The person who can hire or fire you is the one for whom you work.

It’s true for burger flippers as well as city attorneys.

In 2010 in Colorado Springs, a strong majority voted for a strong-mayor form of government while retaining a nine-member City Council. That means most voters wanted the mayor to have more power but also wanted a council that had some counter-balancing powers.

Going to the strong-mayor system was a sweeping change and, as is usually the case with big changes, unintended consequences followed. When the dust settled after that election, and Steve Bach later was elected mayor, it became apparent that the city attorney worked for both the mayor and the City Council.

The question inevitably arose: When there is a dispute between the mayor and the council, where does that place the city attorney?

“Between a rock and a hard place,” answered City Council President Scott Hente. “It doesn’t matter who the person is.”

The city attorney is Chris Melcher, who was not called for this column because this is not about personalities — it’s about how to run the system. Bach, who has not been shy about wielding and expanding mayoral power, acknowledged that “it’s something to debate. It is a quandary.”

Bach hires and can fire the city attorney, so there’s little doubt who the city attorney’s boss is. The trouble is how to give the council its own legal counsel without creating gridlock.

“Council could hire its own attorney, but what does that set up?” Bach asked. He suggested the city could “hire a senior attorney who will work out of the city attorney’s office but will work for the council.”

Hente said “the only way it could work is for the attorney to be completely independent.”

There’s the rub. If the council’s attorney is answerable to a mayoral appointee, he or she could not be independent. Yet if the position is completely independent, the council and the mayor could sue each other.

Just guessing here, but city taxpayers probably don’t want to be paying bills for both ends of such a lawsuit.

Why does the council need legal help? When the council voted to override Bach’s line-item budget vetoes, Melcher advised that Bach could ignore the vote and simply impound the funds. When the council wanted to continue the FREX bus service, the city attorney said the mayor could terminate the contract unilaterally.

Many citizens were displeased with those incidents.

This issue could result in a city charter amendment. Or the council and mayor could agree to try an addition to the city attorney’s staff for a trial period and see how it works.

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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Facebook and Twitter or contact him at 719-636-0363 of barry.noreen@gazettedev.gazette.com