Tag: inside the halls of power
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THE SPYGLASS: County flush with funds after septic rate increase
A friend from Oklahoma who wouldn’t trust government with a nickel used to say a slick way to fund Big Brother would be with a toilet paper tax. How better to fund the government’s diarrhea of the checkbook than by making every flush count, he cynically joked. Practically speaking, it’s something everybody uses and…
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THE SPYGLASS: General’s Iraq speech heard by a select few
Everybody’s who’s anybody was at the Penrose House last Wednesday.About 90 people gathered to get the latest dope on the Iraq war from someone in the know. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno spoke to a who’s-who crowd in the lush setting of a goldrush-era millionaire’s home in the Broadmoor hills.The event was sponsored by the Colorado…
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THE SPYGLASS: Cities save money by tracking vehicles
When Mom watches you rake the yard, you’re less apt to ditch the job to take a dip in the neighbor’s pool. That’s the principle behind a Deer Park, N.Y., company’s product that it says saves cities and companies money. Vehicle Tracking Solutions installs boxes the size of a deck of cards inside vehicles…
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City’s ethics commission is twiddling its thumbs
In April 2007, Colorado Springs faced having to comply with the state’s voterapproved ethics law advanced by Common Cause. The City Council believed it was too restrictive – according to the city attorney, it could even bar a city employee’s child from accepting a college scholarship. To remedy that, the council used the city’s…
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Budget ‘crisis’ nothing new for the county
El Paso County is in such dire financial straits that “the public no longer can get the same level of service from county government.” County officials have repeated that so much of late it’s starting to sound like background noise. But wait, county reporter Perry Swanson plucked that quote not from the county’s many…
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Suthers’ 5th book presents his case on role of DA
The Gazette’s Statehouse reporter, Ed Sealover, reports the state’s attorney general/author is at it again. John Suthers has released a 192-page examination of the criminal justice system called, “No Higher Calling, No Greater Responsibility: A Prosecutor Makes His Case.” Published as part of Fulcrum’s Speaker’s Corner series, it’s the Colorado Springs resident’s fifth book, following a…
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If you want to be on top someday, you have to work
New City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft wants to help midmanagers work their way to the top, the operative word being “work.” She picked seven up-and-comers for the first incarnation of “Team Squared.” The city manager is worried. She’s afraid the city, like cities across the country, will lose up to 50 percent of its talent…
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Silence over France trip feels a lot like déjá vu
In December, Mayor Lionel Rivera and his wife, Lynn, went to Paris on official city business.Most of the trip was funded by his hosts across the pond, with the city picking up incidentals such as an occasional cab fare.But when it was time recently to file annual disclosure forms for gifts, honoraria or other benefits…
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Bruce says help with enterprise petitions dried up when he left
Time is running out for tax-cutter Douglas Bruce to collect signatures for two ballot measures that would overhaul the city’s enterprise funds. Seems that while Rep. Bruce was in Denver, his helpers were asleep at the switch. “In the four months I was in the Legislature, if they had done a fraction of what…
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Transportation authority looks like it’s doing well
Prices are skyrocketing, and more people are being laid off by the day. Times are tough all over.Or are they?The Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority is doing pretty well.The agency’s 1 percent sales tax, approved by voters in 2004, raised $301,725 more in January and February than in the same span a year ago.El Paso…