Aurora City Council members will cast final votes Monday to create a police oversight office, put tax increases on the ballot, do periodic inspections of detention facilities and appoint nine members to a board overseeing the revitalization of Colfax Avenue.

Initial votes at a previous meeting approved the matters, and Monday’s vote will finalize the ordinances.

Monday’s study session starts at 4:30 p.m. and the regular meeting will follow at 6 p.m. The regular meeting will take place in the Paul Tauer Aurora City Council Chamber, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, and the study session will be livestreamed in the chamber.

Both meetings are available to watch online at AuroraTV.org and YouTube.com/TheAuroraChannel and on cable channels eight and 880 in Aurora.

The full meeting agenda is available on the city’s website.

Police oversight

In the last regular council meeting, council members voted unanimously to create the Office of Public Safety Accountability to oversee the police department.

Assuming council members approve the office in Monday’s final vote, it will serve as an “independent function reporting administratively to the city manager and functionally to the public safety policy committee.”

Aurora police will be required to notify the office of any critical incidents within 30 minutes and the office will assign liaisons to family members of anyone killed or injured in a critical incident, according to the ordinance.

Office members will also get unrestricted access to employees, information, records, body-worn camera videos, property, equipment and facilities required for reviews and oversight.

The creation of an oversight office has been in the works for years, with approval and $330,000 in funding initiated when the city also entered into a consent decree with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

The consent decree, which the city entered into to implement sweeping changes to Aurora Police Department policing, notably in the use of force and how officers engage with residents, is expected to end Feb. 15, 2027.

Tax increases

Aurora council members also voted unanimously in the last meeting to send tax increase questions to the November ballot.

If the ordinance passes in a final vote Monday night, Aurora voters will decide whether to raise sales taxes for the first time since 1993 to help pay for infrastructure, transportation and public safety improvements.

The money would go toward “Build Up Aurora” to fund projects that include construction of Gun Club Road, updates to police and fire stations and transportation safety improvements.

Aurora’s sales and use tax would increase from 8.5% to 8.825% in the part of Aurora in Adams County, and from 8% to 8.325% in the part of Aurora in Arapahoe County.

Detention center inspections

Two ordinances requiring periodic inspections of and more regulated disease reporting from detention facilities in Aurora initially passed at the last meeting with some opposition from the council’s conservative members.

The two ordinances specifically point to Aurora’s GEO Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center but would apply to all detention centers in the city’s boundaries.

One requires periodic inspections of detention facilities. Inspections can be random and unannounced, the code language reads, and will include sanitation, lighting, noise and temperature.

The second ordinance changes the city code to require all detention facilities to report health hazards to the local government.

It allows the city to take legal action against companies like GEO if city officials are not given the information or access.

Because the GEO’s ICE facility is a federal facility run by an independent contractor, it is unclear if the city will be able to legally enforce the new rules in court, City Attorney Pete Schulte said at a previous meeting.

Ordinance sponsor and Councilmember Gianina Horton said the proposed changes were initiated by reports from organizations claiming potential health issues within the GEO facility that the latter did not report to the city.

Downtown Development Authority board

The Aurora City Council will cast a final vote Monday to appoint nine members to serve on the board overseeing the revitalization of Colfax Avenue.

The recommended appointees include a variety of business and property owners within the Colfax district boundary. They are as follows:

• Amanda Blaurock, Village Exchange Center CEO
• Priscilla Montoya, Downtown Aurora Visual Arts executive director
• Alemayehu Eshete, property owner
• Katie Goldman, property and business owner
• Matthew Horne, Jubilee Roasting Co. owner
• Cynthia Moreno-Romero, Ollin Cafe owner
• Thoa Nguyen, Bahn and Butter Bakery Cafe owner
• Natasha Sztevanovity, Society 303 owner
• Johnny Watson, consultant

Board members will be tasked with overseeing projects and investments under the DDA and ensuring community members and businesses are involved and that their needs are met throughout the process, the city’s website says.