With two-thirds of its members elected only two weeks ago, the newest incarnation of Colorado Springs City Council made its mark Monday by choosing one of the newcomers to be its president.

Keith King, a former state representative and senator, won on a 6-3 vote against another council newcomer, Don Knight, whose nomination took some people by surprise. There was speculation that Jan Martin, the longest-serving member on the new council, would run for president.

But Martin said Monday she realized her prospects weren’t good amid a sea of new faces, so she nominated Knight for president.

“It had become pretty clear over the last week that new council members were not going to support me for president, and Don Knight had run with all of them and knew all of them, and I think was the real leader of the new council members, so I wanted to give them the option to have Don as their president,” Martin said.

Another mid-term council member, Val Snider, nominated Martin for president pro-tem, but she lost to Merv Bennett on a 5-4 vote. Bennett is the third holdover from the previous council.

“Keith and Merv sort of ran together as a team, so when they chose Keith, they also chose Merv,” said Martin, who was president pro tem of the previous council.

In the vote for president, newcomers Helen Collins, Jill Gaebler, Joel Miller, Andres Pico and King joined Bennett in voting for King.

“I think he is going to give council a stronger voice,” Gaebler said about her vote for King. “He has a good relationship with the mayor.”

Gaebler split from the others and supported Martin for president pro tem because she wanted to “reach across the aisle,” she said.

Although King and Bennett have been tied to old-guard Colorado Springs and Mayor Steve Bach, King said council will not be a rubber-stamp body for the executive branch.

“There will be times when we agree with the mayor, and there will be times when we disagree,” King said. “We’re going to be our own independent council and have a strong voice in the community.”

King said he wants to refine council’s role in the relatively new strong-mayor form of government, which voters approved in 2010, and he’ll work to implement a campaign pledge to revamp the way council operates. King believes council would function better if it more closely mirrored the structure of the Colorado Legislature. In that set-up, council members would be assigned to various committees to discuss issues upfront, and the public would get its say primarily at the committee meetings.

“I hope they’ll see the advantage of functioning as more of a legislative body,” King said.

But it may take a few months or longer for any substantial changes to take place.

“When you organize a structural change, it doesn’t happen overnight,” Bennett said.

A few hours before the special council meeting to elect a president and president pro tem, the new council members were sworn into office in a festive ceremony attended by dignitaries that included the mayor and his wife, county commissioners, former Mayor Lionel Rivera and city staff.

In a brief speech, Bach said he had met with each of the six new council members, and wants to work closely with them and the three holdovers on city issues.

“I pledge to do my very best with City Council to work together to find solutions that will benefit all of us for a long time to come,” he said.

HayDen W. Kane II, presiding judge for Colorado Springs Municipal Court, gives the oath of office to newly elected City Councilman Keith King during a swearing-in ceremony Monday. A few hours later, King’s fellow council members elected him president on a 6-3 vote. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, The Gazette