District 4 incumbent Yolanda Avilla, right, celebrates with her daughter Dulce Garcia Tuesday, April 6, 2021, during a watch party at the Club Tilt & Grill after early results showed Avilla leading Colorado Springs City Council candidate Regina English. Garcia and her family from Hunnington Beach, Calif., surprised Avilla Saturday to spend the weekend and election day with her. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Christian Murdock/The Gazette
Chancey Bush
Chancey Bush
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Randy Helms, center, candidate for Colorado Springs City Council District 2, reacts with his Air Force Academy classmates Dr. James Colvin Jr., left, and Greg Roman, right, during a watch party Tuesday at Rhino’s Sports and Spirits in Colorado Springs
. Helms, a retired Air Force colonel, was leading the field of four candidates in the District 2 race in early results.
Chancey Bush, The Gazette
MARK REIS
District 4 incumbent Yolanda Avilla, right, celebrates with her daughter Dulce Garcia Tuesday, April 6, 2021, during a watch party at the Club Tilt & Grill after early results showed Avilla leading Colorado Springs City Council candidate Regina English. Garcia and her family from Hunnington Beach, Calif., surprised Avilla Saturday to spend the weekend and election day with her. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Christian Murdock/The Gazette
Chancey Bush
Chancey Bush
Chancey Bush
Fundamentally opposed Colorado Springs City Council District 2 candidates faced off Monday in a virtual debate on key city issues such as growth, housing policy and park management.
Councilman David Geislinger, a former lawyer and hospital chaplain, is facing three challengers in the race to represent northern Colorado Springs, an epicenter of city growth, in the April 6 election. The six district seats on the council are up for election this spring and voters will select a candidate specific to their district. The three at-large candidates are not facing re-election.
The virtual forum hosted by The Gazette and KOAA featured Geislinger as well as Randy Helms, retired Air Force colonel and substitute teacher, and David Noblitt, a Colorado Springs firefighter. Noblitt would retire if elected.
After voters approved a strong mayor-council form of government in 2010, Colorado Springs City Councilâs role changed.
Before that, council relied on an appointed city manager to oversee administrative functions of the city and bring information to council to decide almost everything.
Now, the mayor runs the city and has veto power over almost all council decisions, save for referral of ballot measures, budget approval and land-use decisions. It takes six of nine council votes to override that veto.
The mayor proposes the budget, hires contractors through certain procedures â such as road paving and emergency ambulance service â and brings various measures to council for approval. Those can include ordinances for changing what types of structures are allowed in which zones or proposals to annex more land.