COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — Yemi Mobolade declared victory in the Colorado Springs Mayoral Runoff Election Tuesday evening.
The declaration came after his opponent Wayne Williams conceded the race shortly following the release of the first ballot counts earlier in the evening.
The initial counts showed Yemi ahead by nearly 15%. While the results are unofficial they are expected to be certified by May 26th.
But who is Yemi Mobolade, and what are his goals for the City of Colorado Springs and how will he achieve them?
Mobalade prides himself on being a local community leader, small business owner, and now the future of Colorado Springs.
Mobolade points to his business experience, community service with COSILoveYou, and his time working for the city as a Small Business Development Administrator as to why he is qualified for the mayoral position.
Mobolade led all 12 candidates in the April 4th elections with 30% of the vote with Williams right behind him with 20%. Mobolade and Williams share similar priorities for the City of Colorado Springs, how to achieve these goals is where the differences show through.
At the beginning of the campaign, Yemi provided us with his answer on what he thought the city's largest challenge was and how he was going to address that issue.
From 2015 to 2020, violent crime rates rose by 35%, higher than "peer cities" and surpassing the national average. Property and hate crimes also increased. Our community's safety is among the most essential functions of our city government, and as a parent to three young children, I will work to protect and keep our neighborhoods safe — not just for my family, but for all Colorado Springs families. My administration will strengthen public safety by addressing staffing shortages, improving incident response times, ensuring officers have the best training to fight crime, bolstering partnerships with local homeless providers, and addressing the frequent users of the 911 system. I will rebuild trust and mobilize partnerships to reduce crime and humanize the badge.
His answer to this issue is to increase the number of police training academies for city police officers. He told News5 in an interview “We have to close the back door” when it comes to keeping officers in their jobs. He’s named several programs with community initiatives and policing to focus on.
Mobolade sees a need for boosting morale, focusing on work-life balance, and making the police department a favorable place to work.
“There is a lot of pressure right now for our police officers,” Mobolade said, “the weight of the badge is heavy.”
News5's Alasyn Zimmerman sat down with Yemi in an interview to learn more about his goals as mayor, you can view that interview below.
One of Yemi's other priorities as Mayor of Colorado Springs focuses on housing needs, specifically middle housing. Yemi plans to create a fund with money from foundations, non-profits, and other grants for developers to look at innovative ways to create more housing.
This would include exploring options like 3D printed houses, while also working to invest in programs that would respond to the City of Colorado Springs homeless issues "with compassion."
One way he plans to restructure city government to achieve these goals it to repurpose the city's community development division to become "Chief Housing Officer" with the role to advance housing projects that focus on affordable and attainable housing.
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