Clerk Spotlight: Colorado Springs, CO

Behind every successful government is a clerk keeping it all together through technology and cross-department collaboration. 

If you drive about an hour south of Denver, you’ll run into Colorado Springs, CO, the fastest growing city in the state. Considered the “front range” of the Rockies, Colorado Springs is near the base of Pikes Peak, its highest summit.

Sarah B. Johnson, our featured clerk, has 17 years of experience in state election administration with the Commonwealth of Kentucky state board elections, where she also served as executive director for seven years. She has conducted all municipal elections for the city of Colorado Springs for the last eight years and counting. In addition, she redistricted city councils, managed the city’s business licensing program, prepared meeting agendas/minutes, and kept all municipal records.

Sarah discussed the many ways Colorado Springs has had to pivot since the start of the pandemic, commenting, “We’ve been using Granicus since 2014, but we came to truly appreciate the solutions when we had to adapt to virtual meetings.” The city uses govMeetings Legistar for legislative agenda management, which allows government administrators to turn long, complex legislative processes—like facilitating agenda approvals—into simple, automated ones. “The ability to press a button that says, ‘assemble agenda’ is about the best thing in the world,” Sarah said. Legistar also cuts down on paperwork and printing costs. “Instead of having giant stacks of paper, Legistar allows us to digitize so many processes that save us a ton of angst.”

Colorado Springs also used govDelivery, Granicus’ communications platform, to let their residents know which services were available in the middle of the pandemic. Rounding out its software suite, the city utilized VoteCast, a digital council voting system, that pairs nicely with iLegislate (a council member technology) for viewing agendas, taking notes, and watching previous meetings. Finally, Sarah cited the ability to adapt Microsoft Teams with Granicus Live Cast — our live and on-demand streaming, recording, and indexing technology — as invaluable.

“The ability to press a button that says, ‘assemble agenda’ is about the best thing in the world.”

— Sarah B. Johnson, MMC, City Clerk, Colorado Springs, CO

Click here to watch the full clerk spotlight.

Municipality: City of Colorado Springs, CO
Population: 416,427
Solutions: govMeetings, & govDelivery
Website: coloradosprings.legistar.com
Speaker: Sarah B. Johnson, MMC, Colorado Springs, CO