City Council sees a flurry of activity

Colorado Springs City Hall was a whirlwind of activity Tuesday. Among the highlights:

• The city clerk called a special meeting of the liquor board, which will decide Wednesday whether to suspend the liquor license of a downtown nightclub that was the scene of what police described as a near riot over the weekend.

• Anti-tax crusader  Douglas Bruce filed a lawsuit against the City Council and City Attorney Patricia Kelly, claiming they’re violating the city charter.

• The convention and visitor’s bureau asked to keep $150,000 it owes the city to wage a marketing campaign to counter national news stories that have cast Colorado Springs in a negative light.

• A split council gave final approval to an ordinance to implement ballot issue 300, which  Bruce, who authored the voter-approved initiative, said will only create problems for future councils.

SYN NIGHTCLUB HEARING

City Clerk Kathryn Young said she scheduled a suspension hearing of the liquor license issued to Syn Nightclub, formally known as 13 Pure, at 217 E. Pikes Peak Ave., at the request of city attorneys and the Colorado Springs Police Department.

The hearing will be at 1 p.m. today in council chambers at City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.

“The attorneys will have to bring forward specific information of fact as to why there is a public safety, health and welfare issue and ask the board to summarily suspend the license,” Young said.

Early Sunday morning, more than 20 police officers rushed to the club after a fight involving up to 100 people broke out. Several people were injured in the melee.

The club was already up for a suspension and revocation hearing for allegedly serving alcohol to three underage customers in January. But the liquor board decided Friday to postpone that hearing for two weeks.

Last year, the club, operating as 13 Pure, lost its liquor license for 10 days after women exposed and fondled their breasts while camera crews from “Girls Gone Wild” were filming.

DOUGLAS BRUCE LAWSUIT

Douglas Bruce sued the city in District Court, the latest in a series of legal battles between the former county commissioner and city officials.

Among Bruce’s claims in the 15-page lawsuit is that City Attorney Patricia Kelly has violated the city charter by hiring outside lawyers without City Council approval.

“The city attorney is an executive position and cannot bind the city financially, nor spend city funds not first appropriated for the contracts first approved by council,” the lawsuit states.

Last year, the city government and two of its enterprises, Memorial Health System and Colorado Springs Utilities, spent more than $2.1 million on outside counsel.

Bruce is also accusing at least eight of nine council members of violating the city charter for receiving “benefits greater than those required by federal or state statute.”

“Council members should be ordered individually to repay with the legal rate of interest the excess contribution taxpayers have made to their retirement accounts,” the lawsuit states.

VISITORS BUREAU

Terry Sullivan, president of Experience Colorado Springs, the convention and visitor’s bureau, said recent bad press about the city is prompting tourists to make other travel plans.

“Whether truth or reality, the fact is when national media comes out and says certain things about us, it makes it difficult to draw visitors to the destination,” he said.

To help repair the city’s image, Sullivan asked the council for permission to keep $150,000 of the $342,494 the bureau owes the city.

“Annually, the city establishes a contract with the CVB based on estimated (Lodgers and Auto Rental Tax) revenue and pays CVB monthly based on the contract,” Terri Velasquez, the city’s chief financial officer, said in an e-mail. “Then a reconciliation of the estimated revenue to actual LART revenue received occurs in January of the following year. CVB owes $342,494 to the city for 2009 as a result of less LART revenue being received than estimated.”

Sullivan wants to spend about half, or $75,000, on a promotional campaign in Texas and possibly some radio spots in northern Colorado.

The other $75,000 would be spent on “other opportunities that presented themselves because this late in the game, I’m not so sure that hastily spending money could be wisely used,” he said.

ISSUE 300

The council voted 6-3 to approve an ordinance to implement Issue 300, which voters approved in November.

Bruce opposes the ordinance, saying Issue 300 is “self-executing” and that the ordinance flies in the face of the plain meaning of the ballot initiative.

Bruce said the lawsuit he filed Tuesday isn’t related to his opposition to the ordinance. He also said he didn’t attend Tuesday’s council meeting to voice his opposition because he had before and he knew the council was going to approve the ordinance anyway.

“Every time I go to the City Council, I lose a few brain cells,” he said.

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Call the writer at 476-1623