Colorado Springs’ city government has a lock on firefighting, traffic tickets and development fees.

 

   No companies do that work.

 

   Why, then, does the city need a stable of spin doctors to promote its cause – a stable that costs taxpayers more than a half-million dollars a year?

 

   Answer: It doesn’t.

 

   But to call the city’s Public Communications Department a stable of spin doctors would miss the mark, said its director, Sue Skiffington-Blumberg.

 

   Much more than an issuer of news releases, it has evolved into an all-purpose information machine, search engine, message massager and conveyor of news – good and bad.

 

   “At the end of the day – and this sounds like a PR person talking – the citizens have a right to know,” Skiffington-Blumberg said.

 

   “If you’ve got bad news, take the bandage off fast. I’m not going to do masking. We’re going to be telling the story.”

 

   That description is too limiting. Her office does more than tell the story.

 

   When moviegoers see a video in theaters warning kids not to play in ditches, the city’s flacks are behind it.

 

   When neighbors deadlock with developers, the city’s “communications specialists” step in.

 

   When city officials go on camera, they’ve been coached by the communications staff.

 

   None of those duties was part of the workload in 2001 before Skiffington-Blumberg came on board.

 

   Today, she leads an 11-person office that assumed all that and more. And it soon will take on oversight of plans to use the U.S. Olympic Committee’s logo, a perk that came out of the city’s recent incentive package to keep the USOC in Colorado Springs.

 

   Skiffington-Blumberg’s budget has grown by 18 percent since 2005, to $588,266. Most goes for salaries of five full-time regular employees and six parttime and/or grant-funded workers.

 

   Skiffington-Blumberg is paid $121,000 a year, while her lowest-paid full timer makes $48,000. The salaries, she said, are competitive in the local market, especially considering the growing role her office plays in city government.

 

   Once an internal newsletter factory, her office now puts most in-house information on an intranet and concentrates on messages going to citizens.

 

   Before city officials speak publicly, Skiffington-Blumberg’s staff puts them through the paces.

 

   “Before a public meeting, we’ll go over what’s being proposed, help them take out engineer-speak that neighborhoods don’t understand, define the neighborhood perspective,” she said.

 

   “We help them put together the slides and visuals so the presentation makes sense to the common person instead of the technical expert.”

 

   Her staff also coaches officials for media interviews.

 

   One of her toughest cases was the manager of the controversial Stormwater Enterprise, Ken Sampley.

 

   “He sat across the table like this,” she said, arms crossed, “and said, ‘What do you want to know.'”

 

   That was more than a year ago. “It took months, but now I would say he’s one of our greatest success stories,” she said. “He’ll seek us out for advice.”

 

   Sampley acknowledged he’s still not at ease talking to the media, but he feels confident he can stay on message.

 

   “You need to focus on your key points and make them in terms people can understand,” he said.

 

   Skiffington-Blumberg’s office also coordinates open-records requests, runs the joint information center during such crises as paralyzing snowstorms, and sends out media advisories for roads, parks, stormwater and other city projects. It also records City Council meetings, prepares council agendas and produces videos about city functions.

 

   When something goes awry, her office is in the middle of it, such as when the Police Department destroyed thousands of pieces of evidence.

 

   “We help them figure out how to say the bad news,” she said. “If they want to avoid it or are hedging, we’ll help them be right up front.”

 

   She said her goal is “to tell the factual truth.”

 

   “I think we try to emphasize the positive,” she said, “but we don’t ignore the negative.”

 

   That’s a necessary philosophy when dealing with one of her office’s most touchy assignments – to mediate compromises when citizens and developers clash.

 

   Her office handled the sticky Lowe’s project at Citadel Crossing, which drew sizable neighborhood opposition, and, more recently, a plan to convert a school office into a commercial district in northwest Colorado Springs.

 

   “We help to get everybody together to define the issue,” Skiffington-Blumberg said.

 

   One of the neighbors, Allen Forester, vouched for the process.

 

   “At the time it was sent to mediation, I wasn’t a happy camper,” Forester recently told the City Council. “I have to say I’m very, very pleased you did that. It was a very positive and productive activity.”

 

   Skiffington-Blumberg’s next challenge calls for integrating the Olympic rings into the city’s identity.

 

   All that, while juggling other duties.

 

   Skiffington-Blumberg blanches at the words “spin doctor.” It’s an insult.

 

   “We’re not a bunch of goofuses trying to do stuff with smoke and mirrors,” she said. “We’re professionals. I feel like we can make a difference here.”

 

   CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

Sue Skiffington-Blumberg, left, and Devra Ashby with the city’s Public Communications Department worked on a cable show about the city called “Springs TV” last week. Photo by (JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE)