Aimee Cox has been selected as the first City Council liaison, a new position created to provide a link of communication between council members and city staff.
Under the old council-manager form of government, council members had a direct line to city staff. But under the new strong-mayor form of government, all municipal government employees work for the mayor.
“In the old days – a couple of months ago – council members would call or send an email to the appropriate staff person to get an answer to a constituent’s question. That line is broken now,” council President Scott Hente said today.
As a result, Mayor Steve Bach and Hente came up with the idea to create a council liaison to keep those lines of communication through one point of contact.
Cox, a Manitou Springs city councilwoman who works for the city of Colorado Springs, will also be responsible for facilitating communication among council members and preparing council agendas, among other duties, Hente said.
“She’s been with the city for some time and so she obviously knows the city staff. She knows the way around. She knows who to deal with,” Hente said. “She is well thought of and well respected within the city staff. I think she’s the right person.”
Hente noted that Cox serves on the Manitou Springs City Council as mayor pro tem, which gives her a unique insight.
“She understands the sensitivities and the politics of municipal governments,” he said. “If I could write a description of the perfect candidate, she would probably fit it.”
Cox is a former parks and recreation employee who most recently worked in the city housing office, Hente said.
“It was a complete lateral change, so this is no cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “There’s no salary change and there is no addition to the city work force.”
Cox’s current annual base salary is $74,000, according to city spokeswoman Mary Scott.
Cox is not related to Steve Cox, who is the mayor’s chief of staff.
It sure seems like we are hiring more people to help council and the new mayor. I thought the whole idea was to create smaller government and conservative vales. How is hiring all these people either of those?
Inside deals
“Hente noted that Cox serves on the Manitou Springs City Council as mayor pro tem, which gives her a unique insight.”
So… am I the only one that thinks Cox has a conflict of interest? Mayor Pro Tem of Manitou Springs, in charge of agendas for Colorado Springs City Council. Who comes first? Her job or her friends in Manitou that beat up on our new Mayor daily and make fun of Colorado Springs every chance they get! Why did the reporter not explore this conflict. What’s more…Hente says,
“It was a complete lateral change, so this is no cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “There’s no salary change and there is no addition to the city work force.” Does this statement mean Cox was not doing anything for her $74K pay check? She does not need to be replaced in the housing department? The City does not care about affordable housing for our citizens or she just did not matter on the job?
We really need to pay someone $74K to help council members communicate with each other and staff? A good admin assistant is less than $40K. Seems like a bad idea to have an elected official from one town as a gate keeper for our elected officials in Colorado Springs. I vote this decision as wasteful! Looks like Councilman Hente is just trying to make busy work for a staff person that is no longer useful.
Aimee is good choice.
I voted against the strong mayor proposal, but the majority won. There was never any doubt that the strong mayor format would cost more money. The slick ads lied-so what’s new?
Just look at how much money the run-off for Mayor cost-somewhere around $400,000
Deal with it! I am.
What goes around comes around. Jim Mullen, as city manager, created a position to coordinate requests of staff from Council and/or citizens. There were standards for staff response. Tracked via an automated system. Not sure what happened to it.
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