Along with mayoral and councilmember positions, Aurora voters will vote on four ballot questions: One seeks to change gender language in the city’s charter and three want to update hiring, promotions and probationary periods for Aurora police and fire employees.

The City Council voted to send all four proposed amendments to the ballot.

Question 3A

Question 3A asks voters about changing gender language in the City Charter to replace specific terms with gender-neutral nouns.

The measure would amend almost 30 sections of the charter and allows the city attorney to make additional changes that comply with the ordinance if others are identified.

While some charter section refer to city officials using “he or she,” other provisions use male pronouns.

For example, in Section 2-2, which discusses election commission, the charter states: “The city clerk or his designee shall be a nonvoting member of the election commission.”

Ballot question 3A seeks to change the use of “his” to reflect gender-neutral language.

Councilmember Alison Coombs sponsored the amendment and council voted unanimously to add it to November’s ballot.

Question 3B

Ballot question 3B asks voters about making changes to the probationary periods for police officers and firefighters and to the police promotion consideration process.

If it passes, the measure would give the police chief the ability to pass over candidates for promotions.

“For police promotions the Chief of Police, for a specific reason(s) without consideration of any legally protected characteristics … has the authority to bypass any candidate on the promotion eligibility list,” the proposal states.

The measure would also extend the probationary period for police and fire employees who take leave or who are on restricted duty for longer than four weeks.

Currently, new officers and firefighters are employed on probation for one year after being hired, meaning they are being evaluated and can be fired without being able to appeal the firing.

The amendment would extend the probationary period for officers or firefighters who spend more than four weeks on leave or on restricted duty so their agency can fully evaluate them.

Question 3C

Ballot question 3C would get rid of limits on the number of lateral police and fire hires, allowing the Aurora police and fire departments to bring in more candidates from other agencies.

Currently, the city charter does not allow more than half of police and firefighter candidates who are offered jobs at one time to be lateral candidates.

Measure 3C would get rid of that limit, allowing any number of lateral candidates to be offered fire and police jobs at one time.

Additionally, when lateral candidates are hired as police officers, their past service does not apply to their eligibility for promotion to the rank of sergeant.

The measure would give police officers up to two years of credit for service at a different agency, allowing them to be considered for promotion in as little as three years, instead of five.

The question comes as Aurora police have struggled to maintain and grow staffing levels in recent years.

Question 3D

Ballot question 3D allows an increase in the number of police division and deputy chiefs in relation to the number of authorized sworn officers.

The number of command staff positions is tied to the size of the police force, which is tied to the city’s population size.

The charter currently states that Aurora police cannot exceed four commanders and four division chiefs. If question 3D passes, the measure would instead state that no more than 1.5% of officers can be commanders and no more than 0.5% of officers can be division chiefs.

Aurora police currently employs 748 officers and 181 professional staff employees.