COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach announced Wednesday afternoon the creation of several new positions, one of which will be filled by former mayoral run-off opponent Richard Skorman.

Skorman will lead one of three new solutions teams, as Bach appointed him head of the Parks solution team.

Skorman lost a mayoral run-off election to Bach in May after the two finished with the most votes of seven candidates but neither received the 50 percent necessary to avoid the run-off.

Bach also created a transit solution team designed to rethink the city's public transportation system and named Robert Shonkwiler head of that team. Chuck Murphy will lead Bach's third team, the downtown team, which will try to help boost downtown business.

Colorado Springs Fire Chief Steve Cox, who had been Bach's chief of staff, also retired Wednesday. Bach has reassigned Cox to chief of economic vitality and innovation.

He'll be pushing the envelope in job creation and city innovations.

"What we want to do is create an environment where people want to come," Cox said.

Cox was the city's 16th fire chief in 118 years. His replacement will be current interim fire chief Richard Brown, who started his career with the department in 1980 and worked his way up the ranks.

Brown believes timing and customer service are the hallmarks of his department, something he's working hard to maintain

"How can we be creative and innovative to continue to deliver service and sometimes even expand services with our existing resources," Brown said.

Bach's new chief of staff will be former Cheyenne Mountain Resort General Manager Laura Neumann.

“The staff appointments announced today are positive and forward moving actions that put into place the next leadership steps to improve our City," Bach said. "Each of these individuals is an exceptional leader and well qualified to tackle the important challenges and opportunities before us in 2012 and beyond.”

Information from the Colorado Springs Business Journal was used in this article