Arapahoe County clerk seeks $2 million to move Aurora motor-vehicle office, $350,000 for election facility security

John Lopez, Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder, told the Board of County Commissioners that his office needs funding to move the Aurora motor-vehicle branch into a county-owned building to avoid recurring lease costs and continuing building problems.

"The lease we're in is expensive, and the plumbing causes numerous issues, causing shutting down the office completely for weeks just a couple years ago," Lopez said. He told commissioners the office has identified a county-owned location at CenterPoint and estimated a one-time redesign and construction cost of a maximum of $2,000,000 to adapt the space.

The move, Lopez said, would eliminate a roughly $290,000-a-year lease and avoid repeated expenses to replace state equipment, furniture and carpeting after flooding and other building failures. He said staff safety incidents and repeated leaks that destroyed equipment have made a relocation a high operational priority.

Lopez also described other near-term requests he classified as "must-haves": a one-time $350,000 fence to improve security at the county election warehouse, and $150,000 to complete construction of a phone-bank hub in the Administration Building to centralize mail, phone and electronic processing for motor-vehicle services. "This will cost a 150,000, won't require any new FTEs, and will allow us to focus more on the phone, mail, and electronic transactions," Lopez said.

On election outreach, Lopez said the county needs to update ballot drop boxes with new vinyl wraps and correct information. He noted an implementation detail: "In 2026, we're now required by law to have 34 VSBCs and 34 ballot boxes," saying a vendor could wrap boxes and the work could be phased across a year.

Lopez told the board the fence and warehouse redesign requests were informed by consultations with Facilities and, at a high level, by guidance the office has received from federal partners. "One of the recommendations we got from the Department of Homeland Security as well as our partners with CISA and FBI was that if people don't need to be in the space, don't live in the space, have more badges, have more security," he said when discussing warehouse layout and secure access.

Commissioners asked for clarifications on cost estimates and whether Facilities had been consulted; Lopez and other staff said estimates were high-level and that Facilities had been engaged on some items. Several commissioners urged that construction and security work be phased and coordinated with the county’s capital-improvement planning (CIP) process.

The Clerk and Recorder presentation also asked for funding to produce professional videos explaining services and for vending/wraps for outreach; Lopez said without outside production help the office will continue to produce lower-quality in-house videos more slowly. He repeatedly emphasized that some projects were operationally urgent (security, relocation) while others (videos, box wraps) could be staged over multiple years.

Discussion vs. decision: commissioners heard the requests and asked for follow-up details; no formal motions or votes were taken during the study session. Staff were directed to coordinate cost estimates with Facilities and, where appropriate, to break CIP-level projects into multi-year phases for commissioner review.

Ending: The commissioners said they wanted more precise cost information and phasing plans before any appropriation decisions could be made; staff agreed to return through the budget development process with memos and detailed estimates.