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(Another) Quote of the Day

July 30th, 2012, 5:00 pm by

City Councilman Tim Leigh voted in favor of moving forward with plans to install scrubber technology at the Martin Drake Power Plant downtown.

Last week, Leigh flip-flopped, saying he received new information after the July 18 meeting.

Not everyone believes Leigh’s explanation.

He reversed course after Mayor Steve Bach said he hoped the council would reverse its decision.

Leigh, as well as Councilwoman Angela Dougan, are the mayor’s strongest allies on council.

Here’s what Leigh had to say about it all:

“You can say Leigh is a flip-flopper because that’s what people are saying all over the community today. You know how I roll. Put it right out there. Everybody thinks I’m a flip-flopper, and they think I’m Steve Bach’s stooge. Isn’t that what’s going on?”

 

Posted in: Boards and Commissions • City Administration • City Council • People • Politics • Utilities • • • • • | 10 Comments »

Quote of the Day

July 30th, 2012, 2:12 pm by

Jerry Forte

Former Mayor Lionel Rivera took a swipe at Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte in an email to the City Council.

Rivera advised the council, which doubles as the Utilities Board, to hold Forte accountable if he wasn’t giving them the information they needed or in the detail they required.

During a phone interview, I asked Rivera to elaborate.

“When I chaired the board … we didn’t always get the information as timely as we would have liked nor in as much detail or the question answered directly as we wanted. On occasion, we would just have to say, ‘Nope, you’re not getting us what we need. Go back. Do it again. We’ll talk about this next month.’

“Maybe (Forte) misunderstood what we were asking.”

Posted in: Boards and Commissions • City Council • City employees • People • Utilities • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Quote of the Day — #WaldoCanyonFire

July 20th, 2012, 10:11 pm by

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.

Posted in: City Administration • City employees • Fire • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

Quote of the Day — Waldo Canyon Fire

July 2nd, 2012, 3:57 pm by

Chief of Staff Laura Neumann says the city of Colorado Springs had the right team in place to lead the fight against the Waldo Canyon Fire, the most destructive wildfire in state history.

The fire claimed the lives of at least two people and destroyed nearly 350 homes in northwest Colorado Springs.

Neumann said the city’s Emergency Management Team, supplemented by various support staff from other departments, have been working around the clock for the past nine days.

“Having personally spent the majority of my waking hours in the Emergency Operations Center for the past nine days, I would like to say the synergy, professionalism and responsiveness of those leading this crisis has been nothing short of remarkable.

“I am very proud to be part of Mayor Bach’s team,” she said.

Posted in: City Administration • City employees • Fire • People • • • • | 6 Comments »

Quote of the Day — Waldo Canyon Fire

June 30th, 2012, 8:17 pm by

City Councilwoman Lisa Czelatdko thanked Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper for coming Colorado Springs to assess the Waldo Canyon fire.

She left the following message on his Facebook page.

Governor,

Colorado Springs is thankful for you taking the opportunity to come assess our disaster area. This community has always been the leader in innovative firefighting techniques which have saved countless lives and property. Our police personnel have kept order, protected homes, also while still servicing the entire City. Our County and other surrounding partners including Forestry, have stepped up to share services, work together, and offer support. Lastly, our citizens have rallied together in hope, and grief. So many have been generous in their giving. Please let the rest of the state know how tremendous Community is here in Colorado Springs and how thankful we are for the support in state and out.

Lisa Czelatdko

Colorado Springs City Council Member

 

Posted in: City Council • Fire • • • | 4 Comments »

Quote of the Day — Waldo Canyon Fire

June 27th, 2012, 12:56 pm by

Photo/DenverPost

When a fire is raging in your direction, there comes a time when you just have to let it go, said Norm Rooker, fire information officer with the Waldo Canyon Fire incident command team.

“You can have one firefighter. You can have 1,000 firefighters. When that flame front is coming at you and it seems like it’s going all the way to the sky, all you can do is get out of the way,” Rooker said Wednesday.

“We’re full of trite phrases, but one of them is – and it’s for all disasters, not just this – Mother Nature always bats last. Mother Nature was at bat yesterday, and she was knocking them out of the park.”

Posted in: People • • | 2 Comments »

Quote of the Day — Waldo Canyon Fire

June 26th, 2012, 11:15 pm by

Photo by Daniel Chacon

“It was like looking at a military invasion,” Gov. John Hickenlooper, who flew over the Waldo Canyon fire by helicopter on Tuesday night, said during a press conference at Coronado High School.

“It was almost like looking at the worst movie set you could imagine,” Hickenlooper said.

“You could see exactly where the fire came down. All the bright spots, as you got closer, you saw they were people’s homes. They weren’t trees. They were people’s homes, burned to the ground, block after block.”

Posted in: People • • • | 4 Comments »

Quote of the Day — Waldo Canyon Fire

June 25th, 2012, 7:43 pm by

An unidentified woman attended a media briefing on the Waldo Canyon Fire on Monday afternoon.

Her question got people talking — and laughing.

“Do any of your resources happen to include weather control satellites?”

“Weather, weather control?” asked a perplexed Mayor Steve Bach.

“Weather control satellites,” the woman responded.

“And I would suggest strongly that you ask the Northern Command Center for information on (weather control satellites) if you have none,” she added.

Here’s video of the media briefing:

YouTube Preview Image

Posted in: People • • | 20 Comments »

Quote of the Day

June 20th, 2012, 10:44 pm by

Mayor Steve Bach apparently got wind of a YouTube video portraying Fire Chief Rich Brown as Adolf Hitler.

“We just need to operate like the fire department,” Bach told City Council members Wednesday during the monthly Mayor’s Counsel meeting at the City Administration Building.

“You notice they never have any controversies?” he joked, generating lots of laughter.

It’s unclear whether Brown, who was sitting in the audience, laughed, too.

 

 

 

Posted in: City Administration • City Council • City employees • Meetings • • • • | 1 Comment »

Quote of the Day

June 7th, 2012, 8:49 pm by

On the eve of Mayor Steve Bach’s first year in office, an epic storm hit the city.

“As you know, we had a major storm event in Colorado Springs last night. We had, in some places, up to four inches of water in 2 hours. That’s equivalent to a one hundred year storm. This is nothing new for our city. We’ve had this happen to us certainly many times in the past, but it’s always a very concerning event in terms of life and property,” Bach said during a press conference at the City Administration Building.

 

Posted in: People • • • | 2 Comments »

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