DEAR EDITOR: I love the City of Aurora. I love its diversity, its parks, its restaurants, and our community. I love that we’re a big city with a small-town feel. But all the love in the world for where I live does not make up for our current financial situation. Like many cities across Colorado, Aurora is funded mainly by sales tax – and with all the services it takes to support the third largest city in the state, the budget is falling short. Items like road maintenance, arts and culture, and even our fire department are underfunded. You can listen to past City Council meetings where affordable housing, gentrification issues, and increased contributions for police benefits are pushed aside because there simply is not the money at this time.
But have no fear, Councilman Charlie Richardson is here to the rescue with an amazing project that will not save the people of Aurora money or improve our quality of life – implementing our very own costly Aurora election system.
Due to a personal post, on a personal Facebook account of our current Arapahoe County Clerk & Recorder, Joan Lopez, Charlie would like to overthrow the entire Aurora electoral system. This is bothersome on many fronts: First, his charge that the elections have been corrupted is not based in any fact, and, second, his dedication to politics outweighs his commitment to the City as he is frivolously using City resources on this wild goose chase.
Charlie claims that he doesn’t “need the office that’s responsible for conducting the election to support, endorse, or donate to my opponent.” To be clear: the Arapahoe County Clerk & Recorders Office has not made any endorsement or donations to any candidates. To claim that a Facebook post and a donation would “corrupt” our elections is simply untrue.
To my current knowledge, no major changes have been made to any election procedures since Ms. Lopez has taken office. The elections were free and fair when Matt Crane, former County Clerk, oversaw the office and they will maintain their integrity under the new leadership of our current Clerk & Recorder, Joan Lopez. The people of Arapahoe County and the people of Aurora should have full faith that all elections will be free, fair, and accessible to all eligible voters.
Second, the City of Aurora will now spend both staff time and Aurora Election Commission time solving a problem that simply does not exist. Time is money. We need the type of leadership that will put petty personal grievances aside and focus on what is best for all of us and focus on the problems that really need solutions.
Charlie’s request, and the support of his conservative colleagues, is simply sour grapes over lost elections. Grassroots campaigns and democratic candidates have seen great success across Colorado. Aurora residents voted for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot; if I were Charlie Richardson, a former Republican now unaffiliated candidate, I would likely be upset about that too. What I can’t understand is wasting City time and resources to address a problem that just does not exist. The real loser in this situation is not the intended target, Ms. Lopez, but the Aurora voters and taxpayers.
— Kristin Mallory Westerberg, via letters@SentinelColorado.com