City voters say OK to justice complex

Construction may start next year; foe cites money, mayor for loss

Lou Kilzer and April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 4, 2005 at midnight

Text size

More Colorado Government

Denver voters signed on Tuesday to Mayor John Hickenlooper's vision for a $378 million overhaul of the city's ailing jails and courts.

A ballot measure to build a new justice center downtown won 56 percent to 44 percent. Construction will start as early as next year.

Hickenlooper thanked a broad canvas of politicians, political operatives, neighborhood leaders and law officers for the victory during a speech Tuesday night.

But there was little doubt that one of the major winners was the mayor himself. He had taken a perennially unpopular issue - jail building - and won by a large margin.

Hickenlooper declined to take credit, saying he was certain that when Denver's voters "heard the facts and saw the conditions, we would win."

The mayor had been the biggest force behind the project and was its most visible supporter.

He advocated the justice center on the basis of humanity, saying that current jail conditions were far below those of a world-class city.

Opponents said it was the wrong plan, in the wrong place and for the wrong price. They were disappointed with the election's outcome.

"We were defeated by money and the mayor," said opponent Bill Vandenberg.

Justice center opponents figured early on that they faced an uphill battle. The opposing side's biggest challenge was to overcome the Hickenlooper factor and his star power.

"I would like to think that Denver voters were smart," Vandenberg said. "To vote for a massive new courthouse and jail because someone is popular is shortsighted."

The justice center will be paid for without an increase in the current tax rate.

In fall 2001, city voters turned down a tax hike and a proposed $300 million jail by fewer than 4,000 out of about 94,000 votes cast.

This time, supporters were confident they had enough political ammunition to close the deal.

The 2001 vote featured a jail-only approach, a lame-duck mayor and strong neighborhood opposition.

By 2005, opponents faced a widely popular first-term mayor, little unified neighborhood angst and a new plan.

Both sides saw Hickenlooper as the key.

With the mayor sitting at a 90 percent approval rating, supporters seemed intent on using Hickenlooper's image and efforts at every turn.

And Hickenlooper did not shy away - even at some political risk.

If supporters ever doubted their approach, they didn't show it.

"The public trusts city officials to call balls and strikes on this," said pro-justice center strategist David Kenney.

"It was not so much (Hickenlooper's) popularity, but his credibility," that was being tested, he said.

"He is seen as someone who is smart, who you can trust," he added.

A referendum on the mayor wasn't the only item in play, however.

Justice center backers also retooled the old arguments for a new jail into an argument for an entire justice center.

The idea was to marry a downtown jail with a new criminal courthouse and sell them both as - in the words of supporters - a "holistic approach" to solving the city's justice needs.

They caught an early break when the Golden Triangle Association - made up of property and business owners in the neighborhood where the structures would be built - came out strongly in favor of the center.

Neighborhood opposition - and there was some - never got fully organized.

Money also had also been predicted to be a major factor. Opposition leaders frequently spoke of the campaign as being one of David vs. Goliath.

Fundraising figures did little to dent that perception.

Pro-justice center forces amassed more than $648,000 in cash contributions and were able to blanket local television with spots featuring Hickenlooper.

The opposition depended on "in-kind" contributions, raising less than $2,000 in cash, they said. Poverty meant the opposition did not come equipped with high-powered consultants, tracking polls and get-out-the-vote boiler rooms.

Still, the opponents - who called themselves "Denver Voters for Responsible Spending" - were seasoned strategists.

Vandenberg and Christie Donner, another justice center opponent, squeezed all the free media they could and ran a campaign that combined strange bedfellows.

Donner and Vandenberg are veterans of left-of-center political causes. However, they welcomed into their camp die-hard political conservatives who thought the cost of the center was prohibitive.

Taxes were a pivotal issue, this time and last. Backers said this time there would be no tax hikes, but opponents said that was a fairy tale.

Pro-justice center forces were dreading the effect on voters who made it to the booths and read the ballot language - which clearly said the measure was a tax increase.

"When voters read the ballot question, they will ask how the city can call this no new taxes," Vandenberg said. Donner and Vandenberg seemed to score late-inning runs by casting the tax issue as one between better schools or bigger jails.

That argument infuriated Kenney and other ballot measure supporters. They complained that the issue was bogus because the two pots of money don't mix.

The opposition conceded that the property taxes for schools and the taxes to build a new jail do not come from the same funding stream.

However, they hoped voters would see it all on their bottom line: Money spent for jails will be unavailable elsewhere, despite the separate pots.

Justice center tally

• Voters on Tuesday approved a plan to build a $378 million justice center. 56 percent yes; 32,913 votes

44 percent no; 25,691 votes

Turnout at the polls

23 percent of active voters in Denver cast ballots.

• That's 58,604 of 250,389 active voters in Denver.

Turnout in past city elections

• 2003 42 percent

• 1999 15 percent

• 1995 38 percent

• 1991 54 percent

• 1987 49 percent

• 1983 65 percent

What's next

• The city will start a design competition among architects for final justice center plans. A preliminary timetable has been crafted, but is subject to change and a final go-ahead from the mayor.

• Early 2006: Construction of a parking garage with 600-plus spaces will begin along West 14th Avenue. It will also house a post office building.

• Construction will begin in late 2007 or early 2008 on a four-story, 508,000-square-foot city jail to have 1,499 beds. Also, the city will start to build a six-story, 320,000-square-foot criminal courthouse with 35 courtrooms. The justice center will take up two blocks, beginning one block west of the City and County Building.

• Preliminary planned opening date is 2009.

• After the downtown element is complete, construction on a 384-bed unit will begin at the current county jail on Smith Road, where inmates serve longer sentences. Buildings No. 6 through 12 of the existing jail, the most antiquated, will be demolished. Opening of the Smith Road facilities is slated for 2011.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News