The Colorado Springs City Council dais is not supposed to be a stage. It is not supposed to be a place where personal beliefs get turned into official statements, as if one man’s worldview represents thousands of people who live, work, and raise families in District 1. And yet, year after year, council member Dave Donelson is in the news for sweeping comments, symbolic fights, and public displays that leave many residents asking the same question:
Who is being represented here?
That question matters, because representation is not something an elected official owns. It is something they borrow. A council seat is delegated authority. It comes with one core responsibility: to reflect the priorities of the people who put you there, not your personal ideology, not your personal grudges, and not your personal need to win the moment.
When elected officials forget that, representation gets hijacked. Not by outsiders. Not by activists. Not by immigrants. Not by the media. Hijacked by politician ego and ideology.
The pattern is not hard to see.
Most people in Colorado Springs do not sit around waiting for city council drama. They are dealing with rent that keeps rising, wages that keep lagging, roads that keep crumbling, and public safety conversations that keep getting reduced to politics instead of solutions. And Donelson likely felt safe saying what he said because our mayor, who is an immigrant himself, made similar assertions just a few months ago.
But we keep getting pulled back into the same cycle, because some council members treat public office like a personal microphone instead of a public instrument.
The most recent example was the Martin Luther King Jr. proclamation moment, when faith leaders used public comment to condemn ICE enforcement and warn what happens when fear becomes policy. Donelson responded by standing up, declaring support for ICE, calling what was said “offensive,” and walking out.
Let’s set aside for a moment whether you agree with the faith leaders or with Donelson. That is not even the point. The point is this: Donelson did not respond like a representative who was accountable to a diverse district with diverse views. He responded like someone defending a personal position, on a public stage, using the credibility of the office he holds.
And then he left.
That is not leadership. That is performance. And it raises a bigger question Colorado Springs can no longer ignore. How often is he using that seat as a billboard or barricade instead of a bridge?
Representation is not personal. In America, everyone has the right to personal beliefs. But public office is not personal. If you want to speak as a private citizen, fine. If you want to speak as a politician, go ahead. But when you speak as a City Councilmember, you are not just speaking for yourself. You are speaking in the name of District 1. That is why representation is supposed to come with participation. It is not enough to win an election and then assume consent for whatever beliefs you personally carry. You do not get to borrow the voice of thousands of residents and use it like it is your own.
If your district did not help shape your position, your position should never be treated as your district’s position. And if Donelson claims his loudest public stances represent his district, then city residents deserve to see the district’s fingerprints on those stances.
Where are the quarterly town halls?
Where are the community listening sessions?
Where are the district surveys?
Where is the published list of district priorities?
Where is the resident advisory group?
Where is the public record showing that his votes and statements are rooted in actual constituent input instead of personal ideology?
If those things exist, great. Show them. Make them public. Make them regular. But if they do not exist, then what we are watching is not participatory governance. It is performative governance.
And that is not representation. That is rule by assumption.
Let’s also be responsible and precise. This is not a claim that Councilmember Donelson has never spoken with residents, responded to constituents, or attended community events.
The point is that the public has not seen a consistent, transparent district-wide engagement process that matches the weight of his public actions, statements and votes. When an elected official repeatedly speaks in sweeping terms while holding a seat meant to represent thousands of people, the public deserves more than assumptions. It deserves a visible process. Much like posing for a photograph in which our entire city commemorated and endorsed MLK Day in Colorado Springs as we have for decades.
If District 1 is being regularly consulted through town halls, listening sessions, surveys, or a publicly documented set of district priorities, then that process should be routine and accessible to the public.
That is not a personal attack. That is the basic standard of representative government.
We need to start treating representation like something that can be measured in this city.
This isn’t radical. This is basic accountability.
If you claim you represent the district, then we should be able to track how you listen to the district. So here is a simple audit for any councilmember, especially those who are constantly in headlines making sweeping statements.
How many open community forums do you plan to hold this year?
How many district surveys will you distribute, and where will we find the results?
How many neighborhood associations do you meet with, and what issues have residents brought to your attention ?
How many working-class residents, renters, and young families are part of your decision-making pipeline, not just your photo ops?
How many times did you show up to hear people who disagree with you, without turning it into a fight?
If you cannot answer those questions publicly and consistently, then you are not doing representation. You are doing politics.
And politics without participation is how trust collapses.
What Donelson’s behavior signals is the true danger of this governing style, not just that it creates division. The danger is that it teaches people that City Council is not for them. It teaches working families that their concerns are secondary. It teaches immigrants and neighbors of color that their presence will always be debated as a problem instead of treated as part of the community. It teaches residents that democracy is something you watch, not something you shape.
That’s how you kill civic engagement. And that’s how you fuel civic unrest, protest, and the kind of public backlash that leaders always act surprised about after they have ignored community voice for years. Especially after doubling down against initial backlash and gloating as if he’s won some prize, even claiming to stand up for “natural born Americans” while trumpeting bigoted rhetoric.
This is not a victory. This is not healthy, but it is predictable and it is inevitable.
You cannot continuously govern without consent and then act shocked when people organize to demand it.
My call to Donelson is simple: If you want to keep speaking loudly in the name of District 1, then you need to start listening loudly, too.
Commit to quarterly town halls in the district.
Commit to annual district surveys with results published publicly.
Commit to a district advisory group that includes renters, homeowners, small business owners, and working-class families.
Commit to transparency about who you consult before you speak.
Because public authority is borrowed. And representation is not something you claim. It’s something you prove.
Colorado Springs deserves representation who treats the seat as a stewardship, not an ownership.
And if Donelson keeps using that seat to push personal ideology without public participation, then the community has every right to call it what it is:
Hijacked representation.
Shaun Walls is a Pikes Peak Bulletin board member. The views expressed here are his alone. He is not paid for his work for the Bulletin.
