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Here are some of the stories we are following this week. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for up-to-the-minute news.
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Responses to our Colorado Springs Mayoral and City Council Candidate surveys are coming in. This week, we’ve received responses from city council candidate Michelle Talarico. Mayoral candidate Wayne Williams has also returned our survey. We will be posting survey responses for mayoral candidates here, and city council candidate responses here, so that you can access them anytime.
- If you don’t see a survey response from a candidate you’d like to hear from, send them our way!
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For you, our dedicated subscribers, we have included additional links at the bottom of both the mayoral candidate survey response page, and the city council candidate survey response page. These links to news articles and videos will serve as a collection of all the candidate information you need.
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As you would expect, big money is flowing into the Colorado Springs municipal elections. We’ve published an original Springs Taxpayers United article to inform you about which campaigns are getting developer dollars.
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Before you vote for mayor, you can view interviews with all 12 candidates running for the office.
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Colorado Springs mayoral candidate Wayne Williams is being accused of using city resources in his personal campaign ads. This is, possibly, against city election code. A different ethics complaint has been filed against Mr. Williams for possible conflict of interest associated with a $50,000 campaign donation from the Housing and Building Authority, and his current position on City Council. It’s getting spicy out there, friends.
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Also in election questions this week, one candidate for city council, Michelle Talarico, has an extensive client list from running a catering business in the city for 34 years. Could she remain neutral in any issue that involves one of her prior clients?
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Because you can never pay enough fees to the Colorado bureaucrats, a draft bill has been introduced to charge a fee for manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic beverages. They take an inch, then they take a mile. Or ten miles. Or all the miles.
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Academy School District 20 has announced four finalists for the Superintendent position.
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Liability insurance rates for the Colorado Springs Police Department have doubled, largely due to all the successful lawsuits of late.
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Residents of Flying Horse are concerned about the $60 million in debt their metro district has put them on the hook for. We’d be concerned, too.
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What’s happening at the capitol in Denver this week? Probably nothing good. You can see a breakdown here, if you dare.
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A new revenue-generating red-light camera is being installed in Colorado Springs, this time at the intersection of East Woodmen Road and Campus Drive. Feel the safety.
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In rare, and shocking, news, a proposed apartment complex was actually denied by the Colorado Springs Planning Commission.
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An extension of the Trails and Open Space (TOPS) tax will be on your April ballot. How will you be voting on this? Do they need more of your hard-earned money?
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More than 80% of local governments have opted out of Colorado’s disastrous Paid Family Leave program, mostly because it’s a garbage program meant to plunder taxpayers. Why can’t your private employer opt out? Why do local governments get special treatment over private companies? See the plunder statement above. That’s your answer.
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Since schools fail at teaching children math, even though education is already funded by taxpayers, Governor Polis has decided to make a “historic investment” in teaching math to children. This “investment” of yet more taxpayer dollars will be made in the same schools that have failed to teach math for generations. See the plunder comment above for further explanation of the details of this program.
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Sadly, many of the children educated in public schools may not be able to count to 301, which happens to be the number of out of control homeless camp fires our region has seen so far this year. One recent fire even also involved propane tank explosions. Clearly this problem has gotten way out of hand. Is lack of “affordable housing” really the core issue?
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Who wants a raise? Probably you, but you don’t get one. Instead, you get to pay for the raises for executives in Colorado Springs government. Some raises are as high as 5%, leaving many public school educated children stumped as to how to figure the math on that, and yearning for a historic taxpayer-funded investment to help them find the answer.
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Your federal taxpayers dollars are paying for people to learn how to be chefs and actors, which is a nice sentiment, but not an appropriate use of $1.1 million in taxpayer dollars. As a reminder, we are almost $32 trillion in debt right now.
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You are paying $8 million to renovate the Colorado Springs Senior Center. In exchange, you have an opportunity to help name the revamped center.
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If you would like to help support us in our mission as government watchdogs by becoming a Newsletter Sponsor, we are offering two sponsorships for each weekly newsletter, at the nominal cost of $100 each. Funds raised from these sponsorship opportunities will help us to keep looking out for taxpayers.
Here are some upcoming meetings in the area. We hope you can attend one or more!
If there are other public meetings you’d like to see announced here, please drop us a line. We are happy to include them in an upcoming newsletter. These might be government-related, candidate, or elected official meetings. Thanks!
Colorado Springs City Council Meetings
Monday, March 13, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council Work Session
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda
Tuesday, March 14, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda
El Paso County Board of County Commissioner Meetings
Tuesday, March 14, 9:00 a.m.
El Paso County Board of County Commissioners
Centennial Hall
200 S. Cascade
Live stream link here
Agenda
Tuesday, March 21, 9:00 a.m.
El Paso County Board of County Commissioners
Centennial Hall
200 S. Cascade
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Colorado Springs Utilities Board of Directors
Wednesday, March 22, 1:00 p.m.
Utilities Board of Directors
Blue River Board Room
Plaza of the Rockies, South Tower, 5th Floor
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Miscellaneous Meetings of Interest
No meetings currently posted
View the full Colorado Springs City Council meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings.
View the full Board of El Paso County Commissioners meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings.
View the full Colorado Springs Utilities Board meeting schedule here to see upcoming meetings. Please also follow CSU on social media at their Facebook Page and on Twitter.
Don't forget to subscribe to our You Tube Channel. Since most of the City and County board and commission meetings are not televised or recorded, we are trying to remedy that. We now have a camera and tri-pod for volunteers to check out for future meetings.
If you have a tip about a story in the Pikes Peak region that you aren’t seeing reported, let us know. We will see what we can find out.
How to Contact City and County Officials:
City Hall
107 N. Nevada Avenue
Colorado Springs CO 80903
(719) 385-5986
Contact City Council
Mayor's Office
30 S Nevada Avenue, Suite 601
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
(719) 385-5900
Contact Mayors Office
County Commissioners
200 South Cascade Avenue, Suite 100
Colorado Springs, CO 80903-2202
Phone: (719) 520-7276
https://www.elpasoco.com/contact-us/
Thank you!
Laura and Rebecca
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