OUR VIEW: Utilities board is one big farce (vote in poll)

The oversight of Colorado Springs Utilities is a well-known farce. At least a few members of the Colorado City Council want change. Good for them, and let’s hope they succeed. They will meet about the topic at 1 p.m. Wednesday, convening as the Colorado Springs Utilities Board.

Colorado Springs City Council and the Utilities Board are identical, pretending to function as unique entities with the hocus pocus of adjourning and convening under different names. That’s why, when city officials decided they couldn’t afford to water parks after voters rejected new taxes, some council/board members wanted Colorado Springs Utilities to simply give water to City Hall at the expense of ratepayers and in violation of bond covenants. Board members were supposed to protect ratepayers, the utility’s bond rating and bond covenants. Yet, as council members they wanted to undermine the welfare of Utilities by demanding “free” water for constituents who had refused new taxes.

Other conflicts have been worse.

Take, for example, a proposed land deal pitched to Utilities last year. It began in 2005, when Colorado Springs Utilities identified a hay farm in Pueblo County, known as Stonewall Springs, as the possible site of a reservoir for treated effluent. A Utilities appraisal valued the site at $3 million, but the sellers wanted $7.25 million. Utilities walked away.

Developers Jim and Mark Morley later bought the site. Research by Utilities shows they paid $6.25 million. After buying it, the Morley’s obtained approvals for a reservoir.

Claiming they had done significant work to get the site approved, the Morleys tried selling the property to Utilities in 2009. Though Utilities had already refused to pay $7.25 million, the Morley’s asked for a whopping $38 million.

How could they, with straight faces, ask $38 million for a property that had reportedly traded for $6.25 million a short time before? Simple. They tried to exploit the conflict of interest inherent to the Utilities Board/City Council.

Knowing the council was in trouble on the USOC deal, the Morleys offered a $12 million above-board kickback to fund the USOC project — if only the Utilities Board/council would approve a $38 million sale. It was an insightful move by the sellers, and who could blame them for trying?

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The professional staff of Colorado Springs Utilities managed to quell the deal, and thankfully the board/council didn’t cram it down their throats. But imagine how tempting it was to pass off the USOC debacle to ratepayers, transferring the burden to them without so much as a campaign and a vote of the public. Imagine how hard it must be for ranking Utilities employees, who work for the board/council, to discourage inappropriate demands and desires by their conflicted employers.

Outrageous conflicts like the Stonewall Springs proposal are inherent to a board that’s one big institutionalized conflict of interest. Council members, please remove yourselves from oversight of Colorado Springs Utilities. It’s supposed to be an independent enterprise that sells water, electric and gas to customers — not a pot of gold that’s a constant temptation for City Council.

— Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board. Friend him on Facebook

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