Former Colorado Springs Councilman Randy Purvis said he has his suspicions about why the former Memorial Health System Board of Trustees gave Dr. Larry McEvoy a $1.15 million separation package.

“I wonder if there wasn’t a little bit of ill feelings on the board’s part,” Purvis said Friday.

“To borrow that old Janis Joplin line, ‘Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.’ The Board of Trustees, thinking they’re out of a job in four or five months, there’s nothing left to lose so what the heck, give McEvoy a sweetheart deal on his way out the door.”

Former Colorado Springs Councilman Randy Purvis was asked to write a review of Colorado College professor Bob Loevy’s evaluation of the city’s strong mayor form of government.

I don’t know who asked Purvis to write a review.

All I know is that he did it and that I got a copy.

Here it is:

Review of Loevy Analysis
Review of Council – Mayor Form of Government
Randall Purvis, 03.25.2012

Disclaimer: My comments are intended as an objective review of the system currently in place. It is not a justification of the old way of doing things. Furthermore, I intend no disrespect or insult of any one currently in office.

I. Professor Loevy’s baseline assumption is wrong; the citizens of Colorado Springs adopted a “Council – Mayor” form of government, not a “Strong Mayor” form of government. The Charter amendment language was a “find / replace” operation substituting the word “Mayor” for “City Manager.” The advertising campaign featured elementary children talking about checks and balances: “It’s the American way.” The ballot language itself told voters they were voting on a “Council-Mayor” form of government.
II. Nonetheless, the mayor position is markedly stronger one than council’s.

The mayor only has to agree with him/her self. Council must form a team of 6 or more members and act as a cohesive unit to get things done. This, in practice, is very difficult to do. The mayor has total control over city staff (civil service currently only affects only police and fire rank and file). The mayor can establish a direction and the information disseminated can be tailored to support that direction. Anyone who does not sign-on to the direction is fired. Any city employee speaking / leaking information to anyone outside the city administration, to Council or the general public is fired. Any information that does not support the direction or might be critical of it can be suppressed under the “work product” exception to CORA. While City Council has means of obtaining any information from the administration, to date they have not availed themselves of those methods. Furthermore, City Council has no authority to direct administrative staff to do anything. They cannot investigate or review alternatives, propose budgets, etc. because City Council has no staff support outside of the City Auditor’s office. It is the mayor’s ability to control information that demands a system of checks and balances; it demands a city council doing its job, not just rubber stamping everything that comes out of the administration.

III. A system of checks and balances is indeed the American way. There is a healthy and well founded distrust in government, in the persons running government and in any one person having unchecked authority. Accordingly, at the federal and state level, there institutions in place that limit the competing branches of government. At the local level, there is a corresponding need for those same limiting institutions. In establishing the folkways and customs of a mayor – council form of government in Colorado Springs, care must be taken to give the executive branch the latitude it needs to function efficiently, while still giving the 2 legislative branch the resources and authority to provide the citizen’s oversight of the executive branch. Each branch must be accountable to the other, and ultimately to the citizens that elected them. For Council to do its job, it must have the information, resources and advice to be able to do the job. Without the necessary information, council might as well stay in Plato’s Cave. Or to use a more recent analogy, take the blue pill and stay plugged into the matrix.

IV. Given this briefly statement of principles, here is my review of Loevy’s Proposed Changes

A. Council approval of Mayor Appointees.

1. The proposal would remove one of council’s most basic checks of the mayor. Council approval is a basic guard against “crony appointments.” High profile positions such as city attorney and municipal judges should require a set of hearings before council prior to council’s advice and consent to the appointment. The position of City Clerk is especially sensitive. The Clerk’s office controls and runs city elections. Giving the mayor unchecked authority to appoint the city clerk begs for charges, unfounded or not, that the mayor’s office is rigging council district boundaries and elections. An alternative solution might be a two track process: appointments for lower level positions or for positions where a super majority of
council is familiar with or comfortable with the appointee is placed on the consent calendar. More sensitive appointments or those lacking broad council support would get a more thorough council review process.

2. Mayoral Control of the Hospital / Utilities. The Charter change was for a Council – Mayor form of government. The mayor was elected as the chief executive officer of the city government, not of the hospital or of the utility department. As a practical matter, the hospital will likely be leased in the next year. Council is also reviewing alternative governance
models for utilities for future action. As a baseline principal, I feel strongly that the Colorado Springs Utilities board, like many other publicly owned and all investor owned utilities must be directly accountable to the citizen-owners of the utility. This is impossible with an appointed board.

B. City Council Districting

The need for city-wide views on Council is not diminished in a mayor-council government. It is enhanced by it. Council members elected to small districts can become parochial and narrowly focused on their own back yard. As such, they function poorly as a check and balance for the mayor’s office. Furthermore, as the Colorado Springs system is currently evolving, district representatives will also have little authority or ability to effect any change in their district, all of that control having devolved to the mayor’s office.

C. Run-off Elections for Slotted At-Large Seats.

While this may have the effect of the at-large member having a clear claim to majority support, it will also have the effect of decreasing the number of candidates and reducing the competition for those seats. Under the current system, one need only finish third to get a seat on council. Under the proposed change, a challenger must take out an incumbent with all the advantages of being in office. Historically, in Colorado Springs district races an incumbent running for re-election does so unopposed.

V. Summary

The current Council-Mayor system can be made to work and to work well. However, Council is at a huge disadvantage, part structural, part because council has not yet learned to function as a team. Rather than embark on charter changes that strengthen one party’s hand at the expense of the other’s, the current system should be allowed to continue to work out the folkways and customs for a few more years. Furthermore, ambiguities can always be addressed via ordinances.

Councilman Randy Purvis continues to offer an interesting perspective on the mayor’s race.

A week ago, he blogged about the four candidates who are reportedly leading in polling.

Richard Skorman is the status quo candidate, Purvis says.

“He is the least likely to rock the boat or to make big changes in city government,” he wrote. “He is quietly amassing a large cash stockpile to prepare for the run-off campaign.”

Brian Bahr is the most difficult candidate to get a read on, he says.

“I still wonder whether he has a complete grasp of the issues or comprehends the nuances of them,” he wrote. “I expect him to be in the runoff with Skorman; so perhaps we will learn more in April about his depth of understanding.”

Steve Bach is the establishment candidate, he says.

“I just do not see in him the ability to establish a rapport with the voter,” he wrote. “This is a fundamental requirement for any political leader, how can one be a leader if there is nobody following?”

Tom Gallagher is the wild card, he says.

“I recall the first time I saw Gallagher in action,” he wrote.

“It was during the 2003 council campaign and all the candidates were at a forum out on Murray Blvd.  The hot issue that year was whether Constitution should be an east-west thoroughfare.  Gallagher was there, slightly overweight, smoking a cigarette, somewhat disheveled in his dress.  And yet when he spoke that day he had the audience in the palm of his hand.  He demonstrated that day and has ever since the ability to connect with the voter,” Purvis wrote.

“With a little bit of money and someone with media savvy, Gallagher would be a dangerous candidate.”

Does Brian Bahr have the muscle to lead the ballot in April?

Councilman Randy Purvis is writing off Buddy Gilmore, Tom Gallagher and four others in the mayor’s race.

“The contenders are now down to three: Skorman, Bahr and Bach,” Purvis wrote in his blog after Tuesday’s mayoral forum at the Fine Arts Center.

“Of the three, Bach is hanging on for dear life. I just do not see much of an ability in Bach to connect with the voter. He may have some endorsements, but they are from people he has known for a long time,” Purvis said.

“Skorman and Bahr have that ability to connect, which is why I expect them to lead the ballot by a significant margin over the remaining seven,” he added.

Randy Purvis

– Councilman Randy Purvis said during today’s City Council meeting about a proposal from Councilman Sean Paige, who is seeking election in April, to find out the magnitude of the city’s pension obligations.

Paige said after the meeting that the issue “came up on my radar screen” after it was revealed that it would cost nearly $250 million to get city-owned Memorial Health System out of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association of Colorado.

“But I think it should be a campaign issue,” Paige said.

“If you force me to bet you a beer right now, I would bet that when all is said and done, nobody on the current council is going to run. Listen, there could be an action this afternoon that proves me wrong. But you know, I talk to all those people, and that’s just kind of the sense that I’m getting right now.”

— Councilman Scott Hente said today when asked whether he would endorse any current council members if they ran for mayor.

Council members who had or have been — or said to have been — considering mayoral bids include Vice Mayor Larry Small and council members Jan Martin, Tom Gallagher, Sean Paige and Randy Purvis.

Starting Wednesday, Colorado Springs Councilman Sean Paige is holding a series of town hall meetings in District 3, which encompasses the southeast part of the city.

“It’s an informal opportunity to talk with Paige about any items of interest involving the city,” Paige said in an e-mail.

Paige, who was appointed to the District 3 City Council seat after former Councilman Jerry Heimlicher resigned, is running for election in April, possibly as a mayoral candidate.

When asked whether politics played a factor in his decision to hold town hall meetings, including why he didn’t hold them before, Paige said he wasn’t doing it with the election in mind.

“You’re reading too much into this,” he said in an e-mail.

“I’m about to mark a year on Council, a lot is going on, including budget season, and I want to get some feedback from folks around the district. If they want to give me some feedback on how I’m doing, that’s fine too,” he said.

Paige said he enjoys interacting with the public.

“I attend a lot of meetings, but not many that are just free-wheeling forums in which wide-ranging discussions take place. I think it would be good for me, and good for my constituents. I really had forgotten that I could hold town halls until Darryl (Glenn) did his. I invited Randy Purvis to sit in on the Westside Center meeting, and he said he’ll join me,” he said.

All the meetings will be from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
 
Scheduled meetings include:
 
Wednesday, October 13th
Westside Community Center
1628 West Bijou Street in Old Colorado City

Wednesday, October 20th
Cheyenne Mountain Library Community Room
1785 8th Street 
 
Wednesday, October 27th
Hillside Community Center
925 South Institute Street

Wednesday, November 3rd

Colorado Springs City Hall
Pikes Peak Conference Room (2nd Floor)
107 N. Nevada Ave

As the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Despite repeated requests, Colorado Springs Utilities has been refusing to provide a ratepayer-funded analysis that includes employee health care costs and proposed premium splits.

The data will be the subject of discussion at Wednesday’s Utilities Board meeting, and Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman said the city-owned enterprise didn’t want the information to get out before then.

“There’s a lot of information that’s in the report that really requires the experts there to go through it all,” Grossman said Monday.

At least three council members — Tom Gallagher, Darryl Glenn and Randy Purvis – saw it differently and provided the data to The Gazette.

Councilman Sean Paige also said he was willing to share the information, though he only had it in hard copy.

“I’m still sort of looking it over in preparation for tomorrow’s meeting (but) I’d be happy to share it with you,” he said in a voicemail message.

Thank you, councilmen. Your actions prove that transparency in government is alive at City Hall.

Click here and here to read the documents.

The joke around town is that everybody and their mother is running for or thinking about running for mayor of Colorado Springs.

Councilman Bernie Herpin went on record today to say he isn’t.

Moments after a blog post was posted on Facebook about Councilman Randy Purvis saying that he’s considering running for mayor, Herpin let his Facebook “friends” know that he isn’t interested in the job.

“I’m not thinking of running for mayor!” Herpin wrote on Facebook.

Sean Paige isn’t the only Colorado Springs councilman considering running for mayor.

Councilman Randy Purvis, who has been mentioned as a possible contender, said he’s also considering a mayoral bid.

“I’m thinking about it,” he said last week. “I have not made any decision.”

According to the city’s website: Purvis was elected to an at-large council seat in April 1987. He was re-elected to a second term in April 1991 and then a third term in April 1995. After sitting out because of term limits, Purvis was elected to an at-large council seat in April 2003. He was re-elected again in April 2007.