Letters - Wednesday

CITY ELECTION

Builders have too much pull on current council

These candidates for Colorado Springs mayor and City Council have received endorsement and campaign cash from the Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs: Lionel Rivera, Tom Harold, Bernie Herpin, Randy Purvis and Larry Small.

A large number of their contributors are also individual developers. The developer of Banning-Lewis Ranch contributed to Lionel Rivera’s campaign. While Gregg Timm didn’t receive HBA support, he is a developer and he received individual developer contributions. Dave Martin received substantial cash from individual developers. Tom Gallagher, who works for a developer, did not receive HBA cash but did receive HBA endorsement.

The incumbents sat on a council that approved annexations and development plans predicted to result in failing levels of service at major traffic intersections. They approved annexations and development plans that outpaced Falcon School District 49’s ability to build classrooms. They repeatedly fail to require new developments to fully pay for the utility capacity and infrastructure they require — sticking ratepayers with the tab. And they consistently set land use review fees at levels that don’t cover the cost of processing the applications.

Bernie Herpin hasn’t been on City Council long enough to have committed all these atrocities, but he was quite anxious in January to give developers a huge break on fees-in-lieu-of-land for school and park dedication in 2007, rather than follow the recommendations of the School/Park Fee Advisory committee.

The HBA has insinuated itself into every nook and cranny of our city government. Our city and utility are afraid to make a change without first consulting the HBA. They seek the HBA’s permission before increasing fees or setting dates for fee increases. Do you wonder why?

I suggest we diversify our council, opting for a lot less developer influence and a lot more citizen representation. We’ll have a much healthier, more sustainable community as a result.

Dave Gardner

Founder and chair, SaveTheSprings

Colorado Springs

Anonymous phone calls wrong about candidate

Part of keeping my promise of “no bull” is “accepting no bull.” I am aware that there is a phone ad being used, with a woman’s voice challenging my financial/funding reports. She does not identify either herself or who is funding her. I gladly invite her or the people behind her to come forward and talk about this face-to-face, instead of hiding behind anonymous phone calls.

My reports are on the City Clerk’s Web site and I’m happy to stand behind them. There is one recent contribution and it will be reported in the next report due — a contribution from a builder/developer, Morley Group, of $3,492.

I have been impressed by the relatively clean campaigns that have been conducted until now and I hope this is just a hiccup. If someone wants to come at me with facts and issues, so be it. I welcome that. But smearing any candidate with half-truths and innuendos is over the top. I won’t tolerate such underhanded actions against any candidate.

Bob Null

Candidate for City Council

Colorado Springs

Incumbents are responsible for mess city has become

I suggest a “yes” vote on the first ballot issue (deleting obsolete language) and a “no” vote on the remaining four issues. Most important is the defeat of the near-100 percent pay raise for City Council members.

The council badgered us nine times to be paid, despite our overpaid city manager. Eight times we said no, but they wore voters down with a ninth request. Then they asked two years ago to double their pay, and voters said no again. We must keep saying no every time. They knew the stipend when they took the job.

Rewarding them will not end their demands. We will end up with full-time career politicians, not part-time policy makers. Why are they complaining the job is so poorly paid, yet spending large sums to keep it? I have seen them in action, and I don’t trust one of them. I would prefer a random nine inmates on work release from the county jail.

Vote for any four of the five nonincumbents. They aren’t much, but the current council members are proven scoundrels.

They have imposed a $15 million annual illegal tax for stormwater projects they have neglected for years. They also refuse to return $14 million from their last illegal tax for streetlights. What phony fee is next? Every week, there’s a new story documenting their wasteful incompetence and sheer stupidity. It’s time to kick them all out.

Douglas Bruce

County commissioner

Colorado Springs

REVISING HISTORY

Crank seems confused on Iraq war background

For a guy who recently wanted to be a U.S. representative, Jeff Crank appears woefully ignorant of both recent history and the workings of the U.S. government (“We must fight terrorists for our children’s sake,” Other Voices, March 13).

Contrary to his statements, it was not Congress who committed us to war with Iraq, but the president. Congress gave the president the option to use force, if he deemed necessary. It was the president who decided to use that option and commit the nation.

Congress, having no intelligence agency of its own, depended on the information provided by the administration, information which has since proven to be mostly false, and largely cherry-picked to reach a pre-determined conclusion. The “terror” that Crank says was “brought to our doorstep” was delivered, not from Iraq, but from Afghanistan. Those in the Congress who voted for the war did so because they trusted the data given them — a trust that turned out to be misplaced.

Crank wrote of “political opportunists . . . contradicting the advice of our military commanders.” He forgets that it was the administration that ignored the advice of both field commanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the growing insurrection and the need for many more troops to gain control of the situation. As a result, we are now in danger of losing both the Iraq conflict and the ground we’ve gained in Afghanistan.

If we were serious about winning these conflicts we would be making the necessary sacrifices by dramatically increasing the size of our ground forces, by a military draft if necessary, and increasing taxes to pay for it all — actions that no one in Congress, especially those war supporters like Jeff Crank, have the courage to ask for.

Steven G. Schwartz

Colorado Springs

ROCK ISLAND TRAIL

No price too high for open space

The people of Colorado Springs have spoken emphatically, most notably in support of the TOPS initiative, that they want dedicated and interconnected trails and green spaces.

There will always be greedy sceptics who can only see as far as their own front lawn, who do not have an ounce of pride in the city, and are too stingy to invest in its beautification; some of them crawled out of the woodwork recently to oppose further purchase of the old Rock Island railroad corridor for open space. Despite the fact that the appraised value was soundly proven to be fair market value, there are those who would rather stick their head in the ground and pretend our city will always have abandoned parcels of land that can be trespassed on freely. These are the same people who couldn’t care less about skyscrapers blocking their view or air pollution creating a brown cloud.

City Council’s decision to purchase a critical link of our community’s east-west spine trail system is a victory for trails and open space advocates who have worked so hard to get here. But most of all, it is a victory for all of the citizens of the Pikes Peak region and their descendants who can enjoy the health and recreational opportunities of a non-motorized greenway that will eventually run from Peyton to Cripple Creek.

Veronica Serna

Colorado Springs