A joint meeting between the Colorado Springs City Council and the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners has been postponed until September or October.
The meeting had been scheduled for Friday.
Why was the meeting postponed?
“There wasn’t enough material for the two legislative bodies to work on and produce joint output at this point,” Tim Burke, the city’s intergovernmental affairs liaison, said in an email.
“Even though state law gives county commissioners operational authority, the City Charter now gives nearly all operational responsibility to the Mayor, not the council,” he added.
A new meeting date will be announced “as soon as calendars have been coordinated,” Burke said in the initial email announcing the postponement.
This, coming after the commissioners appearance at the council meeting and their comments, indicates to me the city has found the county to be an embarrassment – a roadblock to regional progress, and just told them to stay up on the porch with the little puppies while the big dogs take care of business.
There is plenty of embarrassment to go around LOL.
One should clean thier own doodrstep ,before telling others of thier dirty door steps.
lilithia
Well, one of the major problems with the ballot initiative that allowed City of Colorado Springs to move to a so-called “Strong Mayor”/Council form of government is that it was pushed through without adequate review and discussion of the new roles and responsibilities as outlined in the Charter. Obviously the City Charter was written with the older “Council” form of government as the intended governing format. This was not by mistake. The people pushing the idea that one person (the person who represents their vested interests maybe?) didn’t want this to be clearly defined. The special interest groups are counting on the general public to just let them take over without raising any questions.
RMS:
Curious: lot of comments re: the Mayor having been “bought and paid for by “special interest groups” who want him to represent their “vested interests.” Most of the comments coming on threads such as these.
But for clarity, what action, events, or activities have taken place that you would tie to which special interest group? And has he really done anything at all?
He forced the former EDC director out of town, who is now bringing hundreds and hundreds of jobs to another city.
He cut funding for EDC – placed one with absolutely no experience in the field as an “economic vitality director” – hired an assistant for him who in turn also got an assistant.
He fired a lot of staff resulting in lawsuits. He formed a few “solution teams” which, so far – - have proven to be of no value.
He did show leadership qualities during the Waldo Canyon fire.
He inherited a job with a city with ‘issues’ – has had to work through them – and is faced with a serious challenge that the city and county, primarily due to ‘personality issues’ have never worked well together, coupled with a weak Chamber resulting in more jobs leaving the area than those moving in – - at a time when the revenue produced by jobs is a critical need.
But – what has taken place to indicate he is a puppet and which of the ‘special interest groups’ do you feel he is dancing for?
Did anyone truly study and present what a Strong Mayor is/was to the people before the actual ballot initiative was presented? Is there anyone in the current administration that is actually working for the people that voted them in. WHY have we not seen any REAL jobs that are decent paying created in the Springs for people that live here, not just for businesses that move here with complete staff? Are we ever going to see Colorado Spring promoted to be a place to set up shop using the talent that is here for real decent wages that are long term ( greater than 10 years)?
I don’t think that the current administration really cares about this city, just the constant political battles and gridlock and outrageous “parting gifts” that are given to executives and others that do little for the city and leave with vast rewards.
This used to be a great city to live and work in. Now, sadly, it has become yet another “junk” community that has little left to offer ( in the way of government) that will help or let alone care about anything outside a three foot radius of the admin buildings. We still have a very talented, viable workforce that has MUCH to offer, please start using it before it leaves to.
If there are two groups of people that can screw up a one man ambush it is these two. Keeping them apart may be a good thing for the city and county.