Broomfield City Council holds candidate forum

Broomfield city council candidates discussed priorities and recent events, including the contentious Ward 5 recall, in an open forum Friday.

The moderated forum was hosted by the Broomfield Area Chamber at the Renaissance Boulder Flatirons Hotel in Broomfield. All 10 candidates on the ballot were in attendance, in addition to Councilmember Todd Cohen, who is facing a recall election.

“Why I’m here tonight is that a small group of people with extreme views who didn’t like the results for the last election, have filed a recall against councilmember (Heidi) Henkel and myself,” Cohen said in reference to the Ward 5 recall.

The recall, which will appear on the ballot in November, takes issue with Cohen and Henkel’s support of gun legislation passed in January, the placement of industrialized water tanks in the city and alleged support of a homeless camp 2,000 feet from a high school, accusations that they deny.

Although the recall initially targeted both Cohen and Henkel, the final ballot item will only concern Cohen, as Henkel is already on the ballot for reelection.

“They made no allegations of any wrongdoing whatsoever, like you’d usually expect from a recall. Instead they just don’t agree with our politics. And they took a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook and concocted a big fat lie to scare people,” Cohen said.

Maria Boutrous, the recall alternate candidate, maintains the recall is in the best interest of constituents. She said the reason the recall was successful was because constituents felt they weren’t being heard.

“And that our city council is largely addressing priorities that are theirs instead of listening to the needs of the constituents,” Boutrous added.

In addition to the recall, Ward 5 candidates Henkel and Adam Gobetti are in their own contentious race. In a response where Henkel stressed the importance of access to voting through mail-in ballots, she accused Gobetti of not voting in past municipal elections.

Gobetti responded saying he’s doing this “purely for my community, and it is hard to get information when you have elected officials censoring people on social media illegally.”

Gobetti is referencing claims that Henkel violated constituents’ First Amendment right to free speech by allegedly deleting negative comments from her social media accounts, accusations that Henkel denies.

Colorado passed House Bill 23-1306 in June, which declares that private social media accounts administered by elected officials do not create a public forum as long as the account is not supported by the resources of the government. According to the bill, Henkel is likely within her rights to moderate her social media accounts, but further challenges to the bill are underway, including pending review of similar cases by the Supreme Court.

The Ward 5 candidates were also asked about their plans to support small business in the city.

Councilmember Henkel referenced her work with the state to ensure small businesses in Broomfield were able to reopen safely after pandemic closures. Boutrous, however, took issue with how business closures were handled in Broomfield.

“The city should have never shut down any businesses in the first place because it is unconstitutional,” Boutrous said. “And you have no right to keep people from earning an income even during a pandemic.”

She further explained that her frustration stemmed from stores like Target and Costco remaining open, while small businesses were closed. “It was asinine and it deeply impacted the financial stability and the mental health of people in Broomfield.”

Outside Ward 5, candidates also discussed the Broomfield town square, a recently approved project to create a signature town square with space for retail, restaurants, a plaza and a large pond. Some candidates take issue with the project, and are concerned about a possible lack of parking and additional traffic surrounding the square.

“If you’re living in the area right now and you’re looking at that development going in, with your four-and-a-half acre paddleboard lake, you are blanching, you’re absolutely losing your bacon,” Ward 3 candidate Pete Crouse said. “Because how are you going to get out on Second Avenue onto Main Street? Or First Avenue onto Main Street? The Broomfield town center decision must be revisited and cannot be settled. That is way too much money for us to squander.”

Crouse’s opponent, incumbent candidate Jean Lim, explained that the town square project was already approved, and parking and traffic concerns were taken into consideration.

“The Broomfield town square is settled; it has been the effort of many people over a decade or more,” Lim said. “And we have the developer putting in structure garages to help alleviate some of the parking problems in the area.”

In addition to parking garages, Lim explained that if visitors to the town square create parking problems in residential neighborhoods surrounding the square, residents will be able to petition for permit-only parking on their streets.

Although they took individual approaches to possible solutions, all the candidates agreed that the issues that matter most are those that their constituents are passionate about, including affordable housing and open space.

The election is scheduled for Nov. 7. Further information including voter registration information and important dates can be found at broomfield.org/Elections