Colorado Springs Councilman Dave Donelson called for the cancellation of Tuesday’s scheduled special council meeting along with campaign finance reform during his own news conference Friday.

Donelson, who was supported by around two dozen people in front of City Hall, represents District 1 that includes areas in the northwest and north central parts of the city.

Ahead of the City Council’s vote Tuesday to delay a decision on a controversial apartment proposal along Garden of the Gods Road, Donelson stated council members Brian Risley, Michelle Talarico and David Leinweber received campaign donations from the company backing the project during their campaigns last year for City Council, and asked them to recuse themselves from Tuesday’s vote. The councilman also asked fellow council members to disclose conflicts of interest or prohibited communication with any party.

According to Donelson, a special council meeting scheduled for July 2 has been scheduled to “reprimand and punish” him.

Council President Randy Helms declined to comment Thursday on the special meeting’s intent or any possible action the council may decide to take.

“Bottom line, we have rules and procedures for our City Council that we are not disrespectful of each other,” Helms said.

Donelson said he asked council members to consider canceling the special meeting and in turn, he would not hold the Friday news conference. Donelson said he was asked to apologize, which he declined to do.

The councilman also hoped to engage in continued conversations about campaign finance reform in place of the special meeting.

“I’m not going to apologize if I’m representing the people that elected me,” Donelson said.

Donelson went on to call for increased transparency concerning campaign finance reports, claiming it’s too difficult for citizens to find campaign contribution information online.

He told the gathered crowd Friday that he would be willing to work with the office of Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade to have campaign contributions for each council member easily accessible on the city’s website.

Donelson also is in support of a policy that would add a cap to donations.

“We need to look at (donation caps) as a city; should we have caps on how much can be given to a candidate? We have them at the state level and we have them for federal office,” Donelson said. “I will support lowering the most anyone can give to us, by quite a bit.”

Earlier in the week, Helms pushed back on Donelson’s statements, stating he was “impugning our councilmembers’ integrity.”

Here is what city code says about conflicts of interest and appearance of impropriety:

An appearance of impropriety is created when a covered person will or may take a direct official action that, although not constituting a conflict of interest, will or may create a reasonable perception that the covered person’s ability to carry out his or her official duties with integrity, impartiality, and competency is impaired.

A covered person who determines that his or her action(s) may cause an appearance of impropriety should consider (but is not required to) disclosing and recusing or disclosing and declaring impartiality as prescribed by the voluntary provisions of section 1.3.115 of this article. (Ord. 16-122)

Donelson has recused himself from council items when he felt he had a perceived conflict of interest. Last November, Donelson recused himself from a vote on a controversial water tank Colorado Springs Utilities built, citing previous communications he had with residents on the matter that he believed could create the perception of unfair bias.

The special City Council meeting is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.