Last week, Manitou Springs City Council heard concerns about Councilor John Shada following Councilor Nancy Fortuin’s call for his resignation during the Nov. 21 regular meeting.
“Recently, a police report was filed by one of our residents concerning Councilor Shada,” said Fortuin during the Nov. 21 meeting. “The report details an encounter in the Dillon parking lot, where a discussion escalated to the point that the resident felt unsafe. This type of behavior is unacceptable under any circumstances and is especially troubling when it involves a member of the City Council.”
According to a redacted copy of the Manitou Springs Police Department report,“Mr. Shada told [Jenna Wells, executive director of Visit Manitou Springs] that the City Council had agreed to withdraw funding from [redacted] for one year to assess the impact on tourism,” read the Oct. 17 MSPD report. “When [victim] asked what evidence the City Council had to support this decision, she stated that Mr. Shada became increasingly agitated. He allegedly stepped back from her vehicle, made a throat-slitting hand gesture, and said, ‘You’re finished, you’re done, you’re finished.’ [Victim] stated she perceived this gesture and accompanying statement as a threat to her personal safety, the safety of her staff, and her overall livelihood.”
During the Nov. 18 meeting, Mayor John Graham noted that City Council is limited on the action it can take against Shada. “Council’s received a number of emails regarding this,” he said. “I think it’s fair to say that some members of the citizenry are frustrated by this. There is the expectation that City Council will do something about that, and I think tonight what we’re attempting to do will be to address it as best we can. Now I’d like to point out a couple of things as to what Council can and can’t do. We can discuss it. Council — and this comes from the city attorney — City Council has no authority to take action or remove or suspend one of its members. There’s nothing in the city code establishing a formal censure process for anything, but violations of the city council’s rules of procedure in chapter 2.08 of the city code. Nothing like Council member Shada’s alleged actions is covered in that chapter. So the censure process in that chapter does not apply. Nonetheless, Council can discuss the matter and that’s what we’re doing tonight.”
In addition to the details of the Oct. 17 incident, that council agenda packet included a number of other incidents involving Shada berating Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs employees.
“I think it’s a reasonable expectation, but bad behavior on anyone’s part is not justification for even disciplinary procedure,” said Graham, who this summer expressed firm support for City Administrator Denise Howell, who has been the subject of numerous complaints from former employees as Manitou Springs struggles to retain key staff members.
“I’ve certainly read everything that’s in the packet, and as a human being I strive to do the very best I can for this community and I realize sometimes I do fall short,” said Shada. “I agree with the mayor that the people have elected me, and until they remove me from office I intend on representing the people of Manitou.”
Councilor Julie Wolfe argued that Shada shouldn’t be singled out for his behavior. “When there are two individuals who have an altercation or an argument outside of this council, outside in the community, I believe it is not our business to conduct a witch hunt and to engage in ‘he said, she said’ back-and-forth and criticism like that,” she said. “If that were the case, we would have had a lot more of these meetings regarding other incidents … People lose their temper sometimes. The mayor in particular is familiar with temper problems. We’ve managed to conduct ourselves accordingly and to just move on and pass over those incidents and I don’t think this situation even rises to the level of what we’ve had to experience in this room in very heated discussions.”
Among the public commenters was Farley McDonough, a board member of Visit Manitou Springs, who read a statement signed by the board. “It has become increasingly clear that Councilor Shada has demonstrated hostility, bias, and a lack of impartiality toward Visit Manitou Springs,” said McDonough. “His repeated threats and unwillingness to review information with an open and fair mind undermine the integrity of the City’s decision-making process. In light of these actions, we respectfully request that Councilor Shada do the right thing and recuse himself from any discussions or votes involving Visit Manitou Springs to ensure fairness, transparency, and public trust in City governance. Should he refuse to recuse himself or step down, we urge the City Council to take appropriate action to uphold these standards and protect the integrity of the governing process.”
During recent Council work sessions, Shada has been critical of funding economic development entities like Visit Manitou Springs. During an Oct. 14 City Council work session, Shada asked Finance Director Rebecca Davis about economic development funds. “These amounts … are monies that are leaving the city,” he said. “They are money that we are appropriating that are going to other entities, whether it’s the Chamber of Commerce vis-à-vis business economic development formula. That’s been the traditional place where that has gone.”
Shada noted that the City will likely have to pay the Cog Railway $750,000 in 2026, per the city’s excise tax agreement. “That would mean to me that somewhere else, whether it’s in this cost center here, that we deal with the 750 that’s proposed here, or that we find it somewhere else, as expenses in the budget book. So to me, if it stayed within this cost center here, this means that this business promotional formula might be at risk, and as I understand, if we needed to attack that amount we would have to do that by ordinance.”
Manitou Springs Councilor Judith Chandler pushed back against the call from Visit Manitou Springs for Shada to recuse himself from future votes. “I am adamantly opposed to anyone, especially a nonresident, nonvoter of Manitou, to recommend that anyone on City Council recuse themself from voting on any budget issue,” she said. “That smacks to me of special interests and … there’s a name for it. It’s called lobbying and I am adamantly opposed to that and that is all I have to say.”
Mayor-elect Natalie Johnson suggested the only option available would be to initiate an investigation.
“I do not condone this type of behavior,” she said. “If we do want to move forward with anything as a council, it would be requesting an investigation so that we do remove that allegation piece from the conversation. I don’t know if we have support on council to move forward with something like that, but I do believe that is the only option we really have as a council if we want to do anything this evening.”
Wolfe opposed any kind of investigation, citing the City’s ongoing budget issues. “At a time when we have a budget struggle, and we’re really trying to count our pennies and figure out where we’re spending money, I’m appalled to think about spending our taxpayers’ money to investigate allegations of incidents that occurred outside of this meeting,” she said. I also think that the mayor’s comments about the city being liable are unfounded and ridiculous. Certainly the city attorney can comment on that, but the City Council is not liable for arguments that any of us have outside of this room.”
Johnson, Fortuin, and Graham supported an independent investigation, while Wolfe, Chandler and Shada opposed.
“Three in favor of investigation, three against,” said Graham. “There’s hardly any point in putting that to a vote – a formal vote – unless somebody wants to make a motion just to do it officially? The idea of the investigation won’t work. I would see a tie vote and therefore a failure.”
