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

Mayor Steve Bach is hosting his third town hall meeting Wednesday.

The town hall, which starts at 6:30 p.m., will be at Timberview Middle School, 8680 Scarborough Drive.

“Among the topics to be covered will be the 2012 budget with Chief of Staff Laura Neumann, stormwater backlog, public safety and infrastructure,” the city said in a press release.

“Fire Chief Rich Brown will talk about the new fire station at Dublin Boulevard and Peterson Road and new initiatives for the fire department,” the city said.

The Waldo Canyon fire may also be a topic for discussion.

The Gazette will be live tweeting from the event.

For up-to-the-minute updates, follow @danieljchacon on Twitter.

Colorado Springs has “fudged” on its promise to deal with stormwater.

So said the Pueblo Chieftain in an editorial Sunday.

“We are urging the Bureau of Reclamation to open a supplemental environmental impact statement to determine if there is any scientific basis to the Springs’ claims that its stormwater problems are under control,” the editorial stated.

“So far, Reclamation has relied on political promises to address stormwater, rather than seek scientific information in granting approval for the Southern Delivery System. The strongest response Reclamation has given to critics of these promises is that an “adaptive management program” will evaluate impacts from SDS and fix problems as they occur.

“This is smoke and mirrors.”

The editorial — titled “Control? What control?” — notes that City Attorney Chris Melcher raised concerns in March about the need to fund stormwater.

The city should be spending between $13 million and $15 million annually on stormwater needs, city officials have said.

“That amount is but a pittance of the $500 million Colorado Springs admits it needs to address all of the capital and maintenance needs of its existing stormwater system,” the editorial states.

Colorado Springs Utilities responded to comments that Mayor Steve Bach made about the city’s stormwater needs during a press conference Thursday.

The response, made at the request of The Gazette, came via email from Southern Delivery System spokeswoman Janet Rummel.

Here it is:

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and ROD for SDS were the culmination of an extensive, scientific study of potential project impacts that took nearly six years and $17 million to complete. The analysis which included input from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that, even when fully operational, SDS return flows will have a negligible impact on peak flow volumes in Fountain Creek associated with storm flows. Further, there are measures in place in our SDS permits to adequately address any potential increase in future flows on Fountain Creek related to the operation of SDS.

However, from a broader perspective, Colorado Springs Utilities supports responsible stormwater management because it ensures compliance with the City’s permit requirements under the Clean Water Act, while protecting the health and safety of our citizens as well as our community’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, communications lines, and wastewater lines, to name a few.

We strongly believe that a regional solution is the most effective way to protect our citizens and our infrastructure. Such an approach would ensure that all residents who contribute to stormwater runoff in our shared waterways are also contributing to the required investment to address those issues. Stormflows come from more sources in our County than Colorado Springs Utilities customers, and our customers should not be expected to solely invest in the required capital improvements to protect City and County infrastructure along area drainageways. Unmanaged storm flows outside of Colorado Springs city limits can jeopardize investments made within the city. Additionally, as we’ve seen from this week’s severe storms, stormwater management is needed for all the creeks and drainageways in our City and County, not just for addressing issues on Fountain Creek.

We recognize this is a complex issue, and Colorado Springs Utilities is already actively working with others in the region to identify a long-term, sustainable funding solution.

It’s going to take a partnership between the municipal government and Colorado Springs Utilities to address the city’s stormwater needs, Mayor Steve Bach said during a press conference Thursday.

“Why should Colorado Springs Utilities is be involved in this?” the mayor said.

“In my view, because Utilities will be bringing Southern Delivery System water here from down at the Pueblo Dam and the Arkansas River,” he said.

SDS is a 62-mile underground pipeline that Utilities is between from Pueblo to Colorado Springs. The pipeline is expected to be in operation by 2016.

“Utilities will thereby be, frankly, exacerbating our stormwater challenges because after that water is used locally — whether it’s domestic consumption or irrigation or other purposes – it will be returned. It’s called return flow and that water will be additive to Fountain Creek flow going back down south. At least that’s a pragmatic reason that I see that Utilities should partner with us.”

Listen the mayor’s comments here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While Mayor Steve Bach was talking about the need for Colorado Springs Utilities to pony up some dough for stormwater, the city-owned utility was tweeting about how much money it has already invested.

“From 2000-2011, our customers have invested $165 million in wastewater system improvements, sediment control and wetlands restoration,” read one tweet.

The mayor is making the city’s stormwater needs a priority.

Bach thinks he can find $7 million in the 2013 budget for stormwater. He also wants to take up to $7 million more from the 2012 budget if revenues come in higher than projected.

Bach also has asked the City Council to direct Colorado Springs Utilities to come up with an additional $12 million to $15 million.

In an interview in March, Utilities CEO Jerry Forte said the issue isn’t who is responsible for stormwater.

“The issue is more how to fund it. That’s the issue that we need to as a community wrestle with and decide,” he said.

“If Utilities were to fund it, it would obviously be something that would be passed on to utility ratepayers,” Forte added. “One way or another, there would need to be some revenue that would be raised to be able to do that.”

During Thursday’s press conference, Bach reiterated that Utilities should be involved.

While he was speaking, Utilities was tweeting away.

Here are their tweets in the order in which they were sent:

We recognize the need to manage storm flows in our waterways to protect people, property and our pipes that cross local waterways.

From 2000-2011, our customers have invested $165 million in wastewater system improvements, sediment control and wetlands restoration.

We’ve invested $40 million to the Fountain Creek District once SDS is delivering water to Colorado Springs in 2016.

We’ve allocated $2.2 million to Pueblo County for managing sedimentation in Fountain Creek in Pueblo.

We’ve allocated $300,000 to the Fountain Creek Watershed District for a flood control study and District administration.

A multi-million dollar project is under way to address sedimentation and erosion on a section of Fountain Creek in El Paso County.

We believe stormwater flows must be managed regionally, to fully protect our community’s investments.

Unmanaged storm flows outside of Colorado Springs city limits can jeopardize investments made within the city.

So far, we’ve identified approx. 241 capital projects for 2013 budget, only half of which can be funded at this time.

Approx. 30% of Springs Utilities budget is fuel, capital is 27.9% and labor is 17%.

Photo by Daniel J. Chacón

Former Mayor Lionel Rivera says the city has “plenty of options” to fund stormwater, which the city has largely put off since the City Council put a bullet between the eyes of the Stormwater Enterprise.

But one of the options suggested by Rivera — a tax increase — probably won’t see the light of day.

That’s because Mayor Steve Bach signed a no-tax pledge before he was elected.

Bach has sounded the alarm on the city’s half-billion-dollar stormwater needs and wants the City Council to look for inefficiencies at Colorado Springs Utilities to help pay for them.

Stormwater is responsibility of the city government that’s placed under the authority of the mayor.

“There are plenty of options, but difficult ones if you pledged not to support a tax increase,” Rivera said in an email.

Of all the City Council members who ran for office last year, only Councilwoman Angela Dougan signed the pledge, which was issued by the Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

The previous council eliminated the Stormwater Enterprise in December 2009 following the passage of ballot Issue 300. The vote was 5-4. Rivera was among the four council members who opposed eliminating the enterprise.

Here is the full text of Rivera’s email, with a few minor edits:

The mayor, with the support of City Council, can put a stormwater department in place with a similar fee as the enterprise and accomplish it through the legislative process. It wouldn’t be an enterprise, but it would subject to TABOR.

He could ask the City Council to develop a rate structure through (Colorado Springs Utilities) to support paying  for stormwater infrastructure. Even if there are cost savings that could pay for stormwater, he would have to advocate using the cost savings verses reducing rates.

If a small mill levy is the answer, then he would have to advocate for a tax increase.

The only way to get this done without a fee or tax increase is to grow municipal revenues or create efficiencies of $16 million annually in the municipal budget. I use $16 million because that is what the SWE fee generated.

If City Council can squeeze some savings from CSU and agree to cover some of the costs, then they would need to have a rate hearing to create the tariffs to justify and use the funds. The public would probably view this as a rate increase.

There are plenty of options, but difficult ones if you pledged not to support a tax increase.

UPDATE: Stormwater is a municipal government obligation. While Mayor Steve Bach has said that city staff is looking for efficiencies within the existing budget to help pay for stormwater improvements, the mayor has not laid out a specific plan on how to pay for them.

The City Council is under pressure to come up with a funding mechanism to pay for Colorado Springs’ massive stormwater needs, which the city has largely put off since voters demanded an end to the Stormwater Enterprise more than two years ago.

While the contentious issue resurfaces from time to time, City Attorney Chris Melcher warned city officials in March that stormwater required immediate attention, especially since a permit to build the Southern Delivery System water pipeline was at stake.

Melcher presented Mayor Steve Bach and council members five options, including making stormwater a responsibility of Colorado Springs Utilities, which is building the 62-mile pipeline between Pueblo and Colorado Springs, and asking voters to pass a tax.

The mayor and council agreed in March to continue the discussion in 90 days.

Since then, the Board of Pueblo County Commissioners, which issued the so-called 1041 permit to build SDS, wrote a letter asking that Colorado Springs take immediate action.

During his monthly press conference on Tuesday, the mayor stressed the importance of addressing the city’s unfunded stormwater capital needs, which are estimated at a half-billion dollars.

Here’s the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For weeks, City Council members have been hearing that the Bach administration plans to request supplemental budget appropriations.

The details of those funding requests have been a closely guarded secret.

Until now.

Mayor Steve Bach and his team are expected to unveil the funding requests during today’s mayor’s counsel meeting.

The meeting agenda includes “mission critical capital improvements,” a “special election,” and “2013 stormwater, roads and bridges.”

But the mayor’s office declined to provide any additional information, and City Council Administrator Aimee Cox said late Tuesday that the mayor’s office declined to provide back-up material for today’s agenda items.

The wait now will be short.

Today’s meeting is from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Fire Station 18, 6830 Hadler View.

Also on the mayor’s agenda are the estimated 2011 and first quarter 2012 financial results.

The council has one agenda item: “strategic planning update and discussion.”