More than half of 1,100 people polled in a telephone town hall say the City Council shouldn’t govern Colorado Springs Utilities, say survey results released Monday.

The percentage of respondents against City Council governance ranged from 56 percent to 58 percent, depending on whether they were being asked the first or second time, respectively.

As for how the $1 billion-a-year Utilities should be led, the split was nearly even between having the City Council and mayor appoint members (35 percent) and having citizens elect them at-large (32 percent). Another 11 percent were undecided, and 22 percent wanted council members to continue leading Utilities.

Asked twice what was more important to them, 46 percent said having members appointed based on their qualifications, and 43 percent said having citizens elect them.

Nearly half, 49 percent, agreed that board members should be compensated the same as the City Council – $6,250 a year. That pay plan was chosen by the Utilities Board on May 25.

Board members themselves overwhelmingly prefer being replaced by another elected board – if they are to be replaced.

The Gazette found five similarly sized public utilities, all of them with appointed boards. Those are in Lincoln, Neb.; Orlando, Fla.; Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Tacoma, Wash.

Utilities searched for public entities of all sizes and found eight with elected boards. Those are in Austin, Texas; Clark County, Wash.; Fort Collins and Pueblo; Omaha, Neb.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Seattle and Snohomish County, Wash. Utilities also found more such entities run by appointed boards in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Denver and Jacksonville, Fla.

Public awareness of Utilities governance ranked low in surveys done this year by the four-utility service, with most residents unaware that the City Council runs the enterprise.

But consciousness may be climbing since the the City Council sponsored the telephone town hall Wednesday night. The vendor for the event made 17,000 calls, connecting with 1,034 people, Utilities spokesman Steve Berry reported.

In addition, 42 people called in and 24 participated through the webcast, for a total of 1,100 participants. Another 5,684 voicemail messages were received, Berry said Monday.

Mayor John Suthers and Colorado Springs Forward – an influential nonprofit civic organization – want an appointed board to take over Utilities, and they have helped to spur the latest reviews into governance models. The current board has been reviewing its options for more than a year, and the issue had been studied multiple times over the previous 10 years.

The City Council is considering a ballot proposition on the issue for next April but could decide to pursue no change of governance for Utilities. If it does propose a ballot issue, the current vote count indicates that question would pursue an all-elected board.

The current Utilities Board already voted unanimously against a hybrid model of appointed and elected members.