Two Colorado Springs City Council members and two former mayors have criticized the rule Mayor Yemi Mobolade recently enacted to regulate his use of protective details and a city-owned vehicle.

The regulation Mobolade approved last week stemmed from an investigation by the city auditor’s office into a tip on the city fraud hotline. The auditor’s report highlighted potential concerns with trips made by Mobolade’s security detail and his wife Abbey Mobolade’s use of a city vehicle, but said the city did not have a policy in place regarding those actions.

Councilmember Brian Risley introduced an ordinance at Monday’s council work session to add restrictions to the city’s Code of Ethics for elected officials. Risley’s proposed changes would be more restrictive than the rules Mobolade signed on Thursday, including a ban on elected officials using the vehicles for personal use and stricter limits on when others could drive those vehicles.

Risley said the administrative rule Mobolade signed off on had no enforcement mechanism and no real repercussion for misuse of a city vehicle.

“A regulation does not change the city code, so I feel it is incumbent on us as a legislative body to make changes to the code,” Risley said.

The administrative regulation requires elected officials who use a city vehicle for personal use or any family member who drives in unusual circumstances to reimburse the city at the IRS mileage rate. The rule also allows security details to accompany elected officials at the discretion of the Colorado Springs police chief.

The audit report in April found five instances of the security detail traveling with Mobolade before or in between city business. It also determined that Mobolade’s wife drove a city vehicle for several weeks last summer. Mobolade later admitted that he also drove a city-owned vehicle to Crested Butte on a vacation in March.

Chief of Staff Wayne Williams said that since the mayor oversaw both the Colorado Springs Police Department and city fleet as the administrator, it was in his power to approve this regulation. Williams said the vehicle rule was more restrictive than what the council allowed for the CEO of Colorado Springs Utilities, who had latitude in his contract to use a vehicle for personal reasons.

“This is more stringent than what City Council has, in the past, accepted and applied and has in contractual agreements,” Williams said.

Councilmember Roland Rainey pointed out that paying the IRS reimbursement rate back to the city would be significantly cheaper than renting a car commercially. Mobolade paid back the city $276 for using a city vehicle during a five-day trip to Crested Butte with his family.

“I can just use a fleet vehicle, do the IRS mileage rate to reimburse, and I should be good to go. That is the way the policy is written. Is that the message that we want to send our residents in Colorado Springs?” Rainey asked.

Rainey said that a broadly supported policy should be developed in collaboration between the mayor’s office and the City Council. Williams welcomed the suggestion, saying that the administrative rule could be adjusted by the mayor.

Risley’s proposed ordinance would also allow the City Council to censure the mayor for violating the Code of Ethics. Williams said that aspect of the ordinance was unconnected to the audit report and that the council had no power to limit the mayor’s duties.

“I am not sure how one group of elected officials censuring another serves any possible purpose, other than to reduce the ability of this city to work together for the taxpayers,” Williams said.

Councilmember Nancy Henjum was supportive of Mobolade’s new policy.

In a statement provided to Gazette news partner KOAA, Henjum said the City Council should instead be focused on public safety issues, especially since the mayor’s office had put a policy in place as requested by the audit.

The approach to the city vehicle issue has also been opposed by Colorado Springs’ two mayors before Mobolade — Steve Bach and John Suthers.

“The Mayor’s new policy is ethically misguided. The City policy should be to prohibit personal use of city vehicles, not to condone it,” Suthers wrote. Suthers served as mayor for eight years before Mobolade was elected in 2023 and has generally avoided criticizing the mayor over the last few years.

Bach was elected in 2011 as the first mayor after Colorado Springs voters chose to switch to a strong-mayor form of government. Bach said he did not receive a city vehicle during his term and was just reimbursed for the work mileage on his personal vehicle. He said the mayor’s office should not be expanding who can use a city-owned vehicle.

“I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to have any spouse or adult child or anyone else driving a city vehicle. That’s a personal opinion. And there is also an issue with liability risk,” Bach said.

Williams said that state law requires all drivers to carry a minimum amount of car insurance, which would help reduce the liability.

Aurora city spokesperson Joe Rubino said that Aurora’s mayor receives a $760 monthly stipend for their vehicle use and does not have a dedicated security detail.

City spokesman Joe Hollmann said last week 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.

No date was set for when the proposed ordinance might come back to the City Council for an official vote.