Pueblo city council gives initial approval to hire lawyer in response to anti-mayor fallout

Pueblo City Council voted 5-2 Monday to approve on first reading the hiring of an outside attorney in connection to the ongoing controversy surrounding a proposed charter amendment to get rid of the mayor's office.

The ordinance will see a final vote in two weeks on May 8.

Denver-based attorney Mark Grueskin is representing the office of Pueblo City Clerk Marisa Stoller. The fee agreement was sent by email on Thursday, April 6, nearly a week before the city announced in a press release that petitioners hadn’t met the legal requirements and did not collect enough signatures.

Stoller said in an email that the ordinance did not come up at the April 10 council meeting because agendas need to be "prepared and approved 10 days in advance of the meeting, as required by code."

Grueskin was not mentioned in the city’s initial press release, but Mayor Nick Gradisar mentioned to the Chieftain in an interview shortly after the release was published that the city had been seeking legal advice from Grueskin.

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The city is paying Grueskin $450 per hour for his work, as outlined in the fee agreement. City spokesperson Haley Sue Robinson clarified in an email that Grueskin will be paid from the professional services line-item in the mayor's office's budget. In 2023, $111,700 is budgeted for professional services of the nearly $1.2 million total for Gradisar’s office.

Interim City Attorney Robert “Bob” Jagger said at Monday's council meeting that Grueskin has already been paid approximately $4,000. Stoller confirmed to the Chieftain that Grueskin has put in approximately eight to nine hours of work so far.

Grueskin did not respond to a request for comment from the Chieftain prior to publication.

Why two councilors voted ‘no’ on first reading

Two other ordinances related to the anti-mayor charter amendment question also passed on first reading without controversy as part of Monday's consent agenda. City councilors can choose to pull individual items from consent agendas if they want to, but agendas usually pass without contest at most council meetings.

Councilor Lori Winner asked to pull the ordinance about the attorney. Winner has been involved with the group seeking to abolish the mayor’s office since 2022 and recently hired an attorney to represent the group's organizers in corresponding with the city.

Winner said her attorney is waiting on a response from the city’s counsel after sending a letter on Monday. The attorney asked Stoller to reconsider the rejection of the signatures, as well as to apply the collected signatures to the November 2023 ballot, Winner said.

Depending on the response to the letter, Winner said the group may sue the city.

She said that she voted against the first reading of the ordinance Monday because the city already pays for liability insurance through the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency (CIRSA).

Jagger clarified Monday that CIRSA would cover tort law in cases where the city could be held liable for someone suffering loss or harm. But this case is about “an administrative officer’s determination,” Jagger said.

Robinson said the city paid $1.28 million for insurance through CIRSA in 2022.

Jagger also said that a special counsel is necessary to help the city navigate a “very unique area of election law.”

“I think it's very important that the city gets it right and in compliance with the law, so we do need a specialist. Mr. Grueskin is probably one of the more experienced attorneys in this area,” Jagger said.

Councilor Regina Maestri also voted against the first reading of the ordinance and said she would also vote no in two weeks. Maestri said council was not told an attorney had been involved and questioned why city money was going to outside counsel “if it’s just a mistake.”

“Now we have to use taxpayer dollars because we have someone (Stoller) who lacks experience as the election official for the city,” Maestri said.

Stoller was appointed city clerk by Gradisar and started in April 2021. She said in an email to the Chieftain last week that city clerks are designated election officials but do not need to be certified in the same manner as county clerks.

“However, I have completed all the educational requirements for the certified municipal clerk degree which I should be receiving next month; 2 years is the quickest you can possibly earn this degree and I was given 5 years to complete it upon acceptance of this position,” Stoller wrote.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo council gives initial approval to hire attorney amid anti-mayor fallout