Broomfield City Council member Todd Cohen to potentially face recall election [Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.]

May 25—Broomfield City Council member Todd Cohen, one of two representatives for Ward 5, may face a recall election this November.

In order to have the recall election, the recall petition needed 1,083 signatures from Ward 5 residents, and the petition gathered 1,356 signatures, of which 1,246 were accepted.

A protest hearing against the recall petition is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in the City Council Chambers. At that time, the hearing officer, Karen Goldman, will review the petitions to recall and the protests of those recall petitions. No more than five days after the hearing, she will determine whether the petition to recall is sufficient or not; if found insufficient, the reasons for the insufficiency will be identified.

The group behind the recall has detailed its reasons on its website recalltoddandheidi.org. The website also focuses on council member Heidi Henkel, who also represents Ward 5 but who is not being recalled because she is already up for reelection this fall when her current term ends.

"Todd Cohen has ignored constituents, acted counter to their interests, supported measures that negatively affect citizens' health and safety, ignored factual information when addressing issues, and approved measures that benefit him," the website reads.

Cohen has denied the accusations.

"These are a group of people who have taken two pages out of the Donald Trump playbook," Cohen said.

Cohen said that he believes the group behind the recall is following the former president's footsteps in regards to election denial and lies.

One of the first claims listed on the website and one that Cohen has said is false is that he and Henkel supported the creation of a homeless encampment next to a high school in Broomfield.

The claim references a 2021 staff memo the council received proposing possible locations that could be made available to unhoused people instead of camping in open spaces. The memo proposed a variety of solutions, including Safe Outdoor Spaces, which the website refers to as a homeless camp.

Although the council ended up not pursuing that solution and instead offered hotel vouchers to the unhoused population of Broomfield, the constituents behind the recall say that's not good enough and believe that Cohen and Henkel ever supporting the homeless camp is enough to warrant a recall.

"There was no vote on the camp because staff withdrew the request for a camp and presented an option to use vouchers for hotels instead. That doesn't mean that Todd and Heidi did not support the creation of a homeless camp next to a school, which is the complaint in the recall petition," their website reads.

But Cohen reiterates that those claims are false, and there is no evidence to support them.

"That's a lie and that's conjecture," Cohen said. "They're saying 'we think you support this, we think you would do this,' but they have no evidence and just presented it as fact."

The website also lists other reasons for the recall, including supporting gun legislation in Broomfield and the placement of industrialized water tanks.

"So the rest of it is all just policy disagreement. And they use this framing that we're not listening, but we're saying the same exact thing we said when we campaigned. We're being consistent and that position won the majority of the votes," Cohen said.

The group behind the recall declined to answer any questions until after the protest hearing. Cohen's recall petition received nine protests, some of which Henkel believes back up that the recall effort is built on lies.

"It's unfortunate that residents have reported signature-collecting tactics that left them more confused and betrayed than ever. We have signed affidavits that reveal regretful signing, harassment at the doors, and going off-topic and condemning our LGBTQ population. To add, we have instances where they don't reveal their names at the door, nor who is paying for the recall on the flyers," Henkel said. "The lies of the recall are obvious, but now we add betrayal and confusion of the people to the list of offenses. The people deserve better, and so does Councilmember Cohen."

___

(c)2023 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.)

Visit the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) at www.dailycamera.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.