This is Part 4 of a Series on the forces behind the removal of Dacono City Manager A.J. Euckert. Read the rest of the series here.

Healing a deeply divided town takes more than an election and a few new laws. 

Behind the drama in Dacono, there is a city with business to attend to. There are residential and commercial development projects to be approved, infrastructure to be maintained, and community development projects to support. 

But the divisions in Dacono run deep and are seemingly guided by both politics and religion. What happened over the last six months is emblematic of where the country stands as a whole following the 2020 presidential election. Opposing groups claim to both be working for the people yet neither side is willing to reach a compromise with the other in order to serve the largest group possible. And it seems the cinders of this approach will be burning in Dacono for the foreseeable future. 

Two of the Dacono city council members who voted to remove former city manager A.J. Euckert in February, Jim Turini and Jackie Thomas, were recalled during a June 27, 2023 election. They were replaced by locals Michelle Rogers and Tony Cummings, which razed the four-council-member coalition that effectively ruled Dacono for several months. However, tensions still run high. 

Turini spoke to the city council during the swearing-in ceremony for Rogers and Cummings on July 10. He accused city attorney Kathleen Kelly of violating state law by not printing bilingual ballots for the recall election. Colorado law requires bilingual ballots to be printed for county elections but does not have the same requirements for municipal elections, like Dacono’s recall election. 

Sitting behind Turini in city hall were several community members wearing black t-shirts with red letters that read “Two Down, Two To Go,” referring to Mayor Pro Tem Kathryn Wittman and council member Danny Long, both of whom voted to oust Euckert. 

Turini also had some choice words to share with council member Doris Crespo, who Turini and Wittman previously attempted to recruit for their scheme. Crespo is also the only member of Hispanic heritage on Dacono’s city council.

“Doris, I’ve done more for my Latino neighbors than your token Latino presence on the council has done,” Turini said. The comments prompted audible gasps from the audience. 

Megan Thornam, who helped organize the recall campaign against Turini and Thomas, also spoke at the July 10 meeting. Thornam told council member Long that he was no longer protected by a local ordinance that allowed him to serve for six months before facing a recall, and that the community did not support his presence on council. 

“I just wanted to remind Danny Long that it was not difficult to recall them for a lack of transparency,” Thornam said. “I’d encourage you to be on the up and up from here on out because we’re watching.”

A path forward?

To some in the community, the July 10 meeting also represented a potential path forward for Dacono. The city council re-hired former city attorney Kathleen Kelly by a vote of 4-2 and unanimously hired former City Development Director Jennifer Krieger to be Dacono’s interim city manager. 

City council has also gotten back to working on city business. For example, council agreed to rezone the new Daisy Subdivision to allow for light industrial development and approved a $1.15 million change order for construction on Glen Dale St. 

City council drafted and passed a few charter amendments that they hope will prevent future council members from attempting another soft coup. They approved an ordinance that requires department leaders and the city manager to be appointed by a city ordinance, thereby giving them protection from being arbitrarily dismissed. Council members also approved a resolution requiring city councilors to be trained on the Colorado Open Meetings Law within the first six months of taking office, and another ordinance that changed the way the Mayor Pro Tem is appointed. Each of these ordinances still need to be approved by Dacono voters during the November 7 election before they take effect. 

Each ordinance passed by a 4-1 margin. Wittman was absent from the final vote and Long was the lone voice of dissent. Before the vote, Marian Thompson, who helped organize the “No Access On Andrews” coalition, asked council to choose between serving God and serving man, which implied the ordinances they were sending to the voters were divisive in nature rather than about healing the community. 

Other Dacono residents also believe that the city council no longer represents their interests. During a meeting on August 28, one resident said Krieger has done “virtually nothing” to promote commercial growth in Dacono over her 16-year career. He added that the Colorado Bureau of Investigations report exonerated Turini and Thomas and also accused Mayor Adam Morehead of organizing the recall efforts at the Sweetgrass neighborhood HOA meetings.

“All we got left is Danny. Everything else belongs to you,” said Dan Spagnuolo, referring to Morehead. “I have been around 72 years and I know crooked when I see it,” 

Thomas also addressed the city council on August 28. She spoke out against one charter amendment regarding how Dacono’s city manager is appointed. Thomas alleged that the ordinance asks voters to decide on two questions simultaneously. Colorado law requires ballot initiatives to address a single subject, but that does not apply to ordinances passed under a home rule charter like Dacono’s. 

“This is distraction and distortion at its very core,” Thomas said. 

Council member Kevin Plain noted that there are several aspects of the charter that require ordinances or resolutions ranging from city staff pay to contracting snow routes. The Weld County charter also has similar provisions requiring city managers to have only one job while in office. 

“That is not unusual. We just need it in our charter as well,” Plane said. 

It remains to be seen whether the charter amendments proposed by Dacono’s city council will make a difference. The divisions in Dacono seem to be having an impact, not just on the community but also on the city’s staff. The accusations from Dacono community members during the August 28 meeting prompted Morehead to apologize to Kelly and Krieger. 

“As a politician, I am compensated to take bullsh*t from people but not you guys,” Morehead said.

The post The Dacono Files Part 4: Moving On appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

A special meeting of the Dacono city council on April 5 became contentious as officials set the date for an upcoming recall election and hired an interim city attorney.

The recall election against council members Jim Turini and Jackie Thomas will be held on June 27. Karen Goldman, the deputy city clerk for the City of Aurora and a consultant with the Colorado Municipal League, will assist with the election.

Turini and Thomas are two of the four city council members who voted to remove former city manager A.J. Euckert on February 13. A citizens group that organized the recall told Yellow Scene Magazine in March that they did not target the other two council members who voted to remove Euckert—mayor pro tem Kathryn Wittman and Danny Long—because Wittman is up for reelection in November and Long’s seat is protected by a local ordinance.

The meeting then became contentious as the council moved to its second piece of business, hiring an interim city attorney. Dacono hired attorney Scott Oliver, a real business and estate trust attorney from Longmont, by a 4-2 vote that visibly frustrated some members of council.

Wittman made the initial motion to approve the resolution to hire Oliver. After a brief pause, council member Kevin Plain made a new motion to hire Sampson, which was seconded by Mayor Adam Morehead.

Council appealed to city attorney Kathleen Kelly to resolve the procedural issue. Kelly, who is leaving the city on April 15, became frustrated and told the mayor she “is not the presiding officer” of the meeting. Turini then seconded Wittman’s initial motion, which was put up for a vote and subsequently passed.

Council members also interviewed another lawyer named Rick Sampson for the job. Sampson has more than 33 years of municipal law experience and told the council he wanted to partner with another lawyer named Payton Buhler to serve as his assistant because the volume of work in Dacono is “probably too much for a one-person firm,” he said.

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Dacono has yet to hire a new city manager and attorney despite having open job listing for more than a month, and it’s starting to get under Mayor Adam Morehead’s skin.

City council members blocked a motion to move the body into an executive session during a special meeting on March 30 that would have allowed council to discuss hiring interim replacements. The four members who voted against the motion were the same ones who voted to oust former city manager A.J. Euckert on February 13—Kathryn Wittman, Jim Turini, Danny Long, and Jackie Thomas. It is the third time this coalition of council members has blocked the motion and comes just a week after the four members agreed to begin discussing candidates.

“I don’t understand why Council members Wittman, Long, Turini, and Thomas refuse to discuss an interim city manager,” Morehead posted on NextDoor following the meeting. “They refused to appoint an interim city attorney with an impeccable record of experience as a municipal attorney and willingness to mitigate the damage that has been done. Without a city attorney, no business can move forward. If Dacono wants business as these council members claim, this is NOT how you accomplish that.”

Euckert’s termination on February 13 has raised a host of questions about how Dacono is governed. Emails obtained by Yellow Scene Magazine show that the four council members who voted to remove Euckert were unhappy with his salary and said he did not support projects that would help Dacono attract more businesses.

The fallout from Euckert’s firing has been wide-reaching, Morehead said. Dacono has had two job postings up for the city manager and attorney positions for more than three weeks. However, the has received no applications for the city attorney role and has been unable to discuss the five applications it has received for the city manager role.

Kathleen Kelly, Dacono’s outgoing city attorney, urged the body to enter executive session to discuss filling her position once she leaves on April 15. Kelly submitted her resignation following Euckert’s termination and gave Dacono 60 days to find a replacement.

“The city absolutely needs a city attorney before that time,” Kelly said. “The sooner [council] acts, the better. A smooth transition is important.”

Kelly added that two people have applied to become Dacono’s next city attorney. One of them is Geoff Wilson, who serves as the city attorney for Woodland Park and as the deputy city attorney for Salida and Fort Morgan. Another person named Scott Oliver sent a letter of interest about the position, but did not send a resume or application, Kelly said.

“We need to appoint someone, and no one comes with better credentials than Mr. Wilson,” council member Kevin Plain said during the special meeting.

Wittman said it would be “unfair” for the council to move into executive session to discuss hiring Wilson for the job, even though Oliver did not attend the special meeting.

The comment prompted Plain to ask why the city should wait for Oliver when Wilson was in attendance and was ready to be interviewed.

Following the meeting, Wilson withdrew his name for consideration. Morehead said Wilson withdrew because the four council members “do not listen to legal advice.”

“This is not good governance,” Morehead said. “Our residents deserve to know why they continually slam on the brakes of progress and improvements.”

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