I made a mistake voting in favor of the strong mayor plank (Denver: for sale, college)

[phetaroi]

Yup, I made a mistake.

At least in regard to the way it's working here with Mayor Bach. It's not the way I've seen it work elsewhere.

It's not even that I may disagree with some specific action Bach has taken (for example, the commuter bus to Denver decision...I don't really see how that bus subsidy helps enough Colorado Springs citizens to make it viable tax-wise). The problem I have is that 1 man is making all the decisions.

Can the issue be put back on the ballot? If so, how?

I'm now all for a weak mayor system.

[Josseppie]

Don't you guys have checks and balances? Where city council has to pass the issues as well then the mayor can veto them or sign them and if he or she veto's them the city council can override the veto. Kind of like how its done with the president and congress.

[Mike from back east]

I railed against the strong mayor thing for all sorts of reasons .... especially for allowing too much power to be concentrated in one set of hands .... an open door for trouble.

I favor a mayor who is a CEO sitting as the head of a Board of Directors (BOD, aka the City Council). The BOD acts as a single body to set the city's laws, funding, priorities and then hand it off to a City Manager (CM) for execution / performance as the BOD directs. The CM serves at the discretion of the BOD and can be fired at any time for any reason.

The BOD has members from all parts of the city. It represents the interests and concerns of all citizens and areas of the city and its communities, including the business communities. I don't think any one person can think and act with an understanding of all people, parts, needs and communities of a city, but voters went ahead and set up just such a scheme, with one person playing lord and master to all.

We had a CM at one time, but some were not happy with the performance, so instead of just firing the CM and getting a new one, they threw out the whole CM model via a ballot box coup funded by a group of developers who pushed the "strong mayor" concept upon us and funded the election of one of their own developers as Mayor. Now we get one person making all the critical decisions.

Am I the only one who thinks this stinks?

Am I the only one finds it bizarrely ironic that so many people here claim to hate developers but voted for their strong mayor scheme and their fair-haired boy?

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Am I the only one finds it bizarrely ironic that so many people here claim to hate developers but voted for their strong mayor scheme and their fair-haired boy?

Irony is always the first word that comes to mind when I allow myself to contemplate the political culture/establishment in Colorado Springs. Notwithstanding the never ending sources of political irony, it is the best place to live I personally have ever experienced, and for that I am willing to live with irony as background noise/musak. Saw the mayor speak a few months ago and he sure didn't seem very thrilled about being mayor, that was pretty darn obvious.

[PokerMunkee]

Only the libs are complaining, love it.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by PokerMunkee

Only the libs are complaining, love it.

I don't think Mike can fairly be called a lib. A moderate is probably more accurate. When I become a resident of COS I will feel more entitled to express my opinion of the city government ( I may even run for City Council depending on the situation). Some things need changing.

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

I don't think Mike can fairly be called a lib. A moderate is probably more accurate.

You may have noticed that on these boards and in various areas of Colorado Springs, Moderate = Liberal and Liberal = Communist.

Like in Boulder, I suspect its Moderate = Conservative and Conservative = Klan member.

People on the extreme edges of the spectrum, in my experience, don't generally think clearly, with anything like one might call "perspective." Give these folks a permanent hold on political power, and strange, unfortunate things happen. So it goes.

[Fullback32]

Originally Posted by smdensbcs

You may have noticed that on these boards and in various areas of Colorado Springs, Moderate = Liberal and Liberal = Communist.

Like in Boulder, I suspect its Moderate = Conservative and Conservative = Klan member.

People on the extreme edges of the spectrum, in my experience, don't generally think clearly, with anything like one might call "perspective." Give these folks a permanent hold on political power, and strange, unfortunate things happen. So it goes.

LOL. Since I am a Libertarian, I suppose that equals anarchist.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

I don't think Mike can fairly be called a lib. A moderate is probably more accurate. When I become a resident of COS I will feel more entitled to express my opinion of the city government ( I may even run for City Council depending on the situation). Some things need changing.

Thanks for the mention, my preference is to defy labeling. I'm all over the map, depending on the issue.

For example, I'd have NO problem being a 1-man firing squad for a certain college football coach. Today. Call me a conservative, like that guy in Texas who killed the animal raping his little girl.

On other issues, I'd have NO problem bringing back some of the FDR-era controls on the investment community which gave us an investment banking and stock market that served us well for many decades until the oversight and regulations got messed with in about 2000/2001, etc. Call me a meddling liberal here.

I'd be a Teddy Roosevelt "GOP conservative" but today's GOP would tar and feather him for meddling with our vaunted free enterprise system by putting an end to child labor abuses, tainted meat, trusts, and for setting up National Parks for future generations to enjoy. Call me, and TR, a stinking pinko commie for that, no doubt some will.

Unlike many, I see the power of the government as beneficial - IF IF IF - that power is used wisely. Sadly our whole Congress, GOP and DEM, seem to be for sale to the highest bidder, in which case neither GOP nor DEM appeal to me, and rigid ideology of any sort turns me off. For me, it boils down to what's the RIGHT thing to for America, Colorado, and our locality, which is why I've been an Independent for decades, and why in 1986 I almost had a thousand bumper stickers printed up to say: Don't Re-Elect Anyone. There are many ways to skin the cat and achieve progress, there is no "one way" that fits all issues, rigidity fails here. We have been steadily progressing during the entire history of our nation, no need to stop progress and move backwards.

I'll vote for anyone of any party if I like the person and the message, or whichever person is the least objectionable candidate. IMO "party line" voting never was a good practice for voters.

Enough about me.

Locally, it's still a mystery to me that some of the loudest voices despising rampant development voted for a developer who's now making noises about re-developing the S.W. part of town by tearing down the power plant and putting in a stadium.

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When you're a developer, every property looks like dollar signs.

With so many well-educated people in this area, the rigid voting patterns here are a real surprise, but maybe that's a reflection of the intentional effort to keep voters divided and conquered. I've often dreamed of a viable third party that really is a big tent and offers a slate and platform of reasonable stances that floats everyone's boat.

So, was the change to a Strong Mayor good for us, bad for us, too soon to tell, or do some just not care?

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by Fullback32

LOL. Since I am a Libertarian, I suppose that equals anarchist.

Well, I don't run with the maurauding anarchists at the G-12 or G-8 (or whatever it is now) summits, but from what little I know of anarchists they tend to slot into the extreme "left" side of the spectrum. The closer extremists from either side gets to the top of the so-called Political Circle, the more they start looking and sounding like each other rather than the mainstream of either political side. But since the rest of us have been able to maintain general Constitutional principles, such as the right to free speech, both extremes have the right to say (and within limits, do) whatever they darn-well like.