Colorado Springs city council took up a proclamation this week aimed at reclaiming civility in politics after last week’s hearing on a proposed artificial intelligence data center known as Project Taurus.
Presented by council and Mayor Yemi Mobolade, it came in response to tumult that broke out during the hearing that resulted in police tasing a man and arresting other attendees.
Dave Donelson represents the district where the proposed data center would go. He accused councilors of playing a role in the vitriol that unfolded at the hearing. He also said council was “playing games” with the public by postponing a decision.
“Council’s actions can sometimes create an environment where incivility occurs,” Donelson said.
At the hearing, councilors voted 7-2 to postpone the vote on the fate of the data center until April 13. They reasoned that it would give them time to get answers to many of the remaining questions brought up in the special hearing.
The move also set the vote to one week after the municipal election. A proposal from Donelson, Nancy Henjum, and Kimberly Gold would have moved that date earlier, before municipal elections, but it failed. Donelson joined the six other councilors to vote to postpone the hearing.
One day later, councilwoman Gold took to Facebook to comment on the postponement: “What lies beneath is that voters will not know how the four council members up for re-election would have voted when they cast their ballots.”
All current councilors, whether voted back into office or not, will still vote on Project Taurus in April.
“That has already created a lot of suspicion and frustration among voters that council is playing games,” Donelson said during Tuesday’s regular city council meeting. “We have moved that next vote to a period where there’s no accountability for some that will vote.”
The comment didn’t sit well with councilman David Leinweber, who called Donelson out of line.
“And the fact that he has done it multiple times, it becomes very politically driven,” Leinweber said.
Donelson told KRCC that he asked council president Lynette Crow-Iverson for a motion to reconsider the postponement of the vote, to try again to change it to a date that falls before the municipal elections, but Crow-Iverson denied that request.
In a video Gold posted to social media over the weekend, a person allegedly threw a rock or a brick at the windshield of her car.
“We need more kindness, we need more civility,” Gold said.
Readen, the company behind the AI data center Project Taurus, said in a statement online last week after the special hearing that they are reevaluating whether Colorado Springs is the right fit for the data center.
“We were deeply disappointed that portions of yesterday’s (Thursday) hearing were disrupted by conduct that at times crossed the line from passionate disagreement into threats and intimidation directed at our team and others participating in the public process,” the post said.
Jason Green is the CEO of Raeden. He reflected on Thursday’s meeting and told KRCC that council did a poor job of keeping the crowd civil from the beginning. He also questioned why the mayor wasn’t in attendance. Green put most of the blame on the three councilors who said they would vote against the data center.
“The environment was unchecked and uncontrolled and was fomented by Donelson, Henjum, and Gold,” Green said. “The behavior of council, particularly Henjum, Gold and Donelson, has me concerned.”
Mobolade said during the proclamation for civility that the special hearing last week was “a difficult day for local democracy.”
“Emotions were high at times. Civility gave way to contempt. What I witnessed and what we witnessed made me sad and extremely disappointed,” Mobolade said.
The proclamation doesn’t require a vote.
