Colorado Springs taxpayers have paid out $1.5 million in severance packages and golden parachutes for scores of city workers purged by Mayor Steve Bach since he took office two years ago, according to public records obtained by a local ABC station.
The list of 26 employees who left the city for various reasons is a long one and includes the police chief, the fire chief, the city attorney, the finance director, the budget manager, the airport director, the human resources director, the public works director, the communications manager and at least one police officer.
The officer, Sydney Huffman, received a $21,956 severance even though she resigned after being arrested on charges of trying to influence a public official. Last year, the city settled a false-charges lawsuit against Huffman and another police officer to the tune of $480,000.
Huffman recently pled guilty to lying about being a victim of domestic violence, KRDO Channel 13 reported.
Other employees have resigned, but are still being paid their full salaries as consultants through the end of the year. They include the fire chief, who makes more than $147,000, and the airport director, whose salary is nearly $166,000.
Bach is Colorado Springs’ first mayor to operate under a strong-mayor form of government in which he has almost complete administrative authority over city staff. After dodging TV reporters for a month, he gave the station a brief comment, noting that he is working within the city’s approved budget.
“[A] CEO should be able to make decisions sometimes that are difficult but that the CEO thinks are important to transform an organization,” he said.
But some council members quoted in the story are worried about how that transformation looks to the public.
“I think people worry that, if we’re not careful, it could appear as sort of hush money,” council member Jan Martin said, “that you pay people after they leave so that they don’t talk about the circumstances.”
She’s also worried about the brain-drain in Colorado’s second most populous city, saying that in the past two years, she’s watched “hundreds of years of experience” leave.
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