The city of Colorado Springs got more bad news on Wednesday when the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority voted 5-4 not to reimburse the city for $1.2 million in wages and benefits paid to city employees who help manage the region’s large road projects.

A grim-looking Mayor Lionel Rivera said afterward that the vote means that another 18 to 20 city employees will lose their jobs. “People who were in those positions will no longer have jobs,” he said. “It’s very disappointing.”

Rivera and other city officials also predicted that the vote could lead to delays and higher costs associated with transportation projects.  

But Ron Murphy, a private consultant and member of an organization called Taxpayers for Budget Reform, said that’s not true. “There’s no way in the world the city can perform these management services at the same cost as private businesses.”

Wayne Williams, an attorney and member of the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners, led the effort to derail the city’s plan.

Williams said that if the city succeeded in getting reimbursement for its management costs, it could jeopardize the very existence of the rural transportation authority. “Voter confidence is a very fragile thing,” he said.

The backers of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, which was approved by voters five years ago and is funded with a one-cent sales tax, promised to use private-sector employees on capital projects whenever possible and avoid enlarging government.

But city officials said they needed the onetime reimbursement because economic conditions have changed dramatically and the city can no longer afford to manage the large capitol projects for free.

Cam McNair,city engineer, said the city was simply trying to cover a shortfall and keep the large construction projects on track. “Our proposal is the lowest-cost option for the RTA.”

—Call the writer at 476-4825.

A massive cleanup of coal and train cars is underway on the railroad tracks parallel to Las Vegas St. behind the Spring Creek Youth Service Center on Thursday, December 10, 2009. Sixteen cars with coal derailed on Wednesday night. The cause of the derailment is still under investigation. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett) Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

Jerilee Bennett