Tragically, the Aurora City Council has inadvertently made clear that closing down the city’s domestic violence court system is in the best interest of about 1,600 victims of that insidious crime each year.
It’s a tragedy not just for future victims of beatings and all kinds of abuse suffered at the hands of partners, spouses and family members, but for Aurora as a community.
The nationally lauded, decades-old specialty court system is at risk over political scheming and ineffectuality among a conservative faction of city lawmakers.
Led by council members Dustin Zvonek and Danielle Jurinsky, the push to close the court system is the latest in a ham-handed string of public safety sagas inflicted on Aurora by this city council, and these two city lawmakers in particular.
Driving this latest debacle is a quest to cut city costs for providing constitutionally mandated defense attorney services to indigent criminal suspects.
A faction of city council does not appreciate that, despite their personal feelings, Aurora, like Colorado and the nation, is governed by the rule of law, not the rule of whim.
In Aurora, and across the United States, anyone accused of a crime, truly does have the right to a qualified attorney and defense, and they are, truly, considered innocent until they are proven guilty in court.
The Sixth and Fourteenth amendments are so critical to the foundation of American government, that they have been upheld, defined and enshrined not just by founding Americans, but by a critical succession of Supreme Court decisions over the centuries.
The 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright decision, which was unanimous, held that states and other governments are required to provide not just attorneys for poor suspects, but qualified attorneys.
Zvonek has led the charge to save an undetermined amount of city taxpayer money by shutting down its public defender program and, instead, hiring private attorneys to provide counsel for less money.
The idea fizzled last year when a scheme to “privatize” the public defender program failed to turn up a single law firm to respond to a request for bids. The math never made sense. Highly paid private attorneys doing a poorer job than lesser paid public attorneys would have been a lose-lose proposition.
Parallel to this drama, state lawmakers have been working to ensure local courts, adjudicating jailable offenses, comply with defense counsel standards by being precluded from parting out public defense, or privatizing them.
Zvonek, Jurinsky and others have adopted a mantra of political foul in the lack of “local control” and are using the scheme as fodder for “possibly” closing the specialty domestic violence court system on these new grounds.
To be clear, the state law changes nothing in Aurora. The city has been in compliance for decades.
It would be tragic for domestic violence victims, especially indigent victims, whose lives are shattered and endangered not just by their perpetrators, but by the complications surrounding the crime of domestic violence, especially when it involves children.
Some of the city council have scoffed at claims by experts insisting that even the location of the county courts — in Brighton for Adams County residents, and at least 25 miles away, requiring a nearly 4-hour RTD bus ride — is an unnavigable encumbrance for many poor victims.
Their ignorance about the quagmire of domestic violence or callous victim shaming illustrates that these city lawmakers are too dangerous to be entrusted with the dire responsibility of legislating and maintaining a criminal justice system.
Real lives are at stake.
Zvonek is absolutely right in pointing out that it is unfair to Aurora taxpayers to have to shoulder the financial burden of providing constitutionally required, quality public defense when that cost for all other Colorado residents is borne by the state. While the city has yet to provide a reliable cost burden, it could be as much as $3 million a year.
But this city council continues to politically isolate itself from Democratically controlled state bodies and agencies and has no allies in the fight for equity for Aurora residents.
For the sake of victims and the accused, it would be best to close not just this specialty criminal court, but all criminal courts run by the city, and move those cases to more qualified administration among the city’s three counties and two judicial districts.
Until Aurora is led by more capable lawmakers, the critical needs of domestic violence victims, and the critical right of indigent suspects of all types of crime to a fair trial, which requires qualified defense counsel, must prevail.
So, council determines that Aurora taxpayers are paying twice to support domestic violence courts since counties are funded to provide that service while cities are not. Then council looks to reduce these costs by outsourcing defense attorneys. Then state rep Mike Weisman, blocks that effort by creating a law saying Aurora can’t realize savings by outsourcing, which definitely impacts Home Rule. Then Aurora questions why it should pay millions of city taxpayer money while the state and counties pay none for services the city is not responsible for. Regardless of what Dave Perry thinks, it sounds to me like the Aurora council is looking out for its taxpayers. Isn’t that what they are supposed to do?
The solution is actually easy.
If Jurinsky and Zvonek don’t want Aurora to pay for an accused’s legal defense, City Council has the ability to eliminate jail time as a penalty for any municipal violation. If a defendant is not facing jail time, he/she has no constitutional right to an attorney.
Imagine all the money Aurora would save by not having to pay for the jail and jail staff. We could probably eliminate some of the prosecutors in the City Attorney’s Office. The savings would really add up.
The only problem is that Jurinsky would probably insist on a carve-out so that anyone who is found guilty of stealing a sandwich from one of her establishments would still do their three days. But, then again, why not send dine-and-dashers to county court along with the wife beaters?
I’m going to bang this drum at every turn. The City of Aurora’s primary source of revenue is sales tax and on that, the city’s retail economy has been chronically in the toilet– objectively scoring an F among Colorado cities.
Last year the insufficient retail activity led City Council to BORROWING $35 million to address a backlog of road maintenance– said backlog accumulated pre-COVID when the national economy was white hot. That’s a big red flag that Aurora simply can’t maintain its public assets even in the best of times.
Achieving Average would put another $40 million per year in city coffers but both conservatives and democratic socialists are in lock-step agreement to ignore the city’s failed retail economy and to NOT have any strategy whatsoever. Instead, City Council believes it can just further cut budgets and borrow its way to a better quality of life for residents?
What a sad joke.
Again, I would beg Mayor Coffman and City Council to stop leaving $40 million per year in tax revenue simply on the table. You have strategic options.
This local DV issue and its changes come about and what we are seeing is what happens when politicians upstream start making changes to laws that were fundamental and already accepted as law. These state house politicos put in motion what municipalities are to evolve to. The state did a financial impact study on this new law. The study makes clear of an increase in bureaucratic labor for municipal courts. “Exact costs will vary” The city is expected to just suck-it-up. Aurora has said not so fast. Their response, look to the counties Adams/Arapahoe to deal with this unknown yet anticipated added burden of the refitted law.
HB 23-1222 “Final Fiscal Note July 7, 2023”
“Local Government The additional requirements for municipal courts that hear domestic violence proceedings will increase workload for municipal courts. Exact costs will vary be municipality, and are expected to be accomplished within the normal course of business.”
“Summary of Legislation”
“The bill creates new requirements for municipal courts in domestic violence proceedings. These requirements include that: • victims, their families, and witnesses receive protections equivalent to those in state law; • sentences are equivalent to those in state law; • conditions of probation and release on bond are consistent with equivalent state laws; • any guidelines and standards are consistent with those adopted by the Domestic Violence Offender Management Board; and • a prosecutor makes a reasonable effort to remain as the prosecutor throughout the case.”
Conservatives always think private workers are better than those in government jobs. Not only does this notion invariably cost more, it does not guarantee a superior outcome. Take private prison systems, for instance. More riots and poor inmate care are the result because the goal is profit. The council should have stopped after putting the job out for bid and receiving no offers. But instead, these morons think they know better. Now we have more drama than we can stand!
Is anyone thinking about the human element in all of this debate?
The VICTIM/SURVIVORS of domestic violence matter. The municipal courts program is vital for protection of victims,provides resources to them in a much more timely manner than county courts can. Look for other options than cutting this service.