Colorado Springs has daunting challenges ahead.

While jobs were Mayor Steve Bach’s No. 1 priority during the campaign, Bach said the city’s infrastructure needs immediate attention, too.

The city should be spending $25 million to $30 million a year on infrastructure, but ongoing expenses pose another problem, he said.

“If we just continue spending the money we are now and our costs keep going up — guaranteed pensions, health care, everything else, don’t add any more employees, don’t add any more services — we’re insolvent in five to eight years,” he said.

Bach said his administration plans to give the City Council what he called “a pretty strong presentation” later this month about the city’s huge backlog of stormwater, roads, bridges and mission-critical public safety capital needs.

“I do have a plan,” he said. “First of all, we are going to find money in our 2013 general fund to contribute stormwater drainage, roads and bridges and mission critical public safety capital replacements. It’s going to be in the range of probably $7 million.”

Bach said the city is projecting revenues to come in up to $7 million higher than budgeted, and he plans to ask council to use all or most of that money on capital improvements.

Bach already asked the council to direct Colorado Springs Utilities to find inefficiencies in the “currently approved rate base and budget” to help pay for stormwater.

“I’m thinking Utilities ought to be able to come up with like $12 million to $15 million. I don’t know that, and I don’t mean to be taking shots at them,” he said. “I’m just saying, until you look under every rock, how do you know? How big is their marketing department?”

In a wide-ranging interview with The Gazette, Bach also reflected on his first year in office, talking about everything from his relationship with council to his alter ego.Here are excerpts from that interview:Jobs: “The city doesn’t create jobs. It has to be the private sector that creates jobs. What we must do at the city is be supportive with the very best business climate.”Outsourcing: “We’re going to find innovative ways to do things, and we’re going to revisit everything we’re doing. When I brought up that we should test outsourcing of snowplowing, it was like I was at a funeral.”First year in office: “I think I’ve done a very good job in leading the change and the culture and assembling an absolutely top flight management team, empowering our employees. I’d give myself a B+.”City Council: “On City Council relations, I’m frustrated, and I don’t know that it’s my fault. I think I’m a C- to B+. It’s been very difficult…I’m hoping that a new day is dawning there.”Wife Suzi Bach: “She’s very similar to Nancy Reagan. Nancy Reagan ran the White House the second term, didn’t she? (Suzi) is my energy source and my alter ego…I’m very proud to be her husband.”Being mayor: “I work a lot of 80-hour weeks. You don’t have to report that, but I’ve been spending a lot of time on HR matters, on just trying to figure out where we’re headed in terms of various parts of the business…I would just characterize what we’re going through as a classic startup with an extra layer of politics on top.”Living in a fishbowl: “I have no interest in being center stage. I’m pretty uncomfortable, honestly, with people looking, ‘Oh, there’s the mayor.’ No it’s just me. I’m a citizen who happened to get to this point and who maybe can help.”Oil and gas regulations: “Council, I hope, will be reasonable on the oil and gas regulations, and Ultra Resources will be successful. If they are, the fees and the revenue we could generate off that could be very, very substantial.”Memorial Health System: “Leasing Memorial Health System to University of Colorado (Health) has huge promise in terms of not only the medical campus and the hospital itself but the spin offs.”Colorado Springs Utilities: “Another option is to sell Utilities. Please don’t say I’m saying we should. I’m just asking the question: What are the pros and cons of selling the electric generating capacity?”Self-evaluation: “All I know is I’m doing my best. I think I’m making an impact. I feel like people are more optimistic, more energized in general.”Prospects: “We’re working with Peterson Air Force base to try to provide them more land so they can attract more Air Force missions. By improving the business climate, I think that will have a big impact.”No-tax pledge: “What I meant by it was where I need to focus is on our city government becoming as efficient and effective as can be and, secondly, that we need to get this economy going again to create stable, well-paying jobs resulting in increased revenue to the city. I believe through those two means, we can generate the funds we need…If we can’t there, I’ll be the first to stand corrected.”Kinder Morgan: “When we got the intel that they were buying El Paso (Gas), I picked up the phone and called the CEO, introduced myself and offered to fly down to Houston.”Police and Fire: “We’re embarking on a new compensation study. First time the city has done that in over a decade, and I invited the Police Protective Association and the (Professional Firefighters Association) to participate in part of that committee to not only define the (request for proposals) but to select the vendor, and they will be in the conversation when we get into comparables and the results. They’re not going to vote on it. But in the past, they were told at the end of the study, ‘Well, here’s what it is and here’s what we’re going to do.’ This truly has to be a team approach because if we don’t, how are we going to expect people to perform under those circumstances?”Waiting for drinks during the interview: “What’s wrong with these people? I only have an hour in the meter.”—Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623Twitter @danieljchaconFacebook Daniel Chacon