Aurora – The campaign to defeat a ballot measure that would transfer most of the Civil Service Commission’s duties to the city has stopped distributing information some people thought was racist.
“We aren’t handing it out, but certainly that is not an acknowledgment that what we were handing out was controversial and by no means was it racially motivated,” said Collon Kennedy, campaign manager for The Committee to Protect Aurora.
Randy Rester, the fire department union president, distributed information at a homeowner’s meeting last month that included a newspaper article about a black former city employee accused of sexually assaulting a boy whom the man met at a city-run event for children.
The seasonal parks employee was volunteering at the annual KidSpree event, and the city didn’t run a background check on him. He was later found to have been a convicted sex offender.
Beneath the article, which also shows a picture of suspect Jermaine Vaden, were the words: “This is the same underfunded H.R. division City Council wants to handle the hiring of police officers and fire fighters.”
The Rev. Thomas Mayes, who was at the homeowners’ meeting, and Police Chief Dan Oates believed the material had racial overtones.
But Kennedy said the campaign was merely trying to point out inefficiencies in the human resources department, which would take over hiring and firing from the Civil Service Commission if the measure is passed by voters next month.
“The HR department, whether because of underfunding or it missed the boat on that particular issue, did make that hire,” he said.
