“Strong mayor” ballot initiative, backed by Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, clears first signature hurdle

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman speaks during a news conference announcing the firing of Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson at the Aurora Municipal Center on Wednesday, April 6, 2022.

An effort led by Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman asking voters to make a change to the city’s charter to give the mayor more power is one step closer to making it onto the November ballot.

If the proposed charter amendment makes it onto the ballot and passes, it would change Aurora’s system of government to a form known as “strong mayor,” or “mayor-council.” That means whoever is in the position of mayor could hire and fire department heads, and they could veto ordinances that the City Council passes.

If passed by voters, Aurora would join Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo as cities in the state that have adopted this style.

Currently, Aurora has what’s called a “council-manager” form of government in which the city manager reports to the City Council but oversees city staff. The mayor only votes on ordinances when he needs to break a tie among the 10 Aurora City Council members.

The citizen-initiative petition required backers of the proposal to collect 12,017 valid signatures to make it onto the ballot, and petitioners collected submitted 20,409 signatures of which 12,198 were valid, according to the Aurora City Clerk’s Office.

Aurora voters now have until 5 p.m. Aug. 14 to protest the validity of any collected signatures, which some residents who signed the petition have said they plan to pursue. A hearing would take place 10-20 days later, and then the city clerk would have 10 days to issue a decision.

The initiative has been the target of controversy. Some City Council members accused Coffman, one of the more conservative members on council, of being behind the effort without admitting to it, rather than the citizen initiative coming from residents. They also alleged that signature gatherers were aggressive and misled voters about the purpose of the proposed ballot measure, only telling people it was about term limits and not a change in government structure.

Proponents of the campaign like Coffman, who is running for re-election, said voters should take responsibility for reading any proposed language before signing, but he said that anyone who didn’t show voters the language should be held to task.

Coffman also told The Denver Post on Wednesday that he got various people and groups together to discuss ideas for the proposed measure, which he has also helped fund. He declined to say how much money he put into the effort. The next deadline for campaign finance reports, which are public records, is Aug. 5.

In addition to changing the form of government in Aurora, the ballot initiative asks voters about changing term limits — it would reduce the number of consecutive terms that council members and the mayor can serve from three to two, and it would add an 11th-member to the City Council.

Spokesperson for the “Yes on Term Limits and Empowering the Mayor” campaign Natela Manuntseva said in a news release that the initiative will “bring greater accountability to Aurora’s residents and usher in a new era of a more efficient and effective municipal government.” The campaign announced it has received support from previous Aurora leaders.

“I think that the city manager form of government worked well for the city of Aurora when it was smaller,” Coffman said. “I think now that we’re the 51st largest city in the United States, with the urban challenges of race, poverty and crime, I think that there needs to be an elected official that’s directly accountable to the voters who runs the government.”

That means having control over everything from the conduct of police officers to the city’s vision for economic development, he said. And if it passes but the City Council later doesn’t think it’s working, the members can put another measure on the ballot — without having to collect signatures — to either put in limitations or revert back to the previous form of government, Coffman said.

Those who’ve come out against the proposal include at least eight Aurora City Council members — progressives and conservatives who don’t often agree — who held a press conference in May to voice that opposition.

In an interview, Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Gardner, also a conservative council member, said he doesn’t think the size of the city matters when it comes to choosing a form of government, noting that large cities across the country also have city manager forms of government.

“It’s pretty clear to me, despite maybe some of the political dysfunction on our City Council, Aurora is actually a very well-run city,” Gardner said. “For 25 years straight, our budget department has won an award from the government financial accountability office for a well-run budget. We have a triple-A credit rating that ultimately reduces costs to our taxpayers when we have to issue debt. So we have been a very, very well-run city.”

Despite what Gardner called the several “red flags” about how the petition process worked, he said his primary opposition is about the ballot initiative itself and what he thinks is the best structure for the city’s government.