Mayor Steve Bach announced three city appointments Wednesday, including two new permanent positions and one six-month contract job.

Helen Migchelbrink will serve as the city engineer and director of public works, two positions that were merged into one. She will be paid an annual salary of $125,000. She is currently the city manager of Fort Collins, and is serving out a one-month notice before coming to Colorado Springs.

Kathleen Krager will be the city’s new transportation manager, and will earn $112,000 per year. She was promoted from within the transportation department, and has worked on transportation planning, funding and the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority. She formerly earned $98,000.

And Kyle Campbell, a local engineering consultant, has been brought on as interim director of planning for a price of $175 an hour. That works out to $168,000 for six months of full-time work, but Bach said that Campbell’s hours will fluctuate, and he doesn’t expect him to bill the city for full-time.

Campbell’s pay is a standard rate for a consultant of his level, said Bach’s chief of staff, Laura Neumann. He is a division manager for Classic Consulting Engineers.

A full-time director of planning will be hired before Campbell leaves, said Neumann. The director will be paid between $120,000 and $135,000 per year, plus benefits, said Neumann.

Krager’s and Campbell’s positions were both newly created. Prior to this year, the city deputy chief of staff oversaw parks, planning and public works, and another person was the city engineer. The deputy chief of staff position has been eliminated.

Neumann said she is interviewing candidates to be director of parks, and hopes to have a finalist by April 23.

The salaries are covered by $2 million the city is saving by eliminating 38 positions. The city has 95 vacancies, Bach said, but not all will be filled.

“That adds up to $5 million in payroll positions that have not been filled,” Bach said.

The three appointments exemplify Bach’s aim of streamlining city government, said Neumann.

Campbell will work on “removing barriers to residents and businesses” regarding the government. Migchelbrink’s job merges two positions, and since Krager was promoted from within the transportation department, she’s intimately familiar with the department.

Bach said his administration’s priorities moving forward are “jobs, transforming government and building the community.” Each of the three appointments will help greatly in that agenda, he said.

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The owners of the Gasoline Alley tavern and nightclub in downtown Colorado Springs have proposed expanding into the vacant building next door. Photo by RICH LADEN, THE GAZETTE