Exactly who organized the Monday night dinner between the city councils of Colorado Springs and Pueblo?
It depends on who you ask.
Colorado Springs City Council Liaison Aimee Cox said Margaret Radford “coordinated that event.”
Radford is a former Colorado Springs councilwoman who landed a job paying more than $80,000 a year with a company that received a $10 million contract from Colorado Springs Utilities to work on the Southern Delivery System water pipeline.
Radford, who championed SDS as a council member, would neither confirm nor deny that she coordinated the dinner.
Radford referred inquiries to Janet Rummel, a Utilities spokeswoman who works primarily on SDS.
When pressed for an answer, Radford quickly ended the call.
“Let’s not do this, really,” Radford said. “If you want to talk about that, you need to talk to Janet. You know that. But I’m going to let you go now. Take care.”
Rummel said Pueblo initiated the dinner.
“They suggested that we get together and so they’re hosting a dinner with us, and it’s here in Colorado Springs,” Rummel said.
So what was Radford doing calling City Hall?
“She was just helping work on. (pause) I think that she was just calling to see. (pause) I don’t remember what all we had her doing on this event. I think she may have just called over there and checked on something for me. I can’t remember exactly what it was,” Rummel said.
Jenny Eickelman, interim deputy city manager for the city of Pueblo, said she thinks Pueblo initiated the dinner.
“We may have called them,” Eickelman said. “I’m not exactly sure who called who this time.”
Really…No one will admit to a lousy phone call? The only entree on the menu should be jellyfish so the participants at the dinner won’t be the only spineless creatures in the room.
I thought paybacks were supposed to be a b—h! Maybe this is one of the reasons people want to be on City Council – the opportunity to pave the way for their payback. Aren’t fees like taxes to the residents of Colorado Springs? Utilities seems to have their way of getting their monies! A 10 million dollar contract, wow, and then 80 k to a person who can’t answer a question. Amazing – but not surprised.
While most Colorado Springs citizens can’t afford Wal-Mart water down ground beef we have the the elite eating off the fat of the land, Yet, we still can’t get our street lights on 100%.
see whats happening to Greece we are not far behind.
How long are we going to stand for this lunacy.
Lilithia
Just another lack of ethics and morals by government employees and politicians. Do any government employees have any ethics or morals?
Carlos asked: ” Do any government employees have any ethics or morals?”
Yes, most of us do have ethics and morals (and yes for disclosure I am a mid-level public employee here with very strong ethics and morals who is posting via my personal smartphone on my lunch). Please don’t confuse the fact that Ms. Radford is no longer a City official and is NOT a City employee, She is a private employee of a private firm hired by Utilities. Her salary is set by the private sector market, not the City or Utilities.
Not sure why the excitement about who called whom or having dinner. The Pueblo and Colorado Springs elected officials should be comunicating regulalry and if it’s over dinner once and awhile that’s not inherently a bad thing.
Mr. Chacon – perhaps you could follow up with a more substantive story about what may have been discussed at the dinner. That would be valuable information to put in print.