Council picks firearms activist

Colorado Springs City Council members stepped to the right Friday, choosing firearms activist Bernie Herpin to fill the seat vacated by open-space advocate Richard Skorman.

Herpin received five of the eight votes in a tally taken Friday morning, one day after the council heard from 29 candidates for Skorman's at-large slot.

The names of Herpin and Ann Oatman-Gardner, whom Skorman had recommended as his replacement, were the only ones listed as first choices by the eight members of the council.

Skorman resigned Feb. 28 to become regional director for Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Herpin, 62, was lauded by both backers and opponents for his community involvement. The analyst for defense giant Lockheed Martin has served as Airport Advisory Commission vice chairman, led the Pikes Peak Firearms Coalition and volunteered with the Police Department's victim assistance team for 17 years.

"He's got a variety of things in his background," Vice Mayor Larry Small said. "We felt like his strengths were just a little bit better than the other candidates'."

Herpin, a self-described conservative, was not acceptable, however, to several council members who had wanted a replacement philosophically similar to Skorman. Herpin said he is "a little right of Richard."

The other three votes went to Oatman-Gardner, a parks and transit advocate who was Skorman's campaign manager. Councilman Randy Purvis confirmed that he voted for her, and Councilmen Scott Hente and Jerry Heimlicher declined to reveal their choices.

Purvis said he backed Oatman-Gardner because he thought she would make the conservative council think harder about positions by bringing a different perspective to it.

"You don't sharpen a knife by running it through hot butter," Purvis said. "You can only sharpen your thoughts by running up against those that are different from yours."

The council must vote Tuesday on Herpin's nomination. Unless someone's vote changes, he will be sworn in at that day's formal council meeting.

Herpin is no stranger to politics or the council. He interviewed for a vacant council slot in 1996, ran for council in 1997 and sought an El Paso County Commission seat in 2004.

He has served on the 4th Judicial District Performance Review Commission. He has helped with a number of political campaigns, including those of council members Margaret Radford and Tom Gallagher.

Herpin said Friday that he agrees with much of what the council has done in recent years. He said it is doing a good job of planning and managing growth -- a viewpoint several applicants disagreed with -- and supports its efforts to build a water pipeline from Pueblo Reservoir.

The council should make every effort to keep the Olympic Training Center from leaving town and put more work into keeping the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, which announced it is likely to move to New Mexico, he said.

Among the changes Herpin would like to see is a repeal of the streetlight fee charged by Colorado Springs Utilities. Also, in the spirit of open government, council members should hold more town hall gatherings and move some council meetings to community sites and hold some in the evenings, he said.

"I think many of the votes were 8-1, with Richard being the one. It will probably be more 9-0," said Herpin, who added he will run for the seat when it is up for election in 2007. "I don't see me being a radical change. If anything, it won't be as big a change as some people like."

Those include Skorman, who said Herpin "wouldn't have been who I would have chosen to replace my voice on council."

But he added, "He was very familiar to the rest of council, so I want to hold out hope that he'll be a good contributor and keep an open mind."

Oatman-Gardner, who also may run in 2007, said she worries that Skorman's viewpoints now will not be represented.

Herpin described his political philosophy as "willing to compromise on positions but not on principle."

Radford downplayed the need to find a liberal to replace Skorman, an idea floated most prominently by Heimlicher.

"For those who think that you need a token liberal on council to hear the concerns of liberal and moderate people does a disservice to the rest of the council and to the token liberal," she said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0184 or ed.sealover@gazette.com

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