Some thoughts for the weekend
I believe that the city of Colorado Springs would be best served by electing all new folks to the City Council. My perspective comes from several years of studying this body as it fulfills its limited function in a city which is ranked in the top 50 in population.
It is my observation that many political folks living in Colorado Springs have limited knowledge about the open, accountable, and responsible role of the city government. Between the city of Colorado Springs staff and the current elected officials, certain local developers and builders almost always get what they want. This is not always a bad thing but those developers and builders using quasi-governmental entities (i.e., Metro and Business Improvement Districts) do not have a clue as to what the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) means. Perhaps electing new folks to our City Council might change this.
Regarding Issue 1: Increase Government Transparency and Accountability
This issue is a double-edged sword! It might be better to allow more language on the ballot. However, if the language only becomes more convoluted, I don’t believe it will be helpful.
Changing the language is not the perfect solution. It would be better to show taxpayers how the government spends ALL their money. Take for instance the city of Centennial.
Centennial yields a better model. On its website, a citizen can pull up the City checkbook and see where the money goes. What a novel idea to a truly open, accountable, and responsible way to handle this issue.
