Mayoral candidate Buddy Gilmore is taking a swipe at Vice Mayor Larry Small, saying taxpayers deserve better than the way Small reacted Friday to a proposal by El Paso County to move their head honchos into the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.
Small, chairman of the commission that oversees the regional building department, called the county’s efforts “devious” and “underhanded.”
“It seems to me you’re trying to push something through in somewhat of an underhanded fashion to avoid a public discourse on this,” Small told county officials.
Gilmore said he was “saddened and disappointed” by the tone of Friday’s meeting.
“Instead of embracing efforts to save taxpayer money and create efficiencies of government, it appears the meeting degenerated into name calling amid allegations of deceit,” Gilmore said in a letter to the editor, which he shared with the City Desk blog.
“I think the city and county’s taxpayers deserve, and demand, better than this,” Gilmore wrote. “Let’s work for a little less animosity, and a lot more cooperation.”
There is a big unanswered question here: Why would county officials spend millions of dollars to buy some of the Intel buildings on Garden of the Gods Road, which they called a smart purchase, and then want to move to the regional building department?
Gilmore, by the way, may be duking it out with Small in the April municipal election because Small is considering running for mayor.
Here’s the full text of Gilmore’s letter:
I am saddened and disappointed at the tone of last Friday’s Regional Building Department meeting. In fact, the county’s plan to relocate top county offices has been public knowledge for weeks. Instead of embracing efforts to save taxpayer money and create efficiencies of government, it appears the meeting degenerated into name calling amid allegations of deceit. This is not the first time city officials have rebuked efforts to work with the county to create a more streamlined, cost-efficient, regional perspective on governing. However, I think the city and county’s taxpayers deserve, and demand, better than this. Let’s work for a little less animosity, and a lot more cooperation.
Buddy Gilmore
Candidate, Colorado Springs Mayor
Austin, Albuquerque,Portland, Huntsville are all outperforming Colorado Springs in economic development because these cities, their home counties, the local Chamber and the local EDC work well together for the benefit of all.
This manner of …petty squabbling between the city and the county is characteristic of the people in Colorado Springs and is an integral part of how business is done to the detriment of all in this region.
If we do not get rid of , on Tuesday, of as many of the little litterbox republican kitties and get some real people with administrative and people skills in office, the the Pikes Peak region will continue being home to Colorado Springs – - a small town covering a lot of square miles filled with petty, small-thinking people!
Buddy has the right idea. Hope if he gets elected he does not find himself wading in a cesspool filled with the likes of which we have all become accustomed to the point we re-elect them! Over and over again.