Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera is smart, his colleagues say. He’s got a master’s degree in business administration, but it’s his dozen years on the City Council that colleagues say give him perspective and an understanding of city issues.He’s dedicated to the point he’s been seen walking to City Hall at 6 a.m., briefcase in hand, cell phone sometimes pressed to his ear. He’s a fiscal and social conservative, yet has shown he’ll listen to other points of view and change his mind.Above all, perhaps, Rivera is cautious. When he was first on the campaign trail in 1997, he carried notes with bits of city trivia so as to not be caught flat-footed when asked questions. When reporters pepper him for comments on issues of the day, he often pauses for several seconds before responding.”He is very thoughtful about what he says and what he does and what the outcomes can be, and I respect that,” said former Councilwoman Margaret Radford, an ally and friend. “You wouldn’t want a person in a position of authority who just wings it all the time.”That’s why, after six years as mayor, some colleagues and community leaders say they’re surprised Rivera is embroiled in the biggest controversy of his career and a flap some observers say could threaten his political aspirations.He’s accused of having a conflict of interest with LandCo Equity Partners Chairman Ray Marshall, the local real estate developer chosen to provide new facilities for the U.S. Olympic Committee. The USOC, city and LandCo inked a $53 million incentives package last year to keep the sports organization’s headquarters in the Springs, where it’s been since 1978.Rivera, vice president of investments at the local office of global giant UBS Financial Services, handled financial accounts for Marshall in the months leading up to the city asking developers in September 2007 if they would be interested in providing new facilities for the USOC, says Marshall’s attorney. The attorney acknowledged the relationship this month before the city’s Independent Ethics Commission in response to a complaint filed by a local businessman. The city also released documents provided to the ethics panel by Marshall’s attorney that listed Rivera as an advisor on three accounts tied to Marshall. Marshall’s attorney said his client and Rivera cut their business ties in October 2007, months before Marshall was picked as the USOC developer. The Ethics Commission has made no decisions on the complaint.Rivera says UBS’ ethics rules prevent him from acknowledging his clients, although he has stated generally he had no conflicts of interest with anyone involved in the USOC deal. He didn’t respond to interview requests for this story.”I served with him quite a number of years, and I was really his right-hand person as vice mayor,” said former Councilman Richard Skorman, who was effusive in his praise of Rivera. “It’s so unlike him to not be careful about that … It was something I would never have expected.”City officials have said the USOC selected Marshall’s proposal over three other developers or teams of developers, which included providing the USOC with a new downtown headquarters building, offices for Olympic-themed national governing bodies and $16 million in upgrades to the USOC’s Olympic Training Center. And, Rivera has said he liked one of the other developer’s proposals. Even so, the USOC’s former CEO has said the city selected LandCo.No matter who made the choice, the conflict-of-interest accusation has put Rivera under an intense spotlight at the same time city officials are trying to reassemble the fractured USOC deal. The agreement has fallen apart under the weight of LandCo’s funding woes, the nation’s credit market crisis, a 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office investigation of Marshall for unspecified reasons and a lawsuit by LandCo against the city and USOC – although the company has settled with the USOC and work continues on the organization’s new headquarters, scheduled for completion in September.It’s uncertain whether Rivera’s alleged conflict had any bearing on LandCo getting the deal, nor is it known if it will influence the outcome of putting the deal back together. But his lack of a detailed explanation on the matter has left some community members wanting more information.”If I could give any advice, it would be to try to find a fine line where your employer will allow you to discuss some of this without breaking any of their confidentiality rules,” said Councilman Scott Hente. I don’t know where that line is because I’m not in his industry. But (he should) try to erase this perception or do something about this perception that he’s hiding behind it.”Rivera typically has been more visible in the community and as an elected official.An El Paso, Texas, native who came to Colorado Springs in 1984 when he was stationed as a captain at Fort Carson, Rivera was first spotted on the political scene as campaign manager for Springs Mayor Robert Isaac’s re-election campaign in 1991.Rivera talked of Isaac – considered the area’s most powerful politician for nearly 20 years – as his role model and mentor. And like Isaac, Rivera became involved in local community activities. He co-chaired the Springs Community Action Plan, a local planning effort, in the 1990s and has volunteered for 16 years with the Pikes Peak office of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Colorado.

“He’s been consistently there,” said April Speake, executive director of the local Big Brothers Big Sisters office. “So often we have people who don’t follow through. Lionel has been an example of someone who follows through.”In his first try for local office in 1997, Rivera won the final two years of a vacant at-large City Council seat. Re-elected in 1999, he was named by his colleagues as vice mayor. In 2003, he beat three council colleagues and a trio of long-shot candidates to become Colorado Springs’ first Hispanic mayor. He was re-elected in 2007. During his years on council, he’s been a staunch supporter of local military installations, road projects, economic development and holding the line on taxes.As councilman and mayor, Rivera receives mostly praise from past and present colleagues.Skorman, who operates his Poor Richard’s restaurant and book store on Tejon Street, says he’s seen Rivera making early-morning walks to and from City Hall and his UBS office in the Wells Fargo Bank Tower. Skorman said Rivera was the only candidate in 1997to oppose a new tax to acquire open space. But over the years, Rivera told Skorman and others the open space program had been a boon to the community’s quality of life.When she left the City Council, former Councilwoman Judy Noyes, whose liberal views often put her at odds with Rivera, said she told him she never walked away angry after a council meeting.”Somehow, it was always able to be an amicable disagreement,” she said. “I think that says something about his manner.”Rivera also was quick to show loyalty, Skorman said. When members of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., picketed Skorman’s restaurant in 2005, Rivera – an opponent of gay marriage – showed up as part of a counter demonstration to support Skorman.”For him to be there meant a lot,” he said.Ethical behavior always was a priority, Skorman added. Skorman remembers signing pages of city bond documents as vice mayor because Rivera, as mayor and a UBS executive, feared a conflict of interest in case his firm invested in the bonds.Hente echoed much of what Skorman said. Rivera is a “decent guy” and an “extremely honorable individual,” said Hente, who met the mayor at campaign forums more than six years ago.”Over the last six years, there have been times, from a policy standpoint, that I have disagreed with him. There are times we have voted on opposite sides of an issue,” Hente said. “But I’ve never doubted the fact that he was trying to do it with ethics and integrity.”

Mike Kazmierski, president of the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp., said Rivera is a strong supporter of the business community. Many prospective employers considering a move to the Springs want to meet the mayor, and Rivera has done “an exceptional job” helping to close the deal on attracting employers, Kazmierski said.”He’s very outgoing,” Kazmierski said. “He sells this community very well.”But veteran developer Steve Schuck said last month the city didn’t have “its best players on the field” in Rivera and others when they negotiated the USOC deal. Some other veteran business people declined to be interviewed or to return phone calls.And when it comes to the USOC agreement, Noyes questions why Rivera didn’t bring more business people and real estate veterans together to help negotiate the deal. Some people in the community, Noyes said, complain Rivera is no John Hickenlooper, Denver’s popular mayor who has reputation for bringing groups together and overseeing major successes, such as last year’s Democratic National Convention.Is such a comparison fair? Hickenlooper heads a strong mayor form of government – there is no city manager and department heads report to him. In Colorado Springs, a city manager oversees day-to-day operations and Rivera and the eight other council members set policy, much like a board of directors.These days, more is expected of the mayor. In 1979, voters began electing the mayor, who up to that point had been selected by council colleagues. Isaac, whose keen knowledge of city issues and forceful manner made him a high-profile personality, redefined the mayor’s position and the job now is looked upon as the face of the city.Rivera, like his mentor, has embraced that role. Colleagues say he seemingly is on the job 24 hours a day, even though he and the rest of the council receive an annual stipend of $6,250.

Rivera is in his final two years, and term limits prevent him from seeking re-election.In 2006, he set his sights on the 5th Congressional District, but finished fourth in a six-man race in the Republican primary.”People liked him, but they voted for someone else just because they were a little bit better,” said Kay Rendleman, chairwoman of the El Paso County Republican Party. Rivera angered some GOP members when he supported passage of a state referendum that called for keeping excess tax revenue instead of returning it to taxpayers.Rivera has told colleagues he is considering a run for the El Paso County Commission seat being vacated by Jim Bensberg.Rendleman predicts it will be a “very, very tough race” because so many “strong candidates” have already announced their intent to run. She said it remains to be seen how the ethics investigation will affect Rivera if he decides to enter the race.”We assume that he hasn’t done anything wrong,” she said. “But we have to let that whole process play out. Once the facts are known, then we’ll know the effects on his future. But if he hasn’t done anything wrong, I don’t see it as being a significant issue.”Perhaps. But the ethics matter and the USOC deal are likely to stick with Rivera, some say.”It was going to be his legacy, and it probably will be,” Noyes said. “Only not the way he wanted it to be.”­-Contact the writer at 636-0228

Mayor Lionel Rivera attends the Colorado Springs Utilities Board meeting Wednesday at the Plaza of the Rockies. Photo by KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE

Kevin Kreck