Jon Murray (Denver Post)- Nearly two years after the Denver Board of Ethics started discussing changes to beef up conduct rules for the city’s elected officials and municipal employees, a city councilman says he plans to start drafting a proposal.
Councilman Kevin Flynn, who is in his first term, said his bill, to be filed in coming weeks or months, would incorporate the consensus from a Code of Ethics working group that has met for about six months. That group has included outgoing City Attorney Scott Martinez, who had questioned some of the ethics board’s proposals.
Click here to read the full story in the Denver Post.
John Frank (Denver Post)- John Reynolds died in police custody in Olathe after the 25-year-old stabbed himself with a letter opener and an officer Tased him multiple times before handcuffing him.
Colorado State University awarded 124 employees pay hikes that topped 10 percent even though roughly half their employees received raises closer to 2 percent.
Rocky Mountain Human Services, a Denver nonprofit that serves people with disabilities, misspent millions of dollars and provided employees annual Costco memberships for personal use.
And Adams County paid a $250,000 combined severance to three former district attorney’s office employees after they resigned.
In all four situations, Colorado officials initially hid the details from the public — abetted by inadequate state laws regarding government transparency.
Click here to read the full story in the Denver Post.
Marianne Goodland (Colorado Independent)- The Republican-controlled Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee shot down a bill Monday that would have begun to reform Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission.
The bill was supported by the state’s Republican Attorney General and Secretary of State.
Click here to read the full story in the Colorado Independent.
Katy Canada (Denver Post)- Colorado’s 5th Judicial District Attorney Bruce Brown took more than 6½ weeks off work in 2015, an amount far greater than that taken by his senior attorneys and some of his peers.
Brown, elected in 2013 and seeking re-election this year, said the rules spelled out in the district’s time-off policy don’t apply to him because he’s an elected official. He also said he isn’t required to keep track of how many vacation days he takes.
Click here to read the full story in the Denver Post.
Jon Murray (Denver Post)- Colorado Common Cause and several other local groups say they soon may unveil a proposed ballot initiative aimed at reining in campaign contribution limits and creating a public financing system for Denver city elections.
“We’re at a historic point now in terms of both low faith in government and its accessibility to regular people,” says Peg Perl, senior counsel to Colorado Ethics Watch, which is among the groups working on the potential measure for city voters in November. Add to that the flood of money in last year’s municipal elections, when Mayor Michael Hancock raised more than $1.3 million and total contributions to city candidates surpassed $4 million, and Perl says the result for many voters is disillusionment.
Click here to read the full story in the Denver Post.
KC Becker (Boulder Daily Camera)- Another presidential election season is upon us, delivering a million reminders of the influence of money in politics. No matter which candidates you support, I think you’ll agree that our political process is warped when elections can be bought by candidates who may not win the contest of ideas but happen to have the biggest super PACS, the friendliest 527s or the deepest pockets.
I’m sponsoring two measures in the Colorado legislature that will begin to help us see through the murk. One bill, which the House approved unanimously last week and is headed to the Senate, puts school board elections on the same campaign finance disclosure schedule as other Colorado elections. Another bill requires disclosure of contributions of ads touting political parties. Currently, the ads fall through the cracks of reporting requirements because they may not mention a particular candidate.
Click here to read the full story in the Boulder Daily Camera.
Marianne Goodland (The Colorado Independent)- A bill to reform Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission outraged its Chair Bill Leone, who led the commission in taking a hard line on the measure that would create policies to address conflicts of interest between commissioners and the officials the body holds accountable.
The commission’s move to resist new regulations comes in the wake of a scathing review of its work by the state auditor. Leone said the audit “stung.”
Click here to read the full story in The Colorado Independent.
Marianne Goodland (The Colorado Independent)- A bill to clean up the state Independent Ethics Commission narrowly passed its first committee hearing Tuesday, despite opposition from Republicans and commission chair Bill Leone.
Leone testified he hadn’t seen the bill until recently and the commission had never discussed it publicly. That claim raised the hackles of the commission’s critics.
Click here to read the full story in The Colorado Independent.
Joey Bunch (Denver Post)-
The Colorado legislature is considering giving more staffing, clearer rules and more teeth to the state Independent Ethics Commission.
A state audit released Tuesday morning faulted the commission for poorly communicating which public officials it can hear complaints about and the narrow punishment it can hand out.
Click here to read the full story in the Denver Post.
J. Adrian Stanley (Colorado Spring Independent)-
The beginning of Colorado’s legislative session is a time of births and deaths — of bills that is.
With a divided legislature, both parties’ bills walk the plank early in the session, which began Jan. 13 and runs through May 11. As some might remember from their school days, a bill is first introduced in either house, where it is assigned to a committee by either the speaker of the house (in the House) or the senate president (in the Senate). The committee can then approve the bill, amend it, or ditch it. That happens before a bill is ever called up for a vote by the full House or the full Senate. Thus, bills that hold no appeal for the controlling party (or bills whose sponsors hold no appeal) often find themselves assigned to a “kill committee” where they are promptly “postponed indefinitely.” Here are some things to look for in a dead bill.
Click here to read the full story in the Colorado Springs Independent.
