When voters rejected Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s and City Council’s proposed ban on retail marijuana sales on Nov. 5, they handed the mayor his second defeat at the polls in less than two years in office.
The first was in November 2023 when Mobolade asked taxpayers to allow the city to keep $4.75 million in Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights excess revenue to help fund a police training academy. Remember that?
No one can blame you if you don’t. There’s been nary a mention publicly about what’s happened to this so-called essential project that the mayor termed all-important and that the Colorado Springs Police Department identifies as “the highest priority of all City-owned facilities.” (Go here for more on the urgency of the project: ColoradoSprings.gov/policetrainingfacility)
The CSPD website notes costs of up to $21 million to renovate the existing facility, located at 725 N. Murray Boulevard, or up to $45 million to buy land and build a new one.
But not much, if anything, has been said publicly about this project in the last year. In fact, despite the mayor previously arguing that more training space is needed to boost the ranks faster, he recently has made statements that the city is approaching its full authorized strength of 839 officers. (That authorized strength, however, could be called into question. Is that really enough officers to cover the sprawling city where it takes officers 13 minutes or more to get to top priority calls?)
In a quest to find out more about the mayor’s efforts to advance this initiative, I asked for and obtained the mayor’s schedule over the last six months, from May 15 through Nov. 23.
Filled with lunches, staff meetings, public promotional events, speaking engagements and travel, the mayor’s schedule contained only two references to the project that I could find. On Friday, May 17, a calendar entry noted a “police training academy conf,” and on Monday, Oct. 21, Mobolade was scheduled for a “police training center site tour.” The only other mentions of the academy involved his attendance at the graduation ceremonies for the two most recent recruit classes.
So I, for one, have to wonder: How much of a priority is this, anyhow?
The CSPD website says the City has patched together, at most, $6.8 million from existing revenues and will pursue funding through the Public Safety Sales Tax (from which up to $2.8 million has already been identified), the general fund reserves (with $4 million already earmarked), grant funding and “financing.” The latter, I assume, involves issuing certificates of participation, a crafty dodge of TABOR’s requirement that all debt be voter-approved. So far, no additional funding sources have been revealed that I’m aware of.
It’s worth noting that a month after the November 2023 defeat, Mobolade said he didn’t view the voters’ rejection of his TABOR retention proposal as a loss, because a chief goal of the ballot measure was to “start the conversation.”
Fair enough. But then why has he dropped the ball on that conversation?
Perhaps he’s just too busy.
Turning again to his schedule, I found notations of his periodic chats with Police Chief Adrian Vasquez, but no details are stated.
I also found at least six out-of-state trips, including to the Harvard/Bloomberg Senior Leadership Initiative in New York City where he’s among 39 mayors and others being given “management training to strengthen their city halls and delivery results for residents,” according to the program’s website. (A program official tells me most expenses are being picked up by the initiative.)
Mobolade, his calendar says, also traveled to the National League of Cities conference in Sacramento, California; Washington, D.C. with other local officials and businesspeople to meet with legislators; Washington, D.C., for a White House visit; Cincinnati, Ohio, on a Chamber trip, and Tampa, Florida, for another National League of Cities conference.
I also found lots of “Alone Time” notations on his schedule — averaging seven per month; a couple of “leadership coaching w/Mayor Yemi” sessions; a smattering of “private appointments,” and, as mentioned earlier, many lunch dates with various pastors, business people, nonprofit leaders, elected officials and those associated with local news organizations, such as Kevin O’Neill and J.W. Roth, who own the Independent, and Christopher Reen, publisher of The Gazette. (I identified no meetings in the last six months with FBI agents, who are investigating a hoax burning of a cross in front of one of Mobolade’s campaign signs in the run up to the May 2023 mayoral run-off election. Find more on that here: PikesPeakBulletin.org/local-politics/colorado-spring-mayor-affirms-he-cooperated-in-investigation-will-answer-questions-when-case-is-closed.).
Getting back to the subject at hand, perhaps partial funding of the training academy could come from taxes charged on retail pot sales, since voters did approve citizen initiative Ballot Question 300 on Nov. 5 that legalizes those sales and directs tax money to public safety (emphasis added), as well as mental health and veteran PTSD programs.
Oh, wait. Before the election was even held, Council adopted an ordinance that requires distances between pot stores and schools and treatment facilities that are so large that it will be virtually impossible for vendors to find a legal place to operate within the city. It’s fair to conclude the mayor supported that Council move, given that he backed the Council’s ballot question to ban rec sales altogether.
So, there goes that possibility for funding.
At the end of the day, the question remains: How much of a priority is the police training academy? Pardon my skepticism about its critical need, given the mayor’s utter lack of public engagement with citizens after his TABOR money grab went down in flames last year.
Pam Zubeck worked for over 45 years as a journalist in Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado. She covered local government and other topics at The Gazette for 16 years before moving to the Indy in 2009 where she contributed news and cover stories for 14 years. She’s won numerous state, regional and national awards, including the Sigma Delta Chi public service award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her 2012 story, “Misfire,” about the city’s response to the Waldo Canyon Fire. She may be reached at Pam@PikesPeakBulletin.org.
