Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman celebrated the upcoming opening of the city’s regional navigation campus and other city successes in his State of City speech Tuesday, June 24, during which he also talked about immigration and addressed a lawsuit against Denver.

In October, Coffman held a similar speech, in which he also celebrated success but honed in on the presence of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. 

At the time, Aurora was still in the national news spotlight for the gang’s violent activity at several apartment complexes in the city. The spotlight drew then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to Aurora, where Trump claimed gangs had “overrun” the city.

In his October State of the City speech, Coffman said this was not true — but acknowledged the negative press and the shadow over the city.

“Unfortunately, we had a candidate from my party, Republican nominee for the President of the United States, come to Aurora and say that the entire town is being overrun by Venezuelan gangs,” Coffman said. “I had to challenge the former president on that because not to challenge that, to let that narrative stand, has consequences to the city, real consequences, for businesses that are thinking about moving here, for conventions that are thinking about coming here.”

In his June speech, Coffman thanked Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue, saying crime has gone down because of public safety officials in the city. 

He did not mention the recent presence of TdA gang activity at a new apartment complex in Aurora — a chain of incidents at the Innovation at Fitz Apartments, located at 544 Potomac St.

Rather, Coffman again pointed a finger at neighboring city Denver, criticizing Mayor Mike Johnston for sending immigrants to Aurora through a third party nonprofit organization without permission, he said. 

Coffman said he is ready to offer a deal to Denver — giving the city five years to pay back money Aurora lost after a mutual aid agreement led to a lawsuit, with the condition that Mayor Johnston and his team meet with Coffman and his team quarterly, he said.

He hopes the agreement will improve communication and keep incidents, like TdA’s presence in Aurora, from happening again, he said. 

A Denver Police Department spokesperson said the two police departments are in “regular contact” at the executive leadership level, participate in multiple joint task forces and cover each other on calls when they are on city borders. The two departments also share radio frequencies to use in joint operations, the spokesperson added.

Denver is having “extraordinary financial challenges” and is “spending money they don’t have on a lawsuit they can’t win,” Coffman said.

The mayor highlighted several projects the city is undergoing to improve the future of Aurora, including improving the Colfax Corridor and opening the Regional Navigation Campus for homelessness.

The Regional Navigation Campus will open Nov. 6, Coffman said, and will mark a major step forward in the city’s plans to reduce homelessness.

The Colfax Corridor, which has been “in decline since the 1970s,” will move forward with a Downtown Development Authority, Coffman added, and once the authority is created, he envisions the corridor as an “urban corridor with a concentration of the arts.”

Coffman’s entire State of the City speech can be viewed on AuroraTV.com