Overhauling the city’s homelessness reduction system leads the the Aurora City Council’s study session agenda Monday — a meeting of council to informally discuss city business but not formally vote on the adoption of proposals.

Other items for discussion include redistricting wards next year and repealing the city’s occupational tax.

Homelessness reduction model

Councilmember Dustin Zvonek will provide a briefing on the council’s trip earlier this month to San Antonio, researching the Texas city’s approach to reducing homelessness. Last month, councilmembers also visited the City of Houston on a similar mission as Aurora looks to overhaul its response to homelessness.

A draft bill sponsored by Mayor Mike Coffman would direct the city manager to begin preparing a new comprehensive system.

The bill says that system should: Co-locate services at the same site; provide emergency supportive services; provide case management through a navigation center; incentivize participation in the programs; provide transitional housing with conditions; include workforce development opportunities; measure how many people become housed again.

The new bill emphasizes relying on private support rather than government funding and providing public education about the proposed program.

Tax cut proposal

Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky is preparing a bill to repeal Aurora’s occupational privilege tax.

Jurinsky’s bill seeks to eliminate the tax beginning Jan. 1. Jurinsky said at a September committee meeting she wanted to alleviate this tax burden for city businesses, calling it unnecessary amid a budget surplus.

The tax collects $4 each month for each employee working in the city. An employee pays half of the tax, while the employer covers the other half. Government and charitable employers are exempt. There is also an exclusion for employees who earn less than $250 a month or predominantly work in another city that also has an occupational privilege tax. Repealing the tax would reduce Aurora’s annual tax revenue by an estimated $5.9 million.

The proposal received scrutiny at the September committee meeting as staff said it would be a significant cut to the city budget and Councilmember Crystal Murillo asked how the city would make up for that revenue reduction.

Redistricting

Council will review new proposed boundaries for the six city wards. Redistricting occurs for election years ending in 3 and 9. Staff will present four redistricting scenarios for council’s consideration based on U.S. Census data and community surveys.

The city population is an estimated 402,961. City code requires each ward to have roughly the same number of people, meaning the updated wards should be comprised of approximately 67,160 people.

Councilmember Juan Marcano is also sponsoring a bill to amend city code to outline a specific timeline for the election commission to complete redistricting recommendations and provide those to council. That proposed deadline would be Oct. 15 in the year before ward realignments take place.

Study sessions are held remotely and available for the public to livestream at AuroraTV.org.