AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman previously said he would not confirm if he led the initiative to give his office more power until it made the ballot.
A spokesperson for the “Yes on Term Limits and Empowering the Mayor” initiative announced Tuesday that the measure had enough signatures to go to voters. Wednesday, Coffman told 9NEWS he was behind the proposal.
"Oh, I was involved early on," Coffman said. "I just think that it's, you know, hindsight, who knows, but I felt that it's not about transparency. It was about, to me, it wasn't an issue until it made the ballot."
If passed, the ballot issue would reduce term limits from three four-year terms to two four-year terms, but more importantly, it would change Aurora to a mayor-council form of government and give the mayor much more power. The mayor would have power over day-to-day operations, as well as veto authority over ordinances passed by the city council.
The mayor today can vote to break city council ties, and Aurora's city manager has more authority.
Three other Colorado cities already have a strong-mayor government: Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
The initiative to give Aurora the same format needed just more than 12,000 valid signatures to appear on the ballot. It had 12,198 valid signatures out of more than 20,000 submitted for review.
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Though, several voters have said they were duped in the signature gathering process, and that they were only told about the term limits.
"Well, I'm certainly sorry, if they felt that way," Coffman told 9NEWS. "I mean, at the end of the day, there's got to be some responsibility on whoever signs it. I mean, I don't sign petitions unless I unless I read the summary."
Aurora Councilman Curtis Gardner is often in agreement with Coffman on issues. This is not one of them.
"Voters have been, in my, my opinion, hoodwinked," he said. "They've been told this is about term limits, when it's really not. Council members in Aurora already have term limits. While this does lower that from 12 years to eight years, it is a drop in the bucket in terms of the total change that's happening here."
Gardner is pushing two changes in Aurora. One, to make it a crime to be deceptive when gathering signatures, and two, to limit ballot issues to one topic.
He also sees this as an issue beyond Coffman.
"Even if this were to pass, and if Mike Coffman were to be elected, a day is going to come where he will be term-limited, and it will be somebody else in that role. And so, voters really need to decide and look past the next four years and say, is this what we want for the future of our city beyond the individual who sits in that seat today?"
Coffman also confirmed Wednesday that he did contribute money to the measure, though he would not say how much.
Campaign finance reports are public August 5.
Coffman is up for re-election in November.
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