Manitou seat stays open; mayor won't run

A standing-room only crowd got plenty of news in the first 90 minutes of Tuesday’s Manitou Springs City Council meeting — even if it wasn’t exactly what it expected.

The council’s vote to fill the Ward 3 seat left vacant by Shannon Solomon’s resignation last month ended in a 3-3 tie between two of the four applicants — innkeeper Karen Cullen and runner Matt Carpenter — at a meeting that opened with Mayor Eric Drummond’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election in November.

The developments mean that there won’t be an incumbent in the mayoral race, the Ward 3 race, or the race in Ward 1, where Councilwoman Donna Ford is term-limited.

Reading from a prepared statement, Drummond thanked the council for its accomplishments in the face of a recession since his swearing-in in 2008.

In stepping down, he cited a desire to spend more time with his family.

His statement ended, “The best way to predict the future is to help create it.” The overflow crowd stood to applaud.

About a half-hour later, Cullen and Carpenter, along with Parking Advisory Board Chairman Phillip St.Cloud and special education teacher Sheryl Cline Matthews, each had a few minutes to address the council before the vote.

Cullen touted her business expertise, which she said could help address a general-fund shortfall currently estimated at $14,619 for the remainder of 2009.

Carpenter, a combined 15-time winner of the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, asked the council not to vote for his fame, but for his civic involvement and regular attendance at City Council meetings.

Solomon stepped down at the end of the council’s July 14 meeting, saying later that he was “embarrassed” by Drummond’s enthusiastic reception of that night’s offer by three city-funded commerce organizations — including the Economic Development Council, of which Drummond is a former president, and the Chamber of Commerce, for which Cullen serves as a board member — to cut $40,000 out of their 2009 budget, heading off a potential cut by the council.

Drummond called it “more than I would ask for.”

Solomon viewed the offer as greedy organizations hijacking the budget process to save their jobs.

His seat will remain vacant until Jan. 1, when the election-winners take office. Besides all three ward seats and the mayorship, the Nov. 3 ballot will likely include proposed tax increases and changes to the city charter that would add more funding flexibility.

Cullen said during a break on Tuesday that she will run for the Ward 3 seat when it goes to the voters.

Carpenter wasn’t sure: “I’ve got at least a couple nights to think about it.”

Drummond may have summed up the gallery’s feelings with an off-the-cuff statement after the inconclusive vote:

“I think that’s as anticlimactic as anything I’ve been through.”