April 21, 2026 11:01 AM UTC

Elections Matter: Aurora City Council Edition

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• by: Colorado Pols

What a difference a few months can make.

In November, Aurora voters resoundingly tossed out a bunch of needlessly-vicious Republican city council members, ending six years of “conservative” control of Colorado’s third-largest city. Led by right-wing blowhard Danielle Jurinsky — who quickly overshadowed GOP Mayor and former Congressman Mike Coffman — Aurora’s city business was a miserable cesspool of bickering, immigrant-bashing, and a general lack of accountability for a police department run amok. The low point, to the extent this could even be quantified, might have taken place last June when Jurinsky and friends took the unusual step of cutting off all public comment at city council meetings.

In early March, Aurora’s new city council leadership announced that public comments at city council meetings would return. The City is now seeking public input into the formation of a new set of ground rules for “Rules of Order and Procedure” intended to bring back civility to the City Council. As McKenna Harford reports for The Aurora Sentinel:

The Council Rules Ad Hoc Committee is reviewing the city council’s rules for decorum and virtual participation, with plans to review all of the council’s rules. The committee started with decorum and virtual participation because of the recent history of combativeness among council members and between public commenters and council members.

Heated meetings peaked in 2024 and 2025 after police shot and killed Kilyn Lewis while he was being arrested in Aurora. At one meeting, council members fled the council chambers because of protesters, and Councilmember Stephanie Hancock called the protesters “terrorists.”

Former Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky was also known for confrontational and sometimes profane rhetoric, even cursing out fellow council members over text.

Even Mayor Coffman appears to be breathing a sigh of relief. From The Denver Gazette:

Mayor Mike Coffman pointed out that decorum between members is “better under the new council” than it was under the previous council. The makeup of the council changed in November’s election.

It’s not a coincidence that local government seems to improve significantly as soon as Republicans are no longer in charge.