Maybe it’s time for a Colorado Springs Utilities board of directors that can devote all of its time to Utilities instead of splitting time with City Council, a local political group says.

It’s something the City Council, which doubles as the Utilities board, will investigate over the next 18 months.

The Utilities board met Wednesday in a special meeting announced Wednesday morning to discuss Utilities governance. The issue has been researched five times over the past 20 years. And while the studies concluded that Utilities should have an independent or appointed board of directors, the governance has remained the same: the City Council is the Utilities board of directors of the publicly owned utilities, which includes water, wastewater, electric and gas.

But the utilities business is getting more complicated, said John Cassiani, executive director of Colorado Springs Forward, a group that aims to affect public policy.

“What is in the best interest of the way Utilities is being run, can it be done better? he asked. “Is this the right board?”

In September, Cassiani made his first appearance on behalf of the then newly formed CSF group. He told the board it was time for a governance change and that Utilities governance was a top priority for the new group. The encounter was tense and motives were questioned and voices were raised. However, over the next few Utilities board meetings, Cassiani appeared again and board chairman Merv Bennett agreed to review the governance issue.

The Utilities board will devote the fourth Wednesday of every month to discuss the pros and cons of changing the governance. The meetings are open to the public and will be videotaped and posted on the Colorado Springs Utilities website.

Bennett, who is running for reelection for his at-large City Council seat, said the difference between this latest effort to study governance and past efforts is community involvement.

“We want this to be a community discussion not just a board discussion,” he said.

Another key difference, he said, is that the Utilities board is setting objectives for the governance research – which it will do over the next couple of meetings — rather than just ordering a study to be done.

“I commend the board for going through this, most boards would not,” said Tim Blodgett, president and CEO of Hometown Connections, the utility services subsidiary of the American Public Power Association. Blodgett served as the meeting facilitator.