With the municipal election days away, a campaign finance complaint has been filed with the Colorado Secretary of State against the city of Englewood and City Manager Shawn Lewis.
The complaint, filed on Oct. 27, said that on the city of Englewood’s Belleview Park Neighbors webpage, there was a November newsletter with information about the upcoming election. Under the election information, there was a link to learn more about candidates and issues, linking to the website of Vibrant Englewood, where the group endorsed or recommended several candidates for city council and the Englewood School Board.
Then came two updates to the city memo on Oct. 30 and 31, after the complaint was filed, showing that the city had printed and distributed more than 600 Belleview Park Neighbors flyers that included a referral to Vibrant Englewood. It was also revealed that the link to Vibrant Englewood on the city website had been in place for a full month before it was removed.
Vibrant Englewood is a community organization whose 2025 voter guide on its website includes endorsements or recommendations for several city council and school board candidates, as well as opposition to a ballot initiative that would cement plurality voting in the city charter. The complaint filed with the CSOS alleges that by linking to Vibrant Englewood as an election resource on a city website, the city is tacitly making an endorsement of the same candidates as Vibrant Englewood.
“Any municipality or government agency must be neutral on all elections,” the complaint reads. “By having a link to Vibrant Englewood’s endorsements, the city is not only participating in elections, but also tacitly endorsing a slate of candidates over the other candidates as well as interfering in ballot initiatives. This is an outrageous violation and the city of Englewood should be punished severely.”
The Belleview Park Neighbors page, which was hosted on the city’s Englewood Engaged website, is a neighborhood webpage. According to city communications director Chris Harguth, neighborhood webpages were posted on by neighborhood leaders, not city employees. Harguth added that the pages are also not widely circulated and are primarily seen by members of the neighborhood.
On Oct. 27, the morning the CSOS complaint was filed — but before the city was aware of the complaint — a constituent contacted District 4 City Councilmember Steve Ward with similar concerns. Ward then contacted the acting city manager at the time, Victor Rachael, with the concerns. According to Lewis, as soon as the city was made aware of the posting, they removed it and the city manager self-reported the issue to the Englewood City Clerk, although no formal complaints have been filed with the city.
“The City of Englewood was made aware of the post shortly after it was published and acted immediately to remove it,” Lewis said. “The link in question was added by a volunteer neighborhood group leader who manages a community forum webpage hosted on the City’s Englewood Engaged platform. Once notified, staff reviewed the content and removed it.”
The city of Englewood was notified of the CSOS complaint on Oct. 30, by which time the webpage had already been taken down. Lewis noted that for now, all community webpages are suspended.
“All neighborhood webpages have since been suspended while the city updates our policy on the use of our neighborhood messaging forums,” Lewis said.
A council request memo, requested by Councilmember Tena Prange and sent to council by Harguth, documents the city’s response to the link’s presence on the webpage.
According to the memo, 19 people followed the Belleview Park Neighbors page. Neighborhood leaders could post on the webpages, but could not contact followers directly via email, meaning the November newsletter was hosted on the page, but not sent to anyone through it. When the neighborhood leader was contacted, they were apologetic and cooperative.
Currently, the Englewood Engaged system does not allow content to be approved by city staff before being posted by neighborhood leaders. All neighborhood pages have been taken down while the city develops new policy and a training program to safeguard against a similar incident occurring again.
According to the memo, the city’s new website, which will be developed in 2026, will include tools for staff to review content before it is published. The city is also evaluating whether it wants to continue hosting the neighborhood pages or if it should instead encourage neighbors to make their own pages independent of the city website.
The complaint comes after a 2024 election in which the city of Englewood used taxpayer money to finance campaign signs supporting a parks and recreation bond — an issue which was mentioned in the memo.
“City staff understand and take seriously the requirements of the Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits the use of City resources to influence an election,” the memo reads. “After the 2023 park bond sign concern, the City Attorney’s Office provided additional detailed legal guidance to department directors and managers to reinforce those standards. Since then, staff have consistently applied that direction in day-to-day operations and communications.”
On Oct. 30, an update to the memo said that printed copies of the November Belleview Park Neighborhood newsletter were printed and distributed by the city. According to the memo, printing newsletters is a regular service provided to registered neighborhoods who bring in their own materials. The staff member who printed the newsletter was not aware it contained a link to campaign related material that endorsed candidates.
Another update, on Oct. 31, clarified that 604 copies of the newsletter were printed and distributed. The content of the newsletter differed in print and online versions. While the online version linked directly to Vibrant Englewood after saying “Learn more about candidates and issues,” the print version contained a link to the city’s website after that same text. Underneath the link to the city’s website, it also says that “there is a citizen group that highlights issues and hosts forums called Vibrant Englewood,” and then links to Vibrant Englewood’s website.
The neighborhood leader who created the flyers has agreed to reimburse the city for printing and distribution costs, which totaled $340.
The memo said that the artwork for the newsletter was submitted to city staff on Sept. 3, but election information was not put on the Vibrant Englewood website until Sept. 28, meaning that “it would have been difficult for staff to have known that the link would later contain election-related content.
“However,” the memo continues, “staff accepts responsibility for this oversight and is now working on a policy to prohibit third-party website links in any future neighborhood program materials to ensure consistency and compliance with election and communications standards.”
Municipal campaign finance complaints are typically filed at the municipal level, not the state level. However, Kevin Timken, who filed the complaint with the CSOS, said he did so because he had previously worked with the CSOS office and believed they would deal with the complaint appropriately.
Timken said he filed the complaint “just to get the message out.”
“When you take the oath, you take the oath to be held accountable,” Timken added. “You have to be forthright. You have to follow the rules. We have a good democracy, we have good elections, we should keep it that way.”
Mayor Othoniel Sierra, who is currently running for re-election and is endorsed by Vibrant Englewood, said that the webpages should be permanently taken down because they were run by neighbors and not city employees, and there was always a possibility that political content could be posted.
“We allowed these webpages to be used by our neighborhood groups in order to build community and allow better communication of events and goings-on in their neighborhood,” Sierra said. “Due to this and future possibilities of elevating or promoting candidates or referendums in elections, we’ll have to do away with this tool and webpages immediately.”
Jack Bethel, a District 2 city council candidate endorsed by Vibrant Englewood, said that he had never felt as though the city endorsed him.
“I have always been treated with the utmost professionalism and impartiality from the city of Englewood,” Bethel said. “At no point did I perceive of, or hear of any endorsement from The city of Englewood.
“At the end of the day, I hope we can all run our campaigns with respect for one another and let the voters do their jobs,” Bethel continued. “The more we look for each other's faults, the more disconnected we become as a community.”
Ward, who is currently running for re-election in District 4 and is recommended by, but not endorsed by, Vibrant Englewood, said that he addressed the issue as soon as it was brought to his attention.
“What occurred was unfortunate,” Ward said. “I addressed it as soon as it came to my attention. The posts in question occurred without my knowledge, and I would never encourage or knowingly allow city resources to be used to advocate for or against any ballot issue or candidate.
“Council service is not a responsibility that I take lightly,” Ward continued. “I cannot and will not promise you that the City of Englewood will never make a mistake. I will, however, promise you that I will consistently take responsibility for any mistakes that I make while I am a city councilman or a candidate. My record on that is also clear, and I make it a point to correct mistakes every bit as publicly as I make them. Going forward, to the extent that it is within my authority, I will continue to address problems with the city when they arise and ensure accountability if the same problems occur repeatedly, just as I've done with this matter.”