Monday saw more drama in the city of Englewood, Colorado, as everyone’s favorite advocate for the homeless and zippy dresser Regan Benson protested the swearing in of those city council members who won the recent elections.
The night started early for Benson as she wrote several messages in chalk outside of the city hall and got into an off-camera altercation with an elderly gentleman in a green military jacket.
After the pair exchanged insults, Benson said that a female police officer was summoned to the scene. She mocked the officer as she entered the building, asking if the officer was there to handle her antics. The officer gave a blanket denial of this but was observed focusing on Benson for the rest of the night.
The recent elections in Englewood had been marred with controversy as a link to a third-party group’s election recommendations was featured in an online newsletter on Englewood’s official website before the election.
The candidates endorsed by that group ultimately won the elections, leading to Benson and others charging the city government with corruption. Benson was further outraged as two city council members most friendly to her were defeated in their challenges to city council members targeted by Benson.
City council member Rita Russell failed to dethrone current mayor Othoniel Sierra in her quest for the mayorship and city council member Kim Wright gave up her at large seat when she challenged Steve Ward for his seat in District 4.
City council member Chelsea Nunnenkamp declined to run for another term, with her seat going to Jack Bethel, who defeated Rebecca Kramer in November’s elections. Wright’s seat will be filled by a vote of the city council itself.
The controversy surrounding the election resulted in the one-week suspension without pay of city manager Shawn Lewis, who took full responsibility for the error that led to the inclusion of the website link in the online newsletter.
Certification of the election was not unanimous as city council member Russell voted against the certification, expressing concerns about the election. It is unclear if she will be challenging the election results with legal action in the future.
After a short recess for a reception and goodbyes to the departing city council members, the city council reconvened with a swearing in of Mayor Sierra and city council members Ward and Bethel.
During the recess, the female police officer stayed close to Benson, and Benson yelled that various city council members were “cheaters,” earning no visible response.
The female police officer attempted to distract Benson with Englewood’s 2026 calendar, with art made by children who were being honored at the event. The distraction did not work and Benson openly complained that parents were allowed to film recognition of their children while Benson was confined to record from the “press” area at the back of the meeting room.
When it was her time to speak during the public feedback portion of the meeting, Benson explained that she was actually surprised by the swearing in ceremony as she came to the city hall in order to write protest messages in chalk.
She apologized for being under dressed then tore into the new city council, calling it “the Steve, Joe, Jack and O show.” She said that she would not be giving city council member Bethel a chance to prove himself and implied that he was now another crony of the supposedly corrupt city council.
Benson said she was being treated unfairly as she observed multiple parents filming children from their seats while she was forced to film from the back of the room. She asked the mayor about this, then attacked him when he responded for interrupting her time to speak.
She called all of the members of the city council and city government “dumb” and said that the “cheating lying show” would continue now that those that she openly opposed had a super majority to fill the vacant city council seat.
Briefly mentioning the homeless, Benson said that none of the city council members cared about Englewood’s homeless population. Then she quickly changed subjects and laughed at the city council’s counter suit against her in her on-going litigation against the city of Englewood.
Benson stormed out of the chambers following her remarks and spent the next two hours finishing her chalk messages and expressing her grievances to her adoring followers in her side chat before bringing the livestream to an end.
