Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade signed off on a new policy Thursday governing how the city’s elected officials can use security details and city-owned vehicles following an investigation by the city auditor into Mobolade’s travel in 2025.

The report found five instances in which the mayor’s security detail joined him to pick up his children or dry cleaning. The auditor’s office also found that his wife Abbey used a city vehicle for part of May and June of last year.

The auditor recommended that the city establish clearer rules for security details and city-owned vehicles.

“Existing policy allowed certain personal use of City-owned vehicles, but this regulation provides clearer guidance and stronger consistency moving forward and holds me and the Office of the Mayor to a higher standard,” Mobolade said in a statement Thursday.

The announcement also cites a potential travel issue that was not included in the original audit. Mobolade reported that between March 20 and 25 of this year, he took a personal trip to Crested Butte using a city-owned vehicle.

Mobolade paid the city $276 in mileage reimbursements for the Crested Butte trip and $110 for his wife’s travel last year to meet the city’s new travel requirements.

Under the new regulation, elected officials can be accompanied by a protective detail authorized by the city’s police chief. The protective detail may accompany the city official outside of their official duties but cannot take on personal errands.

“For example, the protective detail may accompany the elected official to a
grocery store but will not choose, carry, load, or unload the groceries,” the new rules state.

City spokesman Joe Hollmann said the mayor’s office looked at the rules in place for other executive leaders in Colorado. The Denver Police Department and the Colorado State Patrol regularly accompany officials during commutes and on minor unofficial duties.

“The fact that we didn’t have this in place speaks to us still finding things that hadn’t transferred over to the strong-mayor form of government,” Hollmann said.

The mayor’s office is the only elected position in Colorado Springs with a dedicated security detail.

Elected officials who receive a city-owned car may use it for “incidental personal tasks” within Colorado Springs under the new policy, such as dropping kids off at school. The travel for those trips will still be reported to the IRS as a fringe benefit. For travel outside the city, the official must reimburse the city for mileage at the IRS reimbursement rate.

Family members are “generally not permitted” to use the vehicle, and the elected official is required to reimburse the city for the mileage.