Will RNOs Weigh In On Election May 5?
by Mark Smiley
Denver’s municipal election is set for May 5 which includes the mayor and the entire 13 member City Council. While there is dissatisfaction with Mayor Michael Hancock in some neighborhoods throughout the city, he has not drawn any serious election opposition. Thus all the attention and funding has shifted to the Denver City Council races. Five present City Council members are term limited and Chris Nevitt has decided to run for the city auditor position.
RNOs
Denver has over 100 registered neighborhood organizations (RNOs) as well as an umbrella group called the Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation or INC. Average citizens interact with the government of the City and County of Denver through their neighborhood organizations or direct contact with their city councilmember or the member’s staff. During election season council members tend to be very solicitous of the neighborhood groups and are happy to attend their meetings. Following the election and for the next four years many council members want nothing to do with neighborhood groups and often privately disparage them.
Many Denver council members between elections also refuse to interact with average citizens except in highly orchestrated group meetings arranged by their respective staff. Citizens who attend city council meetings to oppose an action the city wants to take are often ignored or even harangued or laughed at by some city council members. The reason is simple. Incumbent Denver City Council members virtually never lose re-election no matter how incompetent or corrupt they may be. Thus what citizens and neighborhood groups think of their city representative is generally irrelevant.
Who Controls Denver And Courtesy Zoning
The people who do matter are real estate developers and unions who are the overwhelming source of campaign funds. Only they would have the resources to challenge an incumbent. The primary power that a city council member has is control of all zoning revisions and development in his or her district. City Council has informally adopted the practice of “courtesy zoning” whereby the councilmember in whose district a development is located will be deferred to. Thus when citizens attend a Denver City Council member to oppose a development they are literally wasting their time.
If a rezoning or a development is before the City Council it means the city council member has indicated that he or she approves of it and it will pass by an overwhelming margin regardless of the merits or citizen opposition. Since Denver City Council members are required by law not to decide on so-called quasi-judicial matters until after all of the public input the concept of courtesy zoning would appear to be illegal or even criminal according to some municipal experts. Nonetheless, the practice of courtesy zoning continues unabated in 21st century Denver. The practice allows a real estate developer to grease the pocket of only the city councilmember in whose district his development is located, saving a great deal of time, money and effort.
Labor Union Controlled
Two of Denver’s 13 council members are elected at large and do not have defined districts. Thus developers are uninterested in these at-large seats leaving the positions to be controlled by the labor unions, particularly SEIU. At-large elections can be very expensive since they cover the whole city. A challenge to an incumbent at-large councilmember who has remained in the good graces with the unions is generally considered an almost impossibility. Denver’s two at-large members, Robin Kneich and Debbie Ortega, are generally considered in the back pocket of the labor unions and are viewed by some as poorly informed council members. Nonetheless they are running unopposed this election.
There are however potentially highly competitive races for many of the remaining 11 seats. In addition to the six open seats there may be additional competitive races due to redistricting. According to Denver law, the city must be redistricted at least once every 10 years to ensure that each Council member is representing a similar number of residents so that the concept of “one person, one vote” is maintained. In 2011, City Council reconfigured the boundaries for Denver’s 11 City Council districts creating a great deal of controversy. These new boundaries will take effect this coming election, May 5, 2015.
While it is generally held that a viable candidate needs to be engaged by the beginning of the new year, legally speaking March 11, 2015, is the deadline to submit petitions which need at least 100 signatures for council and 300 for auditor, mayor, and at-large seats.
District 10
One of the most interesting races is in District 10, located in central Denver. Jeanne Robb is completing her third and final term in office which will leave her seat available for a viable candidate. Recently, Roger Sherman, an executive at the public affairs firm CRL Associates announced he was withdrawing from the race. His initial candidacy papers were filed in March 2013 and he was considered to be a strong candidate for developers.
Wayne New, a former president of the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association, is now the only declared candidate, at press time. Two other individuals have revealed an interest in running. Anna Jones, a Congress Park resident and a community development consultant who is vice president at Progressive Urban Management Associates, says she plans to launch a campaign. Alicia Economos, vice president of outreach and development for the group Democrats for Education Reform, also indicated plans to file her paperwork, but apparently has recently changed her mind.
Wayne New’s message focuses on what he sees as the over-development of Cherry Creek and a disregard for neighborhood interests in city planning decisions. “For years, our neighborhood voices have not been respected or even welcomed in City planning and decision-making,” said New. “I have a proven record of almost 15 years of strongly advocating the need for “balance” to protect our neighborhoods from excessive traffic, inadequate parking, and over-development that adversely impacts our quality of life. I will help lead us toward a more responsive, more accountable City government.”
District 6
Another district of note to Chronicle readers is District 6 in Southeast Denver. The owner of the Washington Park Profile Paul Kashmann faces Elizabeth Adams to succeed term limited Councilmember Charlie Brown who has served on the council since 2001. The redrawn District 6 will now represent the following neighborhoods: Harvard Gulch/Rosedale, Washington Park, University, Bonnie Brae, Cory-Merrill, University Park, Virginia Village/Ellis, Virginia Vale, Cook Park and Indian Creek. Portions of the new District 6 stretch as far west as Broadway, east past Quebec Street, as far north as Speer Blvd., and south to Dartmouth Ave.
Best Of The Rest
Six candidates have stepped forward to take over Chris Nevitt’s vacated seat in District 7, located in South-Central Denver. Luchia Ann Brown, Jolon Clark, Aaron Greco, Ian Harwick, Mickki Langston and Jacob Hunter Viano have declared their candidacy.
Far Southwest District 2 is vacated by term limited councilmember Jeanne Faatz. Five individuals have declared their candidacy: Nathaniel Cole, Fran Coleman, Kevin Flynn, Corrie Houck and John E. Kidd Jr. Far Southeast District 4 has been represented by Peggy Lehman since 2003. Four candidates have declared: Kendra Alexis Valis Black, Jeffrey Allen Garcia, William George McMullen and Halisi Vinson.
Judy Montero from District 9 has served on the council since 2003 and is term limited. Albus Brooks, who currently represents District 8, is now running in the new District 9. He is faced by Michael Borcherding, the founder of a sport and social club called Mile High Gives.
With Chris Herndon now running for a council seat in District 8, District 11 has five challengers: Sean Bradley, Shelli Brown, Samaria J. Crews, Stacie Gilmore, and Tea Schook.
Potentially the most endangered incumbent is District 1’s Susan Shepherd running against challenger Rafael Espinoza. Shepherd was elected as a labor union candidate but once in office quickly also became the friend of real estate developers. When she supported a massive redevelopment of a portion of the West Highlands citizens protested and eventually sued the city. While the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed her and her husband’s thuggish behavior toward neighborhood activists enraged the district.
Espinoza emphasizes that he is an architect and community activist who has fought the city administration before and running on a platform putting constitutes first. Shepherd will have the strong financial backers of the labor unions and the real estate developers which have successful rebuffed citizen-backed candidates many times before.
Role For Neighborhoods?
The question is what role RNOs and INC will play in the election as a possible counterbalance to the labor unions and real estate developers. It is not expected they will have an overt role since they are not per se political entities, but individual members of the groups are organizing to fight what they see as a corrupt and dishonest zoning and development process.
Moreover, INC has developed a platform for allowing neighborhoods to have a bigger role in developments across the city. The platform would prohibit higher density developments where the same would worsen traffic and parking. A city council candidate’s support or refusal to support the platform will help inform voters of where that person stands on reasonable growth in Denver’s neighborhoods.
Will 2015 be the year of citizens and neighborhood groups or the usual formidable duo of labor unions and real estate developers? For the first time in many a year the answer to that question is not clear, which should make this spring’s Denver municipal election an interesting one.