Inside Arvada

Inside Arvada's Elections with Clerk Gonzalez

• City of Arvada • Episode 40

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Learn about Arvada’s 2025 election with Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez, including who and what is on the ballot and how Colorado’s voting system works.

2025 election info

Key voting dates

  • Mail your ballot at least a week before election day 
  • Drop your ballot at any Colorado drop box by 7pm on Tues., 11/4
  • Vote in person at your local vote center from Mon., 10/27 -Tue.,  11/4 (check for date and time details by location)
    • Visit the Standley Lake Library vote center to pick up an Arvada "I Voted" sticker!

Candidate forums

Other ways to get involved

News & Events

Visit us at arvadaco.gov/podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to episode 40 of Inside Arvada, the official podcast of the City of Ravada. I'm Sean Starr, one of your co-hosts, and today's episode is all about the 2025 coordinated election. Our guest is Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez. Although it's not a presidential election or even a midterm, these off-year elections are s often overlooked but still very important, especially here at the local level. We did want to mention up front that while we realize that there's a portion of East Arvada that is in Adams County, and so we do want to forget our Adams County folks. So we will link to a lot of the resources for Adams County voters in our show notes. But most of what Clerk Gonzalez mentioned and the resources that we have still applied to those Adams County residents here in the City of Arvada. And speaking of this year's election, we'll have three council member seats up as well as one ballot measure. And before we get to our interview, we wanted to walk you through who is all on the ballot and talk a little bit more about that ballot measure. And here to help us with that is my co-host, Katie Patterson. Hi, Katie.

SPEAKER_03:

Hey Sean, yeah, thanks. So a quick overview of how Arvada City Council is structured. So there's a seven-member council, there's four that represent districts, areas of the city, and then two that serve an at-large seats and represent the whole city. And then the mayor is also an at-large seat. And so three of those seats are up for election. There's an at-large seat, and that is the one that represents the whole city. The candidates are Michael Griffith and Denise Vargas. And that seat's currently held by Brad Rupert, who took over for Lisa Forey about a year ago after Lisa was elected to the state House of Representatives. And then in District One, voters can choose between incumbent and current mayor pro tem Randy Mormon and then challenger Eric Bodenstaub. And in District Three, the race is between Rebecca Lovison and Aaron Skoff. And that seat is currently held by John Marriott, who is termed out. And so we'll link to each of the candidates' websites in our show notes. And then we'll provide links to any of the recordings of candidate forums that are available. So there have been four forums starting as early as July. And I'm fairly sure one, if not two, of the candidates weren't in the running yet at that point. So just a caveat on that one. The Arvada Elks held one on September 9th at the Elks Lodge in Old Town. The Ralston Valley Coalition hosted a forum on September 29th at the depot at Five Parks. And then the Greater Arvada Chamber of Commerce on October 1st at Revive Church. So important council races for folks to vote for. But in addition to that, there's also a ballot measure 3G for a proposed charter amendment regarding the residency requirement for municipal court judges. And so, Sean, tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah. Great job covering a lot of information there.

SPEAKER_01:

I did want to mention too, like so if you live in one of the districts, um you only get to vote for that district. So if you live in district one and the you know district three, you won't see that on your ballot.

SPEAKER_03:

So we'll link to that district map because they're kind of weird boundaries too that follow clear lines, really.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Yep. And so speaking of the ballot question 3G, um we did have Judge Kurtz on as a guest earlier uh this summer, and we can uh link to that, or you can just scroll back through and listen to that episode. And so um about this ballot question, it applies to uh residency requirements. Uh currently you have to be a resident to be uh a municipal court judge, including part-time release judges here in Arvada. And so that question or that ballot initiative would change that and not require uh our judges to be residents of Arvada. All right, now let's get on to our guests, clerk and recorder Amanda Gonzalez. Amanda serves as the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder where she oversees elections, DMV services, public records, and licensing. She was elected in 2022 as the county's first Latina clerk. She has a background in law and nonprofit leadership, including time as the executive director of Colorado Common Cause, where she advanced policies that expanded ballot access and promoted fair representation.

SPEAKER_03:

Hi, Amanda. Thanks so much for joining us today. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is you do with the county.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, thanks for having me. Um I am the clerk and recorder for Jefferson County, which um has a bunch of different parts of the job, actually. So we my office oversees land recordings, marriage licenses, we um accept passport applications, oversee five motor vehicle offices, and most importantly, administer elections for about half a million folks.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and so the election is why we uh wanted to have you on now, because we have um the coordinated election coming up on November 4th. Uh, and um people can still vote in person if they prefer. We have one location here in Novada, it's at Stanley Lake Library. Uh and just let folks know what are some of the important uh deadlines to remember, because you know, here in Colorado, everyone gets a ballot mailed to them. And so what are the deadlines of when that ballot has to be returned? When can people um, you know, deadlines to remember to participate?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Colorado, I think, absolutely has one of the best voting systems in the entire country. So every active registered voter automatically gets their ballot in the mail. So if you are registered to vote at your current address, then we are automatically going to send you about the mail. Some of those, see, have already gone out. So I think a lot of people think that the election is just one day in November, right? But in reality, we actually start mailing ballots to our military and overseas voters in September.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh they get a little bit extra time, right? Because if you're serving on a base somewhere, it might take a little bit longer to get that ballot back to us. Um, but for everybody else, ballots get mailed to voters starting um October 10th. And our in-person vote centers are going to open on October 27th. And so, like you said, you have options of how you vote in Colorado, which is awesome because we want voting to be convenient and fit in with everybody's life, even if you're somebody who's a busy parent or works, you know, long hours. So you can fill out that ballot that gets mailed to you and you can mail it back to us. Um, it does have to be received by our office by 7 p.m. on election night, um, which is November 4th. So if you're gonna fill it out at home and put it in a mailbox, then you're gonna wanna mail that about a week before the fourth to make sure it has time to get to us. Um, you can also use any one of our secure 24-7 drop boxes. Um, and that just has to be in there by 7 p.m. on election night, or you can go vote in person. And so we are gonna open five vote centers on October 27th. You can go to any vote center in your county and um you can vote in person just because you want to, or maybe you want to bring your little with you and show them how voting works, which is awesome. Um, but we also have lots of services. So Colorado has same-day voter registration. And, you know, say you're like, oh shoot, I'm not registered at my correct address. I moved last year and I didn't update it. You can go to any vote center, we'll update your address for you, get you re-registered, get you a ballot. If you mess yours up, if the dog eats it, if the kid colors on it, that's okay. Come back in, bring an ID with you, we'll get you a replacement ballot. Um, we also have some accessibility services. So if you need to vote on an accessible machine, or if you want to vote in Spanish, you can do all of that at any one of our vote centers.

SPEAKER_00:

Aaron Powell I love it that it's so many different ways.

SPEAKER_01:

You make it so easy to participate in the democracy here in Jefferson County. And I will plug in a caveat or an incentive to go in person if you want. We have a custom i voted Arvada sticker that we teamed up with your office this year. And so you can pick that up at the Stanley Lake Library Voting Center. And you don't have to wait till election day. You can go as soon as that location opens and then pick up your custom Arvada i voted sticker.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. We'll have like a local Arvada prize. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Vote early. Um, like I said, we open on the 27th of October. We also have Saturday voting the Saturday before the election. So even if you're busy during the week, but life happens, right? If you were waiting until the last day and then you have to take your cat to the vet or whatever, right? I don't want you to not get your vote in. So go vote early, pick up a Arvada I voted sticker, and then you can wear it all over town and people will think you're cool. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

It's great. And it has a water, the water tower on it. So it'll be great to see those around town. Um, so this year it's called a coordinated election or an off-year election, as I think how folks kind of return refer to it a lot. How is that different from a midterm or a presidential election year? And why is it important to still vote in these elections? It is always important to vote, right?

SPEAKER_04:

This is one of the most direct ways that you have your voice heard in our democracy, in our neighborhood, right? Like, I don't know about you all, but I see a lot of nextdoor.com people big feelings about things. And if you have big feelings about things, this is one of the ways that you make sure that your community reflects your values or your wishes, right? So yes, go vote. Um of course, the even-year elections get more national headlines because they have things like the president of the United States on the ballot. This year is what we call a coordinated election because the county is helping coordinate all of the other jurisdictions around town. So like the city of Arvada or Jeffre can Jefferson County schools, that kind of thing, right? Um, those entities could like do a separate ballot or something and administer their own elections, but they coordinate with us so that it's easy and it's simple for you, the voter. You get one ballot that has all the important stuff on it. But it's all of your local stuff. It's the local elections that are gonna determine how your city is run or how your schools are run. And I always say that um being a voter makes you a good citizen, but voting in these elections makes you a good neighbor, right? So, yes, absolutely. We want everybody to, every eligible voter should vote in this election and make their voice heard.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's um a really good way to think about the hyperlocal. And I realized we forgot to mention about the drop boxes too. Um because we do have a small pocket of Adams County in Arvada too. Um, and this was something I learned from you since we've been talking, is that you can drop your ballot any drop box. Um, so you need to, if you go in person, you should go to your county, um, whichever county you're in, voting locations. But for drop boxes, you can use any of them and you all make sure they get to the right place. So that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Exactly. So if you do want to vote in person, it is best to go to a vote center that's in your county. So if you're living in the part of Arvada that's in Addams, go to an Adams in-person vote center. If you're living in the part of Arvada that's in Jefferson County, go to a Jefferson County vote center. That way we can get you your ballot. Um, but if you're dropping off, say you work in Denver and you're like, oh shoot, I didn't listen to Clerk Gonzalez, and it is the last day and it's 6 p.m. and my ballot's in my car, and I'm not gonna get back to Jeff Co. That's totally fine. Drop it off in a Denver drop box as long as it's in a drop box in Colorado by 7 p.m. on election night. Um, the clerk in that county will mark it as received, and then we all do a big transfer where we make sure and get your ballots to the right places. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, glad you you pointed that out. Because I would imagine most people aren't gonna mail it in, they're just gonna drop it off because those there are so many of those convenient locations around the county.

SPEAKER_04:

Aaron Powell Absolutely. And then you know it got there, you don't have to worry about it, and you don't have to figure out where to get a stamp.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell Right. Exactly. Um What if uh someone is not sure about their voter registration status? How can they check that? Maybe they moved recently, or they can't remember if last election if they were registered, how can they you know make sure and check that status?

SPEAKER_04:

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah. So if you want to double check that you're registered to vote, or if you need to update your address, that kind of thing, you can actually do it online. And you're gonna go to go votecolorado.gov and that's the Secretary of State's website. You can check your voter registration, and if you need to update something, you can do it there. Of course, if that's difficult for you, or you just like hanging out with us, you can also do all of that in a vote center starting on October 27th.

SPEAKER_01:

Once again, making it easy on folks. Love it. And we can uh link to all these resources that we're talking about in our show notes so people don't have to remember the exact URL. They can just uh touch the hyperlink in the app that they're listening in.

SPEAKER_03:

Awesome. Yeah. And then once your ballot is turned in, these days in the era of technology, we can track our ballots and when they get counted. I think that's such a rewarding part of the experience. So how does your office do that?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. So there is a uh service that you can sign up for. It's voluntary, you don't have to, but it is really cool. Um, so it's called ballot tracks, and there's links to it from our website. There's also links from the Secretary of State's website. But if you sign up for ballot tracks, it will tell you when your ballot has been mailed to you. Um, so you can know when to expect it in the mail. It tells you when we've received it at our office. And something that is important, an important security feature of how we vote in Colorado, is you do need to sign your ballot envelope. And we are verifying every signature on every ballot envelope. It's a software that is sort of similar to what your bank uses, and it verifies 11 different points on your signature so that we know that you are who you say you are when you turned in that ballot. If we're unable to verify that signature, we also have humans look at it, then we're gonna send you a note. We're gonna send you a letter. If we've got an email, we're gonna send you an email as well saying, hey, we wanna make sure that you are who you say you are, and we're not gonna be able to count this ballot until we've got verification that you are who you say you are. And so another great reason to sign up for ballot tracks, which is a free service, um, is that if there is an issue and we aren't able to verify your signature, that's gonna be one of the fastest ways that you're gonna get a notification saying, like, oh, I need to check this out and let them know that I am who I say I am. Um, that process is called curing. So um we do reach out to folks if we're not able to match that signature, which um commonly happens to newer voters. Maybe you were really excited when you were registering to vote and you were really good about like signing your name, and I was like Amanda M. Gonzalez, right? You could clearly see all of the Z. And then maybe when I signed my envelope, I did it on the back of my steering well at a drop box when I was dropping it off. Um and so if we only have one signature on file, um, it's just something to keep in mind. And another great reason to sign up for ballot tracks, um, to know that we've received your ballot, to know that we're counting it, and to know that your voice is being heard.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it is reassuring getting that email of like, oh, we received your ballot and your vote's been counting. Because we did it right. Yeah, because there's probably this like conception by some people of like, oh, I voted, but my vote doesn't actually get counted or it doesn't actually matter. But no, you get that notification and it's reassuring.

SPEAKER_04:

Aaron Powell If you're worried about what happens to my ballot after I drop it off, I will also plug our tours. So our ballot processing facility is in Golden, Colorado, and we offer tours to the public. We've had everything from Girl Scout troops to senior citizen homes, we've had everything in between, um, just people that are curious about like what happens. And so if you are curious about what happens, we are offering tours throughout the election season. You can go to our website, which is vote Jeffco CO for Colorado.gov, and sign up for election tour and come see what happens to your ballot and how how we process everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, speaking of the um in-person voting or the where you process all the ballots, uh, election security is a trending topic over the past few years nationwide. Tell us about uh the measures and systems in place to ensure that elections here in Jefferson County are secure.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I'm just gonna continue to gush about Colorado's elections because I just love what we do here so much, right? The whole point is that we want every eligible voter to vote and have their ballot accurately counted. Um and so we have a couple things that I'm particularly proud of. The first is that every single ballot that we count is on paper because you can't hack paper. So even if you decide to go in and vote in person, and say you decide to use one of our ballot marking devices, which is one of those tablets, and it literally is just a ballot marking device. You push which you know items you want to vote for, it prints out a sheet of paper. You verify that that paper is how you intended to vote. And what we count is the paper. We're not counting like an SD card or something. And we retain those records for about two years. And so, you know, people can come inspec them and check them out. But I think having every single vote that we count be on paper is a really critical part of our security infrastructure. Um, the another piece that I'm really proud of is that almost everything we do, I won't even say almost everything we do is done in bipartisan teams. So, you know, I think some people think like, oh, you know, Amanda Gonzalez is my elected official who's in charge of elections, and she's like sitting in a loot little room somewhere counting all the ballots. And I could not count, you know, votes for 430,000 active voters, even if I wanted to all by myself, right? In reality, what's happening is we are hiring election judges. Um, for a coordinated election like this one, which tends to have a little bit lower turnout, we'll hire about 350, 400 people to help run the election. In a presidential, that number is more like 900. And these are your neighbors and friends, right? It's normal people that you go to church with or your kid goes to school with or you see in the grocery store that are all showing up for the fall to say, I want to help with democracy. I want to make sure that you know the election runs smoothly. And so your ballot is never alone with just one person. Even when we are picking up the ballots out of those 24-7 secure drop boxes, it's actually two people of different political parties that are picking up those ballots physically out of those boxes. Um, and so I think having bipartisan teams in every part of the process is really important. And then finally, the nerdiest one is Colorado a handful of years ago became the first state in the country to require what is called a risk limiting audit, which is a complicated way of saying we take those paper ballots, we have a random list of ballots from the Secretary of State's office that we have to pull. So same thing, bipartisan teams come in, the local county parties come and help us with this. And so, you know, you have to pull ballot one, two, three, four, literally pull it out of like a tub that you might, you know, that we're storing all this stuff in and compare the paper ballot to what the tabulation machines, what the computer counted, and say, does this match? And so we are actually checking at the end of the process before we certify the election to say, did the computers tabulate correctly what was on the paper? And we are physically verifying that.

SPEAKER_01:

So so many systems in place. I love it. Such transparency. Um Yeah, thank you for sharing. I mean, the the buddy system of having one person from you know diff each party going around and collecting those ballots, uh, that's such a uh a fun story. And like you said, you know, they a lot of times they they probably get along. There's probably not as much contention as you might think in that sort of relationship there.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, we we do have a like we don't talk politics, you know, elections are nonpartisan spaces as far as the administration of them. And I I tell people all the time, like, if you are feeling bad about the world, come down and be an election judge. Um, I will also plug that we take student election judges. So if there's a high schooler in your life, or if you're a high school student listening to this, like and you want to get more involved, you can be an election judge, even if you're not quite 18 yet. But you know, I think that if I told certain news programs that I was gonna put a Democrat and a Republican in a county vehicle all day to drive around and pick up ballots, like they would tell you those people are gonna come back missing limbs, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And it's just not the case. Like what happens is that people come back talking about their grandkids. And we actually have election workers that are different parties that met, you know, in the service of our democracy and they go on walks together in the off season. Like, right, we really do have more in common than we think. And I think in particular, when people sign up to help administer our elections, they want to protect our democracy, they want to make sure that elections are fair, they want to do their part. And so, yeah, it really is lovely and the potlucks are really good.

SPEAKER_00:

And you get paid, these aren't volunteers.

SPEAKER_04:

They're not volunteer positions. So if you want to get involved in a future election, and we will have two next year, right? We'll have a primary and then an um an election in November. Uh, sign up. Go to our county website, and we've got an application, express interest, tell us you want to come be an election judge, um, and we would love to have you.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. Yeah. Um, so you mentioned our election judges, which I think I don't know if we've mentioned the term poll worker. That's kind of what a lot of people know them as, but it's the same thing. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Some places call them poll workers, Colorado we call them election judges.

SPEAKER_03:

And then we've talked a little bit about the tours that folks can sign up and go on. What are maybe some of the other ways that people can observe the process or get involved in what's going on with our elections?

SPEAKER_04:

Um so, right, the very best ways to participate in your democracy is one, vote. Two, become an election judge and get a little bit more involved. I've already hyped the tours, but I just think they are such a great way to see the process and understand what's going on. And, you know, Thanksgiving's coming up. And don't you want to have accurate information when you're arguing with your uncles? So come take that tour before Thanksgiving. Um the other thing that I will plug is that we have an advisory committee at the clerk's office. Um we call it STEAM, and it's focused on transparency and equity and accessibility and modernization. And we have all different kinds of folks. We have folks from, I think, all the political parties. We have some people with disabilities, we have some teenagers, we have folks who are older. The whole idea is that I believe we just fundamentally make better decisions when we have a broader group of people who are giving input, right? Like I really believe in making decisions together as in voting, right? That's what we're all doing when we're like saying what we believe and what who we want to represent us. Um, but even just in how we operate the office. And so we are going to be recruiting folks for our STEAM committee as coming up here and would love people to participate. Those uh meetings are also open to the public. So if you want to come learn more about the messaging that we're sending out, how we're getting accurate information to citizens and residents, um, that's another great place to engage. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Before we wrap up here, or at least move on to the trivia segment, we we do like to ask our guests the opportunity of to touch on anything maybe we didn't ask you yet, or clear up some misconceptions about the work you do. So the time is now. What did we not ask you that you wanted to mention?

SPEAKER_04:

Um I always love doing just a quick reminder about who is eligible to vote. So in Colorado, you have to be at least 18 years old, you have to be a U.S. citizen, and you have to have lived in Colorado for at least 22 days. And if those things are true, you are eligible to vote. That includes if you are somebody that um is a student and maybe you moved to Colorado for a school in August, you are eligible to vote here. Um, another common misconception is around folks that might have had prior engagement with our criminal justice system. So sometimes you'll see, and these laws vary diff by state, so sometimes it can be confusing, but I think there is a misconception that if you've ever been convicted of something, you might not be eligible to vote. That's not true in Colorado. So if you are um the only people who cannot vote because of involvement with our criminal justice system are folks who are currently serving a term of confinement for a felony conviction. So essentially you're you're in prison for a felony. Um, but if you're on probation, if you're on parole, if you've finished your sentence and you're back in your community, um, then you are eligible to vote. Uh you do have to re-register. So go to uh Go Vote Colorado or come into one of our vote centers, we'll get you re-registered, but you're eligible to vote even if you've had a prior conviction. And then just some reminders about services and accessibility that are available for folks. Um I mentioned that if you come into our vote center, you can vote in either English or Spanish. Sometimes those ballot questions can be really confusing, especially if English isn't your first language. So if you need some help with that, come on in. We can get you a ballot in Spanish. Um, we also have a bilingual sample ballot on our website, so you can see that there. And then finally, um, we have a really great law in Colorado that allows voters with disabilities. So if you have a visual impairment or you're blind and you need a ballot that your assistive technology will allow you to vote at home independently, right? Like all of us, your vote is secret. You don't have to tell anybody else how you voted. Nobody on my staff will ever know how you voted. Um so that should be true even if you have a disability. So if you are somebody who's blind and you need a ballot that your assistive technology can allow you to read and vote independently, um, reach out and we can get you that as well.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. As someone who you know we're working on this uh digital accessibility law that just went into effect. And so just realizing that how important it is to make information from the city's website available to everyone, kind of you know, reshapes some of this. And it's great to hear that that's so important from uh the clerk's office as well.

SPEAKER_04:

And I love that digital accessibility. I I love that we're finally getting a little better at it, just because it makes all of our lives easier. Yes. So I don't know, just love that. But yes, we we want to make sure that all voters, including voters with disabilities, are able to cast their ballot the way they want to. So um reach out to our office if you need any help.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. All right, ready for everyone's favorite segment? It's the trivia.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm nervous.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. We got three questions here, all election related. Um so Arvada City Council members, we have three seats that are um up for election this year. One of the um rules for running for council is that you have to live in Arvada. You have to live in Arvada for at least a year. And if you're running for one of the district seats, you have to live in that district. Um of the caveats is can they be employed by another municipal municipality? Is that okay or not?

SPEAKER_04:

Aaron Ross Powell Can I run for office in Arvada and work in Denver? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm fairly sure I know the answer to this.

SPEAKER_03:

50-50 shot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean it's the fun thing, is the in a coordinated election, it's it's the cities that are coordinating with us that set their own rules. Um I actually don't know this one because this is an Urbada rule. Um it seems oddly specific. So I'm gonna say there's a rule that says you can't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. Yeah. So in our city charter, it prohibits employees from other cities serving on Umbrate City Council. In 2021, there was a ballot measure asking to remove that um stipulation, and it failed. So it remains in place.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, interesting. I didn't know about the 211 ballot measure. Good reason to vote in your local elections if you Yes, right?

SPEAKER_04:

It's policies like this.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. All right. So speaking of ballot measures, in 2018, our VATA voters approved ballot issue 3F by a two to one margin. So it was about 40,000 yes, about 20,000 no. What was that bond issue about?

SPEAKER_04:

I did not live here yet. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Because we passed one.

SPEAKER_01:

This one passed.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I know what it is. I'm sorry. Okay. I don't I don't know, so I'm gonna let you tell us. Uh it was the roads brought Ralston Road in West 72nd. Yep, exactly. I thought you said it didn't pass. Oh, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01:

It passed by two to one margin. Yes. Yeah. So yep. It didn't uh fund two major road improvement projects, Ralston Road, which was done, I don't know, within the past year or so in uh West 72nd Avenue, which the first phase was done.

SPEAKER_03:

Um They've done all the underground utilities and then they've done Kip or uh oak to whatever that is, Swadley, Court, Sims, basically.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And soon enough they will get to the rest of that railroad passed.

SPEAKER_01:

I just thought it was interesting. Like 2018 is when the ballot measure passed, and here we're in 2025, so it's a long process sometimes to do democracy. So yeah. And these are giant projects. So Yeah, absolutely. All right, final question. Who is Arvada's longest serving mayor and how many times did they serve, or how many years I don't know any mayors prior to the last one.

SPEAKER_04:

Um I I don't know who Arvada's longest serving mayor is, but I'm gonna say that term limits change over time. So who knows what how you know if there was term limits when Arvada was founded. Um I'm gonna say somebody did it for three.

SPEAKER_01:

If we have a 30-year mayor, uh 20 years. Bob Free served for 20 years, three separate terms, starting in 81 to 89, 91 to 99 in 2007 to 2011. So I think he also served uh for city council, not as a mayor for four years, so twenty-four years in total for Bob Free, who um was then Mark Williams was the mayor after him, who has the record for the longest consecutive mayoral term from 2011 to 2023. So yeah, just a little kind of history of the mayor. As I can understand it, the mayor wasn't always elected. I think for a while they were, you know, just seven council members, and then the council would kind of pick who the mayor would be. And I think um Bob Free was the first elected mayor um back in like the early 90s, late 80s, something like that. Interesting. Yeah. Relatively recent. Yep. And so, you know, now obviously the mayor's an elected position ever since.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And it I mean, that actually brings up a really uh interesting piece of our democracy is that how representation happens varies, right? From city to city, from state to state. Some places have term limits, some places don't. Some places have restrictions on living in district or not living in district. We have age restrictions in some places. And you know, I think the goal of our democracy is always how do we get the most voices represented, right? How do we ensure that everybody is actually heard? And so I always think these are such interesting questions about should we have term limits or should we have requirements by district, right? Like I don't know. They're they're really fun to think about.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Ross Powell We do have term limits and it's it's three consecutive term limits in the same position. And so that's um what's in our city charter. But then that doesn't prohibit you from doing three terms as a council member, and then you after that you can serve a different position, so then you can be mayor after that.

SPEAKER_03:

So you can't work in Westminster and be a council member in Prada. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So just some kind of fun history. So uh Clerk Gonzalez, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. I learned a lot, and I hope our listeners did too.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you so much. And don't forget, vote in this election and vote early.

SPEAKER_02:

There you go.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, and as a reminder, we love to hear from our listeners, so please stay in touch with us. You can text us with the link at the top of the show notes or email us at podcast at arvata.org. We love your feedback on the episode, any questions you might have for Clerk Gonzalez, or any episode ideas or what you'd want to hear more about. Um, and so news and events, what's going on right now? The annual city community survey is available now and open to all residents. This survey helps track satisfaction with city services and helps the team define priorities for our community. So that's at Arvadasurvey.com. The uh annual leaf recycling drop-off events are starting November 8th, which is coming up so quickly. Um, so that'll run November 8th through the 22nd, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday. So closed on Sundays. Um, and that's at Stinger Sports Complex. And it's free, it's free to all residents as a part of the uh city's waste hauling program. And so that really helps keep leaves out of our landfills, they get recycled, and then off city streets, it helps our stormwater team to prevent flooding and the pollution of our waterways. So recycle your leaves. And then um in September, our city council also approved the purchase of a site for the replacement of the Arvada water treatment plant. And this project's been underway for a couple years trying to determine and get a purchase agreement for a new site for the property, and that's going to be located west of Highway 93 and West 64th Parkway at 6809 State Highway 93. The land will get annexed into the city. It's currently an unincorporated Jefferson County, and so that'll be part of the acquisition and purchase of the land. And then it's really a significant step forward in the city's long-term uh water infrastructure planning. And so there's a lot of background on that project online about kind of the why behind the project at arvatoco.gov slash water treatment. And then we'll also link to the press release about the site selection specifically.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, now is the time to uh sign up to be a snowbuddy. It's uh one of the uh most rewarding city-led neighborhood programs that we do. It matches residents who are unable to shovel their sidewalks and driveways with caring volunteers. So if you're in uh interested in helping out, uh visit the website at arvatico.gov slash snowbuddies. I know a lot of people really enjoy that program and serving the community in that fashion. Um, you know, we're approaching the end of the Arvada Reservoir season there. The reservoir will be closing on Friday, October 31st. So just want to give a huge shout out to all our volunteer rangers for another successful season out at the reservoir. And we can uh you can visit the webpage arvataco.gov slash reservoir to learn more about operating hours if you want to squeeze in one or two final days here at the reservoir. And then finally, some park news. Uh, Marge Roberts Park is now back open to the public. That overhauled park, it's just uh north of Lutz Sports Complex off 58th Avenue in Kipling. It opened recently on October 7th, and the new park includes a new basketball court, new walking paths, a new playground, and nature play area, and more. Visit arvatico.gov slash marjroberts to learn about that park project. And as we turn ahead, start looking at 2026 surveys are now open to provide input on our next three uh playground renovations. We're doing Ralston Cove Park, Terrace Park, and Pioneer Park. We'll link to each of those web pages in our show notes so you can take the surveys and let us know what sort of equipment and themes you want to see as part of those uh new playgrounds that are part of our taking lasting care uh improvement uh program. Thank you once again to our guest, Clerk Amanda Gonzalez. Be sure to listen to our next episode with Dave Snelling from the Arvada Police Department to talk all things e-bikes and other unusual and illegal vehicles and devices. Today's podcast was recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services, and today's fun fact is that Jefferson County's ballot counting machine can process 50,000 ballots in just one hour.