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Quote of the Day

April 30th, 2012, 1:09 pm by

Interim City Clerk Cindy Conway’s weekend was cut short on Sunday.

Conway had to go into the City Administration Building to post notice of the Memorial Health System Board of Trustees’ special meeting at 4 p.m. Monday.

The notice was posted at 2:31 p.m.

City Attorney “Chris Melcher gave me the direction to come in and post it, so I did,” Conway said.

(Click on the picture to get a closer look at the notice.)

According to the Colorado Sunshine Law:

“Any meetings at which the adoption of any proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action occurs or at which a majority or quorum of the body is in attendance, or is expected to be in attendance, shall be held only after full and timely notice to the public. In addition to any other means of full and timely notice, a local public body shall be deemed to have given full and timely notice if the notice of the meeting is posted in a designated public place within the boundaries of the local public body no less than twenty-four hours prior to the holding of the meeting. The public place or places for posting such notice shall be designated annually at the local public body’s first regular meeting of each calendar year. The posting shall include specific agenda information where possible.”

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Boards and Commissions • City employees • Meetings • • • | 3 Comments »

Quote of the Day

April 26th, 2012, 10:52 am by

The chairman of the mayor’s Transit Solutions Team is at the center of a political controversy after telling City Councilwoman Brandy Williams to mind her own business.

Robert Shonkwiler, a retired businessman, said he doesn’t quite understand why the incident, which happened at Monday’s City Council meeting, has blown up.

In fact, he said, Williams apologized to him afterward.

“I don’t quite understand the controversy because after the meeting, Brandy came up to me and offered her apology, and I gladly accepted.”

Williams did not immediately return a call for comment.

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Posted in: City Council • Meetings • People • Politics • Transit • • • • | 4 Comments »

Quote of the Day

April 4th, 2012, 4:44 pm by

Rodney Dangerfield isn’t the only one who can’t get any respect.

City Councilman Tim Leigh said people are making a fuss about little things, including plans to hire a communications specialist for the City Council, and failing to look at the big picture.

For the record, Leigh said he doesn’t think the council needs a communications specialist.

But that’s not the point, he said.

“The core issue goes back to the value that we ascribe to councilors. This community is once again telling councilors it ascribes very little value to each of us. It won’t pay us adequately. It fights when we want to take travel out of budgets that are pre-approved, and it fights when we want to hire a PR person that’s already part of a pre-approved budget. What we really need to address is why the community does not respect City Council … and what council as a body needs to do to become relevant in the city’s conversation.”

 

Posted in: City Council • • | 6 Comments »

Quote of the Day

April 3rd, 2012, 1:40 pm by

Don’t call Aimee Cox the City Council liaison anymore.

Cox has a new title.

As of about a month ago, Cox’s title is City Council administrator.

Cox said liaison was confusing to people in the community. She said people didn’t know if she worked for the council or the mayor or if she spent her time running back and forth between the two.

Cox said the council felt that her position needed to be “more clearly defined” as council administrator.

“I won’t be able to sashay up to the podium anymore. I’ll have to walk with better posture and more deliberateness.”

Posted in: City Council • City employees • • • | 3 Comments »

Quote(s) of the Day

March 1st, 2012, 5:24 pm by

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.”

 

 

Posted in: Budget • City Council • • • • • • | 5 Comments »

Quote of the Day

February 23rd, 2012, 5:13 pm by

Mayor Steve Bach knows a lot about the Colorado Open Records Act.

Since he took office, he said his office has been inundated with a “tsunami” of open-records requests.

Well, if Jim Kin had his way, the mayor would have to file an open-records request for information he is seeking from the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority.

“If I could take a page from Mayor Bach’s playbook, it’s: ‘You’re going to have to submit a request under the (Colorado) Open Records Act, and you’re going to have to specify what you’re looking for.’ This is not out of character,” Kin, a member of the board, said during Thursday’s meeting at City Hall.

For more information about what’s going on between the mayor and the authority, click here.

 

Posted in: Boards and Commissions • City Administration • Colorado Open Records Act • Meetings • • • | 1 Comment »

Quote of the Day

February 14th, 2012, 5:43 pm by

It’s no secret that Councilman Tim Leigh is a lawbreaker.

Leigh climbs the Manitou Incline on a regular basis, which makes him a trespasser since it’s not legally open to the public.

But Leigh said efforts to legalize the Incline are closer to reality and that he believes, after talking with City Council President Scott Hente, that the council will unanimously approve an intergovernmental agreement to manage the Incline.

Leigh said one of his constituents made a poster that Leigh thinks could be used for fund-raising for the Friends of the Manitou Incline.

“First of all, I’m very good looking, and I’m in good condition. And for a fee, I’ll model in that yellow jacket.”

Runner-up for Quote of the Day.

“A tsunami is not necessarily a bad thing.”

Who said that?

Find out by clicking here.

Posted in: City Council • Recreation and Cultural Services • • • | 1 Comment »

Quote of the Day

February 9th, 2012, 2:41 pm by

Is the Bach administration trying to dissuade reporters from filing open-records requests?

The mayor’s Communications Office, led by former TV news director Cindy Aubrey, has been sharing open-records requests filed by one media outlet with every news organization in town for about the past month.

It’s happened to The Gazette twice and to the Independent once so far.

“It smells of punitive action,” Al Tompkins, senior faculty member at the Poynter Institute for journalism in St. Petersburg, Fla., told the Indy.

Some City Council members can relate.

“I share your and Daniel’s frustration with the difficulty of getting information from the executive branch of the Colorado Springs city government.  As we work through this new form of government, Council members have occasionally been the last to know some information and, on more than one occasion, we find out something either in the media or when a media person calls us asking for a comment,” Councilman Bernie Herpin said in an email to the Independent’s J. Adrian Stanley and The Gazette.

Mayor Steve Bach, in case you’ve forgotten, pledged transparency when he was running for office.

 

Posted in: City Administration • City Council • Colorado Open Records Act • Transparency • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Quote of the Day

February 2nd, 2012, 3:41 pm by

Mayor Steve Bach, who pledged transparency when he was running for office, held a closed-door meeting Thursday with regional leaders in what is being called the Pikes Peak Region Mayors Caucus.

Bach said he got the idea after attending the Denver Metro Mayors Caucus.

Unlike Bach’s meeting, however, officials in Denver aren’t afraid to let the sunshine in.

Catherine Kearney Marinelli, principal of Civic Results and the director of policy and programs for the Denver Metro Mayors Caucus, said Denver’s meetings are open to the public.

“We often have a number of people sitting around the outskirts of the table. Only mayors sit at the table because it’s really intended to be an opportunity for them to have a dialogue about whatever pressing issues they’ve decided to address on the agenda. But we do have visitors in the room quite often and sometimes members of the press.”

So, will future meetings be open to the public?

The answer is maybe yes, maybe no.

Here’s what Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey said in an email:

“In the press release you will see that this was a “get acquainted” meeting with the mayors from around the region.  In the meeting, they had a discussion about whether or not this was going to be a useful, productive get together.  Mayor Bach, having attended the Denver Metro Mayor’s Caucus, thought that this same kind of gathering could be a good idea for our region.

After the group discusses the format, whether or not they will be public and the frequency of the meetings, I will let you know.  This is a brand new idea for our region – still working out all of the details.”

Posted in: City Administration • Meetings • Transparency • • • • | 8 Comments »

Quote of the Day

January 27th, 2012, 1:49 pm by

City Council President Scott Hente has been in the news a lot this week.

Hente represents the council on the board of the Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority, which acknowledged this week that it was in default on bonds it borrowed for the high-profile North Nevada Avenue project.

When The Gazette asked Hente what the headline in tomorrow’s edition would be involving the North Nevada project, he said the authority was looking at a few things but that he couldn’t talk about them because they involved proprietary information.

“Even my church pastor has told me he’s been reading my name too much in the paper lately,” Hente said.

 

 

Posted in: City Council • • • | 1 Comment »

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