Residents in the Aurora region have never needed unified, collaborative leaders more than now, and the area’s city, county and legislative officials have never been so polarized and dysfunctional.
From Aurora City Hall to the state Capitol, local elected officials are hobbling critical governments over toxic partisan or otherwise political squabbles, leaving constituents and businesses to fend for themselves and government employees to work around obstruction.
The bi-partisan members of the Colorado Joint Budget Committee struggle to put data and options together for legislators to use to map out a bleak economic plan for the state. Meanwhile, Republicans grouse about a session suspended by Democrats because there is currently no safe way for lawmakers to meet at the Capitol, and there are no alternatives. Democrats, however, unwisely precluded key Republicans from the inevitable decision to extend the suspension.
The priority there is having lawmakers find a way to safely convene and effectively conduct business with unfettered public scrutiny, not pander to political tempests ginned up by pandemic deniers.
Despite delusional myths being peddled by some political leaders and frauds, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a very real and very grave threat to Colorado lives, first-responders, our health care and hospitals systems, businesses and a stable economy. Neither the left nor the right are able to forge directions alone. Conservatives and liberals need each other right now to solve critical problems. We need a cohesive government that stipulates reality and the obvious, willing to set aside political differences and manage the crisis.
The public is seriously endangered by political theatrics like those in Douglas and Weld counties. Close to home, sadistic pandemic deniers, like state Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Highlands Ranch, taunt the spread of infection by promoting restaurant virus transmission festivals. Neville and some Douglas County elected officials are demanding the county leave the health department jurisdiction currently administered by Tri-County Health.
Neville and others complain that critical health decisions are made by the region’s appointed board of health, just as they have been for generations. They lament that trained health officials and other scientists make science and medical decisions rather than elected, partisan officials. Rest assured, the vast majority of metro-area residents want credible experts to direct health, science and medical policies, not irresponsible politicians.
But the region’s most worrisome failure in leadership plagues the Aurora City Council. There, political squabbling and antagonization has high-centered the city’s elected body. A conservative faction on the council dismisses sound science and common sense, and liberal factions fume at the loss of idealistic causes that would struggle for support even among moderates. City council meetings are rife with sniping, political spoils and personal assaults.
While Aurora is seriously hamstrung because it doesn’t enjoy the flexibility and power of being a city-county government, like Denver, there’s a great deal Aurora can do to ease the growing suffering among residents and businesses floundering because of the pandemic crisis.
First, the city can curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus by requiring the use of face masks in public places. This week, Councilman Curtis Gardner has proposed that Aurora police and firefighters get $200 per pay period additional battle wages if they work with the public. Clearly Gardner realizes how serious and deadly the virus is. Yet he and others on the city council won’t even offer the increased safety afforded by a simple mandatory public mask requirement to help protect the thousands of essential workers who must toil in grocery stores, gas stations and hardware stores.
Every local expert has assured everyone that uniform face covering in public substantially reduces the risk of virus transmission. Tri-County Health Department Executive Director Dr. John Douglas stands firmly behind mask policy. His concerns about a mandate stem from worrying about compliance among people opposed to a government requirement. That’s not a medical call, but a social one best handled by the city council.
In addition, thousands of Aurora businesses and the tens of thousands of jobs those businesses provide are on the brink of perishing. The city council must work to combine strategy, innovation, speed and collaboration to help keep these businesses from failing. Pot shops should be able to deliver products. Restaurants must be able to set up patios in parking lots. Sign codes need to be suspended. City budgets need to be reconsidered so that every possible resource can be diverted to keep businesses solvent and residents safe.
In a matter of weeks. local school districts will be forced to balance the dire need to get students back into schools, where learning takes place best, while already insufficient resources are further decimated because of the economic crisis.
These school districts will have nowhere to turn but to city and county governments to find ways to help students and families already stressed by home-schooling and months of lost learning.
Every credible expert has warned Colorado and the nation that the worst of the pandemic is yet to come, even if the health crisis soon stabilizes or abates. Governments from city councils to Congress must transcend political battles on matters that are no more partisan than enforcing speed limits or state fraud laws.
The public needs leaders to understand that victory will come from conquering the effects of the pandemic crisis, not their political nemeses.