AURORA | Aurora City Council member Nicole Johnston ended Monday’s meeting with her resignation, saying she plans to move to Colorado Springs for a new job and bring her family together.
“As a single mom with three kids, I am so grateful for the support system I have had to help me balance home, school and city council responsibilities. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing,” she said during the virtual meeting. “But looking forward, I now have an opportunity to bring the kids closer to their dad, who was deployed most of their childhood. Although we are no longer married, I want them to experience having two parents in the same city supporting them, and that’s why I will be moving to Colorado Springs.”
Johnston said she’s accepted a position with Community Health Partnership as the Project Manager of the Suicide Prevention Collaborative for El Paso County.
“I strongly feel there are many ways to make a difference in the community and it isn’t always as an elected official,” she said.
Johnston said she will serve on the city dais until June 14. The rest of the council will have to appoint a member to the Ward II seat to finish out the term.
Johnston had already announced earlier this year she would not run for re-election. She was elected in 2017, alongside two other candidates — council members Allison Hiltz and Crystal Murillo — who graduated from Emerge Colorado, a program dedicated to helping left-leaning women get elected.
“When I look back, I feel like I can say, I’m leaving it better than I found it,” she previously told the Sentinel.
One person so far has announced a bid to fill Johnston’s seat in November: Idris Keith, who ran unsuccessfully for an Arapahoe County commissioner last year, losing to an incumbent by a razor thin margin. Keith is a lawyer and serves on Aurora’s Citizens’ Advisory Budget Committee.
Before she was elected, Johnston was an advocate for her east Aurora neighborhood, particularly on oil and gas issues.
Johnston also spearheaded the creation of the city’s Community Police Task Force.
Thank goodness that her ex and aurora dont need to suffer more
Toxic person gone is good news
Toxic comments by anonymous contributors is bad news. Please do better. It is possible to disagree with a person’s politics without attacking the person.
Two more of CM Johnston’s many accomplishments for the residents of Aurora were her leadership before she was elected in opposing the boondoggle idea of a NASCAR racetrack out on the city’s eastern edge, and her role after she was elected in the drive to reform Aurora’s campaign finance ordinances.
This is a plus for the Springs but a real loss for Aurora. Still, I understand and respect her reasons for this change: family, especially the kids, comes first.
Wonder how long it will take before she gets on the COS city council? A conservative voice, we can only hope!
Good for her ex and good for aurora
Your politics has clouded your humanity, please do better
How fortunate we have been to have had such a good, wise, hard-working, kind-hearted, intelligent person on Council. Nicole Johnston has been a godsend to Aurora. I wish her happiness and fulfillment.
Sure glad her ex decided not to move to Aurora!
She said, “I’m leaving it, (Aurora), better than I found it.” I totally disagree that Aurora’s politics nor our City is better now than in 2017 and she has been a major part of the fighting and discourse on our City Council along with her other Emerge partners. Certainly no humbleness in her statement.
The left will continue to loose good people until all they have are looney and violent activists. Good luck with that.
This lady is an American hero bringing her divided family together for the sake of her children.