Glenn breaks with council, will recommend repealing fee

Mayor Lionel Rivera and other Colorado Springs City Council members maintain that ballot issue 300, which voters approved Tuesday, doesn’t affect the controversial Stormwater Enterprise.

“Ridiculous,” Councilman Darryl Glenn said today.

“Even though the language was extremely vague, I’m going to be recommending on Monday that we adopt a resolution repealing the Stormwater Enterprise and the fee (associated with it),” he said.

Glenn said he plans to propose the immediate creation of a committee that would include county officials. The group would be tasked with developing a proposed regional stormwater authority to take to voters for their approval in November 2010.

“That’s the way we should have done it in the first place instead of imposing a fee,” he said.

But in the short-term, the council has a “responsibility to carry out the voters’ intent,” Glenn said.

“One thing you can’t argue is that if you drove around the community, there were enough signs that clearly stated that this issue dealt with the stormwater tax and fee,” he said.

“This council is in trouble if we, in my opinion, ignore the will of the voters on 300,” he added. “We need buy-in, and there has to be a relationship of trust with the electorate and to me, this will be a slap in the face if we don’t follow the direction that we’ve been given.”

Rivera, who said as recently as Tuesday night that issue 300 doesn’t affect the Stormwater Enterprise, is scheduled to meet with reporters at 3:30 p.m. today “to discuss the outcome of yesterday’s election,” according to the city’s Public Communications Office.