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Mayor's counsel meeting sparks debate
Posted: 01.18.2012 at 6:51 PM
Updated: 01.19.2012 at 6:35 AM
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Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach and members of city counsel hold the first mayor's counsel meeting Wednesday morning.  / FOX21: Kelly Werthmann
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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- For the first time since he took office last summer, Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach met with members of city council to address their concerns.

Wednesday morning the strong mayor met with eight of the nine council members (Tim Leigh was not present). Each sounded off on numerous issues, including community design, Memorial Health System negotiations and making adjustments to the city's boards and commissions.

However, concern remains for Councilwoman Lisa Czelatdko regarding communication between the mayor and city council, or the lack thereof.

"I don't think we had an opportunity to really discuss communication between the two offices," she said. "It was touched on a little bit between the subjects, but you can see from the agenda we had quite a bit of subjects worth discussing."

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Discussion between Bach and city council is an issue Czelatdko posted on her Facebook page Monday. She wrote:

"A constituent noticed I'm not reporting as much on City news like I used to. The reason for that is because I don't receive the information any longer from the City. Council no longer receives emails from the various departments and so I assume Council has been purposefully removed from the information distribution lists. Since the change of City charter and the constant legal interpretations of it which are still occurring, Steve Bach informed me that Council may no longer contact staff directly and has to go through an official process to request assistance or information."

Bach said he is confused by her comments.

"I'm disappointed by her frustration," Bach said. "Certainly I'm available to council members who have questions. I'm not tracking why Czelatdko is frustrated by that, but we're going to try to find out how to make our communication better as a result of this conversation."

The mayor said much of the tension could be because Colorado Springs has a new government now that the mayor is considered the city's chief executive officer, and the city staff no longer reports to council. Yet Czelatdko said the government can only be considered "new" for so long, and communication needs to happen now.

"For me, it is so important that we get together, both the executive and legislative branch for the city, and work together and have a set plan of what we want to know," Czelatdko said.

As the meeting came to a close, many of the council members and the mayor agreed that the meeting was beneficial.

"I'm very optimistic," Czelatdko said. "I believe in great leadership, and I believing working cooperatively. We will only have success for Colorado Springs if the city leadership works together."

It was suggested that mayor's counsel meetings should be held each month. The next is scheduled for Feb. 22.

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