Donna Nelson

Does Mayor Steve Bach want to appoint the LART committee or not?

The mayor’s office appears to be putting out contradictory information.

Here’s the background:

Members of the mayor’s team have been meeting with City Council President Pro Tem Jan Martin and council Administrator Aimee Cox on how to streamline the work of the Lodging and Automobile Rental Tax advisory committee.

Why?

Under the existing structure, the city could end up with three different recommendations on how revenues collected from hotel room and rental car taxes are spent. The convention and visitors bureau typically gets about 2/3 of the money, and the rest goes to special events, such as the annual balloon festival and the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb.

The council-appointed committee makes a recommendation. City staff also makes a recommendation. Both recommendations go to the mayor, who could propose something completely different.

On Thursday, Donna Nelson, the mayor’s economic vitality specialist, said the “whole purpose” of the discussions with council “was to have a new committee that would be appointed by the mayor.”

Nelson and the city’s events coordinator have been representing Bach in meetings with Martin and Cox.

On Saturday, Bach spokeswoman Cindy Aubrey contacted The Gazette, saying the administration wanted to make a “point of clarification” regarding the LART committee.

The mayor’s office sought to clarify the mayor’s position after a “Question of the Day” about the LART funds appeared in the editorial pages of Saturday’s Gazette.

The question followed a Friday story about Bach’s proposal, which explicitly states that a resolution outlining the makeup of the LART committee would be amended “to provide the Mayor with appointment authority over a reorganized LART committee.”

But Aubrey offered a different stance Saturday.

City Attorney Chris Melcher

David Neumann, who invented the scrubber technology that is being installed at the Martin Drake Power Plant downtown, is accusing City Attorney Chris Melcher of “extreme prejudice” toward his company and Colorado Springs Utilities.

In a strongly worded email sent Sunday night to Melcher and some City Council members, Neumann also says Melcher may be trying to stonewall an ethics complaint that Neumann filed against City Councilman Tim Leigh.

The Gazette received a copy of Neumann’s email late Sunday. About 9 p.m., the newspaper sent an email to Melcher seeking comment. Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey was cc’d in the email.

This blog post will be updated as soon as Melcher responds.

A private meeting in Mayor Steve Bach’s office Friday apparently prompted Neumann’s email to Melcher.

But the meeting wasn’t about Neumann’s scrubbers.

The meeting was about the work of the Stormwater Task Force.

Jason Hann, a task force member who was not in the meeting but heard about what happened afterward from someone who was there, described the meeting like this:

“Melcher stated that NO regional cooperation would take place and if there were collaborative efforts for projects the City would be at the helm. Bach commanded that he knew there were several agendas at the table and that he was going to tell us what our agenda is. Bach stated there will be NO tax recommendation and that while his administration existed, CSU was going to be responsible for paying for stormwater. That CSU needed to “scrub” their budget again (despite the City not being able to execute a zero-based budget themselves). That the Neumann cleaner technology should be removed and that would provide millions right away and for years to come,” Hann said Sunday morning on Facebook.

Robin Roberts, who was in the room, corroborated Hann’s account.

“I was on this committee and in this meeting on Friday,” Roberts said on a Facebook thread. “The way Jason is reporting it is accurate, although I do remember that the suggestion of Utilities taking over the storm water function was just a suggestion, an option thrown out there.”

Roberts said she will never volunteer for the city.

“It will be a cold day in hell before I volunteer my time on a committee for this city again,” she said.

Here is the full text of the email that Neumann sent to Melcher:

Mr. Melcher:

You are being quoted by a number of sources as expressing extreme prejudice toward our company and CSU as part of a Storm Water meeting last Friday which was presided over by the Mayor and held in the Mayor’s office.

Additionally, we are in receipt of a letter from you to two council members which instead of providing them with legal guidance on how to determine conflict of interest you single out the employees of our company and employees of CSU as being the definition of a conflict of interest.

Further evidence of your extreme bias toward our company and CSU is shown in your negotiating a deal with the Sierra Club that involved damaging our company and a CSU project approved and budgeted for by the CSU Board. You attempted to cut a deal with a radical environmental group that could have resulted in a $400 million loss in ratepayer assets and a 30-50% increase in electric rates and may have prevented the Drake plant from receiving required emissions controls.

Additionally, we expect that any meeting discussing the merits of our contract or our company’s past, present or future relationship with CSU will be discussed openly with an opportunity for public comment.  Furthermore, we demand that you release to the public the records of past private meetings dealing with our contract with CSU so that the public may determine whether your conduct is appropriate to your position.

Finally, based on information from two separate Council Members, your alignment with Councilmember Leigh has become clear and it appears that you are attempting to stonewall or deflect the Ethics investigation of Councilmember Leigh.

We can only wonder why you have not taken action directly against Councilmember Leigh when you have explicit examples of his providing false information to the public and the Board. It is obvious that you have examined our contract with CSU in detail. Therefore, when Councilmember Leigh says the contract title says it is for “Experimental” equipment you know that is false. When he says the CEO did not sign it you know that is false.  When he says there are no specs, you know there are over ten pages of specifications. We are prepared to present over twenty separate counts of ethical and legal violations by Councilmember Leigh should we be given the chance.

Request that you explain to the public how your actions above and other related actions you have done as required by the Mayor are consistent with the appropriate conduct of the City Attorney. Perhaps you can also explain the responsibilities any lawyer has to avoid conflicts of interest. How is it possible for you to do the will of your boss the Mayor under threat of termination, while simultaneously representing the best interests of the City, the Council and Colorado Springs Utilities when their interests are in conflict?

David K. Neumann

Ashleigh Banfield

While watching CNN’s live coverage of Hurricane Sandy last night, for a split second, it looked like Cindy Aubrey was in front of the camera.

But it was actually television journalist Ashleigh Banfield, who bears a striking resemblance to Aubrey, who is Mayor Steve Bach’s chief communications officer.

Not only do the two women look alike and have similar hairdos, both wear signature dark-framed glasses.

They also have journalism in their blood.

Banfield has worked in TV for years, and Aubrey used to be the news director for a local TV station.

Cindy Aubrey

Mayor Steve Bach June 26, 2012/Photo by Daniel J. Chacón

Whether mandatory evacuations for Mountain Shadows during the Waldo Canyon fire were issued early enough will be the subject of an “after-action review” to be made public in a few weeks.

That’s according to Mayor Steve Bach, who issued a statement about the timing of evacuations following reports by The Gazette and The Denver Post.

(The photo shows Bach minutes before the 4 p.m. June 26 press conference at Coronado High School. Also in the picture are Bret Waters, manager of the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey. CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR A CLOSER LOOK.)

The city issued the following press release Friday:

“In response to a few media reports about the management of the Waldo Canyon fire, Mayor Steve Bach reaffirms his strong belief that, based on all current information available, the Colorado Springs Fire and Police Departments did everything humanly possible, as soon as possible, to aid and assist all of our citizens.”

That statement included the following statement — and Quote of the Day — from Mayor Steve Bach.

“We will complete, as planned, a thorough after-action review and will make those results available in a few weeks.  We want to learn all we can from an event like this.   Our dedicated first responders performed superbly.  We will continue to look at improving where necessary and building on our strengths,” Bach said.

UPDATE: This blog post has been updated with new information.

Three months after two employees in the Communications Department were sent packing for “budgetary” reasons, the city says it is hiring a senior public communications specialist in that office.

The job pays between $56,388 and $70,476.

“The Communications Division at the City of Colorado Springs is not adding a position,” Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey said in a message.

“Unfortunately, Mary Scott, will be leaving us to take a teaching position – a transition she has been working on for the last few years. We will miss Mary and we wish her well in her new teaching job.”

According to the job posting, the new employee “must be a dynamic, creative individual who brings a spirit of innovation and re-invention to the City Communications Department.”

“You will perform research and analysis using a variety of resources to craft appropriate media messages, write press releases, opinion editorials, and other materials and work with members of the national, regional, and local media to share City stories; identify proactive opportunities for media outreach; coordinate media conferences; track and analyze media coverage trends on key issues of interest; and assist with all scheduled City / Mayoral events. Responsibilities also include writing/editing web material; responding to press inquiries; public outreach opportunities; and working closely with crisis communications team.”

Click here to read the entire job posting.

Photo by Daniel J. Chacon

No supplemental budget appropriation will be necessary to hire a new communications specialist for the City Council.

Council Administrator Aimee Cox said the council had approved funding in the 2012 budget to increase a part-time intergovernmental affairs position held by Tim Burke to a full-time position so he could help with communications.

But the plan didn’t work out, Cox said.

“During the legislative session, Tim works full-time on state bill review and basically he couldn’t provide the necessary level of communications assistance between January and May,” she said.

Cox said the council will continue to work with the mayor’s Communications Department but “needed someone internally” to help work on council speaking points for events, public engagement strategy and organizing town hall meetings.

“We needed additional assistance here to do the work of City Council, and (Chief Communications Officer) Cindy Aubrey’s office could not provide all of that assistance. But we still will work with her on press releases, budget hearings, those kinds of things,” Cox said.

Cox said she hopes to have the position filled by June 1.

Mayor Steve Bach may have eliminated 38 positions and trimmed $2 million in salaries from the 2012 budget, but two new hires in his office are all the talk at City Hall.

Last month, Chief of Staff Laura Neumann hired an executive assistant at $70,000 a year.

Neumann didn’t advertise the position, which she said is “unusual.”

But Neumann said she needed someone with the right skill set to give her a hand, especially since she was recruiting for seven manager positions that report directly to her. The seven positions were either vacant or filled by someone on an interim basis, she said.

Neumann’s new assistant, Samantha “Dani” Ewen, used to be the human resources director at Cheyenne Mountain Resort, which is where Neumann worked as vice president and general manager before she went to work for Bach in January.

“That’s not why she’s here,” Neumann said.

Ewen was one of four finalists for the city’s human resources director job and had been vetted through the selection process, she said. Even though Ewen didn’t get that job, Neumann said, she was a good fit in the mayor’s office.

Another new worker, Jason Lippert, is a former fellow at El Pomar Foundation.

Lippert, who joined the mayor’s office four weeks ago, was hired by the city from a temp agency. He gets paid $25 an hour, or $2,000 every two weeks.

Insiders jokingly refer to Lippert as the “assistant to the assistant.”

The city did not respond to a request for Lippert’s job description but said he helps with scheduling.

Bach has an extremely busy schedule, sometimes working from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., said Cindy Aubrey, the mayor’s chief communications officer.

“I know because I go to the events,” she said. “One person is not able to do all of that.”

Neumann and Steve Cox, the mayor’s chief of economic vitality and innovation, defended the hiring decisions, saying the two new employees are filling a critical need.

“We need to be able to be flexible as an organization,” Cox said.

Cox emphasized that the city is spending less on payroll this year than last year.

“The bottom line is we’re spending less money today,” Cox said.

As the city transitions to a new system of government that makes the mayor the city’s chief executive, Cox said the administration is making staffing adjustments as necessary.

Cindy Aubrey

Two employees in the city’s Communications Department were shown the door Friday.

John Leavitt, a well-respected city spokesman who routinely handled open-records requests, and Bill Beagle, the go-to guy for all things SpringsTV, were let go “as part of the organization-wide efforts to pursue efficiencies wherever possible,” Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey said Monday in an email.

“I want to stress that these were budgetary, not performance, decisions,” she said.

Aubrey’s explanation raises more questions since the city budget was approved in December and she hired Laura Benjamin, who volunteered on Mayor Steve Bach’s mayoral campaign, at the end of November.

“Laura has a different skill set and knowledge which she brings to the department,” Aubrey wrote in a follow-up email.

Aubrey also said some programming on SpringsTV Channel 18 will be eliminated.

“Springs TV will continue on – with additional replays of City Council and Planning meetings.  We will however, no longer be producing City vignettes about parks, streets etc.” she wrote.

“We will help City Council upon request for any needs they may have,” Aubrey added.

So, who’s left in the Communications Department and what do they do?

Here are the names and titles of who works there now:

Cindy Aubrey – Chief Communications Officer

Mary Scott – Public Communications Specialist I

Julie Smith – Public Communications Specialist II

Laura Benjamin – Public Communications Specialist II

Dee Brown – Public Communications Specialist II

Mary Webb – Communications Admin

Aubrey provided a job description for each employee.

“I am currently rewriting my job description – and will be absorbing some of John’s duties,” she wrote.

Here are their job descriptions:

Laura Benjamin – Communications Specialist

Key Responsibilities:

Produce online communication and news for the City and the Mayor’s Office which includes:

Writing summations for newsfeed, announcements, social media posts, press releases and citizen responses

Act as the primary web content producer as well as web facilities person for communications

Additional Communication Duties:

Daily releases as assigned by CCO

Develop strong, ongoing relationships with media

Respond to media queries with the use of established messaging

Attend events with the Mayor and City personnel, take pictures and update the public with details.

Public speaking on behalf of the City/Mayor

Assist City Council when needed or asked with communication needs

Provide speaker training and media assistance for all staff upon request

Mary Scott – Communications Specialist

Key Responsibilities:

Daily media releases for assigned departments or as assigned by CCO

Assist Donna Nelson with all things Spirit of the Springs

Organize Spirit of the Springs events- including marketing and publicity

Produce employee profiles for Springs TV

Research and present positive media coverage

Oversee E-Town Hall Meetings

Oversee and direct employee communications

Act as liaison between US Pro Cycling Challenge and City

Media Relations

Develop strong, ongoing relationships with media.  This includes quickly responding to journalist requests for stories etc.

Reaching out to beat reporters, assignment editors and news directors to pitch positive City stories

Internal / Employee Communication

Producing content for the Intranet

Answer questions for employees

Determine the best way to proactively communicate information and processes to department and City employees, employee meetings, brown bag lunches.

Julie Smith – Communications Specialist

Key Responsibilities:

Daily releases for assigned departments or as assigned by CCO

Working to find positive stories to tell about City efforts and the community.

Searching the city (media and any outlets available) for Spirit of the Springs’ candidates to celebrate and recognize.

Working with the Sister Cities Board, write all press releases and act as liaison between the City and the SC board.

Greener Corners

Work as a liaison with Nick Kittle to broaden the Greener Corners for the City.

Press Releases

Daily releases for assigned departments or as assigned by CCO

External Marketing

Assist in marketing efforts for the City.

Graphic Design

Assist all in City who request graphic design from Communications

Dee Brown – Communications Specialist

Key Responsibilities:

Operate cameras for all public meeting tapings and broadcasts including, but not limited to all City Council, formal and informal, Planning Commission,

Answer or direct all citizen remarks/complaints that are directed to City Communications

Act as a back- up editor and videographer for Springs TV

Event Planning

Assist in Event Planning & Implementation: Planning and implementing any events, including Spirit of the Springs, Solution Team events, Town Hall meetings or other events managed through the Mayor’s office.

Mary Webb – Administrative Assistant

Key Responsibilities:

Answer phones

Answer phone in department and forward all media calls to appropriate person.

Communications Budget / Contract Manager

Cindy & Dept Scheduler

Event Planning & Implementation: Assist in planning and implementing any events, including Spirit of the Springs, Solution Team events, Town Hall meetings or other events managed through the Mayor’s office.

Media Relations

Writing External & Internal Communication: Writing thank you notes, letters,

e-mails; responding to citizen and employee queries or complaints, etc.; and ensuring all written communication is on message.

This is an email from City Attorney Chris Melcher, provided to The Gazette through Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey.

The email speaks for itself:

“I wanted to provide further information regarding the Opinion of the City Attorney’s Office issued February 10, 2012, entitled “Roles and Responsibilities of City Council and Mayor with Regard to Appropriations and Administration of Appropriated Funds”.  My office consulted with the several outside attorneys and other municipal government experts on the opinion, and carefully reviewed the proper roles of Council (the legislative branch) and the Mayor (the executive branch) in the appropriations and budget process under the City Charter and our new form of government.  In our research and discussions with outside attorneys, there was a consensus that the Colorado Supreme Court has clearly ruled many times on the respective roles of the legislative branch and the executive branch in appropriations and budget implementation.  These opinions of the Supreme Court have defined the respective roles of the legislative and the executive branch – and describe in detail the limitations on improper legislative interference with the executive administration of the budget, as well as limitations on the executive ignoring or contradicting appropriate legislative major budgetary determinations.   The City Attorney’s Office memorandum of February 10, 2012 discusses in detail the 3 major rulings by the Supreme Court in the past 30 years and similar rulings by other State Supreme Courts, describes the proper roles of Council and the Mayor under our City Charter, and provides clear guidance to Council and the Mayor on both the 2012 Budget Ordinance and on future budget cycles.

It is worth pointing out that the Mayor decided in early 2012 to adopt a conciliatory and collaborative approach in the 2012 Budget, and agreed to implement the Council veto override budget requests.  This was despite the fact that at least 2 of those veto overrides (the additional code enforcement officer and the tennis court maintenance directives) were under the City Charter and Colorado law an inappropriate legislative interference with the executive administration of city departments.  It is important to understand that in light of the Mayor’s decision to implement the Council veto override requests, there is currently no “injury” to either Mayor or Council that requires further action, and no requirement that further City time or resources be expended on this question.  The City Attorney’s Opinion on the appropriations in the 2012 Budget is an “advisory opinion” to clarify for Council and Mayor their proper roles in the budget process, based on the actions in the 2012 Budget.  The City Attorney’s opinion is also provided as “guidance”, to help both the Mayor and Council navigate future budget cycles, and was completed at the request of both Council and Mayor for this purpose.

The City Attorney’s Office memorandum states that Council overstepped their lawful authority under the Charter in the 2012 Budget and sought to exert power they did not properly possess — it was not the Mayor impermissibly seeking new budget powers.  The heart of the issue was whether Council could seek to instruct the Mayor how many employees to hire for code enforcement, and seek to instruct the Mayor how to use the “Parks and Rec” budget funds, in this case on tennis court maintenance.  The Colorado Supreme Court in 3 landmark decisions has stated that decisions on staffing and decisions on allocation of budget resources are central to the executive role, and generally are not appropriate matters for legislative direction.  The veto over-ride or the supermajority vote by Council in December 2011 was certainly a significant fact, and when taken in support of a proper legislative action would of course be binding on the Mayor.  But a veto override cannot in and of itself overcome a violation of the Charter (our City constitution).   In such a case, the veto override is not the critical factor, the critical factor is whether the Council has taken action outside their lawful role and overstepped their bounds as defined under the Charter.  If so, the Council veto override is invalid and the Mayor’s veto would stand.

In our conversations with outside experts, both outside attorneys and political experts, the consensus view strongly advised that conflicts between the legislative and the executive branches on appropriations and budget questions are best resolved through the political process — through dialogue, through compromise and collaboration, or through the election process when differences cannot be resolved.  The legal process is a last resort, and is often very expensive and very inefficient – particularly when the answer is already clear.  Most of the Colorado Supreme Court decisions on these issues took many years to resolve, and left the affected citizens and the government agencies in limbo and uncertainty for long periods of time before clarity was obtained.  The existing Supreme Court opinions are well established as the clear direction from the State’s highest court.

Two of the attorneys in the City Attorney’s Office that worked on this opinion (Wynetta Massey, Pat McDivitt) have a combined experience as municipal law attorneys working for the City of over 35 years (they reported to Council for virtually all that time, prior to the Charter change).  I was personally involved in developing and writing this opinion, carefully reviewed every case, and discussed the issues with numerous individuals before rendering our opinion.  I have over 25 years experience in legal practice, including 5 years as a federal prosecutor, over 10 years as a general counsel or senior executive to public and private businesses, and over 5 years as general counsel to nonprofit organizations (JD Yale Law School 1986, BA Carleton College 1982).

The outside attorneys and outside experts consulted by the City Attorney’s Office include the following:

1. John Cook, Managing Partner Colorado Springs, Hogan Lovells
2. Cole Finegan, Managing Partner Denver, Hogan Lovells (former Denver City Attorney)
3. Chantell Taylor, Attorney, Hogan Lovells
4. Doug Friednash, Denver City Attorney (current)
5. Adrian Kwiatkowski, President, Strong Mayor-Council Institute
6. Robert Loevy, Professor Emeritus, Colorado College (Ph.D. in Political Science, tenured professor for over 40 years; numerous publications, paper, and awards during career; appointed by the Governor as a member of the Colorado State Redistricting Commission 2011; recognized national expert and public commentator on issues of government and politics)
7. International Municipal Lawyers Association (national association for city attorneys and municipal law practitioners)

I hope this information is helpful.  Thank you,

Christopher J. Melcher

City Attorney/Chief Legal Officer

Last month, Mayor Steve Bach told reporters he had “all kinds of discussions all the time” with people who don’t want their names out in public.

He was right.

According to the mayor’s 2012 calendar, about 61 percent of Bach’s meetings are held under a shroud of secrecy.

On Feb. 10, The Gazette requested the mayor’s calendar and/or appointment book for January and February of this year.

The mayor’s Communications Office complied with the open-records request and submitted a response three days later as required by Colorado law.

The office provided Bach’s calendar for January and through Feb. 13.

The calendar shows that Bach had about 132 meetings during that time period.

Of those, about 80 — or 60.6 percent — were with people whose names the Bach administration is hiding.

The analysis included both face-to-face and phone meetings.

In instances where the calendar lists the entry as “Mtgs” or “Phone Mtgs,” two meetings were counted as part of the analysis.

But it’s impossible to tell whether there were more than two meetings during a particular time slot because the calendar doesn’t specify the number.

The analysis did not include meetings of the City Council or the Mayor’s Counsel, which are both posted and open to the public.

Highlights of the mayor’s calendar during the Jan. 1-Feb.13 time period:

Bach has had eight meetings each with Chief of Staff Laura Neumann, City Attorney Chris Melcher and Steve Cox, chief of economic vitality and innovation.

Bach has had seven meetings each with Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey and Donna Nelson, economic vitality and innovation specialist.

He has has two meetings with police Chief Pete Carey and one with fire Chief Rich Brown.

He has had three meetings with his assistant, Brenda Bonn.

He met with former Mayor Lionel Rivera on Jan. 9.

The mayor has had at least five meetings with a “primary employer.” However, the calendar keeps the employer’s identity a secret.

When questioned last month about his calendar,  Bach — who promised transparency when he was running for office — said the city was complying with the open-records law and that if someone saw otherwise, “engage legal counsel and come after us.”

To watch video of the mayor’s remarks, click here. The discussion starts about 6 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.

The city is providing the media “what we think is appropriate in the way of my public meetings,” Bach said last month.

“That’s just the way it is, and I’m sorry that doesn’t satisfy you,” he said.