City Council or Comedy Hour(s)?
One of the least fun things that happens every other week at the MO is watching the city council work session and meeting via computer screen. It has made me reflect on how utterly ridiculous our local representatives are. Oh, I know that they are mostly good people trying to do their best with difficult topics but GIVE ME A BREAK!
They talk incessantly on every item with no control from the City Council President. It gets so exasperating to us at the office, who have been to well-run meetings with a strong person in the chair, that we lose it, really lose it. I guess we should not get so upset when you look at what these folks get paid, only $6,250 annually. But don’t get us wrong, we are not advocating a salary increase – that creates another whole issue of “forever” city councilmembers.
Citizens for Accountable Leadership
Add to the mix of the council is the fact that we have a strong mayor system, paid for by the Citizens for Accountable Leadership at a price tag of $960,739, and the frustration level increases a notch.
According to an article in the Colorado Springs Business Journal in September 2014, “More than three-quarters of the funding came from a shadowy company called ‘CS Governance Initiative Inc.’ — apparently created for the sole purpose of funneling campaign donations from the Jenkins family, Nor’wood Development Group and related entities to the campaign committee. Other substantial contributions came from Gary Loo, Kathy Loo, Corporate Office Properties Trust, Bruce Shepard and Bob Norris.”
The question becomes “Could what the city council does be handled by a robot?” Yes, I understand they are elected but once again how many major donations come from developers and home builders? According to research of campaign contributions in the last election, two of our councilmembers received over 78% of their monies from developers and homebuilders with the mayor receiving over 40%.
Unprepared City Staff
The second part of the problem arises when the staff doesn’t always appear prepared. The city council is routinely late for the work session and meeting, to include returning from lunch. The most blatant issue that continues ad nauseam is the technological gaffes – either there is a lack of a qualified IT department or antiquated equipment.
Video feed is always being interrupted and one needs closed captioning to know what is transpiring as the sound is far from constant whether you are on Channel 18 or Facebook. We are in the top 50 cities by size, I can’t believe we have such a poor but gullible council with a really bad IT department.
Do not ever forget though the strong mayor is getting things done for the people who donate him into office – the developers and builders. Maybe, that is all that matters in the scheme of things. Politics as usual and yes, I’m still frustrated!
[…] 2006 is the year the city of Colorado Springs, along with the support of the city council members, started approving Special Districts in earnest. Since then and maybe even before, the Home Builders Association (HBA) and Nor’Wood have contributed to the campaigns of city council members. Nor’Wood also had a hand in creating the strong mayor position in Colorado Springs, a travesty I highlighted in my Sept. 2nd article, “Tim’s Topics: City Council Frustration and Authority.” […]
[…] 2006 is the year the city of Colorado Springs, along with the support of the city council members, started approving Special Districts in earnest. Since then and maybe even before, the Home Builders Association (HBA) and Nor’Wood have contributed to the campaigns of city council members. Nor’Wood also had a hand in creating the strong mayor position in Colorado Springs, a travesty I highlighted in my Sept. 2nd article, “Tim’s Topics: City Council Frustration and Authority.” […]