Not surprisingly, Denver mayoral candidate James Mejia believes education is the key to the city’s success.

The Denver native and chief executive of the Denver Preschool Program launched his campaign yesterday with several campaign stops around town, addressing audiences on challenges facing the city and how to solve those problems.

The fastest way to create jobs and solve the city’s $100 million budget shortfall is to attract companies and businesses to Denver — but that can’t be done without first creating a high quality education system, said Mejia.

“When we look at this future of our city, and we look at what it takes to make the workforce of tomorrow, and what it takes to make sure that when companies are looking at Denver and growing in Denver, that they’re saying, ‘This is a place where I would be proud to send my children to school, and this is a place where I can find my future workforce,’” Mejia said yesterday to a small audience at Rosa Linda’s Mexican Cafe in the Highlands.

Mejia, a Democrat, faces a tough battle before the May 2011 municipal election, competing in a large pool of formidable candidates, including State Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, as well as at-large City Councilman Doug Linkhart and City Councilman Michael Hancock — both Democrats.  Councilwoman Carol Boigon, also a Democrat, is expected to announce her intentions to run for mayor on Thursday.

All candidates have filed their exploratory paperwork, but are not considered official mayoral candidates until they are certified for the May ballot.

Education and jobs won’t be the only concerns facing voters at the polls — much of the community is also concerned with the police and sheriff’s departments following a string of internal arrests and brutality incidents.

Mejia says it’s time for police Chief Gerald Whitman to be replaced.

“A new mayor has an opportunity to bring in a new police chief.  That’s an important step because I think that the police chief has a great deal of latitude in terms of addressing issues before they become problems,” said Mejia.

Concerns over Manager of Safety’s office

Mejia also raised concerns over the Manager of Safety’s office.  Manager of Safety Ron Perea resigned in August after outrage erupted over his not firing two Denver police officers caught on tape beating a 23-year-old gay man in downtown Denver.

Mayor John Hickenlooper has asked the FBI to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged beating. Denver police have also re-opened their investigation into the incident. The FBI supposedly has not looked into the case since DPD is conducting another investigation.

The city has paid nearly $6.2 million since 2004 to settle lawsuits involving police officers, according to a recent report by the city attorney’s office. Almost all of the lawsuits involved allegations of police brutality.

Mejia yesterday also stressed a focus on hiring local companies and individuals for public projects.

“Keep it local,” he says.

The next mayor of Denver will replace the extremely popular current Mayor Hickenlooper, who will head across Civic Center Park to the Statehouse where he will become the next governor of Colorado.

Hickenlooper will hold his position until his Jan. 11 inauguration when Deputy Mayor Bill Vidal will then become acting mayor until the municipal election in May.

A crowded field

Others who have filed paperwork to explore a run for mayor are Danny Lopez, a city employee who lost to Hickenlooper in the 2007 mayoral race, as well as Dwight Henson, Michael Forrester, Kenneth Simpson, Paul Noel Fiorino, Theresa Spahn, Thomas Andrew Wolf, and Eric Jon Zinn.

In addition to his work founding the Denver Preschool Program, Mejia headed up the Department of Parks and Recreation under former Mayor Wellington Webb, he has served on the Denver Public Schools board, and was selected by Hickenlooper to lead the development of the $425 million Denver Justice Center bond project.

Christy Morris’ brother is in the midst of a 38-year prison term after getting three strikes for drug and burglary related offenses.

Morris, who works for the Denver Women’s Commission, finds it sad that her and her brother grew up in the same family and were given the same opportunities, yet her brother is spending the majority of his life in jail. Morris often thinks about how her brother’s fate could have possibly been prevented if he got treatment for his substance abuse problems after his first arrest instead of being put in jail.

Morris wrote a paper on alternative sentencing and recidivism rates and found that Colorado is rated as the worst U.S. state for having the highest amount of road blocks for people who are coming out of prison and trying to get reestablished back in society. The recidivism rate for Colorado inmates is more than 50 percent, she added.

“If we take that money out of housing (prisoners) and putting it into community assistance programs, that would just keep the costs down and we could have viable citizens rather than having prisoners,” she said.

Morris is hoping that the next Denver mayor will consider sentencing reform and sentencing alternatives as a main priority. Morris is supporting Mayor candidate Doug Linkhart, who has long championed judicial sentencing reform.

“We’re in a situation where so many people are going to jail and prison for things that would be better handled on the outside,” said Morris.

Linkhart said judicial sentencing reform is a big issue for him because it’s something that would have an immediate and long-term impact on the city’s cash-strapped budget. The Denver jail population has tripled over the past 30 years while the city’s population has only grown by 20 percent.

Linkhart opposes mandatory sentences because they don’t allow for judicial discretion. He also disagrees with putting people in jail like Marvin Booker, the homeless man arrested for drug paraphernalia who died in jail after an altercation with officers, while medical marijuana is legal.

Linkhart pointed to the 2009 analysis of the five main programs funded by the Crime Prevention and Control Commission — which include Drug Court, court-to-community mental health services and pretrial supervision — that found that the programs combined provide more than a 180-percent return of investment.

For the $2.3 million that was committed by the commission to the five programs, the city experienced a savings of approximately $6.3 million per year, the report found. A 2010 analysis of the programs is scheduled to be released this week.

Jail annex

Linkhart believes the city missed out on a once-in-a-lifetime to save money by not postponing the construction of a $25 million jail annex and possibly directing that money elsewhere. The councilman wanted to ask voters — who approved the construction of the annex in 2005 as part of a $378 million plan to also build a new courthouse and jail — if they wanted the city to use that bond money elsewhere.

“We all say prevention works, we all go to the galas, the balls, the luncheons, the yard sales to support these programs,” he said. “But then when it makes a difference we have to have the courage to cut the money that we’ve saved.”

The city currently has 400 empty jail beds, which makes the annex unnecessary, according to Linkhart. A majority of council members voted in favor of building the annex.

Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said earlier this year that while the incarceration rate has recently dropped, the crime rate could spike back up in the future, making the annex necessary.  She pointed out that the city could rent out the spare jail beds to the state or federal government until they are needed for Denver inmates.

Linkhart, however, said that the city wouldn’t profit from renting out the beds after capitol costs are weighed in. A compromise was reached to a degree after dedicating part of the annex to reentry programs.

The Denver Sheriffs’ Department declined comment because they don’t comment on political matters, according to spokesman Frank Gale.

Sentencing alternatives.

There are 10 percent fewer inmates today than there were three years ago. Lawmakers generally agree that the Crime Prevention Commission programs and Denver Road Home helped cause the decline in prisoners. Morris hopes whoever is elected the next Denver Mayor will continue investing in the programs and take judicial sentencing reform seriously. “I think we should look at how much money we’re spending on incarceration,” said Morris. “There’s a lot at stake.”

If it’s a cost analysis you’re looking for, then consider this: Denver once spent $40,000 per year per person on homeless services — about $70 million a year.

The city now spends about $15,000 per year per person on such services.

A report released Friday by Denver’s Road Home suggests that halfway through Mayor John Hickenlooper’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, the program is seeing great success.

But leaders with the program say the second half will be just as much of a battle, especially considering Mayor Hickenlooper will be leaving his role with the city to head across Civic Center Park where he will occupy the Statehouse as governor.

Still, halfway through the plan, stakeholders can only boast success:

• Decreased the chronic homeless population in Denver by 599 — from 942 to 343;

• Decreased panhandling on the 16th Street Mall by 83 percent;

• Raised more than $46.1 million to support the initiative;

• Developed 1,961 new units of housing;

• Employed 5,253 homeless persons;

• Prevented 5,000 seniors, families and individuals from becoming homeless;

• Mentored 720 families and seniors out of homelessness thanks to community partnerships; and

• Housed 1,238 individuals through Denver Street Outreach Collaboration.

For its success, Denver’s Road Home last week was awarded the outstanding nonprofit of the year award from the prestigious Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also recognized the 10-year program for “best practices.”

Amber Callender, executive director of Denver’ Road Home, said the program’s success is thanks to community support and continued interest from a diverse group of stakeholders, including the business, nonprofit and faith communities.

“Together, we have worked endlessly to keep thousands of people from becoming homeless and help those already homeless by moving people off the streets and into permanent supportive housing,” Callender said in a statement.

Jon Schlegel, founder of Snooze restaurants in Denver, is one business owner who has embraced helping those looking for stability in their lives. Schlegel is open to hiring recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. He said his restaurant group mostly works with Denver-based Urban Peak, a non-profit that works with young homeless people and is part of the Denver’s Road Home network.

“Some of them have had alcohol and drug issues of the past. Most come from broken homes where they were surrounded by this type of behavior,” said Schlegel. “We hire restaurant employees who have had a problem in the past with drugs and alcohol and monitor their behaviors like our own employees. If they are good interviews, if their references check out, and if they perform at a high level in their probation period with us, we’re happy to bring them into the family of Snooze.”

Denver’s Road Home works by combining both short-term and long-term solutions. The short-term approach is to provide an adequate number of temporary shelter beds. The long-term approach includes a combination of affordable housing, as well as counseling for employment, mental health and substance abuse, to name a few.

Some have raised concerns over Mayor Hickenlooper’s departure from the city. But Callender points out that the program has already established a strong base of stakeholders, and will likely continue to thrive with a dedicated effort.

“Mayor John Hickenlooper has been a champion for Denver’s Road Home. Denver’s Road Home has become a model for the way Denver does business,” said Callender. “There are hundreds of businesses, foundations, service providers, faith-based organizations and individuals that are all committed to making sure every man, woman and child has an alternative to living life on the streets now and in the coming years.”

Denver’s Road Home, however, has its work cut out for it going forward. The program experienced a couple of recent bumps in the road, including the departure of longtime executive director Jamie Van Leeuwen who back in April left the program to serve Hickenlooper as a policy director for his gubernatorial campaign. The economic downturn also took its toll on the program, with leaders needing to rethink the ambitious program following a dramatic increase of newly homeless people and families in Denver last year.

There was a 1,970-person jump in homelessness in the Denver metro area in 2009 compared to 2006, according to a 2009 report released by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Of that homeless group of 11,061 people, 4,924 reported being homeless for the first time.

Van Leeuwen told the Denver Daily News at the time that his program had to reshape its plan to end homelessness.

But stakeholders these days are cautiously optimistic for the future of the program.

“While we recognize the success of the past five years, we know there are still many more people that need our help,” said Patricia Wilson Pheanious, manger of Denver Human Services. “We need the emotional and financial support from our community moving forward to help the growing population of those in need.”

Drivers would be allowed to park overnight in downtown Denver at city meters for a total of $9 over a 12-hour period, according to a proposal unveiled to a City Council committee yesterday.

The overnight downtown parking proposal was developed in response to concerns from residents and businesses about guests and customers not having access to late night parking in popular downtown hot spots.

In addition to adding flexibility, the proposal might also discourage drivers from operating their vehicles while drunk, say supporters of the proposal.  Some intoxicated drivers choose to drive rather than leave their cars downtown overnight because they are trying to avoid the $25 parking ticket associated with violating meter restrictions.

“Our current policy encourages people to drive drunk,” Councilwoman Carla Madison said yesterday during a meeting of the Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  “If they’re parked on the street, they can’t leave their car on the street, they have to get in their car, and the best case scenario is they drive to a lot to leave it overnight.  This way, if somebody’s been drinking and shouldn’t be driving, they can just pay the meter, leave their car there and come back and get it.”

Drivers would be permitted to leave their cars overnight in downtown Denver for 12 hours from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Meter rates would be as follows:

• 50 cents per hour 6 a.m.-8 a.m.;

• $1 per hour 8 a.m.-10 p.m. with a two-hour limit ending at 8 p.m.;

• $1 per hour 10 p.m.-2 a.m.;

• 50 cents per hour 2 a.m.-6 a.m.; and

• No charge on Sunday, with a two-hour limit from midnight-10 p.m., but no limit from 10 p.m.- 8 a.m.

The city’s recent installation of so-called Smart Meters across downtown Denver is allowing the city to move forward with the proposal.  Smart Meters would flash if the parking spot is permitted for overnight parking, and drivers would be able to use credit/debit cards to authorize the transaction, rather than feeding the meter $9 in change.

The area would include the Central Business District, including Interstate 25 east to Lincoln, and 20th Street to Colfax Avenue.

The program would start in early 2011 if it is approved.

Questions were raised over whether the new program would impact snow removal or street cleaning operations.

But because the program would only authorize alternate sides of the street for overnight parking, Public Works does not believe the new program would impact operations.

The downtown community appears to be responding well to the proposal.  A spokeswoman for the Downtown Denver Partnership called the proposal an “amenity” that would “only enhance downtown.”

“Overnight parking is always an amenity in an urban center,” said Sarah Neumann, spokeswoman for the Downtown Denver Partnership.  “It’s just another amenity to promote downtown.”

For the proposal to take effect, the City Council must eliminate the current maximum five-hour duration limitation for parked vehicles.  It is likely that the City Council will approve the proposal by taking the legislative action.

Colorado Springs utilities customers soon will be getting a little something extra for the rates they pay for electricity and gas, although it’s probably not something they would expect—their very own Washington, D.C. lobbyist.

City-owned Colorado Springs Utilities is one of 10 public and private organizations that will chip in $10,000 to have the Springs’ interests represented in the nation’s capital. Other partners in the venture include the local chamber of commerce, the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp., Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, Ent Federal Credit Union and El Paso County.

Scott Bryan, the outgoing chairman of the EDC told the Colorado Springs Gazette that the city needs its own hired gun on Capitol Hill so that it doesn’t get left out of the running when lucrative federal contracts are awarded.

“We need somebody actively pursuing those dollars and who has the inside track on how to obtain some of those dollars,” he told the paper.

Not everyone is convinced the plan is a good idea, especially when it comes to spending public money on lobbying for more public money. Sean Paige, a City Council member who also serves on the utility board along with his council colleagues, aired his concerns on his blog, Local Liberty Online.

“I’m not sure how much ‘pull’ $100,000 buys you in Washington these days, or exactly what booty they’re hoping to bring home, but you can bet that the K Street kleptos will be happy to take the money,” he wrote in a Sept. 26 post. “They’re probably eying the Colorado Springs contingent the way a pack of famished wolves eyes the lost lamb.”

If that sounds like rare candor from a sitting politician, consider the source. Paige is the Gazette’s former editorial page editor where, according to his official biography on the Colorado Springs website, he “vigorously championed the paper’s libertarian editorial philosophy.” He’s also the former spokesman for a taxpayer advocacy group, Citizens Against Government Waste, so wondering out loud about public expenditures like $10,000 for a lobbyist is right up his alley.

“The use of public funds makes CSU—its board and ratepayers—partners in this venture, whether I like it or not,” Paige wrote. “I assume this means that we on the board will get a regular, detailed briefing on exactly what ‘our’ Washington lobbyists are doing with these funds. I think we also ought to get a look at the contract under which ‘our’ lobbyists will operate, and to be informed, specifically, on what they’ll be lobbying for. I’ll be interested, as a member of the board, in keeping close tabs on what fruits flow from these labors.”

True to his post, Paige made those expectations clear at last week’s utilities board meeting, and he also cautioned against lobbying for wasteful earmarks.

“I don’t think this is a prudent use of money, but as one member on the board, I don’t think I can stop them at this point,” he told Face the State. “The best I can do, at least for now, is exercise oversight and pay close attention to what they do with the money. It’s not a huge amount of money, but our utility company already spends a significant amount of money on legislative work in general and I’m not sure really how this fits in.

“I also made it clear that I do not want this money used to chase earmarks,” he said. “While I didn’t get clear assurances on that, I think I made it very clear that I will be very unhappy if I discover that any of this money is going to chase earmarks. … I think it’s an issue we have to tackle at the supply as well as the demand side, meaning we in the hinterlands have to stop asking Washington for stuff if we want it to stop picking our pockets to pay for that stuff.”

Now there’s a unique lobbying agenda.

The Denver City Council last night backed restricting medical marijuana grow operations in residential neighborhoods, to the ire of medical marijuana advocates.

The bill, brought forward by Councilwoman Jeanne Robb, was backed by the City Council on a vote of 12-1. Councilman Doug Linkhart offered the only dissenting vote.

City officials argued that medical marijuana grow operations in residential neighborhoods can cause “substantial health and public safety hazards and nuisances” to the community.

Examples given were increased risks of fire, noxious odors, toxins from mold, as well as unintended consequences such as burglaries.

Medical marijuana advocates, however, said there is no concrete evidence that med pot grow operations lead to increased hazards within individual communities.  Advocates said impacts to individual neighborhoods is minimal concerning grow operations in residential neighborhoods.

Still, after a public hearing, the City Council backed the restrictions in residential neighborhoods.

The new zoning ordinance states that for medical marijuana grow operations to take place in residential neighborhoods:

• Residents must be registered with the state as a patient;

• There can be no more than six plants per resident, and no more than 12 plants cumulatively at a given site;

• Medical marijuana cannot be stored in common areas in buildings with multiple units; and

• All medical marijuana must be grown inside a completely enclosed structure.

Robb said the ordinance is about protecting both medical marijuana patients and the overall community with a defined ordinance.  She proposed the ordinance after receiving complaints from constituents about a large grow operation in her district near 7th Avenue that included more than 70 plants.

She points out that while she voted in 2000 to allow medical marijuana in Colorado, her ordinance is necessary to give residents on both sides of the aisle clear rules and guidelines to work within.

“The reason it’s a good proposal is that it is clear to growers, caregivers and patients what’s expected in our residential neighborhoods,” Robb told the Denver Daily News prior to the City Council meeting yesterday.

Councilman Charlie Brown included an amendment last night that provided a two-year sunset date for the ordinance so that the City Council can revisit the issue in two years to debate whether the ordinance has been effective, or whether it needs to be tweaked or eliminated.

Critics lined up to oppose the ordinance proposal, including the Denver Releaf Center, a Highlands neighborhood medical marijuana center that organized advocates to oppose the ordinance change yesterday.

Opponents say the new ordinance will essentially prohibit a person from being a caregiver and providing medical marijuana for another person not living in the same house with them.

State law allows a caregiver to grow six plants per patient up to five patients without registering as a medical marijuana center.  State law, however, has not yet defined what a caregiver is.

Meanwhile, Jake Browne, general manager of the Releaf Center, attempted to debunk the “foot traffic” argument last night.  In a letter to the City Council, Browne said a better solution would be to define an amount of space a resident can grow in in a residential neighborhood, rather than a blanket restriction.

“If this is about foot traffic in residential neighborhoods, let’s give caregivers a framework to work within and find those who abuse the system,” wrote Browne.  “If this is about outrage in the community that the sick and dying can have access to medical cannabis, let’s protect the constitutional rights of the latter before bowing to the former.  But let us never forget that there are seriously ill people who are dramatically effected by the decisions you make on medical marijuana.  For them, this is no laughing matter.”

Denver at-large Councilman Doug Linkhart yesterday became the fifth candidate to file paperwork to run for mayor of Denver, stating that as mayor he would re-evaluate Denver police leadership following a string of police brutality, criminal and disciplinary incidents facing the Department of Safety.

Linkhart’s run for mayor is contingent on Democrat Mayor John Hickenlooper’s bid for governor, he said. Linkhart, a Democrat, would not run against Hickenlooper for mayor in May 2011 if Hickenlooper loses his bid for governor and decides to seek a third term as mayor, he said.

Up until recently, Hickenlooper was considered a shoo-in for governor after popular conservative Tom Tancredo entered the race as a third-party candidate, a move that political pundits said would surely split the Republican party, handing victory to Hickenlooper. But a lackluster and scandal-plagued campaign by Republican challenger Dan Maes has helped Tancredo to catch up to Hickenlooper in the polls. The most recent Rasmussen poll places Tancredo and Hickenlooper in a statistical dead heat, with Tancredo trailing Hickenlooper by only four points.

Linkhart becomes the fifth candidate to file paperwork to run for mayor of Denver. He joins founding chief executive of the Denver Preschool Program, James Mejia, as well as lesser known candidates Dwight Henson, Michael Forester and Kenneth Simpson.

Also considering bids for mayor is State Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, City Councilman Michael Hancock, City Councilwoman Carol Boigon, former Sen. Penfield Tate, D-Denver, and Walter Isenberg, president and chief executive of Sage Hospitality Resources. None of those candidates have filed paperwork yet.

Linkhart said yesterday that he would have to raise questions about Police Chief Whitman’s role with the city following a string of police brutality, criminal and disciplinary incidents facing the Department of Safety.

The most recent incident involved the arrest on Monday of four-year police veteran Hector Paez, 31, who was charged yesterday with crimes related to allegations of coercing a woman into performing a sexual act on him in exchange for not being taken to jail. Paez is scheduled to appear in Denver County Court on Friday for formal advisement of the charges against him.

Paez is the second law enforcement officer from Denver this month to be arrested. A deputy sheriff was arrested earlier this month for allegedly sexually assaulting at least two children. Deputy Sheriff Mark Davis, 48, was arrested in downtown Denver on Oct. 3 for allegedly sexually assaulting at least two children in the Montbello neighborhood.

The incidents come as the Department of Safety is defending itself against several allegations against law enforcement. District Attorney Mitch Morrissey recently cleared five sheriff’s deputies in the in-custody homicide of a homeless man, though family members and community leaders remain outraged over the incident.

Also, Manager of Safety Ron Perea resigned in August after outrage erupted over his not firing two Denver police officers caught on tape beating a 23-year-old gay man in downtown Denver. Mayor John Hickenlooper has asked the FBI to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged beating. Denver police have re-opened their investigation into the incident. The city has paid nearly $6.2 million since 2004 to settle lawsuits involving police officers, according to a report last month by the city attorney’s office. Almost all of the lawsuits involved allegations of police brutality.

Linkhart said it may be necessary to evaluate concerns from the top down.

“We need a strong police department that has integrity that people can trust, and I think for the most part we do,” he said. “We have a good discipline policy that probably needs a few tweaks, and we need a strong Manager of Safety who has the courage to take the right action.”

Linkhart acknowledged that the city has issues with its current police disciplinary policy and that the city is paying an exorbitant amount of money to settle lawsuits.

“We could be avoiding (these lawsuits) if we can get a better culture within the police department, a better discipline policy,” he said.

Hickenlooper has said that he will avoid an expensive special election for the city by staying on as mayor through the general election, rather than resigning his seat to campaign.

City charter states that if a mayoral vacancy occurs within 160 days of a scheduled election, the deputy mayor serves as mayor until the next election. Hickenlooper can resign his seat up to his swearing-in date in January 2011, sparing the city from having to hold a special election. The deputy mayor would serve until the next election in May 2011.

Linkhart yesterday also echoed comments he made to the Denver Daily News back in August when he discussed why he would want to run for mayor. He spoke of wanting to balance the city’s budget by cutting back on jail spending and focusing on investments in children and intervention programs that keep people out of jail and away from drugs and alcohol. As mayor he would expand investments in crime prevention and alternatives to cut back on the need for other planned jail expansions.

Linkhart is no stranger to politics. Prior to his current tenure on City Council, he served for eight years in the State Senate and two years in the House.

He said yesterday that it is not premature for him to file his paperwork before the city learns of Hickenlooper’s fate running for governor.

“I want to be honest about my intentions and straight forward, and not play games,” said Linkhart. “I want to run for mayor. I want to be the mayor, and so it’s best just to file and get it underway.”

Aurora’s 2011 budget includes a line item that has become a rarity among municipalities these days: new hires.

Despite a $7 million budget gap and a planned furlough day for all city workers, Aurora is planning on adding 13 new police officers to its books next year. Though the city can scarcely afford the additional $1.1 million in annual salaries, Aurora Budget Manager Jason Batchelor says they have no choice. A law passed by Aurora voters in 1993 mandates that the city maintain two police officers for every 1,000 residents.

“Each year we do an estimate for what our population is, and we adjust our population for officers accordingly,” he says.

The police staffing mandate, reportedly unique in the U.S., was controversial even in good fiscal times. But since the recession, officials have struggled with the conflicting tasks of closing budget deficits while simultaneously appropriating money for more police. Since 2007, Aurora has collected an average of $9.2 million less from taxes and fees. But in the meantime, the city has added 20 cops to meet hiring requirements , which is a big reason why the police department’s annual budget has grown by $8.2 million over the same period.

The result is a budgetary vise that puts the “squeeze on all of the other departments because of the growth of the police department,” says Bob LaGare, a former Aurora Council member who has long criticized the the 2-per-1,000 mandate.

So far, most of the cost reductions have targeted the library system, which saw its budget slashed a whopping 75 percent between 2009 and 2010. That year, Aurora closed four libraries, laid off 34 employees and eliminated nine vacant positions from the department. The closure of the Mission Viejo library in Southeast Aurora prompted the homeowner’s association of the surrounding subdivision to file a lawsuit accusing the city of violating the terms of a 1973 contract that stated the library would be open for 50 years. In response, the City Council last week appropriated $208,000 from a special risk fund to reopen the library four days per week.

Even so, visitors to Aurora’s three remaining libraries can expect “longer patron wait times, longer intervals between materials return and re-shelving, and waits in excess of one hour for public computer use,” according to the 2011 budget analysis.

In the meantime, Aurora has more uniformed police officers than it knows what to do with. Some positions that would normally be staffed by civilian administrators or private security contractors have been replaced by commissioned officers who make an average of $80,000 per year. In a 2003 legal settlement with the Aurora Police Association, the city agreed that paid police recruits would no longer be counted toward the 2-per-1,000 mandate for sworn officers. Police Chief Daniel Oates has complained in past years about having difficulty lining up viable recruits to keep up with the staffing mandate.

With the soon-to-be-released population results of the 2010 census, budget officials are warning that Aurora could be in for a repeat of the last census, when a dramatic increase in population forced the city to hire 52 officers to maintain its ratio. In anticipation, the police department currently has 58 recruits in the training pipeline. Already, budget director Bachelor is predicting a deficit of $6.4 million for 2012.

“I don’t think the Aurora citizens at large, nor the general voter population, really understand what’s going on there,” says LaGare. “It’s a problem and it’s only going to get worse. It’s more of a political problem at this point because the elected (officials) have to go out and explain to the voters why it’s a bad policy.”

But advocating for less cops on the street — even if it means again funding libraries, swimming pools and other city services — is not the kind of soapbox that wins elections. This summer, council members abandoned an effort to revisit the 2-per-1,000 ratio on the November ballot for fear of a tepid voter response.

“I think a lot of council members recognize the problem, but they’ve taken the position of, ‘You can never change it because you can never get the voters to say that we need fewer cops,’ ” says LaGare, who lost a re-election bid to council last year. “But time will take care of it because eventually voters aren’t going to have money for anything else, except cops.”

The lead proponent of a hotly contested Lakewood ballot initiative that aims to require police there to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers says he’s going to “grin and bear it.”

Daniel Hayes is no stranger to the controversy surrounding his ballot initiative. After Denver voters in 2008 approved a similar initiative, an opposition campaign mounted and Hayes was attacked over and over again for his initiative.

The Jefferson County resident tried in 2009 to add “teeth” to his initiative by asking voters to absolutely require police to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers in the wake of reports that police were not complying with the law. An opposition campaign grew and the initiative was defeated.

Now, Hayes is facing similar opposition in Lakewood, with the City Council on Monday voting unanimously to oppose the ballot question.

Like Hayes’ other initiatives, the one in Lakewood would require police to impound the vehicles of unlicensed drivers. Drivers would need to post $2,500 bond to release the vehicle and pay various fees associated with the impoundment.

At one point, Hayes was shy about admitting that the issue was about immigration. But these days, the anti-illegal immigration stalwart is absolutist in his motivation to crack down on illegal immigration.

“These illegals, they’ve … just got it made,” said Hayes. “Everybody just wants them here, and I don’t know what that’s all about, but it’s either provincial votes, or it’s that they consume at Wal-Mart and McDonald’s and all that, or it’s cheap labor. There seems to be 101 reasons to have them here.”

Opponents have lined up in Lakewood to oppose the proposal. Much of the opposition comes from the business community.

George Valuck, executive director of the Alameda Gateway Community Association, said the measure might discourage people to conduct business in Lakewood.

“This impound measure would present significant hardships for businesses in Lakewood, many of which are already struggling in these difficult times,” said Valuck.

In Denver, Councilmen Paul Lopez and Doug Linkhart were working on a repeal of the initiative. But the two Denver City Council members have said the proposal to repeal the initiative has stalled. Linkhart says there may be an effort to move forward with the repeal by sending the question to voters.

Meanwhile, Hayes says he’s probably not going to run any similar initiatives anywhere else after the one in Lakewood.

“I probably won’t file any more of these,” he said. “I’ve spend a lot of money … it’s just an uphill battle.”

Long before authorities began applying legal pressure to Craigslist and other online classified outlets for their “Adult Services” categories, the City and County of Denver popularized a unique method for stamping down on the world’s oldest profession: shame.

Johns TV was a sensation when it debuted on Denver’s city-owned Channel 8, a public-access cable TV offering, in 2002. A response by Denver Police and then-Mayor Wellington Webb launched to growing complaints from Capitol Hill residents about the sex trade along Colfax Ave, the show sought to publicly embarrass men who had been convicted of soliciting prostitutes. Basically a video slideshow of mugshots, Johns TV earned national attention from the likes of ABC News and the LA Times. Detroit and other cities began producing similar programs in hopes of doing away with their own prostitution problems.

Though reliably popular and credited in some reports as reducing solicitation 40 percent, the show was dropped from the Channel 8 schedule in 2008. The reason, according to DPD spokesman Sonny Jackson, was budget cuts. “We still have plenty of [solicitation] convictions. But over at Channel 8 the decision was made to stop doing the show because of different funding priorities,” he says.

Channel 8 Station Manager Alan DeLollis acknowledges that cost-cutting mandates have hit his production budget hard in recent years. But he asserts that his choice to darken Johns TV was motivated more by the lack of eligible Johns coming out of Denver County Court because of a change in legal procedure. “There’s a process by which people could pay their fines very quickly and the Johns TV was not part of their resolution. So more and more people were not being sent completely through the system,” DeLollis says. “You need at least five people to pull a program out of it and there were many months where we didn’t have enough for a show. We had a hard time presenting it in a consistent way, and people who would be expecting to see it one month wouldn’t see it the next. It just became something with diminishing returns, I think.”

It’s true the number of individuals featured on Johns TV, which averaged 115 a year from 2002 to 2007, fell by more than half to just 55 mugshots in 2008. But this wasn’t because of any kind of adjustment in how the county court is dealing with solicitation charges, says Assistant City Attorney Vince DiCroce, who heads the Prosecution and Code Enforcement Section. “No it wasn’t a logistical issue, I think it was a budget cut to Channel 8.” In Denver, prostitution-related crimes are a misdemeanor that can carry jail time and a $500 fine for a first offense.

Whatever the reason Johns TV disappeared from the airwaves, it still lives on in the form of an orphaned web page that gets updated monthly by city employees despite the fact that none of the city’s other websites link to it any longer. A member of the City Attorney’s Office still verifies and sends names of solicitation convicts to the police department, where another functionary matches the mugshot. From there no one is really sure how the Johns end up online. DPD’s Jackson suggested it could be the court’s responsibility, but County Court Administrator Matthew McConville didn’t call back.

Shame or no shame, the Johns no longer seem to find their fun on Capitol Hill, where at one time residents often found used condoms littering their yards. “It’s not a concern for us anymore,” says Roger Armstrong, head of Capitol Hill United Neighbors. He says much of the improvement has to do with the redevelopment of Colfax. “It has helped by not having block after block empty where prostitution could flourish.” However, he does acknowledge that “when you clean up an area you don’t always get rid of a specific problem, you just move it into a different area.”

Like Craigslist, perhaps? Maybe the online strategy isn’t such a bad idea for Johns TV.