Colorado Springs mayor celebrates 100 days, addresses lack of transparency allegations
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Thursday marked Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade's 100th day in office, and he held a State of the City address at the Broadmoor Hotel to explain his mission for the days ahead.
After the official address, Mobolade responded to recent accusations from a city councilman that he's been obstructing transparency.
"I am tasked as the leader and as a mayor to be to ask simple questions about 'what is this for' and 'are other city council members in support of this', there's nothing wrong with that," said Mobolade. "That's just called leadership, and so if that's if that's what's triggered the squabble it's unfortunate."
Mobolade is referring to allegations made Wednesday by District 1 City Councilman Dave Donelson that Mobolade was screening questions for research requests.
Donelson messaged the city's chief financial officer over the weekend asking for information on the city's financial situation. However, instead of receiving a response from the CFO, he got a response from Mobolade.
Donelson said the situation was frightening because former Mayor John Suthers always encouraged councilmembers to reach out to city leaders with questions. He believed the involvement set a dangerous precedent for future lines of questions.
Mobolade said Thursday that Donelson's accusations were not founded and he has great working relationships with the rest of the council.
"Councilmember Donelson, as you all know, is notorious for asking hard questions," said Mobolade. "He's great at that, so I ask him two questions around emails that I keep receiving. It shouldn't be an issue, so I'm really sorry the community has been brought up to go into this issue."
After responding to questions about Donelson, Mobolade talked more about his plans for the city. He said he plans to strengthen partnerships with local groups and nonprofits to address mental health issues and affordable housing issues.
He also said he will continue pushing for a TABOR retention which will allocate excess city revenue toward building a police training academy.
Watch Mayor Mobolade's State of the City below:
