Two Colorado Springs City Council members have launched a new committee to sort through the biggest issues with resources and funding for the city’s first responders.

The first meeting of the public-safety working committee, organized by Councilmembers Nancy Henjum and Roland Rainey, took place on May 19. The meeting included city Chief of Staff Wayne Williams and representatives for the leadership and unions of the city’s police and fire departments.

Henjum and Rainey said they wanted to create a focused committee after hearing concerns from police officers and firefighters over the years. The public-safety impact fee the city began collecting in 2023 and other funding sources have not been enough to address a backlog of equipment needs, the councilmembers said.

“You don’t want to scare people, but there comes a time and place where you have to say ‘there’s a need here and we have to meet it,'” Henjum said.

The committee’s goal is to create a list of which parts of the city’s public-safety response are struggling from a lack of funding and begin prioritizing which areas should be the main points to address.

Rainey highlighted vehicle replacement as a potential issue, as some firetrucks in the city fleet are nearly 30 years old. He also raised concerns about the public-safety agencies being stretched thinner as Colorado Springs adds more residents.

“A lot of the gaps that we see are not just in revenue but in resources. As we continue to increase in size, there’s larger demand on manpower. So we have to make sure that we maintain the professionals that we currently have,” Rainey said.

In a statement, city officials said the new committee is not meant to advocate for the city’s public-safety sales tax or any other funding sources for the police and fire departments.

The committee meetings are internal city meetings, so they have no public attendance. Henjum said committee members will pass along their findings in more public settings, especially as city leaders begin working more in depth on the 2027 budget.

“To do city business, we need to be able to sit around the table and have a conversation to get to the best outcome. We need people to speak freely and honestly to get to that common goal,” Henjum said.