OUR VIEW: City should hear CEO's sage advice (vote in poll)

News flash: A majority on City Council act as if they represent government and city employees, rather than the people who pay for it all.

Council members make their disregard for the electorate perfectly clear with every effort to sidetrack the public’s desire for less local government during troublesome times. Councilman Bernie Herpin, and former Councilman Jerry Heimlicher, have openly confronted the will of voters with reminders that not all people vote.

Routine efforts to sidetrackthe city’s own Taxpayer Bill of Rights, rather than to obey it or work to overturn it, also display disregard for the public’s will. Refusal to consider even modest employee wage cuts, during the worst recession since the 1930s, is more evidence of the council’s disregard for public sentiment. Perhaps nothing, however, highlights the council’s myopic perspective better than the snubbing of Steve Bartolin — president and CEO of The Broadmoor, one of the most respected and successful resorts in the world.

After voters trounced the council’s request for a property tax increase in November, Bartolin offered friendly advice in an e-mail to Mayor Lionel Rivera and the council.

He explained that no organization could sustain itself under the city’s model, and suggested adjustments that would make city government work. He volunteered to bring together local executives to help the city resolve its financial problems. The letter worked its way through Colorado Springs as a viral email.

The mayor and council’s response? Complete silence.

Finally, two months after the letter was sent, concerned citizen Joann Houser asked council members what they had to report about Bartolin’s letter at a meeting Tuesday.

“There’s nothing to report,” Mayor Rivera said.

Houser asked why, and Rivera said:

“Typically if nothing happens, nine members of council don’t think it rises to the importance to follow it up.”

The council is in hock up to its ears. Yet the good intentions of a successful CEO, who wants to help, don’t merit so much as a follow up of some type? That epitomizes a snub.

Nobody could honestly consider Bartolin’s letter unimportant. More likely, it made some members of council uncomfortable. Here are some highlights from the letter:

(Please vote in poll to the right. Must vote to see results. Thanks!)

Problem: “You have a 70 percent overall payroll cost, $161 million payroll for 1,805 employees which equals $89,196 per employee and benefit and pension plans that are not only ‘Cadillac’ but more ‘Ferrari’ when compared to what is being offered in the private sector... It is doubtful you can find any private employer for 500 or more people in the state of Colorado, or practically the nation, that has a per employee payroll cost that high.”

Problem: “No matter what business you are in, for profit or non-profit, the game is pretty much over if you are running a 70 percent payroll cost.”

Problem: “The weight of the pension plan is crushing the city financially.”

Solution: “Restructure the starting wages for both salary and hourly personnel across the board.”

Bartolin’s letter goes into far greater, professional detail than will fit here. See the entire letter (and a unique poll about the letter) by clicking here. All citizens of Colorado Springs should study Bartolin’s letter and pass it around. It’s an expert analysis of the council’s refusal to run a lean bureaucracy the citizens are able to afford.

Mayor Rivera’s snubbing of Bartolin may have been rude. In time, however, economic forces — much more decisive than City Council — are likely to bring about just the type of changes Bartolin suggests. — Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board

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