South Suburban board discusses process to fill vacant seat

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e South Suburban Parks and Recreation Board of Directors voted unanimously to hold an application process to ll the vacant seat of former board member David Lawful, who passed away suddenly in May.

At the May 24 meeting, several public commenters expressed frustration with this decision and a desire for the district to evaluate recent election results when choosing a new board member.

In South Suburban’s May 2 elec- tion, which took place eight days before Lawful died, Pam Eller and Ken Lucas received the most votes.

Candidate Elizabeth Watson came in third place, trailing about four percentage points behind Lucas and beating out candidate Alexis Barrere by only ve votes, according to the o cial results.

Candidates John Priddy and Michael Edwards earned approximately 14% and 7% of total votes, respectively.

According to the district’s bylaws and state law, any vacancy occurring on a special district board shall be lled by a vote of the remaining board members, with the appointee to serve until the next regular election.

At the meeting, Chair Susan Pye and previous board member Jim Taylor both made tributes to Lawful.

“ is is a tremendous loss not just for me, but for the South Suburban community,” Pye’s tribute said. “From small park dedications to large district-wide projects, Dave has made a lasting impact on our organization.”

Choosing a process

Rob Hanna said whatever appointee the board chooses must be a resident of the district. Other than that stipulation, he said, the process for choosing a new board member was completely up to the board.

Immediately after Hanna shared this information, Vice Chair Pam Eller asked if the board would get to see “the nal compilation of questions for the candidates.” She also asked if it would become public information when applicants lled out applications.

SEE VACANCY, P39

“( e fund is) really meant to just mobilize philanthropic dollars for people who want to support incoming newcomers and migrant arrivals,” said Katie Peshek, communications director at Rose Community Foundation. “To deploy that money as e ciently and quickly as we can to the local nonpro ts on the ground who are doing this work, day in and day out.”

Rose Community Foundation makes grant decisions with a steering committee including representatives from the City and County of Denver, the State of Colorado, e Denver Foundation, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, and Mile High United Way, accord-