AURORA, Colo. — Aurora's next mayor may be the current mayor... but whoever it is will still be a weak mayor.
In November, Aurora will decide between three candidates: Current mayor Mike Coffman, current councilmember Juan Marcano, and third candidate Jeff Sanford.
Coffman was behind a petition that circulated in Aurora over the last few months, which advocated a ballot issue that would give Aurora's mayor more power instead of having a city manager in charge.
That issue will not be on the ballot after all.
During a candidate forum last night, 9NEWS reporter Marshall Zelinger asked Coffman if he's seeking the right job. If it's more power he wants, he could just run for city manager. His answer? As mayor, he can still lead on policy.
"You know I'm able to have leadership on policy. The difference is between the mayor and the rest of city council is the mayor is full time. And given the amount of experience I have at the state, federal and now local level in business and the military, in addition, that I can bring to it, has enabled me to lead on policy, on major policy issues of this city," Coffman said. "Even though the reality is that the mayor has, actually, less power than a member of city council by the virtue of the fact that the mayor could only vote to make or break a tie. But I've been able to utilize my position, in terms of my leadership, to be able to get big things done."
His opposition, Marcano, opposes the strong mayor idea. For him, it's both because of the secrecy involved in trying to get it on the ballot and the power grab.
"I think that strong mayor forms of government have a tendency to trend toward nepotism and cronyism and more corruption generally. We are really well-served, y'all, by having someone like interim city manager Jason Bachelor as our city manager, he has a background in public administration," Marcano said. "He has the soft skills to run a $1.3 billion organization. And his background, specifically, is in financial management. So those are the types of qualities in executive leadership. And that's the kind of person that I feel comfortable having run the administrative, day-to-day of the city."
Sanford, the third candidate, has a background in public administration. when asked why he's not applying for city manager instead, he joked that he didn't know it was an option.
More on Aurora's the strong mayor petition:
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