Jake Savala's Priorities
CITY HALL WORKS FOR YOU.
Government doesn't own Colorado Springs.
The citizens do.
Jake demands that every City Council decision should begin with that basic principle.
Residents deserve a government that explains what it is doing, spends money responsibly, applies rules fairly and responds when citizens ask for help.
THE MOST RESPONSIVE COUNCILMEMBER IN THE CITY
Jake has a simple goal:
Become the most responsive councilmember in Colorado Springs.
Emails should be answered.
Neighborhood concerns should be acknowledged and addressed.
Phone calls should be returned.
Residents should not need political connections to get someone's attention.
Even when Jake disagrees with someone, they deserve to know they were heard.
FAIRNESS
Jake believes city laws, ordinances, regulations and procedures should be applied consistently.
Government credibility disappears when people believe there is one set of rules for the politically connected and another for everyone else.
Jake will judge matters based on the facts, the law and what best serves the people of Colorado Springs.
BUDGET ACCOUNTABILITY
Every dollar City Hall spends came from someone who earned it.
Jake will approach the city budget accordingly.
He will support spending that provides clear public value and scrutinize spending that does not.
That means asking difficult questions of department leadership.
It means examining performance.
And it means refusing to treat last year's budget as an automatic starting point for next year's spending.
PUBLIC SAFETY BUDGETS
Jake believes police and fire budgets should be based on actual public safety needs.
Staffing, apparatus, stations or equipment are necessary to maintain reasonable emergency response, City Council should confront those needs honestly.
Likewise, department leadership should be expected to demonstrate that taxpayer money is being used effectively.
Supporting public safety and demanding accountability are not opposites.
Jake will insist on both.
TRANSPARENCY
Residents should be able to understand important city decisions without needing to be lawyers, accountants or professional lobbyists.
Jake supports making financial information, development impacts, utility proposals and major policy decisions easier for the public to understand.
Transparency isn't putting thousands of pages online and telling citizens to figure it out.
Transparency means giving people the information they need to make informed judgments about their government.