Special meeting on claims made by Councilman Donelson

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — A special meeting has been called to potentially censure Colorado Springs City Councilman Dave Donelson after he noted that several council members received campaign donations from the developer of the planned Arrowswest Apartments and requested they recuse themselves from voting on the matter.

The special City Council meeting has been called for Tuesday, July 2, at 3:30 p.m. to reprimand Donelson. On Friday, June 28, Donelson held a press conference on the steps of Colorado Springs City Hall, in which he expressed disagreement with the special meeting.

“As the representative of District One,… if there are questions I think the citizens of District One, the constituents, would ask if they had the information I have, I’m going to ask that question,” said Donelson. “I’m not going to be told not to ask it.”

Donelson expressed the belief that the reason for the special meeting was to censure him for what he viewed as correctly representing the people who elected him.

“I found out that morning that… four council members had received campaign contributions from the applicant, Weidner, for the apartment project,” he said. He went on to clarify that the council members were able to take contributions and were under no obligation to recuse themselves from the vote, but that he believed it was fair for him to ask.

Donelson was asked about a $500 donation he received from Pet City during his campaign, after which he voted in favor of the business.

“A small… a pet shop owner, I would say is different in scale, to the O’Neill Group, to Norwood, who give… $10,000. Colorado Springs Ford gave $25,000 to some of the candidates. Do you see a difference there?”

The rest of the City Council is not commenting on the allegations.

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