Oct. 6 The City published the dissolution as law without sending it to the Mayor, and has given three different reasons. The DDA board is weighing court. The record →
Save the OCC DDA
What you can do before Sept. 22
Ask the Mayor to veto
What you can do now
City Council was set to take the final vote on dissolving the Old Colorado City DDA on September 8. It voted unanimously to postpone two weeks, to Tuesday, September 22. Three of the four below take less than ten minutes.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, City Council voted 5–4 to dissolve the Old Colorado City DDA. Under the City Charter the ordinance goes to Mayor Mobolade within 48 hours, and he has five days after that to sign it or veto it. A veto sends it back to a Council that would need six votes to override. They have five.
On Sept. 22 Council voted 5–4 to dissolve the Old Colorado City DDA. The Charter sends every ordinance to the Mayor; the City did not send this one, and published it as law on Oct. 1. The DDA board is weighing whether to ask a court to say an ordinance adopted outside the Charter has not been adopted. A recall petition against Councilmember Williams has been started by a citywide political organization that does not speak for the Westside. We are not part of it. Here is where your time goes in the meantime.
The final vote is behind us. The Westside still has business at City Hall.
Mayor Yemi Mobolade · yemi.mobolade@coloradosprings.gov · (719) 385-5900. His five days under the Charter run from the day he receives the ordinance. He has not received it, and has said nothing in public for two weeks. A request from him that it be presented is all it takes.
Mayor Yemi Mobolade · yemi.mobolade@coloradosprings.gov · (719) 385-5900. The clock is the Charter's: five days from when the ordinance reaches his desk, which puts the decision around the end of this week.
Four things, in order of how much they matter
Where to put your time
- Write the Mayor. Ask him to request that Ordinance 26-48 be presented to him under Charter § 3-70(e), and to veto it. There is a draft below. Say where on the Westside you live or work.
- Write the four who voted no. Donelson, Gold, Henjum and Leinweber can put the question to the City Attorney at a Council meeting, on the record: which provision exempts this ordinance, and why did the 2024 one go to the Mayor? AllCouncil@coloradosprings.gov reaches them.
- Stay on the list. The next step may be a courtroom, and after that a ballot in 2027. Both need Westsiders who can be reached. Sign up if you haven't.
- Hand this to a neighbor. The veto page is built to print: the Charter's words, the City's words, and the two signatures.
- Email the Mayor today. yemi.mobolade@coloradosprings.gov. Ask him for two things: to request that the ordinance be presented to him, which the City says it won't do, and to veto it. There is a draft below. Send it as is, or better, say in your own words where you live or work and why this matters to you. Volume matters this week; a hundred Westsiders in his inbox is the argument.
- Call his office. (719) 385-5900. Say you're a Westside resident or business owner asking the Mayor to veto Ordinance 26-48, the one dissolving the Old Colorado City DDA. Thirty seconds.
- Thank the four, and tell them to hold. Donelson, Gold, Henjum and Leinweber voted no twice. If the Mayor vetoes, an override needs six votes. Their four are what keeps that from happening: AllCouncil@coloradosprings.gov.
- Hand this to a neighbor. The Mayor's decision is a week away at most. This page is built to print.
- Show up on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and plan to stay. A full gallery is the thing councilmembers actually feel. Read how the meeting works before you decide when to come. If you would rather not speak, stand in the room anyway. Wear something that says Westside.
- Email every councilmember and the Mayor. The button below opens a draft addressed to all ten by name. Send it as it is, or put it in your own words — those carry the most weight. Typing instead? AllCouncil@coloradosprings.gov reaches all nine councilmembers.
- Ask Mayor Mobolade to veto. yemi.mobolade@coloradosprings.gov or (719) 385-5900. Overriding a veto takes six votes on Council. The dissolution has five.
- Hand this to a neighbor. The people who own Old Colorado City's shops and buildings are overwhelmingly behind the DDA. Council needs to hear it from residents too. This page is built to print.
The draft email to the Mayor
The button opens an email to Mayor Mobolade with a short draft in it. Edit it or send it as is. A sentence about your own block or your own shop makes it yours.
Nothing opened? The button needs a mail app on your device, and on many laptops there isn't one. These work without one:
To: Yemi.Mobolade@coloradosprings.gov
Subject: Please request and veto Ordinance 26-48 (Old Colorado City DDA)
Mayor Mobolade, I care about the Westside. Old Colorado City voters created the DDA at the ballot box in 2024, and you signed the ordinance that put it on the ballot. On Sept. 22, City Council voted 5-4 to dissolve it before it ever spent a dollar. I understand the City Attorney's office says the ordinance will not be presented to you. The Charter says every ordinance shall be. Please request that Ordinance 26-48 be presented to you under Charter section 3-70(e), and veto it. Let Old Colorado City decide its own future at the ballot box in 2027, the way the voters chose.
The draft email
The button opens an email addressed to each of the nine councilmembers and the Mayor by name, with the draft already in it. Edit it or send it as is.
Nothing opened? The button needs a mail app on your device, and on many laptops there isn't one — the click just does nothing. These work without one:
To: Lynette.Crow-Iverson@coloradosprings.gov, Brian.Risley@coloradosprings.gov, Dave.Donelson@coloradosprings.gov, Ken.Casey@coloradosprings.gov, Brandy.Williams@coloradosprings.gov, Kimberly.Gold@coloradosprings.gov, Nancy.Henjum@coloradosprings.gov, Roland.Rainey@coloradosprings.gov, David.Leinweber@coloradosprings.gov, Yemi.Mobolade@coloradosprings.gov
Subject: Respect the OCC vote: NO on dissolving the DDA
Short on time? AllCouncil@coloradosprings.gov is the City's group address for all nine. Naming them individually is the surer path.
I care about the Westside. OCC voters created the DDA at the ballot box in 2024, and I want it to have the chance to succeed. Please vote NO on dissolving it. Westside voters will remember who stood with us.
Adding one sentence about your own block, your own shop, or how long you have been here is what separates it from the form letters.
Sept. 22, and how the meeting works
Speaking at Council
Second reading was on the agenda. Council voted unanimously to postpone it two weeks, to its Regular Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 22. It did so after first voting 6–3 to hear from the public, because people who had asked to speak had been told there would be no comment. The DDA is still standing, and nothing about the 5–4 first-reading vote has changed.
If you want to speak
Council's own rules say the public “shall be permitted to address the City Council… on other agenda items,” and nothing in them treats a second reading differently from a first. Comment is taken at the Regular Meeting only, and you sign up in person in Council Chambers — there is no online form and no advance list.
Sign up for item 9.A, the DDA ordinance, by name. The open stretch of the meeting called Citizen Discussion is reserved for items that are not on the agenda. The DDA is on the agenda, so that is the wrong door, and asking for it can cost you your turn.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. and the DDA is item 9.A. The City's own estimates put about two hours of recognitions and utilities business ahead of it, which would land it around 11. The agenda also says those estimates are not a promise and that Council may change the order. If you cannot afford to miss it, be there at 9.
If you just want to fill the room
Meetings are carried live on the City's website, on the Colorado Springs City Council page on Facebook, and on SPRINGS TV — Comcast channel 18 (880 HD) or Stratus IQ 76 / 99. Watch until the DDA is close, then come down.
On Aug. 25 the DDA did not come up until the afternoon, and the Gazette reported that several Old Colorado City owners closed their businesses for the entire day to be in the room. A body in a seat counts even if it never says a word.
If you can't be there at all
Email your remarks to AllCouncil@coloradosprings.gov ahead of the meeting. They go into the record without you being in the room, and they are read by the same nine people.
If you have never done this before
You sign up when you get there and you get about three minutes. Say who you are, where on the Westside you live or work, and what you want them to do. You do not need to know the statute. The councilmembers already have the briefing; what they do not have is you.
Then stay on the list
The next thing decided about the Westside gets decided the same way, in the same room, by the same nine people.
Sources
- City of Colorado Springs, City Council meetings, agendas, and public comment — coloradosprings.gov/city-council-meetings
- City of Colorado Springs, Office of the Mayor — coloradosprings.gov/mayor
- Rules and Procedures of the Colorado Springs City Council, Rule 2-7 (Public Participation) and Rule 2-2 (order of business) — published on the City's Legistar site
- FOX21 News, Carolynn Felling, “City Council to vote on Development Authority in OCC,” Aug. 31, 2026, updated Sept. 1 — fox21news.com
- Pikes Peak Bulletin, “Council votes to dissolve OCC DDA,” Aug. 27, 2026 — pikespeakbulletin.org/news/council-votes-to-dissolve-occ-dda/
Council and Mayor contact details verified against the City's own pages on September 4, 2026. The right to speak on an agenda item, the three-minute limit, and the rule that Citizen Discussion covers only items not on the agenda are quoted from Council's published Rules and Procedures.