A handful of proposed charter amendments that Mayor Steve Bach said he didn’t know about until the last minute won’t even be considered by the City Council today.
However, the council is still scheduled to consider a November ballot proposal involving the future of Memorial Health System.
Council President Scott Hente decided not to place the proposed charter changes on the agenda because of the controversy that ensued, council liaison Aimee Cox said.
“With all the concern, it was just decided,” she said. “The president of council controls the agenda and decided not to put those forward on the agenda.”
Cox said the four proposals were “just some ideas” that had been floated around based on a few months of experience under the new strong-mayor form of government.
The proposals, drafted by City Attorney Patricia Kelly, were outlined in a memo leaked to The Gazette.
They included a proposed charter amendment to take away the mayor’s authority to appoint the city attorney and give it to the council.
Another proposal calls for the mayor to execute contracts only for the city government but not for Memorial Health System or Colorado Springs Utilities.
Bach said Kelly had not briefed him on the proposals beforehand.
“These charter amendments were a surprise to me,” Bach said last week.
“There was no discussion with me before they were distributed to the council, which is disappointing in the sense that I think there ought to be a dialogue between the City Attorney’s Office and the mayor,” he said. “I hope this is strictly attributable to everybody being really busy.”
Bach said the city should form a charter review committee to study and recommend possible charter changes after several more months of working under the strong-mayor form of government.
“I think we need to have a more comprehensive look at the charter. We’ve only been doing this for two months,” said Bach, who took the oath of office in June.
Smart move.
Cox said the four proposals were “just some ideas” that had been floated around based on a few months of experience under the new strong-mayor form of government….
Translate, just some ideas from the old guard like Ms. Cox to make sure they can save their cushy jobs. Good thing the Mayor stood his ground!