Citizens for Accountable Leadership, which is advocating a strong-mayor form of government in Colorado Springs, released its proposal this week.

The group plans to collect enough signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Buddy Gilmore and Tim Leigh, who have already announced their intentions to run for mayor in April 2011, were asked whether they had seen the proposal and if they supported it.

They were also asked whether they would continue to run for mayor if voters approved the governance change.

Here are their e-mailed responses, starting with Gilmore:

I have read their initial cut at this and it still leaves me with a lot of questions.

When I read the statement of purpose on their website I do not see the compelling reason to change our form of gevernment. This decision should not be made merely on the size of our city; after all, 50 percent of the largest cites in the U.S. including cities such as Phoenix, operate under the council-management form of government. Accountability has certainly been an issue here in the Springs, but there are a number of ways we can increase accountability and transparancy, such as posting city expenditures on the city website on a monthly basis. In addition, we have long history of holding elected officials accountable through the ballot box, and that won’t change. With regards to comments about needing ‘strong leadership’ I think we have seen some great examples in the past – Mayor Bob and Mary Lou come to mind – and they took the job not for the money, but because they loved this city.

I’m also curious to hear about the rationale of taking a full time position, merging it with a part time position, and cutting the combined salaries by over 50 percent.

I’ve learned from previous inititatives that it’s sometimes risky to go all out for an idea until seeing the details. There is more that I would like to learn on this issue.

With regards to changing my mind as a candidate if this passes – no – that’s not going to happen. I just think the race may become a bit more crowded.

Buddy

Here’s what Leigh had to say:

I want to congratulate the Citizens for Accountable Leadership with their visionary proposal as it relates (to)  the strong mayor concept.  As a candidate for mayor, I have proposed that we leave our prejudices and predilections at the door and come-together without regard to political party affiliation to advocate policy that is good for the entire city.  This is a (good) example of that process and a bipartisan outcome that would move the city forward.  While I’m not sure if the citizens will vote to approve myriad changes to the charter, I can say without reservation that the job of mayor of Colorado Springs needs to be full-time with appropriate compensation. 

My position as a candidate has been to run and serve under whatever form of government we have in place at the time of the election.  Obviously, we now have a ‘weak mayor’ system.  If elected, and if that system is in place, it is my intention to serve the city to the best of my ability under that form of government.  If our form of government changes, I will do my best to serve the city under the new form.

Sincerely,

Tim Leigh

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.