The document outlines the mayoral campaign platform of Lathen Leadership for Colorado Springs. It discusses priorities like improving employment opportunities through reduced business taxes and regulations, examining city systems and budgets to streamline services, and taking a collaborative regional approach to issues like transportation, parks, public safety, and homelessness. The candidate emphasizes values of respect, communication, collaboration, transparency, and joy in leadership.

1. CAMPAIGN
PLATFORM
VISION - THE CITY I SEE
Under Lathen Leadership, Colorado Springs will be a safe community where protecting our homes and
families is fundamental. The Springs will be a community where businesses that employ our families and
neighbors can prosper through reduced regulatory burdens.
Our City will be led by a philosophy of regional collaboration and partnership to provide expert, friendly
service to our citizens – leading to greater economic, social and cultural significance.
As your Mayor, I will boldly broadcast our regional assets, and set a tone of functional leadership from the
top down, encouraging people who live here to stay – and attracting people who don’t live here to move
here.
Opportunities, confidence and quality of life will define us and lead us into new prosperity.
CONTRACT WITH THE CITIZENS
As your Mayor, I will deliver city services guided by fiscally conservative principles and regional thinking.
Working with Council, citizens and regional leaders, I will welcome and respectfully consider ideas and input in
an environment of camaraderie and openness. For the first time in recent history, Colorado Springs will have
a Mayor who truly believes in a collaborative approach to leadership – without personal control or a battle of
jurisdiction guiding the decisions.
Within the first 90 days of my administration, I will examine every function and system within the City. All
the budget promises and attention to dollars are lost if the systems are not appropriately delivering required
services to our citizens.
I will meet with every City Council member who will agree to meet with me to review these systems of the
City and gain their insight and input on how to streamline the delivery of City services. City Council will be an
integral part of this process.
I will bring the following areas of interest and focus as well as specific initiatives to the City of Colorado Springs
as your new Mayor.
★★Employment – Regional/Private Sector
★★ I will immediately request that Council reduce the Business Personal Property tax within the City of
Colorado Springs and phase it out completely in the 2016 budget. We will find a way to relieve this
burdensome tax and move forward with a new, vibrant growth environment for our local businesses! We
cannot afford NOT to.
★★ I will bring together business leaders and economists for a no-nonsense, “no-sacred-cows” analysis of
our long-term, regional employment development plan. This will focus on local government impediments
to existing businesses and business development and will generate specific policy recommendations to
make meaningful and rapid changes.

2. ★★ I support efforts to partner with our educational institutions and our private and non-profit sectors to
increase vibrant, hands-on workforce development through an increased internship program and
incentives where appropriate.
★★ Workforce development must be coordinated with local industry focus and with local specialties. There
must be intentional, long-term planning between educational institutions and local industry in order to
teach to and develop directly into the specific needs of local businesses.
★★ Conversely, workforce development must be accompanied by a focus on employer development. The
greatest workforce is not effective without the jobs to support them. This means constant vigilance on
our regulatory and permitting environment to ensure expedited and consistent planning and a business-focused
development environment.
★★ I support a REGIONAL focus on bringing manufacturing back to Colorado Springs.
★★ Primary employers, including manufacturers, rely on a diverse and well-established supply chain. We
must focus first on retention of our existing business assets. Then we must focus on expanding and
diversifying our regional business portfolio and attracting new supply-chain businesses in order to
holistically support recruitment of large primary employers.
★★ Employment Ecosystem: This is a list of ingredients for robust job growth and workforce development
and retention:
• Sound policy development
• Public safety
• Infrastructure maintenance
• Urban/Regional Planning
• Venture capital
• Core, sustainable industries
• Economically-based diversification
• Identification of strengths and weaknesses
• Co-working spaces
• Attraction/cultivation of local (including statewide) private resources
• Higher education
• Cultivating and retaining our young professional base
• Social networking
• Special Events unique to our community
★★Employment – City
★★ I will bring together employers and employment specialists to review our employment practices, to
ensure we have fair and equitable employment processes. And I will end all hush-money payouts for
terminated employees, including those having differences with City administration.
★★Public Works
★★ I will support open discussions on the potential of creating a regional transportation management model.
I will seek options, including a model focused on regional-transit options using existing resources under
regional and specialized citizen/staff leadership.

3. ★★ I will allow for options to be added to the City’s sponsored vendors’ list for the delivery of transit services
as defined by the voter approved PPRTA transit-dollars allocation.
★★ An entire evaluation of the City’s Public Works system is necessary and will be completed by the end of
2015.
★★ We must focus on the benefits of unified/regional Public Works, including the City, the County and the
State of Colorado.
★★ I will engage a full-fleet assessment and evaluation of traffic-engineering practices. I will not hesitate
to sell unused equipment or to partner regionally to gain efficiencies and provide holistic, responsible
infrastructure services.
★★Parks and Recreation
★★ I will support open discussions on the potential of creating a regional park model. Once again, using
existing resources, I support the efficiencies and economies of scale of maintaining our parks, trails and
open spaces regionally and will seek regional and specialized citizen/staff leadership to deliver a plan for
expansion of use, dedicated resources and improved maintenance of our recreational amenities and a
plan for trail connectivity.
★★ Evaluation of regional parks district and potential benefits of shifting resources to such a district.
★★ Dedicated funding by shifting existing resources to regional district.
★★Planning
★★ I will require our staff to provide planning services using customer-service-oriented, business-friendly
philosophy. This is fundamental to changing the culture of leadership and service at the City. Our staff
will be friendly, efficient and focused on a “yes” attitude and expediency of reviews.
★★ Speed and ease of project completion must be our guiding philosophy.
★★ I will put out a public call to business owners throughout our community to provide me a list of five issues
related to City services or regulations, which are impeding their businesses. We will then evaluate these
to find real ways to improve service delivery and effect real change. This will be done openly with the
business community and will define effective, line-level changes.
★★ I will examine processes and timelines of fire and utilities reviews in order to expedite responsiveness
and protect business interests, while recognizing and supporting public-safety concerns.
★★ I will coordinate with our Regional Building Department to establish ground-ready planning – to increase
reliability, speed and consistency in planning.
★★ I will engage blight-to-bright principles including:
• Incentives for major renovations
• Locking property-tax values in place for seven years after blight renovations as incentive for
improvements
• Enhancing code enforcement and maintenance standards in order to prevent blight areas
★★Public Safety
★★ I will engage a collaborative review of regional assets and recommendations from law enforcement for
shared resources.
★★ I will engage an open-door policy with law-enforcement leaders regarding pay, benefits, pensions and
internal safety-control issues. I will be actively at the table to have these discussions and to respond as
possible.

4. ★★ I will engage law-enforcement leaders in policy discussions regarding whistleblower protections and
meaningful oversight. Our community and many hard-working first responders have been harmed by
out-of-control, unaccountable leadership acting outside the boundaries of their expected roles. I will
work toward protection of staff, public resources and the public in general as it relates to any potential
corruption within our law enforcement/first responder agencies.
★★ I will work with our Police Chief in order to establish a new policy on policing of enclaves.
★★ I will work with El Paso County and all regional municipalities in a collaborative review of regional
emergency management, with focus on prevention, readiness and recovery. I will support an integrated
approach to resource usage and availability.
★★ I support a regional, multi-sourced focus on homelessness and poverty. The City must engage this issue
based on ethical, economic and safety grounds. I believe in and strongly support partnerships, which
will provide resources, training and options for our homeless and low-income neighbors. I believe in
setting goals of homelessness reduction, vagrancy reduction, indigent care and coordination with law
enforcement and the business community for security and realistic connections to service providers.
However, I do not support setting an unachievable goal of “eliminating homelessness.” I do not wish a
single person in our region to be homeless and in need. However, an unachievable goal of eliminating
all homelessness takes energy away from significant efforts to realistically move the needle on this
issue. El Paso County provides all resources via the Department of Human Resources to all residents
of the Cities and towns within the County. This is just one source, coordinating with multiple agencies
throughout our region to move the needle on this issue. I will continue to work regionally with El Paso
County, law enforcement, businesses and multiple non-profit and faith-based agencies to relieve poverty
burdens and increase the quality of life for all of our residents.
★★ Infrastructure/ Budget
★★ I will convene a weeklong budget summit with City Council to examine every revenue and expenditure
line item. We will work together, using our collective experience and citizen input to find both efficiencies
and waste, making changes to reprioritize where necessary. An example is to reprioritize spending to
road overlays.
★★ I will support the retention of our Utilities as our own. I will not support selling Colorado Springs Utilities.
★★ I will support a dynamic, open public discussion regarding our Utilities governance structure and will
call upon all Utilities Board members and members of the public to engage in this discussion without
prejudice, as we seek to strengthen our Utilities for the long term. The potential of changing the
governance of Utilities for the benefit of the organization and entire community must not begin with a turf
war. I support a full engagement of this discussion.
★★ I will bring forward a question to the people of Colorado Springs to change the municipal election cycle
to coincide with annual November elections. This will save hundreds of thousands of dollars in hard and
soft City costs, bring more consistency to elections and improve voter turnout.
★★ I will engage with the public and their opinion regarding a potential ballot question to reduce the City’s
sales tax and increase the mill levy a commensurate amount in order to create more balance and
stability in our tax base. This question could include a restricted designation of that mill levy to be used
strictly for road overlays.
★★ Prior to any changes that our citizens may approve to restructure our revenue streams within the
City, I will perform a full assessment of the budget with the number one priority of reallocating existing
resources to our road-overlay process.
★★ I will form a specialized taskforce to work toward regional integration of Information Technology
infrastructure as well as new technology-driven service delivery for cost savings and efficiency.

5. ★★ I will analyze City systems focusing on opportunities for regional integration, to include:
• Procurement
• Human Resources
• Financial Services
• Operations
• Payroll
★★ As this work is being done, I will seek implementation of an online checkbook system whereby all
transactions of City resources will be made available online for public inspection. If the cost of such
implementation is too high, we will provide aggregate access to the budget and expenditures in such a
way as to provide a never-before-seen standard of transparency.
★★ The City recently scored a C for transparency from the Sunshine Review, a third-party government
accountability and review organization. Under my leadership, we worked diligently to achieve an A+
rating at El Paso County. I will bring that same transparency to the City of Colorado Springs, working to
achieve no less than A+.
NON-PROFIT INDUSTRY
I will focus on our vibrant non-profit industry, as non-profits are vital partners and economic drivers. Our non-profits
and faith-based organizations fill gaps in service delivery, which government cannot fill, and such
partnerships are not only invaluable to our community but must be fostered and enhanced.
LEADERSHIP – CORE VALUES
As your new Mayor, I will fundamentally change the culture of leadership in this City. I do not believe that
the strong-mayor form of government ever intended to cease communication between the Mayor’s Office
and City Council, nor do I believe that this change in our form of government ought to divide and dictate City
government.
The following behavioral characteristics are those I already possess and have grown and used in my
leadership as a County Commissioner. As your Mayor, I will focus on these characteristics with the same
intention – and I will bring an enthusiasm that is contagious.
My entire platform will be implemented under a powerful set of principles and defined behavior on my part.
None of the specific initiatives, which I will describe to you in my campaign, will be absent these fundamental
beliefs and transformative characteristics. All actions will be guided by the following:
★★Respect
★★ For all people, including City Council members, City staff members, citizens and regional partners.
★★ For new ideas and innovation. Whether agreed with or not, people will be empowered to bring ideas
forward in a safe and respectful environment.
★★ I do not believe in bridge burning. During disagreements, I am capable and willing to debate, while
always showing respect and professionalism. I am also committed to moving on together to the next
issue and will expect others to do the same.
★★ Recognizing the diversity of beliefs within our City, I will lead by example by showing respect to all
people despite differences. We are people first – and while there is no possibility of agreeing with all
people on all subjects, there is a necessity to respect and listen to all people professionally.
★★Communication

6. ★★ As Mayor, I will meet regularly with all City Council members to discover their concerns/initiatives within
their districts or the area at-large. My door will be relocated to be close to them, and it will be open to
them.
★★ My door will be open not only to City Council, but also to City staff and to citizens, and I will
communicate my goals and direction openly while we work together to achieve them.
★★ City Council members will also be provided access to staff members so they may professionally and
appropriately do their jobs.
★★Collaboration
★★ I cannot do this job alone. I will work WITH City Council to lead this City. And I will work with our other
municipalities and El Paso County in order to maximize resources and create efficiencies never before
seen in the absence of such collaboration.
★★ I will listen – to business leaders, educators, information technology experts, military leaders, the law
enforcement community, first responders, energy experts and more as I seek to work in collaboration
with our entire region.
★★Team effort
★★ Recognizing skills and expertise in the people around me and surrounding myself with dedicated
experts, I will form a team of leadership, which will drive this City into success.
★★ Good leaders are also equally good followers. Mentor down and mentor up.
★★Transparency
★★ This is your government. This is your City. As I lead this City, there must be open transparency and a
foundational philosophy of openness.
★★ Unlock the doors of City government. It is time to behave in an inclusive manner and welcome the public
back into government.
★★ Access to your elected officials is critical in working together and re-establishing trust, as is access to
documents, budgets and processes.
★★ Work with the media in a mutual interest to provide information to the citizens I serve.
★★Joy
★★ This is not to be ignored or underestimated in creating an environment of customer service, common
sense and innovation, all of which will lead to more efficient service delivery.
★★ I would like to see our City as an employer of choice attracting the best and brightest talent in our region,
and beyond. This not only speaks to the ability to attract and retain excellent employees, but it brings out
the best in everyone as we deliver City services.
Colorado Springs joins seven other municipalities throughout El Paso County to make up the most populous
County in our state. We enjoy a culturally diverse and dynamic region, while still having a small-town,
hometown feel.
Money Magazine selected Colorado Springs as #1 best big City in its “Best Places to Live” list in 2006, and
Outside Magazine placed Colorado Springs as #1 in 2009 on its list of America’s Best Cities. This is part of the
history of Colorado Springs, and this is what we are capable of achieving again!
I am delighted to have called this City home for over 30 years now and to be raising my family here. I have
also been honored to be overwhelmingly elected as County Commissioner, serving regionally for nearly seven
years.

7. In my years of service at the County, we have worked to transform County government through extensive
budget, staff and regulatory reductions. In so doing, we have maintained and even increased service levels
and provided for long-term service delivery of our constitutionally mandated services. We have stabilized our
budget, scored an A+ for transparency, and increased our public financial-credit rating. I am thrilled and ready
to take these leadership skills and passion for excellence and transparency to the City.
Although there are many budget challenges to address, the City of Colorado Springs will never be bankrupt,
as some have suggested. The City will be here to deliver necessary municipal services in an environment of
transparency and efficiency. There is, however, a necessity to make difficult decisions and have the willingness
to seek solutions regionally, beyond municipal boundaries on a map. We must focus on the long-term
functioning of government and the elimination of duplication of services to our citizens.
Where bureaucracy exists, common sense must replace it. Where duplication of services exists, economies
of scale must prevail. Where no communication occurs, a new level of respect and interaction will take place.
Where doors are locked and information withheld, openness and transparency will rule the day.
I cannot be all things to all people, but I will continue to be respectful to all, inclusive in access and discussion,
and focused on my role in service delivery, with regional tone and tenor. I will take my hands-on, local-government
experience and apply it to the City with a team of proven experts and a leadership style, which will
fundamentally reform City government.
We will change the culture of leadership in Colorado Springs.
A New Culture
of Leadership.
AmyLathenforMayor.com |