progressive, to ensure that the new council member not be aligned with toxic, unprofessional, and incoherent Danielle Jurinsky. Our city deserves council members who respect the residents of our city and each other — disagreement is one thing, threats and invective are quite another. I cannot wait for this election to be over — but do look forward to an opportunity to replace Jurinsky in November 2025.
Until someone you care about is victimized by TDA. Wake up. You’re equally accountable for your thoughts, insights and unqualified imbalanced opinions, however unconscionable. Don’t enable criminals at the expense of your own comfort and freedom’s you’ve not earned nor functionally work to protect. You’re comfort is unearned, your opinions would resolutely change the instant your door is kicked in and someone you care about is violated. Grow up. Wake up, otherwise STHU. I sincerely distinctly hope you’re offended, your feelings DO NOT take the safety of others into account. THINK about that.
From the safety of your home office, look up: Selfless; Objectivism; Accountability.
BTW, clown-tear tissues are on sale just for you at Target. Stock-up.
David P Nutly in Aurora is dead. Why are you posting under a dead person name?
After the news today of TDA arrests, including the seizing of 69 assault weapons, thanks to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s office, who assisted federal agents with this investigation (by the way, the Sheriff is a Democrat)… how does the author explain this from her article?
“Jurinsky is the bar owner and at-large council member behind the false, election-season narrative that Venezuelan gang members have overrun parts of the city.“
Everyone who called this “a crazy hoax” was wrong!
Who’s crazy now?
I watch the City Council meetings on a regular basis…and some members of this council are an embarrassment to the City and its citizens…the chaos they cause is unacceptable and they should be removed from the office.
She is allowed to state how she feels. I’ve worked with people of power before and they don’t always do the right thing. It’s more like do as I say not as I do. I understand the frustration of not being heard and getting the run around and the passive aggressive pretend I care from officials. It just gets old when you know people are more about do as I say and don’t care about the real problem.
I don’t have a problem with immigrants being here but I do have a problem with people looking the other way.
When you actually try to make change for the better or call people out on their BS they tend to call you crazy or get rid of you. If someone disagrees with me I don’t just dismiss their thoughts. There’s always some truth in another persons perspective. There is no open opinion in law, democracy or government. It’s my way or no way. So I value her fighting for what she believes is right even if I don’t have a problem with any of the immigrants. I believe in people not the government anymore. We are the ones that will make the true change. We live in the reality of every day life.
You seem to have lost the plot. Either that, or you are willingly engaging in a classic strawman argument. Her text had nothing to do with Jurinsky’s histrionics swirling around Venezuelan gangs. Please reread the article.
“Jurinsky was angry about Bergan’s proposal to continue levying Aurora’s employee tax, which Jurinsky had worked to abolish as part of a campaign promise.”
The council woman seems to have a limited vocabulary when it comes to insulting her colleagues. With the variety of insults and invectives in the rich and varied english language she seems stuck on only the one invective. Whether that is a sign of limited intelligence I leave to the reader’s discernment.
She’s the people’s choice and has become the dominate voice on city council. Through her voice the nation now knows us as a city under siege, branded as a city needing to be rescued under Operation Aurora. We’ll see next November if she remains the people’s choice. Until at least then, unless there’s robust contention from the majority on city council, she’ll remain that voice.
Awesome! You’re a patriot! Next November…
I’d state more but the Sentinel Monitor actively sensors my quips; I’ve never posted a single curse word. But I’m considering a spectacular Billboard facing the early morning sunrise and the attention of literate commuters. Know what I mean?
The Sentinel staff needs to dig for actual news and needs to stop harassing CM Jurinsky like this. Publishing her private text messages crosses the line. Nothing divulged was criminal or corrupt. What was the Sentinel’s journalistic purpose in publishing her private communications, exactly? To politically slam her? Feed the angertainment some have for her? This improves the life of residents how, exactly?
It’s a difficult part-time job that you have to be slightly nuts to take or run for. Obviously, CM Jurinsky brings passion when she takes up an issue– sometimes to good effect, sometimes not. Did she cross a line of civility? Most think so. But didn’t CM Coombs cross the same line a time or two early in her political career?
Nothing good for Aurora gets accomplished while council bickers. Hopefully, CM Jurinsky makes amends and realizes nothing gets done without six votes.
Sentinel staff: Is this the quality of journalism we should expect? Please choose to do better. We need useful, trustworthy news and this isn’t it. The political bashing contributes zero value. None.
Crosses the line? What delusional world do you live in? Go refill your meds or stay in school…but whatever you have to do to get that this behavior is completely unacceptable from any elected official. It’s unconscionable that you would defend this.
Awesome! You’re a patriot! NOT….
Next November…
I’d state more but the Sentinel Monitor actively sensors my quips; I’ve never posted a single curse word. But I’m considering a spectacular Billboard facing the early morning sunrise and the attention of literate commuters. Know what I mean gf?
I don’t care who you are, person(s) in certain positions should conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times. I don’t see passion here I see “ghetto” behavior and I am not impressed. The Sentinel has done an excellent job with reporting it. Reading their article definitely help me make up my mind about her. She reminds me of another person who has extremely unprofessional behavior, that is probably where she gets it from. Neither one of them care about the PEOPLE just themselves.
The text messages aren’t private when they’re between council members. Colorado’s Sunshine Law makes it so members would be breaking the law if they were to speak in a closed forum like that.
And yes, Aurora citizens do deserve to know this kind of information. As voters, we have a right to know who our representatives are and how they conduct themselves on our behalf.
I adhere to the motto of the Aspen Daily News: “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.”
Jurinsky is a politician, albeit a remarkably immature one. What she does in office is the public’s business. As is how she handles her job in general.
Who did she bully in the City Attorney’s Office to get her sweetheart deal for Lamar Advertizing passed in spite of it violating the City’s Purchasing Code and the Sign Code in the City’s UDO?
I’ve been a critic since she was elected, since she disparaged the Chief of Police, since she got a way with being censured before!!!
Just be done with it. Danielle RESIGN or be RECALLED
I’d like to say something profound, but nothing comes to mind. So, I will just say we get who the majority votes for. If you want change, you must join the conversation, support good candidates and vote.
Jurinsky is exactly what Aurora needed! She’s a fighter! I hope she battles Bergan into the ground. Bergan is a part of the reason they city started to turn socialist. Bergan is a snake and embarrassment and shouldn’t even call herself a Republican.
As sprawling as Aurora is, perhaps adding two additional council members could reduce some the tensions the current 10+1 council has. Bringing in more opinions might reduce the volume of the noisier members of the council.
Repugs are Garbage.
She sounds like first class trash. I usually vote republican, but vulgar trash like her should go.
The Sentinel should be thankful for Jurinsky, maybe even buy her flowers….. If it weren’t for her being her, no one would read this rag and comment.
Compatriots: Obviously- if the shoe don’t fit, you’re not wearing it. All-else. .,
Let’s talk about irrelevance: An exterminator service called ICE is moving in, they have a director of operations opening (I’m qualified. I can certainly tell you that nearly all of you will be included on the list of addresses that require servicing. She (Danielle) may have well have written these forthcoming
texts to YOU. As vermin, you earn it; Explanation: Entitled, WEAK, irrational, pandering, invalid, unfounded, absurd, reprehensible, attrocious, unconscionable, belligerent, unabashedly unapologetic, dishonest, unqualified, desperate, ineffective, embarrassing, shameless, profanely IGNORANT, self-destructive, progressively recalcitrant, defenseless, passionately incognizent, dangerously unaware, phenomenally irresponsible, interminably unforgivable; you take your freedoms for granted; none of you have faced danger head on. Relentlessly dispicably detached from reality. Certifiably criminally insane: UnAmerican. I would work for Danielle Jurinsky for FREE ALL-DAY. Put yourselves on notice, this IS NOT your city or country any longer, you are unsafe, MOVE OUT. Letter gov agencies, don’t get off the couch, you know who I am and you’re not about to waste your time again. Don’t be so expendable. Get YOUR methods and priorities straight. Stop tipping off ICE. Be real American citizens with integrity and a conscience. May Pam Bondi, Kash, Dan B , Tom Homan, Hegseth(NatG/USAR-Colo, Trump correct your irresponsible derelictions. Aurora & Denver mayors, State Governor: Wake up, stand up, grow up. You DO NOT want your doors kicked in. TDA, go home, NOW.
FA-FYD…
Compatriots: Obviously if the shoe don’t fit, you’re not wearing it.
Hey psycho David P Nutly using a fake name as David p Nutly is dead! Your rant is why Colorado went from purple to blue. We want sane people in our politics. Colorado will get more and more blue. So maybe it’s you who should leave Danielle, I mean David.