Voters in more than a dozen cities surrounding Denver have plenty more to think about when they fill out their ballots than Proposition HH, the controversial statewide property tax relief measure.
There are numerous local tax measures to consider in metro Denver ahead of the Nov. 7 election, including funding requests for police and fire services, sidewalks, open space acquisition and affordable housing. Suburban voters also will have new faces to choose from for local political office as long-time stalwarts exit the stage.
Most communities have elections for city council seats, and some for mayor, on the ballot. Several will ask voters to decide local ballot measures.
“They’re trying to address issues that are on the forefront of people’s minds — affordable housing, public safety,” said Kevin Bommer, executive director of the Colorado Municipal League, which has put out a local election preview. “There’s a lot of catchup on infrastructure that communities are trying to make good on.”
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Boulder will be using a new method — known as ranked-choice voting — to choose its next mayor, while Commerce City voters will get to decide whether ducks, chickens and bees are allowed in backyards. (Each creature gets its own ballot measure.)
The local section of Denver’s ballot will be slim, asking voters only to decide on a permanent extension of the city’s preschool tax, since it had its elections for mayor and City Council in the spring. But most suburbs hold their local contests in the fall, with candidates not running on partisan tickets.
Ballots were mailed to voters in recent days. Here is a look at a selection of races and issues that will be decided by suburban voters.
Lakewood, Arvada select new mayors
Among races with incumbents seeking reelection, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is hoping to hold off two challengers. The former U.S. congressman is finishing up his first term as mayor of the city of nearly 400,000, a post he won by a whisker four years ago.
Thornton’s mayoral contest is notable because of the bad blood that has been spilled among council members representing Colorado’s sixth-largest city. Mayor Jan Kulmann, who has served on Thornton’s council for the past decade and as mayor since 2019, is being challenged by Councilwoman Julia Marvin.
Kulmann’s mere attempt to win re-election spurred a citizen lawsuit, with plaintiffs claiming her run for the city’s top office, combined with her years as councilwoman, violated Thornton’s term-limits statutes. Last December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Kulmann was not in violation of term-limits restrictions, paving the way for her mayoral campaign this fall.
Several familiar names are saying farewell and making room for fresh suburban leadership.
Adam Paul, who has served a total of 16 years on the Lakewood City Council, will step down after a two-term run as mayor of Colorado’s fifth-largest city. He’s already taken a job as director of regional affairs for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.
“It’s been good to turn this page and move on,” Paul said.
The 46-year-old Lakewood native said the coronavirus pandemic made things tough during his final years as mayor. So did the contentious fight over housing that resulted in the passage of a 2019 ballot measure that limited the number of new homes that could be permitted by the city — a measure trumped this year by state law.
The spring 2017 hailstorm that damaged and shut down the Colorado Mills shopping mall, a big tax generator for the city, was a major challenge as well, the mayor said.
“The goods have been good, and the bads have been really bad,” Paul said. “It comes down to our ability to give back and care.”
There’s a three-way race for Paul’s seat between Lakewood Councilwoman Wendi Strom, businessman Don Burkhart and Cathy Kentner, a teacher and city planning commissioner who spearheaded the growth cap ballot measure four years ago.
Two cities to the north, Marc Williams is stepping down as Arvada’s mayor after serving 12 years in the post and another 12 years as a councilman. Now, he said, it’s time to be a “cheerleader from the cheap seats.”
“I want to go out and let new people take the helm,” said the former attorney.
When Williams started on council nearly a quarter of a century ago, Arvada had fewer than 100,000 residents. That number now eclipses 125,000. Olde Town has gone from a place of “mom and pop shops that were open on some days and not others” to a vital shopping district served by a commuter-rail line, Williams said.
It was also the site of tragedy when, in 2021, a man shot and killed an Arvada police officer and was in turn shot and killed himself by a Good Samaritan. That man, Johnny Hurley, was mistakenly killed by a police officer responding to the mayhem.
And then last year, 27-year-old officer Dillon Michael Vakoff was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call.
“Those were the two darkest days of my mayorship,” said Williams, who at 67 is retiring.
John Marriott and Lauren Simpson, both current council members in Arvada, are facing off on Nov. 7 in the mayor’s race.
Sheridan will also be losing a councilman and former mayor who has served the city for two decades. Dallas Hall steps down in November from leading the city of 6,000 as councilman, a role he first took on in 1999.
Measures from street improvements to police funding
More than 75 municipal ballot measures are being considered across the state, according to the Colorado Municipal League. And not surprisingly, many are tax measures.
Castle Pines wants money for street improvements, Louisville wants to acquire open space acreage and work to prevent wildfires on those lands, while Golden seeks more cash for its fire department. In Brighton, the city will be asking for additional money for its police force.
“This is the first ask ever for dedicated law enforcement funding,” Brighton Police Chief Matt Domenico said. “The reason for this ask to voters is the fast pace of growth in the community. The police department has not been able to keep pace with that growth.”
The Adams County seat has grown from about 33,000 residents to nearly 43,000 today, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With that population spike has come an increase in crime, Domenico said. Calls for service have jumped from about 40,000 in 2013 to more than 70,000 in 2021.
What had been typically one homicide at most per year in the city grew to four last year. Domenico said he’d like to add 12 sworn officers to the 85 or so he has now.
Brighton’s measure, which was placed on the ballot by the City Council in August, asks voters to add 0.15 percentage points to the city’s sales tax, which would amount to 15 cents on a $100 purchase. The money is expected to generate about $2 million annually to buttress Brighton’s police operations.
“It would take years to add these positions without a dedicated public safety fund,” Domenico said.
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