Sad county ballot conundrum

While I personally support the proposal to have El Paso County Commissioners put the 0.15 percent sales tax for parks maintenance on the November ballot, voters need to know that their probable refusal to do so is simply a straw man for an entirely different issue.

Last November the commissioners put a deceptively worded issue on the ballot which, as they planned, passed and gave them and other county officials the possibility to run for three consecutive terms, instead of the previously allowed two. A great number of voters voted “yes,” only to discover later they would have voted “no” had the proposal been written in simple, understandable language.

Earlier this week many citizens asked commissioners to put the term limit issue back on the ballot. Commission Chair Amy Lathen told them part of her reluctance to do that was because of the potential expense of such an election, a specious argument on its own.

So it boils down to this: If the commissioners agree to put the parks maintenance issue on the ballot, the “too expensive” term limits re-vote argument loses any credibility since another issue will already have been placed on the ballot.

It’s pretty sad that a very reasonable tax request for our parks will probably fail to appear not based on its own merits, but because our elected officials apparently believe it’s more important to further their tenure in office.

Rich Boyle

Colorado Springs

Please water the new trees

It is very sad to me that the city must take down 100 beautiful old trees. Nice that they are replacing them. I do hope they plan to water the new trees so they don’t die too. Hmmmm. If they had just watered the lovely old trees that we already had, the city would not have to spend almost $60,000 taking them down, plus the cost of replacement and replanting.

Mayor Bach, I hope you are taking notes so this kind of bad decision-making does not happen again.

Gayle Abbott

Colorado Springs

Aggressive oversight needed

Critics may claim that the less-than-scandalous findings of the first-ever “performance audit” of the Economic Development Corporation mean it was a waste of time and money. As someone who helped put the process in motion, and who reads much more into the report than just what’s on the page, I beg to differ.

Exercising government oversight isn’t all a game of “gotcha.” It’s something responsible governments do as a matter of course, to ensure that public resources are used properly, irrespective of whether dark suspicions have been aroused. It keeps the recipients of public funds on their toes because they know they’re being watched.

If it makes them squirm, too bad. That’s the point.

I called for the audit not because I suspected improprieties at EDC (though I did have a hunch they were engaged in job creation inflation, which the auditor confirmed), but because the EDC is a recipient of public funds, because it hadn’t ever before undergone an independent, performance-type audit and because I believed city hall must take tangible steps to rebuild public trust.

The controversy that greeted this simple request indicates how alien the concept of oversight is in Colorado Springs. And the weak, wimpy, white-washed nature of the report itself indicates to me that we still have a long way to go.

The report lacks substance. It lacks detail. There was no support for its conclusions.

It’s not necessarily all the city auditor’s fault, since he gets his marching orders from city council. And council in recent times just hasn’t been comfortable with exercising aggressive oversight. The mixed signals the last council sent on the importance of doing a thorough job (with some opposed to doing it at all) gave him permission to sleepwalk through the process. And he did just that.

I’ve frequently argued that we need an elected city auditor — one who owes his first loyalty to taxpayers, not to city insiders. This is the only way we’ll get the kind of oversight this city and its enterprises badly need.

This episode convinces me, more than ever, that this idea has merit.

Sean Paige

Colorado Springs

Staff Sgt. Mark Badger receives a hug from former Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal team member Stephanie Haugland as she holds her son Kieran, as Badger’s father, Tim Badger looks on. Badger was awarded a Purple Heart in a ceremony Monday morning at Peterson Air Force Base. He also earned the Army Commendation Medal. As an bomb disposal specialist with the 21st Civil Engineer Squadron, Badger saved the life of a fellow EOD team member while serving in Afghanistan. Photo by CAROL LAWRENCE/The Gazette