Your friends at SpringsTaxpayers.com were copied on an email to the City Council, from a Colorado Springs citizen named Dorothy. It sure raised some eyebrows! Dorothy gave us permission to re-post it for our readers.

Additionally, Dorothy emailed us directly with her research into the conduct standards for City of Colorado Springs employees.

“You might be interested in the city’s employee standards of conduct and what they have to say about bad language and making stuff up:

• Abusive, offensive, or obscene language or conduct towards the public, City officials, or employees
• Fraud, falsification, deceit, or departing from the truth

I also think the standard regarding political activity may also apply:   

• An employee shall not use or permit others to use the authority of their position or employment to actively support a ballot issue or candidate for election.”

Disclaimer: Dorothy has shared below some tweets from a city employee, that are not suitable for younger readers. Read with caution!

Thank you,

Laura and Rebecca

Subject: Proof of Improper Behavior by City Planning Staff re: 2424 GOTGR Rezoning

Dear Councilmembers:

At the quasi-judicial hearing on the 2424 Garden of the Gods Road re-zoning application, Councilmember Murray called out Katelynn Wintz, Senior Planner with the Colorado Springs Planning Department, on her claim that Mountain Shadows is over-represented in single family residential development.  It turned out that, as Ms. Wintz eventually admitted, she made that up!  There’s nothing in code that X number of single family residences in a community requires there be X number of multi-family units.  As if Mountain Shadows residents are supposed to feel bad that they have less dense development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), where people have died and buildings have burned in one of the worst wildfires in the history of this state!  Less dense development in the form of single-family homes makes good sense in Mountain Shadows where it is essential to have space with which to defend buildings and prevent wildfires from becoming urban fires (a lesson learned from the Waldo Canyon Fire and included in multiple professional reports on the fire).  And there is, of course, the matter of safe evacuation in the event of a wildfire and not overloading evacuation routes.  The transcript of Mr. Murray’s and Ms. Wintz’s exchange follows this letter.

But there’s more.  Please see the attached screen shots of Ms. Wintz’s tweets (the ones that could be captured before they were all taken down, presumably by Ms. Wintz).  She admits there as well that she makes stuff up and that she cannot do her job properly.  Some examples from those attached tweets:

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz·

Dec 10, 2020

Dang, I love being called a “snake oil salesman” by a neighborhood for being the assigned project manager on a development application.

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Nov 5, 2020

my boss is so supportive. truly. i couldn’t ask for a better work environment they are being so kind and understanding but it really sucks admitting i’m unable to do my job

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Nov 5, 2020 

also for someone who is a legitimate anxious over performer & perfectionist having something that 100% impacts my ability to produce quality work & have to call my boss & tell them i literally can’t do my job makes me sick. I had to ask for help today to get work done…fuck this

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

​ Nov 5, 2020

LOL: my post-covid symptoms are destroying my ability to use my brain & do my work. I need to follow up with my primary to get guidance on how to deal & what to do about work. they won’t see me because i’m still “symptomatic” (no taste/smell) even though i’m not contagious

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Nov 4, 2020

Replying to @sk8rgurl1776

thanks! im lucky, my supervisors are being very understanding i feel like i’m letting everyone down. a lot of developers are starting to get angry with me for missing deadlines i eat up all my brain function replying to emails that i have nothing left to actually catch up on work

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Nov 4, 2020

​here’s a fun part of covid no one talks about: your brain feels like absolute mush. I literally cannot function at work, i have ZERO critical thinking skills, can’t keep track of meetings or deadlines. i feel normal but my brain is not functioning properly

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

​Oct 7, 2020

just subjected myself to a 2 hour roast session for a neighborhood meeting. 375residents ripped me to shreds i’ve had a ~great~ day

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Sep 25, 2020

i did a landscape inspection last week & left the paper in my office, since i’m WFH Mon-Wed I didn’t get back to work until yesterday and I FUCKING FORGOTTHE PAPER AGAIN i just had to make it up…hopefully i noted all the dead plants

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Sep 22, 2020

there is NOTHING i hate more than feeling or appearing to be unorganized. My boss left me totally unprepared for my 1st city council meeting & i fucking blew up a consultants day. I’m so annoyed rn, i know it was an oversight but i was unprepared even after I asked the questions

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Sep 14, 2020 

did i eat pumernickel chips & a whole sleeve of Rollo’s? yes. Was it good? yes. Do I now feel awash with regret because I feel so sick I cannot pay attention at work? also, yes.

Also, included in the attached tweets are some that are political in nature and highly inappropriate for a city employee.

In summary, when Ms. Wintz told her supervisor that she could no longer do her job, that supervisor had an ethical obligation to the residents of Mountain Shadows to remove Ms. Wintz from this rezoning-approval process.  When it was found that she was making stuff up and presenting it to council and the community as fact, she should have been fired.  Please vote NO because at this point, it’s the only right thing to do.  This process cannot be untainted.  And going forth, PLEASE demand from city staff as high a level of ethics as the Mountain Shadows Community Association has shown throughout this process.  Thank you.

Dorothy Macnak

——————————————

(City Council meeting transcript on 2021-05-25) 

Tom Strand:

Todd give me a second here.  Mr. Murray have you got a question?  I see your hand up.

Bill Murray:

Here’s to the last lady I I needed clarification.  She made a statement that was over represented with single family uh

Tom Strand:

Yes.

Bill Murray:

Could she please explain who made that uh

Tom Strand:

Katelynn can you comment on that?

2:33:01

Katelynn Wintz:

Yes. That that that data was collected by El Paso County Assessor’s Office and our comprehensive planning team provided those tables to me. So utilized the raw data that counted the total number of units, and then I identified which units were single family and which units were multi family and was able to come up with some statistical analysis that represented that 92% of the Mountain Shadows Community Association er Mountain Shadows community is made up of single family residential units.

Bill Murray:

Yeah I know, but that’s not what you said.  You said it was over represented in single family and that’s the first time I ever heard somebody make that assessment because I’m looking at Banning Lewis and some of these other projects, and no one has ever said anything about over represented single family homes.  So if you give me that source of that assessment, I’d greatly appreciate it.  Thank you.  Continue.

Tom Strand:

Yeah, if we we can we can come back to that.  I think his point is who determines if an area is over represented.

Katelynn Wintz:

Right

Tom Strand:

And if we can circle back to that it would be great. Mr. Frisbee back to you.

At this point, Todd Frisbee returns to giving his presentation.  Then the over-represented single family issue is revisited:

Tom Strand:

Katelynn, back to you.

Katelynn Wintz:

Back to me.  Um uh would you like me to answer Councilman Murray’s question now or would you like me to save that for later?

Tom Strand:

If you’ve got the answer, answer it now.

2:33:05

Katelynn Wintz:

I do have the answer.  So I just wanted to say so the way that I came up with that analysis so the the over representation verbiage is is my own.  That is an analysis that I made, and what I would say is um based on the assessor’s data when looking at city wide information vs. this community specifically we’re noticing a significant deviation in the uh the types of development that are proposed that are proposed where 63% of the city-wide housing units are single family vs. 92% in the Mountain Shadows community it would generally dictate that there are uh you know less diversity of housing type in that specific community.  So that is how I came up with that assumption and and those words are my own.

Additional tweets from Ms. Wintz:

Jan 20

Mr Biden sir congratulations on becoming the guy who owes me $2000

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Jan 20

Replying to

@GeoffMiami

that was her gift for shanking bernie 1

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs Retweet

Jan 20

So far in

@JoeBiden’s #InaugurationDay

speech, he’s hitting sweet notes for suburban voters who were mostly affected emotionally by Trump–not economically. Hasn’t said a word about mass eviction time bomb looming, 50+ million w/out health insurance, rampant corruption in D.C.

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Jan 20

Mitch McConnell looks like he’s conjuring all the evil in his body to send death rays to President Biden

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Jan 8

i think i convinced myself i wasn’t sick anymore & powered through the weirdness i’ve been feeling since my covid diagnosis. my sense of taste & smell is still fucked, i’m constantly tired but can’t sleep, i’ve had a lingering headache for days and my heart rate is super erratic.

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Jan 8

like i’m sorry but i’m a relatively healthy young person. my resting hr should not be almost 85+ bpm the entire day. i’m sitting down using my brain. and on a normal pace walk it’s tough to breathe and my hr spikes to 160+. this shit sucks

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

Jan 8

Replying to

@kate_wintz

So I just saw this on a friend’s post: “If you don’t know about long covid, please go google it. The lowest I’ve seen is ~10% of people who catch the disease (even with mild symptoms) get long covid. It’s a real risk.” You may want to go get checked out

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz

when your anxiety, gerd & covid insomnia all join forces to make sure you can’t sleep all while dealing with work stress, life stress & chronic covid fatigue

katelynn wintz #NotMeUs

@kate_wintz