Constituents seek to recall two Broomfield City Council members

Mar. 29—A Broomfield committee is petitioning for the recall of two Ward 5 City Council members.

Todd Cohen and Heidi Henkel are facing backlash from a group of constituents who wish to recall them from the council. The constituents who support the recall"] have taken issue with Cohen and Henkel's leadership, treatment of constituents and support of gun legislation among other things.

On their website recalltoddandheidi.org, the committee details the reasons for their petition, including the support of gun legislation passed in 2022. The ordinances passed included banning open carrying in Broomfield public spaces, regulations on the purchase of unserialized firearms and multiple other ordinances. But the constituents feel that the council was focused on the wrong issues.

"From 2017 through 2021, 89% of all firearm related fatalities in Broomfield were suicide," the website reads. "Instead of trying to understand why so many Broomfield residents were committing suicide, Heidi and Todd refused to acknowledge that suicide was a major mental health issue and continued to focus on gun ordinances for 'national issues' instead of the deaths actually occurring here in Broomfield."

Those opposed to the recall, who've started their own website declinetosign.info, argue that the gun legislation passed would in fact reduce suicide rates.

"Those kinds of common-sense gun safety laws reduce suicide rates," the website reads. "The Kaiser Family Foundation determined that, 'If the suicide rate by firearm in all states was similar to the rate in the states with the most gun laws, approximately 6,800 lives may have been saved in 2020, a reduction of about 15% of all suicide-related deaths.'"

In addition to gun legislation, the committee petitioning for recall raised concerns about transparency regarding water tanks. The water infrastructure project in question, which according to Cohen began in 2014, aimed to provide Broomfield additional water storage capacity.

Recall petitioners have taken issue with the project scope changing from one buried water tank to two or three water tanks and a pumping station. They believe that the council members should have informed the public of the change in scope.

They take issue with Cohen and Henkel's handling of homelessness in Broomfield.

"Instead of adopting best practices to reduce homelessness, Todd and Heidi supported homeless camps and expensive hotel voucher programs to expand and encourage homelessness," recalltoddandheidi.org reads. "Todd and Heidi have wasted the public's money to multiply the government funded homeless populations in Broomfield."

Declinetosign.info explained that the safe outdoor spaces, or homeless camps, was just one proposed solution that the council ended up rejecting. The council chose to focus on existing programs and implemented a hotel voucher program for unhoused individuals to have temporary shelter in extreme weather conditions.

Cohen and Henkel are also concerned about what they believe to be the recall petition's sexist motivations.

"Voters should be most concerned about the original petition the group filed alleging Councilmember Heidi Henkel was "'demonstrably naked' in a social media post. She was pictured in a hot tub with her husband by her side. This kind of body-shaming and attempt to dictate what a woman can or cannot share reveals a 'demonstrably sexist' agenda. Decline to sign and say no to misogyny and this waste of time and money," Cohen said.

Those opposed to the recall are also concerned about the amount of money a premature reelection would cost taxpayers.

"These recall folks are asking us taxpayers to pay $76,000 to do what they obviously don't think they can do in November," said Ward 5 constituent TJ Cole. "The democratic process is not set up to fancy the whims of a few disgruntled voters who don't like certain policies or votes. It is set up to engage the entire voting population."

Cohen echoed these concerns, stating "this group that professes to be concerned about city spending wants to force taxpayers to waste $76,000 for a do-over election just because they lost the last one. They want to subvert the will of the majority with a smaller slice of the electorate in the middle of the summer rather than compete in the general election a few months later. I urge people to decline to sign and say no to wasting $76,000."

Henkel brought up similar concerns.

"It's interesting that, after announcing my reelection campaign based on shared Ward 5 values and endorsed by Congresswoman Pettersen, Rep. Lindstedt and Sen. Winter (and) only a few months before our regular City Council election, a small fringe group wants to waste our time and $76,000 of taxpayer money on a frivolous and, yes, sexist recall election. Instead of presenting a competitive candidate to all voters in November, they want to change the results of our general elections with a divisive, expensive, and low turnout special election. Their followers have even sent emails to council and posted on social media, attacking my body and the character of my children.

"This is a distraction to our work on Council to provide important infrastructure for Broomfield's future, climate action, supporting small businesses, creating more affordable housing, and especially as a mom and woman gun owner for gun safety and firearm education," Henkel continued.

"I ask all Ward 5 voters to decline to sign the petition to recall so we can all get back to making Broomfield an even better community for our families and each other. Broomfield never fell for the 'Big Lie' and this is no different," Henkel said.

Those in support of the recall are still gathering signatures on their petition.

According to state law, a recall petition must gain a number of signatures equal to 25% of the entire vote cast for all the candidates for that particular office at the last preceding regular election. According to Broomfield City and County Clerk Crystal Clemens, that number for both Cohen and Henkel is 1,048 signatures. If the petition gains enough signatures, the issue will be put on the ballot.