Colorado Springs voters could decide this fall whether to allow the city to retain up to $5 million in excess tax revenue to help build a new police training academy facility in the city.

The City Council on July 25 is expected to vote on a resolution declaring its intent to hold a special election and participate in the state’s coordinated election on Nov. 7. Mayor Yemi Mobolade told councilmembers Monday he wants to place a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights – or TABOR – retention question on the ballot to support citywide efforts to host a continuous police training academy every 15 weeks and get more police officers on the streets, he said.

TABOR caps the amount of tax revenues local governments can keep each year, using a formula based on population growth and inflation. Governments can only keep revenues over that cap with voter approval; otherwise, taxpayers would receive a refund.

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Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said the city lacks an adequate space where it can hold a police training academy every 15 weeks to more quickly add newly trained recruits to its forces. The Police Department must adhere to Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training requirements for instructor-to-recruit ratios, available classroom and reality-based training space, and even heating and air conditioning standards for its training facilities, he said.

The police department is currently getting ready to start its first training academy under the 15-week continuous hiring model on July 24 and is hiring for the next academy in October, Vasquez said. To prepare, police staff have had to rearrange their current spaces, repurposing locker room and cafeteria areas, for example, to fit their training needs, he said.

“There’s so much that we don’t have right now. As we move into our new phases of training, I think it’s vitally important for us to be able to get as many recruits through academy as we can,” Vasquez said.

The Police Department has 730 sworn officers, and 37 people who are in the academy and will join the department later this year, according to figures the department provided Monday.

Colorado Springs has designated enough funding for 818 sworn police officers, but retaining them has been a challenge. In 2021, 78 officers left; 85 left in 2022 and 33 have left this year as of June 30, according to police department data. Most of the officers who left this year left for personal reasons, resigned during the training academy or had a career change. Nine retired, data show.

Vasquez said the department is considering purchasing and refurbishing an existing building for training activities, or building a new facility. It could take two or three years before a new training building is open, he said.

Vasquez could not provide councilmembers an estimated cost of the project on Monday. Mobolade said other cities have built new training facilities for between $30 million and $40 million. It may not cost Colorado Springs that amount, he said, but if voters allowed the city to retain up to $5 million in excess tax revenues the city could then “act quick once that opportunity comes our way,” he said.

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Vasquez said there currently is about $1.8 million in public safety sales tax revenues that could also help fund the project.

Councilwoman Yolanda Avila said a new police training facility would benefit all residents. Councilman Dave Donelson said he supported a new training facility but pushed staff to look for other ways to pay for it.

Asking voters to retain TABOR funds wouldn’t “bring the cost down, it just takes $5 million from taxpayers to pay for it,” he said.

Councilman Brian Risley said he wants to hear more concrete plans for the training academy.

“I’d like to understand the overall plan,” he said. “… Five million (dollars) will only get us so far. I’d like to understand what’s going to get us across the finish line.”