Denver Mayor Goes to Congress, City Council Candidate Surveys and Forums, Longmont Taxpayers Robbed of $100 Million, and More!

March 7, 2025

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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.

President Trump’s efforts to streamline government may lead to layoffs of probational employees at the Air Force Academy.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, also known as “Migrant Mike”, was asked to explain his sanctuary city policies to Congress this week. He stated that Denver isn’t really a sanctuary city, which may be true in name but is not true in practice. He also mentioned that illegal immigrants aren’t tracked when they leave Denver. Will anything other than political theater come from this hearing?

Also in Mayor Mike Johnston news this week, restaurants are fleeing Denver due to horrible government policies. Mayor Johnston is proposing a 20% service charge to Denver restaurant bills as a solution. Yes, he apparently thinks this will help.

Mayor Johnston is on a roll this week. He’s suggesting he will appear as a guest bartender at establishments on East Colfax to encourage people to come spend money at these establishments. Yes, he legitimately thinks this will help. We’ve long ago stopped being astonished at Mayor Johnston’s crazy ideas.

One Denver news station sat down with Mayor Johnston prior to his congressional testimony to discuss his sanctuary city policies, and what he plans to tell Congress when he is there to testify.

The latest installment of the Colorado Springs City Council Forum has been published. This week, District 2 is the focus.

Springs Taxpayers United sent surveys to council candidates this week and, so far, we’ve received responses from District 5 Candidate Cass Melin and District 3 Candidate Christopher Metzgar. Check out their responses to the issues our readers care about the most. We’ll update our election webpage, as more candidates reply to our survey. Reach out to your favorite candidates and encourage them to send their answers back to us!

The League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak Region has also produced and posted candidate forums for Colorado Springs City Council District 3, District 4, and District 1.

Ballots for the upcoming Colorado Springs City Council election will be sent out this week. Election Day is April 1. You will also be able to track your ballot this year with the recently implemented ballot return tracking system.

What does 5^th District Congressman Jeff Crank say about the cuts coming from the Department of Government Efficiency? “When you are $36 trillion in debt, a scalpel isn’t enough.” We agree.

State Senator Mark Baisley of Woodland Park will join Congressman Scott Bottoms in the republican race to be Colorado’s next governor.

Nearly $100 million in taxpayer dollars was taken from Longmont citizens to bring Regional Transportation District (RTD) public transportation services to Longmont. RTD collected the money, but no transportation was built. Can we all just admit that public transportation is used as another avenue for politicians to steal from taxpayers, and nothing more?

Would you be interested in allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) users to spend your tax dollars dining at restaurants? Well, that’s exactly what the Colorado legislature wants to do. They want you to pay those they call “less fortunate” to eat at restaurants.

This week in Government Purposely Erecting Barriers to Transparency, one reporter received a charge estimate of $2,550 for a simple public records request. Another media member received an estimate of $30,000 for public information from the Colorado Attorney General’s office. It’s clear they don’t want us to know what they do with our tax dollars, they just want us to pay one way or the other.

Denver Public Schools will cut dozens of administrative jobs. The Superintendent cites budget woes, but there are likely multiple reasons, including declining enrollments due to criminal-friendly school policies and immigration laws being enforced for a change.

The radicals in the Colorado legislature struck down a bill that would increase penalties for theft, and reverse some of the damage done from their soft-on-crime policies. More sensible lawmakers are proposing a ballot initiative to force this on the legislature. Why do we have to force lawmakers to do right by the public they serve?

One group of residents in Woodland Park is launching a recall effort against the four city council members who voted to repeal the 1.09% sales tax for school funding. You may remember that they voted to repeal this tax as a response to a lack of accountability for the funds from the Woodland Park School District.

The Department of Justice is reviewing the prosecution and conviction of Tina Peters, who was imprisoned for tampering with voting equipment.

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 10, 9:00 a.m.

Colorado Springs City Council Work Session

107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor

Live stream link here

Agenda not yet posted

Tuesday, March 11, 9:00 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 11, 9:00 a.m.

El Paso County Board of County Commissioners

Centennial Hall

200 S. Cascade

Live stream link here

Agenda not yet posted

Tuesday, March 18, 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 19, 1:00 p.m.

Utilities Board of Directors

Blue River Board Room

Plaza of the Rockies, South Tower, 5^th Floor

Live stream link here

Agenda not yet posted

Miscellaneous Meetings of Interest

Monday, April 7, 6:00 p.m.

Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Committee

City Hall

107 S. Nevada Avenue, Suite 200

Also, online via Microsoft Teams

Information and Agenda

Thursday, April 10, 6:30 p.m.

Independence Institute Citizen’s Guide to Civic Involvement

Online Meeting

Information and Agenda

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 their Facebook Page and on Twitter.

Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube 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 tripod 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