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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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The Citadel Mall is in the news again this week. Public servants met to seek solutions to the repeated incidents of violence at the mall. The meeting was recorded, and you can view it here. City officials are pointing the finger at mall management.
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The Colorado Springs Homeless Plan meeting was held last week. We attended and recorded it for you. The final plan will be unveiled in September.
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Colorado Springs residents spoke out about the latest homeless plan proposal. There is now talk about using federal money to deal with vagrants. Why does this issue of open public vagrancy never improve?
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Construction continues on The Launchpad, the westside affordable housing apartment complex for vagrant teens. You may remember, residents in the area strongly opposed this development.
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And, here we go again with the special session on property taxes in the state. Governor Polis and the radical legislature have failed over and over again to address the catastrophic rise in property taxes in the state, mainly because they feel entitled to the money so they can implement more schemes to control our lives. The last special session, in December, was used as an opportunity to raid TABOR refunds. We expect more of the same from this special session. They work for themselves, not us. In fact, the democrats are conducting initial meetings about this special session in private.
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We think we know why they are meeting in private. A proposal is being developed that would create an amendment to the Colorado Constitution forbidding any future citizen initiatives to control property taxes. This proposal would need to go to voters for approval. This is a direct response from democrats to Initiatives 108 and 50, citizen initiatives that would limit, in various ways, the amount of property taxes the government can collect. Clearly, Polis and his leftist colleagues resent the idea of citizens limiting their ability to steal from us and want to put a stop to it once and for all.
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The Colorado Department of Transportation has failed yet again, this time resulting in deaths. The current Director of CDOT is Shoshana Lew, who has both a bachelor’s and a master’s in history. She also has deep ties to the Obama administration and is the daughter of Jack Lew, who is Joe Biden’s Ambassador to Israel. Her main objective at CDOT is to, “…place[d] a greater emphasis on sustainable transportation, as opposed to freeway expansion.” Governor Polis is reported to have appointed Ms. Lew as a favor to Michelle Obama. Is it any wonder she’s failing, and people are dying from it? The public servants in government do not work for you. They work for each other, and themselves.
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Also in CDOT news this week, the department is still unsure how much it will cost to repair their recent failed intersection project in Chaffee County. The project was well underway before they determined that the design was flawed. Maybe Governor Polis should have hired someone who is good at this kind of thing, rather than using the political appointment to score points with Michelle Obama.
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Mayor Mobolade conducted his monthly press conference last week. The start of the school year, and traffic safety, were addressed.
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Mayor Mobolade is also discussing his plan for 2C paving projects should this tax be renewed in November. As a reminder, a huge portion of this money isn’t going toward paving. It’s going toward curb and gutter repair.
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Affordable Housing Update: In Denver, $1,500 per month rents you 629 square feet of space. The same dollar amount rents 838 square feet in Colorado Springs. Can anybody afford this?
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Media in the Denver Metro area worked hard to discount the idea that criminal Venezuelan gangs, who came to this country illegally while Border Czar Kamala Harris looked the other way, had taken over apartment complexes in Aurora. All to no avail. These South American organized crime syndicates are here, they are extremely violent, and it’s going to be a huge problem from now on.
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The City of Broomfield, Colorado, takes a giant step toward self-destruction by voting for government-provided trash service. Will there be unionization and then trash strikes like in the old days?
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Colorado Springs City Councilman Randy Helms made a point of monitoring the decibel levels for the opening concert at Ford Amphitheater. He did not detail the decibel levels from this concert, but he wants to assure neighbors that the management at the amphitheater wants to be good neighbors. Readers may recall, there were around 150 noise complaints from this opening event.
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Black Forest Fire Department is seeing some personnel issues. Half of the Black Forest Fire District Executive Staff is on administrative leave.
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Colorado Springs Utilities wants to raise your rates again. Increases as high as 6.5% are being proposed to the City Council. Can you afford to pay up to $80 more per month for utilities?
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Student test scores are only now starting to reach the level seen before the government response to COVID locked children in their homes. What impact does the recent influx of non-English speaking illegal aliens have on overall educational performance?
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Some residents in Denver are attempting to turn their sidewalk tax into a flat tax to simplify things for them.
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Colorado Springs has seen the 29th smash-and-grab robbery. Gun stores and vape shops are the primary targets of thieves who steal cars and then smash these stolen cars into stores to steal everything they can.
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In Manitou they are using funds from their parking revenue to supplement PPRTA funds on road paving projects.
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Fort Collins has hopped on the revenue-enhancement scheme popularly called speed cameras.
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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, August 26, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council Work Session
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
Tuesday, August 27, 10:00 a.m.
Colorado Springs City Council
107 N. Nevada, 3rd floor
Live stream link here
Agenda not yet posted
El Paso County Board of County Commissioner Meetings
Tuesday, August 27, 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, September 10, 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
No meetings currently posted
Miscellaneous Meetings of Interest
Wednesday, August 28, 6:00 p.m.
City of Colorado Springs Panel Discussion “Ways a City Can Grow”
Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center
4925 N. Nevada
Information and Registration
Monday, September 2, 5:00 p.m.
Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Committee
City Hall
107 S. Nevada Avenue, Suite 200
Also, online via Microsoft Teams
Information and Agenda
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
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!
Rebecca
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