With nine months to go Aurora’s municipal election, a pastor has registered to run for one of five Aurora City Council seats. 

Reid Hettich, the lead pastor at Mosaic Church of Aurora and a member of the Community Advisory Council to provide input on the Aurora Police Department Consent Decree, is running for the Ward I council seat, according to Aurora’s campaign finance system.

Hettich has lived in Aurora since 1985 and has been the chair of the Aurora Community of Faith, the Aurora Strong Resilience Center, Aurora Community Connections and the Aurora Economic Opportunity Center, according to his bio on the IntegrAssure website.

He is currently the chair of Aurora’s Key Community Response Team, and a member of the Community Policing Advisory Team and the Community Advisory Council, which serves as a bridge between the community and the office of the independent Consent Decree Monitor for the City of Aurora.

Hettich ran for an Aurora City Council at-large seat in 2017 and lost to Allison Hiltz and Dave Gruber, according to Ballotpedia. 

According to his campaign website, Hettich’s top priorities include public safety, economic revitalization and community building. 

“There has to be a well thought out process that combines the police department, community members, businesses, local government,” he said in a campaign video. “Our residents, our neighbors, need to feel safe and be safe in our community.”

He also focused on the Colfax Avenue corridor in the campaign video, saying the city has “lost” the corridor that used to be an economic hub.

The city, he said, can “get it back.”

“I think we have a community of entrepreneurs and if we encourage that entrepreneurship of people, if we encourage small businesses that are here … I can envision a Colfax corridor that is vibrant again with small businesses.”

There are five total council seats up for election in November: Wards I, II and III, and two at-large seats.

The Aurora City Council is made up of a mayor and 10 councilmembers, with six of them representing individual wards and four elected at-large to represent the entire city. 

Councilmembers are part-time elected officials and the mayor’s position is full-time. Aurora’s elections are non-partisan and the councilmembers serve staggered four-year terms. 

Currently, Crystal Murillo holds the Ward I council seat. Murillo is serving her second term as an Aurora city councilmember. 

The Ward II council seat is currently held by Mayor Pro Tem Steve Sundberg, who is serving his first term on the Council. 

The Ward III council seat is held by Ruben Medina, who is also serving his first term on the Council. 

Aurora City Council has four at-large positions, two of which are up for election in November. The positions are currently held by Danielle Jurinsky, who is in her first term on the Council, and Amsalu Kassaw, who replaced former member Dustin Zvonek late last year when Zvonek resigned. Kassaw is serving the remainder of Zvonek’s term.

None of the current councilmembers whose seats are up for election has officially registered to run for reelection, according to the City of Aurora’s campaign finance system.

While the city’s political races are nonpartisan, conservative members currently hold a 7-3 majority on the council.