LOCAL STORY RENEE MILLARD-CHACON SAID SHE IS FRUSTRATED THAT THE ECOLOGICAL HARM CAUSED BY SUNCOR AND FUTURE FRACKING SITES HAVE UNDULY IMPACT LOWINCOME FAMILIES AND PEOPLE OF COLOR. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN RENEE MILLARD-CHACON (CENTER) SPEAKS AT AN EMERGE COLORADO EVENT. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN Defunding the police is a movement to reallocate funds from police departments to other public safety and social support programs like social services, housing services, and other community services. Bailey wants to see social workers and mental health providers respond to certain crisis calls that may not require a police presence. She believes this will help lessen the trauma to police officers and help keep the public safer. Aurora has already created two different programs designed to provide help to individuals experiencing mental health crises as an alternative to police intervention. The Crisis Response Team is a partnership between the Aurora PD and the Aurora Mental Health Center to help individuals experiencing mental illness to avoid incarceration, while introducing them to and helping them navigate the Aurora behavioral health programs. The Aurora Mobile Team is similar to Denver’s STAR program and utilizes mental health workers and a paramedic to deescalate crisis situations. It is currently in a six-month trial program and only active in Northeast Aurora. “The programs exist,” Bailey said. “Now we need to tighten them up, and we need to strengthen them. We need to make sure that they’re being utilized properly by our police department.” According to Representative Jodeh, candidates who have worked in the trenches to change their community may be better suited to create new laws and ordinances that are more equitable to individuals who aren’t always recognized by politicians. “When you come from a [Black and Indigenous People of Color] community, this gives you a different lens on advocacy,” Jodeh said. “When you take that into elected office, it also gives a different lens to policymaking. That gives the people a voice that oftentimes is overlooked, misheard, and misunderstood.” Millard-Chacon said she is frustrated that the ecological by harm caused Suncor disproportionally impacts low-income families and People of Color, including undocumented individuals who aren’t able to vote. “Suncor’s pollution causes harm to our disproportionately impacted communities, starting with Indigenous and Chicano communities,” Millard-Chacon said. “When we ask for equity and protection, Commerce City [elected] leaders act as if health and safety is some form of charity. Suncor and so many emitters have been able to secrete a damaging amount of pollution onto Commerce City,” Millard-Chacon said. “They have never been restorative to heal what they’ve done. Commerce City has never provided an enforceable protection and they don’t pursue it either.” Suncor experienced malfunctions in 2017, 2019, and 2020 which caused excessive emissions and a release of catalyst, a clay like emission, to cascade across Commerce City. It is among the largest polluters in the state of Colorado and was penalized by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) for exceeding permit emission levels of hydrogen-cyanide, a cancer causing chemical, in 2019. As recently as August 2021, CDPHE air monitoring found elevated levels of pollutants near the Suncor plant. Suncor released an independent report, just before public hearings in 2021, exploring the state’s renewal of Suncor’s permit. The report, which was funded by Suncor, recommended new actions for the plant to protect the community from future malfunctions. The recommendations were accepted by CDPHE in May of 2021, and Suncor is in the process of implementing them. Suncor’s permit has not yet been renewed by the state. Millard-Chacon said that Suncor wasn’t the only environmental risk facing Commerce City. Commerce City could also be the site of new fracking wells. The Denver-based company, Extraction Oil & Gas, currently has applications for six different permits in varying phases of approval submitted to the city. “I’m not a politician,” Millard-Chacon said. “I am not here to be a celebrity. I have suffered and have seen my whole family suffer from systemic violence. I do not want my children to have to endure this or have to fight these same fights for equity just to be able to live and thrive in their spaces.” For Candice Bailey, it was a fight just to get on the ballot, as the Aurora City Charter prohibited felons from running for office. Bailey pled guilty to a second-degree assault charge in 1999 and attributes her actions to being young and dumb. She said she learned from the experience and believes it gave her valuable insight into how the legal system has a very real and life-long individuals. With help from the ACLU, arguing the charter violated the state constitution, Bailey sued the City of Aurora. The Aurora City Council voted 7-2 to change the charter in an August meeting allowing Bailey to run. Bailey sees the charter as an element of the Jim Crow past and believes it was designed to disenfranchise People of Color and prohibit them from representation. “It is the responsibility of our council members, of our legislators, and of our senators to come in and look at the laws and policies that exist and to have those Jim Crow laws removed,” Bailey said. Bailey believes much of the system needs changing and that her work as an advocate for police reform can help lead Aurora in a new direction. “I’m not here to provoke a fight; I’m here to provoke a change.” ■ November 2021 DENVER VOICE 9
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