Six Colorado Springs city employees in the planning and traffic engineering departments were laid off 
Friday.

All six were told their positions were being eliminated “due to a reduction in force” based on a reorganization that will be announced Tuesday, according to an email obtained by The Gazette.

“All six played a significant role in the success of our city,” Laura Neumann, who is Mayor Steve Bach’s chief of staff, said Friday in an email notifying city officials about the layoffs.

“I am not sure there is any tougher business decision than making one that impacts individuals who, like all of us, have families, financial obligations, and lives where the work they do helps them feel meaningful,” she wrote.

Neumann declined Monday to provide additional information about the shake-up.

“I am going to address this question at our monthly media briefing,” Neumann said in an email. “I will be glad to provide any additional details during or following that meeting.”

Three of the six employees who were laid off hold senior positions.

They are Dave Krauth, principal traffic engineer, Dick Anderwald, planning and development manager, and Brett Veltman, Development Review Enterprise manager.

Some City Hall observers suggested Veltman’s layoff could be linked to the embarrassing Todays Homes episode in which a developer built townhomes that exceeded the height limit specified in development plans.

The other three employees who were laid off are Rob Stinson, a maintenance technician who worked in the School Safety program, planner Denise Tortorice and planning assistant Mike Maloney.

A source said Anderwald and Tortorice were offered reassignment at lower pay.

The email that Neumann wrote to city officials Friday said the reason for reduction in workforce was financial.

“Most of you know our city payroll consumes nearly 70 percent of our general fund budget; and that percentage grows with every passing year,” she said. “Knowing that forces us to make tough choices; just like those companies doing the same in the private sector.”

But hiring hasn’t stopped. The Bach administration has hired in other departments, including the communications office, which recently brought on two new people. Chief Communications Officer Cindy Aubrey did not respond to a request for the salaries or résumés of the two new hires.

City Councilman Tim Leigh said Bach and Neumann are “continuing to align services with the demand in the marketplace” and determined the city is overstaffed in some areas.

“The one thing I’ve learned about Bach is he is very savvy and is not going to spend money unnecessarily,” Leigh said. “He has a pretty well thought-out strategy and vision of anybody that he either releases or hires.”

Krauth, one of the six employees who was let go, declined to comment when reached at home. Krauth, who oversaw a division that was responsible for traffic operations and signal maintenance and construction, among other programs, alluded to a confidentiality agreement.

“I don’t want to jeopardize being able to take care of my family,” he said.

The five other employees who were let go did not return messages seeking comment or could not be reached.

Anderwald is the most high-profile among the six.

Most recently, he was the city’s point man on oil and gas development, including serving as the local government designee with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

As the designee, Anderwald negotiated several conditions of approval from the state for two oil wells that Ultra Petroleum is seeking to drill on Banning Lewis Ranch, including additional water quality testing and a ban on the use of open pits for drilling wastewater.

Anderwald participated in all of the city’s oil and gas committee meetings this year and advised the Colorado Springs Planning Commission on the city’s draft oil and gas regulations, which the commission approved last week.

The City Council is scheduled to take up those draft regulations Sept. 25.

City Councilman Val Snider, committee chairman, said he’s concerned about how Anderwald’s layoff will affect the oil and gas regulation process that the committee has studied so far.

As the local government designee, Anderwald is the primary point of contact for community input to the state oil and gas commission and was supposed to handle the public process for drilling permits.

“All of the conditions of approval for the drilling operator go through the” designee, Snider said. “Conditions of approval are what we want the drilling operator to do in order to mitigate the impacts from the oil and gas drilling.”

Snider also said Anderwald brought many years of land use expertise.

“We’re going to be losing that if we don’t have the (local government designee) who is an experienced planner,” he said.

The communications office refused to provide additional information about the six employees who were laid off, including their years of service.

“All we can tell you is that information will be presented at (Tuesday’s) media briefing,” city spokeswoman Julie Smith said in an email.

—

Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623

Twitter @danieljchacon

Facebook Daniel Chacon