O’Connor sworn in with Aspen police

ASPEN – The following were among the Aspen City Council’s actions Monday night:

• It swore in former Basalt Police Chief Roderick O’Connor as an officer with the Aspen Police Department.

O’Connor resigned from his position in Basalt on Nov. 23 following a city-commissioned report that suggested widespread criticism of O’Connor’s management style from within the department. That report was kept private until The Aspen Times filed suit against the city in order to obtain its release. It was made public after O’Connor admitted he had showed a copy of it to the Aspen Police Department while seeking a position with that department.

The issues surrounding his resignation and what led to it did not come up for discussion before or after the swearing-in ceremony at Aspen City Hall.

“Welcome back,” Councilman Torre told O’Connor, who previously served with the Aspen force before landing a job with the Basalt department in 2007. He became its police chief in September 2010.

“It’s great to be home,” O’Connor said.

• The council introduced an ordinance to reduce speed limits on most Aspen streets to 20 mph.

The matter will come up for a public hearing and final vote at the council’s next regular meeting April 22. Exceptions to the 20-mph limit will be Main Street, a state highway, which still will be limited to 25 mph; the city’s short stretches of Castle Creek and Maroon Creek roads, which will remain 30 mph; and Cemetery Lane, which will keep a 25-mph restriction.

• Council members were expected to discuss an ordinance regarding a change in municipal election law that would require donations of less than $20 to be reported on campaign-finance reports, along with the contributor’s name and address. State law allows such donations not to be fully disclosed with the donor’s information.

That discussion, which included a public hearing, was last on the council’s agenda and, because of the length of the debate over the Aspen Valley Hospital project, could not be reported by deadline.