According to a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request, Manitou Springs has lost nine employees since the start of 2025.
Manitou Springs City Engineer Andrew Morren tendered his resignation just over a week after the contentious Feb. 11 City Council meeting that included discussion of the Ruxton Avenue project, which faces limitations due to budget and funding constraints. After presenting a set of four options and recommendations commensurate with the City’s current financial situation, which were all rejected by Manitou Springs City Council, Morren was told by Mayor John Graham to “kind of second guess us and sharpen your pencil a little bit and come back with a little more detail.” Morren resigned on Feb. 21.
Manitou Springs Mobility and Parking Director Juan Alvarez resigned earlier this month, after a series of City Council meetings where residents and councilors complained about the attempt to do away with physical residential parking passes and implement a digital pass system. Residents raised concerns about privacy and accessibility during a Jan. 21 meeting.
“This was not a council decision,” said Councilor Judith Chandler. “Council was not involved in making this decision, and I’m going to say that I don’t know why Council was not involved in this decision. We should have been and that upsets me as much as the complaints from our residents. This is ridiculous.”
The City announced on Feb. 11 that it would return to the original residential parking system with physical tags. “These updates are a direct result of listening to our residents, visitors, businesses, and City Council,” said Alvarez in a City of Manitou Springs Facebook post.
Alvarez resigned on March 7. In addition to Morren and Alvarez, Manitou Springs has lost an accountant, a park ranger, and an assistant project manager so far in 2025. Manitou Springs provided the names and resignation dates for employees, but denied the Pikes Peak Bulletin’s CORA request for resignation letters or exit interviews.
“Are we having a retention issue that needs to be addressed?” asked Councilor Julie Wolfe during a March 4 City Council meeting. “Is it normal … to have some interviewing or investigating done as to why we’ve lost some pretty important department heads and other people in the City?”
Options to identify and address issues
Graham presented Council with options for management consultants to evaluate the City’s work environment. “Council previously asked me to explore the feasibility of seeking management training or consulting to review various City practices,” he said before presenting options ranging from $3,000 for a 360 degree review to potentially up to $30,000 for staff development and coaching.
Are we having a retention issue that needs to be addressed? – Manitou Springs City Councilor Julie Wolfe
“I don’t really understand what we’re going to get from a 360,” said Chandler. “As I look at these rough estimates and what tool they might use, still my question is, ‘What work product are we going to get? What’s the deliverable that we get?’ Going with you know plan A, B, C or D, are we going to get personality profiles? I would like to have the ability to sift through what the work product would be and ask ourselves, ‘Is this what we are wanting? Is this worth the money we’re spending, or is it something else we want?’ We’re not going to be satisfied with an overview of some consultant coming in and telling us about our overall culture. I think we have a specific issue and I think our issue currently is that we have lost several key employees and we just want to find out … do we have a retention problem? What is the retention problem, and how can we help create an environment for future retention? I’m reluctant to sign on to any of these until we have a clear understanding of what we would get for our money.”
Councilor Michelle Whetherhult suggested that any possible retention issues had unremarkable explanations, and any potential review shouldn’t focus on Manitou Springs City Administrator Denise Howell. “Since I’ve been on city council, yes, we have had some department heads leave us only to go on to other cities where they have been paid more money, or they have left us to be closer to their extended family,” she said. “As far as a 360 [review] for a city administrator, I don’t think she needs one at this time. We just had a workshop a week ago Saturday and she gave us a two-page sheet on everything that we have accomplished as a City since 2020.”
Not everyone agreed with Whetherhult. “I think it’s dangerous to assume that we know why people are leaving,” said Chandler. “We just increased benefits and we have competitive salary. We instituted a 4% across the board cost of living increase, and I am actually less concerned about the culture at this point as I am trying to figure out if there are repetitive issues that are recurring that we need to be aware of as we improve our services here in the town. I don’t know how to go about that, but I think that this is a small town of 4,800 people. We hear things, people say things and so I have a big question mark about, ‘is City Council doing enough to make sure that our City employees feel like they’re working in a safe environment where they are encouraged to work to their highest, full potential and they have potential for growth?’ and I still have questions and concerns about that.”
Wolfe claimed that some former employees had contacted her and Chandler about concerns with the work environment in Manitou Springs, but Whetherhult questioned those claims. “We are city council,” said Whetherhult. “There are seven of us. If [employees] have an issue with our city administrator or with how they were managed they would be sending us all an email not contacting you individually, unless you want to share those emails with the rest of us.”
Ultimately, Graham tabled the discussion of the City’s employment and retention issues. “Well, Council, I don’t see us getting any further down the road,” he said. You told me you were interested in the 360 evaluations and then an ongoing program and that really doesn’t seem to be what we’ve gotten interested in here since you made that request, so I guess I’d like to just table this for tonight.”
