(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Colorado Springs City Council voted to censure and remove Councilman Dave Donelson from his committee assignments on Tuesday, July 2, following a special meeting.

With the special meeting came an angry crowd that showed up in support of Donelson and his decision to question other council members for taking what he called bribes. Despite this, City Council voted to move forward with the censure.

“I think it’s a bad day for the citizens, to be honest. It’s fine for me, I think something good will come out of this,” said Donelson.

Tensions are high between City Council members after Tuesday’s special meeting to reprimand councilman Donelson. The motion to censure Donelson passed in a six-to-two vote.

“We felt that we needed to censure council member Donelson and remove his responsibilities from community boards, committees and commissions,” said Councilman Brian Risley.

Many of the people who attended the meeting in support of Donelson had a lot to say about the decision and were asked to quiet down multiple times throughout the meeting. This included Shannon Johnson, who stayed after the meeting to talk with other members.

“Would I be censored? Because I plan on bringing every single questionable vote and every single questionable contribution to light here,” she added.

Many of the community members who sat at the meeting were carrying posters and even had a few chants lined up.

“A number of us asked him to apologize and he declined to apologize, and I think had he been willing to apologize, not to us individually, but to the body of council and to the community at large, I think the outcome today would have been very different,” added Risley.

However, Donelson refused their request each time.

“They wanted me to say I was wrong and representing the citizens of District One isn’t wrong. It’s not wrong to politely ask a question,” added Donelson.

He said this comes after he pointed out that several council members received campaign donations from the developers of the controversial ArrowsWest Apartments.

“I think the weakest part is there’s no limit, right? You can get a $20-25,000 donation. That’s an awful lot of money that’s not allowed for the for the president of the United States. There’s a limit on how much an individual can give,” he added.

The only two “no” votes were from Councilman Donelson himself, and City Council President Randy Helms.

Helms said there is no conflict of interest but asked Donelson to stop mentioning the topic saying he was impugning their integrity.

“You cannot do that. I’m worried about freedom of speech in an office. I should be able to represent my citizens and ask those questions. I don’t think this is good. Not for me. Just in general, this isn’t good,” said Donelson.

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