A recently appointed member of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District has become entangled in controversy - and the Colorado Springs mayoral race - because of his vote against Aurora in a conservancy matter last October.
John O'Donnell, who owns a public relations firm in Colorado Springs, was appointed to the board in September, replacing radio station owner Lou Mellini who resigned only a few months after he was appointed. Mellini had replaced David Sarton, who had served 16 years on the board and was endorsed for another term by the Colorado Springs City Council and the city-owned Colorado Springs Utilities.
Within a month, O'Donnell joined an eight-vote majority on the board in voting to reject a temporary agreement that would have allowed Aurora to divert and use water from the Rocky Ford Ditch that the city is in the process of buying.
Aurora and Colorado Springs are partners in the Homestake Project, which provides Western Slope water to both cities, and the other four Colorado Springs directors on the Southeastern board have supported Aurora's efforts to get the Rocky Ford Ditch water.
Southeastern also reached an agreement with Aurora in October 2001, in which the district agreed to settle its objections in the Aurora-Rocky Ford water rights change case in exchange for Aurora's support of the district's reauthorization legislation in Congress.
That legislation would have allowed Aurora to have long-term storage contracts in Lake Pueblo, which is part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, even though Aurora is not part of the Fry-Ark nor within its service area.
When the federal legislation failed to move last year, largely because of objections by the city of Pueblo, Aurora sought a postponement of the court case and an interim agreement with Southeastern. But O'Donnell voted with two other new board appointees, Bill Long of Las Animas and Wally Stealey of Pueblo, who led a majority to reject Aurora's request.
The Gazette newspaper began a series of articles on Sunday, saying the situation resulted from a Pueblo power play that had taken control of the Southeastern board. The articles named Pueblo Chieftain Publisher Bob Rawlings as the mastermind, noting that he had lobbied district judges in Pueblo and Colorado Springs to replace longtime Southeastern board members with Long, Stealey and O'Donnell.
Colorado Springs takes Aurora's water fortunes to heart primarily because of the Fry-Ark legislation, which would allow Colorado Springs to store more nonproject water in Pueblo Reservoir and authorize feasibility studies on enlarging the Pueblo and Turquoise reservoirs. The enlarged space is part of Colorado Springs' long-term plan to provide enough water for 900,000 people.
Although O'Donnell's vote didn't get much attention in Colorado Springs last fall, it suddenly came under the spotlight of the mayoral election campaign this month.
For one thing, O'Donnell is a friend of the current, term-limited mayor, Mary Lou Makepeace, and she wrote a letter endorsing his application for the Southeastern district in case Sarton wasn't to get the job.
Secondly, O'Donnell is a friend and supporter of Councilman Jim Null, who is one of four candidates to replace Makepeace.
After the Gazette articles appeared over the weekend, Councilman Charles Wingate sought a resolution from the council Monday night asking O'Donnell to resign from the board. It failed on a 4-3 vote because Makepeace and Councilwoman Sallie Clark were absent. Clark also is a candidate for mayor and was quoted in the Gazette articles criticizing Makepeace.
O'Donnell declined to comment Tuesday.
The council can't force a board member to leave the conservancy district, only suggest it.
In O'Donnell's defense, Councilman Null said at the meeting that trying to bully O'Donnell off the board could hurt Colorado Springs' efforts to negotiate a peaceful solution with Pueblo.