Pueblo voters will now decide fate of the mayor’s office in November election

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) – The structure of Pueblo’s city government is officially headed back to the ballot box this November.

Late Monday night, the Pueblo City Council voted 6-1 to override Mayor Heather Graham’s veto and place a measure before voters that could eliminate the mayor's office entirely.

If approved, the measure would change Pueblo’s current “strong mayor” system back to a council-manager form of government – effectively dissolving the position of an elected mayor and replacing it with a city manager appointed by the City Council.

Mayor Graham vetoed the ordinance on Aug. 15. The council’s override of that veto on Monday now paves the way for voters to reconsider going back to a form of government the city used for decades.

Pueblo operated under a city council-city manager structure until 2017, when residents voted to adopt a strong mayor form of government.

Mayor Graham has not yet commented on the override vote, but has previously defended the city's current government structure as being more accountable to voters.

"People voted to change to a strong Mayor because they were frustrated with the lack of leadership among council members," Graham wrote in part, in a two-page letter detailing her reasoning behind the initial veto. "City Council was unable to provide a unified, clear, and consistent path forward for the City. Nothing has changed."

The measure will now appear on the ballot in Pueblo’s General Municipal Election on Nov. 4. If approved by voters, Pueblo would officially replace the mayor’s office with a city manager.

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