Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston, the two remaining candidates running to become Denver’s next mayor, covered new ground in a mayoral debate sponsored by the Denver Press Club Thursday.

The candidates discussed topics not previously addressed in the many forums and debates in recent weeks, including how they plan to encourage civic engagement. They addressed concerns on campaign finance and how they plan to promote use of Denver’s mountain parks.

The debate was moderated by Colorado Sun data journalist Sandra Fish, CBS4 journalist and vice president of the Denver Press Club Tori Mason and Denver Gazette City Editor Dennis Huspeni.

Johnston and Brough were asked how they plan to increase social engagement in Denver, which Fish said in her question has gone down, while also repairing the societal fabric of the city.

Johnston said Denverites want to be a part of the solutions, they just don’t know where to direct their energies.

“For me, it’s things like a service hour where every week you ask people across the city to come and engage in one set of activities in your own neighborhood,” he said. “There are ways the city can change how we make it open and accessible for everyone rather than saying ‘don’t worry, we’ll take care of this, it’s not your responsibility’.”

Brough offered several steps, one of which included a culture change in city offices. She said there is an element of shamming people into getting their jobs done in city government and she wants to move away from that.

The new mayor must have discipline and the skills to get things done without shaming others, Brough said, while also bringing together diverse ideas that can be incorporated into how business is done.

A unique aspect of her plan includes trusting and investing in Denver’s youth. One suggestion she recalled was instituting a “youth mayor” to encourage and teach social engagement.

“I love this idea because we start to engage our kids in the civic work we’re doing and we position them to lead on it,” she said. “(I’d also like to) organize our city team to meet neighborhood by neighborhood and clean up together… So we restore and remind ourselves our actions impact others.”

The second part of this plan will also restore a sense of pride in Denver neighborhoods, Brough said.

Campaign finance continues to spark questions

Both candidates have robust independent expenditure groups — an outside entity operating autonomously from the campaigns — begging the question: What expectations come with that money?

“What’s expected is nothing and what’s committed is nothing,” Johnston said, addressing large donations from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and New York businessman Michael Bloomberg. “I don’t see any conflict there and I’m committed to fighting hard to deliver results for the citizens of Denver.”

Johnston touted his more than 3,000 Denver supporters and has received the smallest average donation throughout the race. According to city records, in a period between April 5 and May 17, this is accurate, and Johnston’s average donation was $165 against Brough’s $223.

Brough echoed Johnston concerning the independent expenditure groups.

“These are independent, I’m not part of it. I don’t know what someone who gives you a million dollars expects,” she said. “But I look at every single (direct) contributor who’s given to me and what I see are people who say, ‘I’ve invested in this city’.”

Denver’s mountain parks take center stage in last question

With summer right around the corner, and Denverites love for open space an open secret, Johnston and Brough were asked how they plan to protect Denver’s natural resources and mountain parks.

Brough was shocked by how few people even know about Denver’s mountain parks, which have been a staple of the city for more than 100 years.

“We have to increase awareness,” Brough said. “There’s also opportunity for partnership to ensure we’re maintaining them… I think our park legacy fund has $50.4 million dollars in it today and we could use those kinds of resources to maintain the parks we have.”

Johnston decided to focus more on increasing access to the parks and encouraging their use, remembering his time as a school principal when he’d take students to the parks. Many had not set foot outside of the metro area before and experienced the mountains and outdoors for the first time, he said.

“We want to make sure more and more young people in the city and know that we have those resources that can get to them,” he said. “It’s important that those are Denver’s assets, and that means Denver’s residents should feel like they’re their assets.”

“We should make it much easier for all of Denver’s residents to access those and enjoy them,” he added.

In addition to the Denver Press Club, the debate was sponsored by the Colorado Sun, the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter, and the Truman National Security Project.

The Denver runoff election is June 6. Ballots were mailed to residents on May 15.