Electrical engineer Christopher Mitchell in the race for Colorado Springs mayor

Feb. 10—Christopher Mitchell, an electrical engineer and community advocate, is among 12 candidates vying to replace Mayor John Suthers in the April 4 Colorado Springs municipal election.

As an engineer with years of experience in project management, Mitchell said he will bring a "fresh, big picture" vision and a "driven get-things-done personality" to the mayor's office he says is necessary to lead the city into the future and be a role model for other municipalities.

"I have the love and compassion for this community to see it become the best city it can be," he said. "I want us to be a city of the future. You hear people say 'so-and-so city is doing this,' or 'so-and-so city is doing that.' I'd like to have people say, 'The people of Colorado Springs are doing this,' and it can make a difference. People can use it as a blueprint for their city."

Mitchell is in a crowded race to succeed Suthers, who has served as mayor for eight years and cannot run again because of term limits. Mitchell faces some well-known names, including City Councilman and former Secretary of State Wayne Williams and former City Councilwoman Sallie Clark, El Paso County Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez and businessman Yemi Mobolade.

As mayor, Mitchell will bring an open mind and a desire to find innovative solutions to issues such as growth and development, homelessness and public safety, he said.

"Those opposed to my ideas, I am willing to sit down with them and listen to what they have to say, and we can synergize solutions," he said. "... My hallmark is to look at the bigger picture and ... bring out-of-the-box solutions that would actually work, not sticking with solutions that are currently lacking."

The city should take a more cohesive look at growth and development to better streamline other connected issues like homelessness, water availability and crime, he said.

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"We're at a time in our growth that ... (it's) driving other issues. I feel we need to get a handle on growth and manage it better than we have been," so the city is more proactive than reactive, he said.

Colorado Springs' master plan guiding its physical development, called PlanCOS, and its recently updated zoning code, RetoolCOS, aren't the solutions needed, he said. Planners and policy makers need to focus on "gradual and intentional" growth that "balances out the needs of the community, infrastructure, service coverage and quality of life," Mitchell said.

"We have to balance the other factors here in Colorado Springs, which is our conservationist view of preserving the open space, preserving the reasons why people want to live here. That's where I'd disagree with these initiatives," he said. "... RetoolCOS and PlanCOS are more just planning for how we're going to infill, how we're going to annex, without giving a lot of thought to the future and a forward-looking viewpoint of the community."

Mitchell said another top priority of his is addressing homelessness by balancing public safety and compassion.

"Homelessness is a law enforcement problem when laws are being broken," Mitchell said. "But ... we can't just round up people and put them somewhere. You have a way of providing a redemptive path forward. Some of these people are willfully homeless. Some of these people are economically in this situation. Some of these people are mentally ill. So there's not a one-size-fits-all redemptive path, but I feel the city as a whole can no longer just push this under the rug. ... We have to be balanced in how we address that issue."

He also said the city must better retain and recruit law enforcement officers to keep it safe, especially as the community grows.

"I'm not saying I'm disagreeing with hiring protocol. I'm saying let's take a look at it and improve it to make it more lucrative and attractive for people that want to go into these fields. It would be their expression ... of community service," he said.

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