Dear Mayor Steve Hogan,
Steve, this is not your obituary. This is that rare opportunity that I get to remember back through the times we’ve shared, simply for the sake of doing it.
I read your letter to all of us yesterday. In it, you explain that after recently learning your cancer diagnosis, you’ve now “entered home hospice care.” You wryly talk about not liking term limits, and especially not like this. You go on to say that your “future days will be lived with dignity grace, and in peace.”
I was struck by how easily you exemplify yourself.
In the 30 or so years I’ve known you, dignity, grace and peace always seem to be your shtick. That, in addition to being an incorrigible policy nerd.
While most people dread the devil in the details of any controversial project or complicated plan, you always find delight. I’ve always liked that about you.
You’re that rare bird who is willing to arrange and rearrange the facts in a case as you come upon them, not to suit your purpose or simply support your cause, but to find the answer, no matter what that is.
It’s one of the things that makes you a successful and natural leader. Few people I know have that same quality.
In my line of work, I count disagreements I have with people like most people count calories: They come in big numbers. In all the time I’ve known you and argued with you over toll roads, closing Air Force and Army bases, annexations, city managers, police chiefs, migraine remedies, water policy, the best drink at the best bar in Leadville, landscaping standards, mall preservation, pit bulls, Colfax and most recently, homelessness, you always show nothing but patience and perseverance.
In a world that has elevated not just someone like Donald Trump to the White House, but Donald Trump himself, you are the anti-Trump. You show me and other media that you can lead by being forthright, thoughtful, frank, respectful, patient and subtly dogged.
Although I have photographs of you in a plaid leisure suit that, honestly, I don’t think are all that old, you continue to prove yourself a modern government leader.
In watching you closely, I’ve learned that winning and losing are not net sum games. Aurora, and really, the entire state, have benefited greatly by your not only being steadfast in that philosophy, but in persuading so many others to follow suit.
There are many people and things that should be credited with changing Aurora from being a sprawling suburb into culturally rich, political powerhouse of a city, but no one deserves the credit that you do. You never make a spectacle of yourself in the front of the parade. Instead you efficiently clear the way for everyone to march on.
We’ve heartily agreed over the years that Aurora is missing an important opportunity by not consolidating as a city-county government. We agree that political and corporate forces trying to squelch the Gaylord hotel and conference center were ass-hats and should have been handed their lunch. They were. We agree that Aurora shouldn’t strive to be a home to the well-heeled and hip, it should strive to be a home for everyone. It is.
We agree that, surely, Aurora can do better than boasting some lackluster chain restaurant at its nascent light-rail developments. And we agree Aurora needs to do more than just wait for its image in the community to improve.
Like all of us, you were staggered when Aurora joined the unenviable and exclusive club of communities where mass shootings rip lives apart. I know you quietly reached out to new members of that club, offering comfort from those who know, if not sound advice.
We agree on how critical the news media is to a community and our form of government. We agree on how critical transparency is to government, which adds to its credibility and effectiveness. We disagree on how far that transparency should go. I’ll keep working on helping you see your errors there.
Because of who you are and how you handle yourself, during the years of disagreements, discussions and back and forth over a mountain of government agendas and proposals, I always come away appreciating your stance or decision, even when I strongly disagree with it.
I know I’m not alone in saying that I already miss that.
And I know that after all these years, like you said in your letter yesterday, that you’re driven by the desire and hope that you can make a difference. You have, Steve.
And despite the lamentable inevitability of our mortality, you’ll keep on making a difference. Thanks.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com