At Monday night’s city council meeting, Aurora lawmakers will appoint a new at-large councilmember and vote again on selecting a mayor pro tem, a decision left at a standstill at the last meeting when councilmembers’ votes were evenly split between two candidates.

Three candidates interviewed for an open seat on the council following Dustin Zvonek’s exit in October.

The three candidates are Danielle Lammon, a business owner and chair of the Citizens Advisory Budget Committee; Jonathan McMillan, director of Firearm-Related Harm and Violence Prevention Program Office at the Trailhead Institute; and, Amsalu Kassaw, a lieutenant at Aurora’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center.

The candidate who is appointed will fill the rest of Zvonek’s term, which ends on the first council meeting in December 2025.

Councilmembers will also vote again on appointing a councilmember to the position of mayor pro tem. 

In a vote at Dec. 2’s council meeting, half of the councilmembers chose councilmember Steve Sundberg, while the other half chose councilmember Curtis Gardner, to take the position of mayor pro tem. None of the members seemed willing to shift their vote.

The mayor pro tem only has a few roles: to organize and set the agenda for the quarterly workshops and to assign members to the respective policy committees next year. The appointed member also takes over for the mayor in the case that the mayor is gone — a rare instance.

If there is not a decision made Monday on which councilmember should fill the role, the role will simply go un-filled, Mayor Mike Coffman said. The council will have to vote to suspend the rules and vote on policy committee assignments.

Lawmakers will also cast a final vote Monday night on an ordinance allowing pit bull ownership in the city.

If approved, the ordinance becomes effective Jan. 18, according to a city spokesperson, and will allow residents to continue to own pit bull breeds. 

Monday’s study session will be held at 5:15 p.m. in the Aurora Room of the Aurora Municipal Center, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway.

The council’s regular meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in the Paul Tauer Aurora City Council Chamber, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway.

Both meetings will also be live streamed at auroraTV.org and Youtube.com/TheAuroraChannel. They will also stream live on cable channels 8 and 880 in Aurora.

Those who want to speak during the public comment period must submit a speaker slip by 6:30 p.m. Monday, the day of the meeting. Anyone who wants to comment on an agenda item must submit a speaker slip before the city clerk reads the title of the item.