After finding nearly $1 billion in regional stormwater needs, members of a task force working on the project for months recommended Thursday moving into phase two, including identifying ways to pay for projects.

But the city of Colorado Springs, which accounts for most of the stormwater needs, plans to hire an outside engineering firm to vet the numbers first.

“We’re not doing this to stall the process. We’re doing to it add validity to it, to add credibility,” Public Works Director Helen Migchelbrink told the task force during a meeting at the City Administration Building downtown.

“We have an opportunity here, and everybody is looking at us. That’s the reason why we’re doing it,” she said.

The future of the task force remains unclear.

For now, it plans to present its findings to El Paso County commissioners Jan. 17 and then to the City Council in February.

Neighborhood activist Jan Doran, who co-chaired the task force’s Citizens’ Team, said the group shouldn’t sit idle while the city double-checks the numbers.

“I have made it very clear: I don’t think we should stop if an engineering firm is brought in. We need to move forward while that’s happening. We shouldn’t lose time,” she said.

When asked what the task force’s role would be going forward, Laura Neumann, Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach’s chief of staff, said it will “continue to engage citizens and businesses” in selecting a private engineering firm.

“If the question behind the question is whether the mayor-led task force will address regional funding, that was not our intent,” Neumann said in an email.

During the meeting, Neumann said she wanted to assure the task force that stormwater projects of “immediate priority” would be addressed.

“Any projects that are deemed a priority by whatever jurisdiction will move forward without the review so it’s not a stall tactic. (The third-party review) is considered a business best practice,” she said.

“We’re not just going to pick our own firm, and I would also like our regional partners to be a part of it as well,” Migchelbrink said.

Thursday’s meeting started with questions from citizens about a meeting last Friday between Mayor Steve Bach and task force members, who said they were rudely dismissed by Bach and told that their work was done.

Neumann called it “the elephant in the room.”

“Yes, what was written in the paper was mostly true,” she said.

“I mean, some of the facts are wrong. We could debate that. I could say, ‘No, that’s not exactly what happened and so forth.’ That happens all the time. But I believe there were people who felt like their ideas didn’t matter, they were not appreciated. They volunteered good time and expertise. That was not the intent. That was not the intent of the meeting. I’m very sorry for that perception because I think it made a stumble on something that’s very significant, so what I would like to do is kind of dust ourselves off and move forward and try to make a difference with what the real issue is,” she said.

Neumann said she wasn’t there to apologize on behalf of Bach, who was in Denver at the governor’s State of the State speech.

“If he could be at this meeting, he would speak for himself,” she said. “But I will say that I know that he was very disappointed that that was the perception at the end of the meeting. But he does know he had a hand in that, and it was unintentional.”

—

Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623

Twitter @danieljchacon

Facebook Daniel Chacon

In this 2009 photo, Jon Bowman, left, and his brother Matt Bowman from A-1 Barricade and Sign, Inc. install an erosion barrier along Fountain Creek as part of a $3 million Stormwater Enterprise project. Photo by The Gazette file