Guess Which Four Council Members Voted Against a New Police Substation

Given how much the violent crime rate has increased in Commerce City, coupled with projected population growth and the fact that Commerce City has fewer police substations than other municipalities of our size, you would think that approval of a fully functional police substation in the northern part of the city would be an urgent priority for City Council, right?

Well, for a slim majority of Council, yes, it may be. That slim, 5-4 majority does not, for some reason, include Mayor Steve Douglas, Mayor pro tem Susan Noble, and Councilmembers Renee Chacon and Kristi Douglas.

Those four voted against a motion brought forward at the August 18 Council meeting by Councilman Sean Ford to approve $16 million of unencumbered funds to go towards a new substation, after four years of discussion and back and forth.

This comes on the heels of another lengthy discussion over the proposed substation during a Council study session on August 11. At that meeting, the Commerce City Chief of Police laid out in detail the bare minimum requirements for a substation, and pointed to the fact that most municipalities of our size have roughly one substantial police station every 4 miles. In Commerce City, we have one, 14 miles – or 27 minutes – away from the northern part of the city.

The city manager also laid out the plans and made the argument for the substation, patiently explaining to the four recalcitrant council members – each of whom insisted that “nobody is against a substation," and then proceeded to offer objections to the substation – that they had, indeed, backed in February of 2024, approved a contract and initial budget for the city manager to negotiate the design of a police substation.

This he did, delivering a proposal for a station accounting for the minimum needs of the police service – which reflected significant compromise from what the police really need in a substation – and based on expert analysis from the International Association of Police Chiefs, a spatial analysis, and other relevant data. The process determined that a roughly 40,000-square-foot facility would be sufficient to meet the needs of the community for the next 15 years or so. He dutifully presented this to Council, for which the study session was supposed to be an opportunity for the members to look at and decide if they would go ahead with funding it.

To listen to the aforementioned four, you would think the city manager and police chief were asking to build an ICBM launch pad. Out the gate, Chacon tried refuting the data, and questioning, absurdly, whether the crime rate justified such a substation (Chief Guadnola very patiently and euphemistically responded that he was working on a presentation to the Council for September 15 on the crime rate in Commerce City, and that they would see that the Commerce City PD is an “exceptionally busy department.”)

Mayor Douglas shifted to opposing the proposed square footage, and insisting that Council had only approved of a significantly smaller facility, despite the city manager’s patient explanations of the process.

Noble was obsessed with the fact that there was not enough “community engagement” over the design of the substation.

Kristi Douglas seemingly refused to understand why a police substation, which requires hardened portions for cells, evidence processing and so forth, should cost more than a community center.

Mayor Douglas even suggested that maybe the police could cut corners elsewhere, like using civilian staff to transport criminals, thus “freeing up” officers. One can only imagine the level of self-control it took Chief Guadnola to calmly respond: “I think it would be problematic to transport someone who we have physical custody of by someone who's not sworn.” Good Grief.

So fast forward to the 18th, when Councilman Ford, recognizing the seriousness of the situation, offered his motion as an emergency measure, seconded by Charles Dukes, to finally get this thing going.

The Mayor and Councilwoman Douglas (remember they are husband and wife), Chacon and Noble all spun out the same pablum they did during the study session, which amounted to variations of “of course we support a substation – just not one that actually does what it needs to.”

Ford and Dukes, joined by Council members Rocky Teter, Oscar Madera, and Craig Kim, each pointed out the obvious: public safety should be the top priority of city government, that our police department is facing a shortfall of 50-plus officers, and even if we hire them we have nowhere for them to go. Leases are running out this fall on the current temporary sub-facilities, which are not enough in any case; and that the people of Commerce City, more than any pet project that can be dreamed up, want a police substation in the north part of the city that is sufficient to do all the things a police substation should do.

The motion to kick-start the substation passed on a 5-4 vote, with Mayor Douglas, Mayor pro tem Noble, and Council members Chacon and Douglas all voting “No.”

Remember that next time they tell us that “of course we support a police substation”